Options Manager -- 'Other' tab

The "Other" tab of the Options Manager contains numerous options available in the Advanced view that do not fit into any of the other categories. Options in this section range from controlling behavior of search screens to the technical back-end configuration of optional advanced program features.

Many of the features noted in this section are available in Discus Pro only. Administrators of freeware Discus who do not see these features can gain full access by purchasing an upgrade to Discus Pro (click here for more information on Discus Pro).

Items marked with "ADVANCED:" are intended for use only by the most advanced Discus administrators who have a deep understanding of the internal workings of the program.

• Administration Program: Control certain options specific to administration logins.

• Archives and Searching: Control whether and how archives will appear in search results.

• ADVANCED: Debugging and Benchmarking: Advanced administrators can track user activity and problems by capturing all input and output from specified users, and programmers can track the steps taken by the program to improve its efficiency.

• ADVANCED: Discus Task Manager: This is an advanced feature that will work only on certain unix servers (due to the design of the operating system and Perl ports thereon, this is not available on Windows servers).

• ADVANCED: File Locking/Quota Checking: Control the method that Discus uses to lock its files and to ensure that there is sufficient disk space to perform its operations.

• Keyword & Date Search: Control results per page and default topic expansion when a user performs a search.

• Log Analysis: Enter the directory paths to your server's access logs so they can be analyzed with the Log Analysis utility.

• Private Messaging: A powerful Discus Pro 4.0 feature is the ability for a user to send a private message to another through the discussion board. This can be accomplished without the sender ever learning the recipient's actual e-mail address, which is ideal for classified ads.

• ADVANCED: Resource Usage Policy: If you are in the unfortunate position of dealing with a server that substantially limits your scripts' usage of memory and CPU resources, you can seek to address these server deficiencies using these options.

• ADVANCED: Skin Variables: These are advanced options for use by those who will be customizing skins and templates that the program uses to generate interface displays.

• ADVANCED: Template Editor: Allows you to specify the number of rows and columns in the pop-up template editor so the box fits nicely on your screen.

• ADVANCED: Topics Page: Allows you to specify an alternate URL for the board topics page, or to hide the board topics page from navigation bars.

• REALLY ADVANCED: Other, Miscellaneous Options: Other options intended for only the most advanced Discus board administrators with a thorough understanding of the internal workings of the program.

Click here to return to the Options Manager main instruction page.