With the maintenance of a social networking website, it is important to group the users on your website together, following certain rules. This will allow you to create different member levels and set access rights for each one of them.

This is made easy with the use of SocialEngine and you have a built-in feature for the task. To access and use it, you first need to access the administrative area of your website as all of the following options are available from there.

Step 1: Create member level

To create a new member level, you need to navigate to the Manage tab on the main menu and then Member Levels.

Click on the Add Member Level option to create one.

Edit the following options:

• Member Level Name: Enter the name of the new member level on your website.
• Description: Enter a short description for the new member level on your website.
• Type: Set the type of the membership level. This will state if it is intended for members, administrators or moderators on your website. Note that this value cannot be changed later.
• Copy Values From: You can add the access rights of certain existing member level to the current one. However, note that those values can be changed later.

Step 2: Edit member level

To edit the preferences of a certain member level on your website, you need to locate the Manage option on the top menu and then Member Levels.

You will be presented with a list of all member levels on your website. You need to click on the Edit button next to the member level that you wish to edit.

You will notice a large number of different options for the member level, which are not present at the time of the creation of a new one. Such are the ability to remove own account, to allow blocking, username changes, etc. You need to review them all carefully and adjust them as per your needs.

Step 3: Remove member level

You cannot delete some of the core member levels of SocialEngine. However, you will be able to remove all of the member levels that you created manually. For that purpose, navigate to the Manage option on the main menu and then Member Levels.

You will be presented with a list of the member levels on your website. You will notice a Delete button next to the member levels that you can remove.

Further reading:

How to Install and Upgrade SocialEngine Website

Social Engine Backup and Restore Tutorial

With SocialEngine, you do have an option to edit the profile questions. This allows you to set the kind of information will be requested from the users on your website. You can create different sets of Profile questions and assign them to users with different profile type.

For example, if you have a SocialEngine community for football players, you may want to set different profile types for Goalkeepers and Strikers. Both groups will need different profile information and you can set that when editing the profile questions for each one of them.

You need to log into the administrative area of your website first, which will allow you to complete all of the tasks explained below.

Step 1: Create profile type

To create a new profile type, you need to navigate to the Settings tab on the main menu and then Profile Questions.

Click on the Create Profile Type button.

Edit the following options:

• Profile Type Label - Set the name of the new profile type
• Duplicate Existing Profile Type - If you would like the new profile type to inherit the questions from existing one, you will be able to select that here

Step 2: Create questions

To create questions for the new profile type that we have created, you need to first select it. There is a drop down button next to the Editing Profile Type section and you need to select the new type created in the previous step.

Now, first you need to create a new heading. Such headings are used to group a number of questions together, using certain criteria. To create a new heading, simply click on the Add Heading button.

Edit the following details:

• Heading Name - Set the name of the heading
• Show On Member Profiles - Set if this heading should be shown on the user profile or not
• Show On Signup/Creation - Set if this heading should be show at the time of registration or not

When you create a heading, you can now add questions to it. To add a question, you can simply click on the Add Question button.

Edit the following options:

• Question type - There is a number of predefined question types. You can use select box, text boxes, radio buttons and much more
• Question Label - Set a label for the question
• Description - Enter a short description for the question
• Required - Set the question as required or not

There are some additional options that will allow you to configure the question as per your exact needs. We suggest that you review them carefully for more detailed configuration on the profile type.

Step 3: Remove profile type

Sometimes, throughout the configuration of the new profile type, you may want to remove it. You can do so by selecting the profile type and then click on the Delete Profile Type button next to it.

Alternatively, instead of removing the entire profile type, you can simply remove a heading or a question from it. This is if you have made an error while configuring the profile type.

To remove a heading or a question from a specific profile type, you need to select it first. This will display all headings and questions for it. Next to each one of them, you will notice a Delete button. Click on it to remove the item.

Further reading:

How to Install and Upgrade SocialEngine Website

Social Engine Backup and Restore Tutorial

This tutorial will review the networks management on your SocialEngine website. The use of networks only determines the news your users will see in their What’s New feed. For example, if you create a network called Europe on your website, the users within this network will be able to see news related to it.

To complete any of the tasks that we will review below, you first need to access the administrative area of your SocialEngine website.

Step 1: Create Networks

To create a new network, you need to locate the Manage tab on the main menu and then Networks.

Click on the Add Network button to create one.

Edit the following options:

• Name - Enter the name of the new network
• Description - Enter a short description for the new network
• Member Assignment - Choose the way of assigning members to the new network
• Related Profile Question - Choose the profile question that will determine if a member should be in the new network
• Invisible - Set the network as invisible or visible

Step 2: Edit Networks

To edit a network on your website you need to access the Networks section from the administrative area again. You will be presented with a list of all networks on your website. Next to each one of them, you will notice an Edit button. Click on the edit button next to the network that you wish to change.

Step 3: Remove Networks

The removal of a network may be necessary if you have made a mistake with it’s configuration or you simply do not need it on your website anymore. First, you need to bring up the network screen of your website. You will notice a Delete button next to each network on your website. Simply click on the one that you wish to remove.

Further reading:

How to Install and Upgrade SocialEngine Website

Social Engine Backup and Restore Tutorial

This tutorial will provide more information on how to manage the advertisements on your SocialEngine website. Most of the time, we aim to get some kind of income from our projects. SocialEngine allows the creation of different advertisement campaigns and they are well-developed to allow the user many options.

You need to log into the administrative area of your SocialEngine installation to complete the tasks that we will review below.

Step 1: Create Campaign

To create a new advertisement, you need to locate the Ads option on the top menu and then Create New Campaign.

Edit the following options:

• Campaign Name - Enter a name for the new campaign
• Start Date - Enter a start date for the new campaign
• End Date - Enter end date for the new campaign or set it as continuous campaign
• Total Views Allowed - Set the total number of views. When this number is reached, the campaign will automatically end. Set to 0 for unlimited
• Total Clicks Allowed - Set the total number of clicks for the new campaign. When this number is reached, the campaign will end automatically. Set to 0 for unlimited
• Member Levels - Choose the member levels that will be targeted with the new campaign
• Networks - Set the networks that will be targeted with the new campaign

Step 2: Create advertisement

Once you create your campaign, it is time to add the actual advertisement/s in it. To create new ads to your campaign, you need to navigate to the Ads option on the main menu and then Manage Ad Campaigns.

You will notice an Options tab next to each of your campaigns. Click on the Manage option to proceed further with the configuration of the campaign.

To create a new ad, you need to click on the Add New Advertisement button.

Edit the following options:

• Advertisement Name - Enter the name of the new ad
• Advertisement Media - Enter the actual media type
• Ad Banner: Depending on the option above, you will have to upload your banner or enter the HTML code for it.

Further reading:

How to Install and Upgrade SocialEngine Website

Social Engine Backup and Restore Tutorial

This tutorial will review the steps for preventing spam on a SocialEngine website. There is a properly developed and built-in feature of SocialEngine that will allow you to edit certain options for that purpose.

First, you need to access the administrative area of your website and locate the Settings tab on the main menu. Then, click on the Spam & Banning Tools drop-down option.

In the banning options, you can always use the * (asterisk) sign as wildcard.

Edit the following banning options:

• IP Address Ban - This option will allow you to ban a certain IP address or a whole range
• Email Address Ban - You can ban a specific email address or a part of it
• Profile Address Ban - Set the limit signups by profile addresses
• Censored Words - Enter offensive words that you do not want to be used on your website

You can also set validation rules on your website that will require the entering of a Captcha code when users are completing certain tasks. This way, you will ensure that the spam bots have hard time spamming on your website.

When you complete the spam and banning options on your website, simply click on the Save Changes at the bottom-left corner of the screen to keep them.

It is important to generate a full backup of your SocialEngine website before any new installations or major changes on it. This way, if something goes wrong with your website, you will always have a working copy that can be restored. This is a good practice, which will allow you to edit and manage your SocialEngine installation without worrying that it may get corrupted.

The installation or management of additional modules in SocialEngine is easy. The process is almost fully automated and it is easy to complete it.

To install a new module on your SocialEngine website, you first need to download it on your personal computer. The addons for SocialEngine should be in a .tar format.

When you have the addon on your local computer, you can proceed further with it’s installation. For the purpose of this tutorial, we will install the Photo Albums module, which is one of the most popular SocialEngine modules.

You need to navigate to the Manage option on the top menu and then Packages & Plugins.

Click on the Install New Packages button.

Click on the Add Packages button. It will allow you to select the archive of the module from your local computer. Once you select your module, the system will start uploading it to the server for you.

The system will inform you about the installation of the new module. Edit the following options:

• FTP Connection Type: Set this to None or to your FTP account details.
• Path: Enter the path of your SocialEngine installation. The system will usually complete that for you.

Click on the Continue button throughout the next informative steps. This will complete the installation process for the new addon on your website.

The new module is now installed on your website and you will be able to review it within the list of available addons.