Groupboard Administrators Manual

Click here for the Admin FAQ

Introduction

To administer your board, you will first need to log on as admin. At the password prompt, type in your admin password and you will have access to the admin functions of the board. If your board does not have a password prompt then you can put one in by adding the following line to your html:

<param name=NEED_PASSWORD value=true>

(If you already have a NEED_PASSWORD parameter, simply change the value from false to true).

If your board doesn't have a default password (i.e. if users can log onto your board without typing a password), then it's probably better having a separate admin web page containing the password prompt, and leaving the main page (which your users will connect to) without a password prompt.

Admin Functions

To access the admin functions, you will need to bring up the board in its own window, by clicking the Float button (or using the ALWAYS_FLOAT option - see below). The following functions are available from the Admin menu:

Ban Users

This brings up a dialog which allows you to ban certain IP addresses. Type the address to be banned into the text field, and then click Add. A '*' indicates a wildcard. e.g.:

192.22.12.* - bans anyone from subnet 192.22.12

143.117.1.89 - bans anyone from IP address 143.117.1.89

To find out the IP address of someone connected to the Whiteboard, use the Drawing Log (see below).

Banned addresses can be removed from the list by selecting the address and clicking Delete. If you click OK then the ban list will be saved. Clicking Cancel closes the dialog without saving the changes.

If any users are logged on from a banned address, they will be kicked off when their address IP is banned.

You can also ban users by clicking on their name in the chat box and clicking on Ban.

Show Drawing Log

This allows you to see who is drawing on the Whiteboard. Each time a user draws, it displays the IP address, name, colour, and any text which was drawn (the name is taken from the chat window, so it will be blank if you don't have a chat window).

Disable Clear

Selecting this option prevents any users (except admin) from clearing the whiteboard.

Disable Drawing

Selecting this option prevents any users (except admin) from drawing on the whiteboard.

Board Info

Displays usage information (the number of people visiting your board), and lets you modify information such as the board title, your email address, etc.

Deleting Pictures, etc.

When logged on as admin, you can delete pictures from the gallery (click on Load) and messages from the message board. Simply select the message/picture to delete and click on the Delete button in the appropriate dialog.

Uploading Background Pictures

There are two ways of uploading background pictures. If the picture is already on a web server as a gif or jpeg, you can upload it by entering the full url of the picture in the Set Background dialog and clicking Upload. The picture will be uploaded into your area on the Groupboard server so that it can be loaded as a background in the whiteboard. You will be emailed with the results of uploading the picture - if you get any errors try deleting the picture and uploading it again (making sure you enter the correct url).

Another way of uploading background pictures, which allows you to upload them directly from your web browser, is to use the Upload Background page.

Displaying the gallery

You can put a link on your page which will list all of the saved pictures. Simply use the following link:

<a href="http://demauro.com/cgi-bin/gbgallery.pl?board_id=ID">gallery</a>

(replacing ID with the id of your groupboard, and demauro.com with your own server.)

HTML tags

The following html tags can be placed between the <applet> and </applet>tags:

WIDTH: sets the width of the applet

HEIGHT: sets the height of the applet

SAVE_FILENAME: if set to the name of a file, then users are not prompted for the name to save the picture as, it will always save to the file given by the parameter.

BACKGROUND_PIC: if set to the name of a background picture, then the picture is automatically loaded as a background (including each time the whiteboard is cleared).

GALLERY_PIC: if set, then the picture is automatically loaded from the whiteboard gallery (saved pictures), and the whiteboard drawing controls are disabled (i.e. the picture can be viewed but not modified).

MULTI_USER: if set to false the board will work in standalone mode (i.e. each user connected will see their own session). You can set up two web pages, one which has MULTI_USER set to false and the other which doesn't - the standalone version will allow people to connect to your board and load/save pictures but they won't be able to see what anyone else is drawing. Users connected to a standalone board do not contribute to the maximum user limit for the board.

DISPLAY_NUM_USERS: if set to false then the number of users connected to the board will not be displayed.

WHITEBOARD_BACKGROUND_RED: if set to a value between 0 and 255, gives the red component of the background for the whiteboard

WHITEBOARD_BACKGROUND_GREEN: if set to a value between 0 and 255, gives the green component of the background for the whiteboard

WHITEBOARD_BACKGROUND_BLUE: if set to a value between 0 and 255, gives the blue component of the background for the whiteboard

BACKGROUND_RED: if set to a value between 0 and 255, gives the red component of the background for the entire applet (NOTE: some browsers have problems setting the background for certain parts of the GUI)

BACKGROUND_GREEN: if set to a value between 0 and 255, gives the green component of the background for the entire applet

BACKGROUND_BLUE: if set to a value between 0 and 255, gives the blue component of the background for the entire applet

BOARD_WIDTH: sets the width of the whiteboard (not available in the standard version)

BOARD_HEIGHT: sets the height of the whiteboard (not available in the standard version)

ALLOW_SAVE: if set to false then the whiteboard Save button is disabled

ALWAYS_FLOAT: if set to true then the groupboard will start up in a separate window

ALLOW_LOAD: if set to false then the whiteboard Load button is disabled

ALLOW_SET_BACKGROUND: if set to false then the whiteboard Set Background button is disabled

ALLOW_GALLERY_EDIT: if set to true then any picture loaded using the GALLERY_PIC tag can be edited

ALLOW_NONADMIN_UPLOAD: if set to true then non-admin users can upload background pictures

NEED_PASSWORD: if set to true then the user will be prompted for a password when connecting

^M PASSWORD: if set to a string, then that string will be sent as the default password (note: you must also set NEED_PASSWORD to TRUE)

SHOW_IP_ADDRESSES: if set to true then IP addresses are shown in the chat window

^M USE_COMPRESSION: if set to false then data compression will not be used for the whiteboard. Switch this option off if don't want the delay in the drawing appearing on other user's screens.

MIN_ACTIONS: if set to true then only Freehand and Text drawing options are available in the whiteboard

SET_NAME: if set to a string, then that string will be the initial value for the name in the chat window

CLEAR_ON_SET_BACKGROUND: if set to false then the whiteboard is not cleared when a new background is set for the name in the chat window

USE_TUNNEL: if set to true then firewall tunnelling will be used for the board. This allows the Groupboard to run through proxy servers which allows connections to http port 6666.

DISPLAY_TITLE: if set to false then the title is not displayed at the top of the applet

DISPLAY_DRAWING_USER: if set to true then the name of the currently drawing user is displayed

DRAWING_USER_FONTSIZE: the font size (between 1 and 10) to use when displaying the name of the current drawing user

VIEW_ONLY: if set to TRUE then users connecting through this html page will not be able to draw on the board

EXTENDED_PALETTE: set to TRUE to get an extended colour palette of 226 colours

CLEAR_ON_SAVE: specifies whether or not the drawing is cleared after it is saved. Defaults to TRUE in the standard Groupboard, and FALSE in Groupboard Designer.

WHISPER_BEEP_IDLE_TIME: set to the minimum number of milliseconds of idle time after which it will beep if another user whispers to you (default: 30000).

USE_UTF: set to TRUE to enable multi-byte (Unicode) character input througout the Groupboard. Note that when this option is set, the TEXT tool on the whiteboard will pop up a dialog box when you click on the whiteboard (as this is the only way to input Unicode characters in Java). Also note that the "dont_strip_ctrl_chars" option must be set to TRUE in the server options file to be able to use Unicode characters in the chat window correctly.

HIDE_GUI: set to TRUE if you want to completely remove the GUI and control the Groupboard using javascript instead. The functions available from javascript are listed below.

HIDE_CHAT: set to TRUE to initially hide the chat box. Use this if you want to bring up the chat window using the show_chat() javascript function (see below).

NEED_USERNAME: if need_password is also set to TRUE, this brings up a login box asking for username and password. Note that this requires a password file to be setup on the server.

USE_SCROLLBARS (Groupboard Designer only): set to FALSE to remove the panning scrollbars around the whiteboard.

SCALE_TO_FIT (Groupboard Designer only): set to FALSE to prevent background pictures being scaled to fit the width or height of the whiteboard window.

SHOW_FLOAT_BUTTON (Groupboard Designer only): set to TRUE to show the FLOAT button.

MULTI_USER_PAN (Groupboard Designer only): set to TRUE to enable multi-user pan. When this is set, all users will see the same view of the board when one user pans or zooms.

CHAT_ROWS: sets the number of rows of text in the chat area (default: 9)

CHAT_COLS: sets the number of columns of text in the chat area (default: 45)

Javascript functions

Click here for an example of using javascript

The following functions are available:

set_thickness(int value)
(where value is between 1 and 10)

set_tool(int tool)
where tool is:
select = 0 (Groupboard Designer only)
line = 1
circle = 2
text = 3
freehand = 4
rectangle = 11
filled circle = 12
filled rectangle = 13
pointer = 49 (Groupboard Designer only)
place image = 55 (Groupboard Designer only)
tool library = 61 (Groupboard Designer only)
flood fill = 64
polygons = 67 (Groupboard Designer only)
solid polygons = 68 (Groupboard Designer only)
hatched polygons = 69 (Groupboard Designer only)

set_colour(int colour)
(where colour is between 0 and 255):
white = 0
red = 1
green = 2
blue = 3
pink = 4
orange = 5
black = 6
grey = 7
magenta = 8
cyan = 9
brown = 10
[11-226 = extended palette]

load() - brings up the "load picture" window

set_background() - brings up the "set background" window

save() - brings up the "save picture" window

clear() - clears the whiteboard

make_float() - floats the whiteboard/chat/games windows

make_unfloat() - unfloats the windows

show_help() - shows the help page

show_chat() - shows the chat window (if board has chat). NOTE: you must also use the HIDE_CHAT html tag

show_extended_palette() - shows the extended palette window

show_message_board() - shows the message board window (if board has message board)

print_pic() - prints the contents of the whiteboard to the printer.

JavaScript admin functions (note: if you are not logged in as admin, the server will ignore any changes made through these functions)

The following functions are available:

show_banlist() - brings up the banlist window

show_drawing_log() - brings up the drawing log window

show_board_info() - brings up the board info window

set_allow_drawing(boolean new_state) - enable or disable non-admin users from drawing on the board

set_allow_loading(boolean new_state) - enable or disable non-admin users from loading saved pictures or backgrounds

set_allow_clearing(boolean new_state) - enable or disable non-admin users from clearing the board

Groupboard Designer JavaScript functions

The following functions are available in Groupboard Designer:

zoom_in() - zoom in by factor of 1.5

set_zoom(float value) - set zoom level (1.0 = 100%)

zoom_out() - zoom out by factor of 1.5

copy() - copy selected items into java clipboard

cut() - cut selected items into java clipboard

paste() - paste selected items from java clipboard

select_all() - select all items

clear_selection() - clear clipboard of selected items

delete_items() - deletes selected items

set_const_thickness(boolean new_state) - sets or resets constant thickness of lines (for AutoCAD compatibility)

undo() - undo or redo last action

set_gridlines(boolean new_state) - switches gridlines on or off


Mail:support@groupboard.com