This archive documentation supports our legacy Social Squared farm solution for SharePoint server “classic” user interface. If you are using SharePoint 2019/SE modern pages or SharePoint Online, please see instead the Social Squared client-side web part documentation.
This is the online documentation for Social Squared 2013/2016 which is Lightning Tools’ enterprise Forum
solution for “Microsoft® SharePoint® 2013 & 2016. If you have any questions during evaluation, or would
like a remote support session for help with installing or using Social Squared 2013/2016, please contact
Lightning Tools by clicking Submit Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site.
For an overview of Social Squared for SharePoint 2013/2016, view the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZYJP892oRxM?rel=0
If you have any questions related to this documentation or the Social Squared product, please contact
Lightning Tools by clicking Submit Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site.
Deploying Social Squared
This section details how to deploy Social Squared for Microsoft® SharePoint® 2013 & 2016. It is essential to read this section of the online documentation and complete the step in the Installing Social Squared section, before you can use Social Squared. Information on using and administering Social Squared can be found later in the documentation. To successfully deploy Social Squared within your organization, you will need to complete the following steps: • Plan the use of Social Squared within your organisation. • Plan the installation of Social Squared • Install Social Squared • Activate at least the Social Squared Forums site collection feature on one site collection. • Within that site collection, configure each site with the Social Squared database that should be used by users of that site. • Create and Manage Forum Groups and Forums • Administer Social Squared, configure pages to display Social Squared related information, and get your users to use the forums. If you have any questions related to this documentation or the Social Squared product, please contact Lightning Tools by clicking Submit Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site.
Installation Planning
To install Social Squared, you will require access to both:
• Microsoft® SQL Server®
• Microsoft® SharePoint®.
!
In a production environment you will need to raise a change request to install Social
Squared.
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Database server
Social Squared uses Microsoft® SQL Server® as the repository for Social Squared user profile information
along with the topics, posts, and configuration settings. The main reason for using an SQL Server database
is performance and scalability, allowing for an Enterprise-wide forum tool to be used without performance
issues for hundreds or thousands of active users.
Not only can you use Social Squared as an Enterprise-wide forum tool with multiple forum categories, you
can also use Social Squared for multiple smaller forums, perhaps at Team site or site collection level,
whereby you require the posts to be separate. Either of these configurations are possible using Social
Squared. Although, it is possible to have multiple separate instances of Social Square using a single SQL
Server database by configuring the Social Squared Web Parts to display specific forum groups; however, if
you wish to keep forums totally isolated from each other, for security reasons, Lightning Tools, recommend
using separate SQL Server databases. You configure at a site level the Social Squared database that
should be used; that is, all users in a site could use forums stored in one Social Squared database, whereas
users in another site, even within the same site collection, could use forums stored in a different Social
Squared database.
Social Squared supports Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005, 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2014. On the computer
where you want to create the Social Squared SQL Server database(s), you will require a SQL Server login
that is a member of the following SQL Server roles:
• securityadmin fixed server role.
• dbcreator fixed server role.
Once you have created the database(s), and you want to run Windows PowerShell® cmdlets that affect the
database(s), the account that is used to run the cmdlets must be a member of the db_owner fixed database
role for the database(s).
In a development or test environment, both SharePoint and SQL Server may be installed on one server. In a
production environment, it is liekly that SQL Server and SharePoint Server are installed on separate
servers. If your IT department have installed Kerberos, this will not affect Social Squared. However, if your
organization still uses NTLM Windows Authentication, and the SQL Server database resides on a separate
physical machine to the SharePoint (IIS) server, the pass-through authentication between the Social
Squared SharePoint components and the Social Squared database will fail, since Windows Authentication
only works over a single hop. That single hop is from the user’s machine, where the web browser is opened,
to the SharePoint server. The token cannot pass over a second hop – from the SharePoint server to the
SQL Server. This is known as the double hop issue, and is not specific to Social Squared, but an issue
associated with Windows Authentication and the NTLM protocol which affects all distributed Windows
applications.
If you cannot persuade your IT department to use Kerberos, you have two other options. You can use
Secure Store to handle the authentication or you can use a SQL Server Authentication user ID so that the
Social Squared SharePoint components can connect to the Social Squared database. To use SQL Server
Authentication user IDs, you need to configure the SQL Server in Mixed mode, which enables both Windows
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Authentication and SQL Server Authentication. On SQL Server, Windows Authentication is always available
and cannot be disabled. To use Secure Store, you will need to create a secure store target application as
described here:
Plan for Kerberos authentication in SharePoint→
Go to top →
SharePoint server
The Microsoft® SharePoint® 2013 related component of Social Squared 2013 are packaged as a
SharePoint farm solution, and therefore cannot be installed in Office 365™.
*
Social Squared for Office 365 SharePoint Online is available here
The farm solution once activated, installs:
• A number of application pages that can be accessed in the Social Squared Forum section on a site’s
site settings page.
• One Farm feature, which enables you to licence Social Squared, using the Manage Lightning Tools
products licensing link on the System Settings page on the SharePoint Central Administration web
site.
• Two Web Application features, which map to two timer jobs that are created for each Web Application
created in the SharePoint farm:
◦ Social Squared Digest Email Job, By default this timer job is scheduled to run daily starting
every day between 10:00 AM and no later than 12:00 AM.
◦ Social Squared Reply Via Email Job. By default this timer job is scheduled to run every 5
minutes.
• Five site collections features:
◦ SocialSquared Forums Web Part
◦ SocialSquared Forums Active Users Web Part
◦ SocialSquared Forums Popular Topics Web Part
◦ SocialSquared Forums Tagging Web Part
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◦ SocialSquared Reporting
• Two site (web) features:
◦ Social Squared Digest Email Registration
◦ Social Squared Reply Via Email
*
The site collection and site features are not activated when the Social Squared farm
solution is deployed to Web Applications.
Social Squared can be used on any version of a SharePoint on-premises installation, that is, the site
collection features and Web Parts can be used on pages in a SharePoint Foundation 2013/2106 on
premises installation, and can be used and seen on pages where users are assigned either the standard or
enterprise SharePoint Server 2013/2016 licenses.
Installing Social Squared
This section details how to install Social Squared for Microsoft® SharePoint® 2013/2016.
Installing Social Squared, consists of:
• Create one or more SQL Server databases.
• Install the Social Squared SharePoint® farm solution.
• Activate at least the Social Squared Forums site collection feature on one site collection.
• Within that site collection, configure each site with the Social Squared database that should be used
by users of that site.
• Create and Manage Forum Groups and Forums.
• Add the Social Squared Web Parts to a page so that users can use Social Squared.
Creating a Social Squared SQL Server database
To create a Social Squared database, using the Lightning Tools wizard, complete the following steps:
1. Logon to a server with the credentials that allows you to create an SQL Server database. See the
Installation Planning.
2. Unzip the downloaded Social-Squared-xxxx.zip file, which creates a folder, Social-Squared-xxxx,
that contains a number of subfolders and files.
3. Open the “Database Installer” subfolder and double-click SocialSquared.DatabaseInstaller.exe to
open the Social Squared DB Installer dialog box. If prompted, click Run.
4. In the Server text box, type the name of the server and SQL Server instance name, if applicable,
where you want the Social Squared SQL Server® database to be created.
5. Select one of the authentication radio buttons, and leave the Create Database radio button selected.
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6. Click Create to display the CreateDatabase dialog box.
7. In the Database Name text box, type the name of the Social Squared database that you want to use,
and then click OK.
8. If successful, a message box will appear stating the database has been created. Click OK and then
Close on the the Installer dialog box.
*
If you want to create the Social Squared SQL Server database manually, please consult
your SQL Server database administrator. Also if your IT infrastructure is not using Kerberos
you will need to create an SQL Authentication userid, and configure it as a member of the
db_owner fixed database role for the Social Squared database(s). This userid will be
needed when you configure the connection string at the site level.
Go to top →
Installing the Social Squared SharePoint farm solution
The installation consists of the following SharePoint related steps. You will need to be a SharePoint server
farm administrator to complete these steps:
1. Upload the SocialSquared.SocialSquaredForum.wsp solution package to the SharePoint® farm.
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2. Deploy the solution to the required Web Applications.
3. Activate the Social Squared 2013/2016 license key, if you are not using the trial version of the Web
Part.
4. Activate at least the Social Squared Forums site collection feature on the required site collections.
5. Test the installation by adding a Social Squared Web Part to a page
From time to time Lightning Tools will provide an update for Social Squared. This is on average every 12
weeks.
Uploading the Social Squared SharePoint farm solution
To upload the SocialSquared.SocialSquaredForum.wsp to your Microsoft® SharePoint® server farm,
complete the following steps using the Add-SPSolution Windows PowerShell® command:
!
You will need to be a SharePoint server farm administrator to complete these steps.
1. Unzip the downloaded Social Squared zip file to you computer.
2. Copy SocialSquared.SocialSquaredForum.wsp to a folder on your SharePoint server, for example
c:\Tools.
3. Open the SharePoint 2013/2016 Management Shell and type on one line,
Add-SPSolution c:\Tools\SocialSquared.SocialSquaredForum.wsp
replacing c:\tools with the location where you stored the wsp file.
!
Do not copy and paste the above command from this page, as hidden characters may be
included which will cause the Windows PowerShell® command to fail in your environment.
The solution has now been added to the solution store. Next deploy the solution.
*
More information on the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell can be found at: Accessing
Windows PowerShell for SharePoint 2013.
Install and manage solutions for SharePoint 2013/2016 →
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Go to top →
Deploying the Social Squared solution package
To deploy a Microsoft® SharePoint® farm solution to a Web Application you can use Windows PowerShell®
commands or the SharePoint 2013 Central Administration web site.
!
Which ever method you choose to deploy the farm solution you must be a SharePoint farm
administrator.
The following instructions use the SharePoint Central Administration web site to deploy the farm solution.
1. In the browser, open Microsoft SharePoint Central Administration web site. On the Quick Launch click
System Settings, and then under Farm Management, click Manage farm solutions.
2. On the Solution Management page, click SocialSquaredForum.SocialSquared.wsp.
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3. On the Solution Properties page, click Deploy Solution.
4. On the Deploy Solution page, in the Deploy To? section, in the dropdown list select the Web
application where you want to deploy the solution or select All content Web applications if you want
to use the Social Squared in all sites in all Web applications.
5. Click OK
*
Troubleshooting: If the SocialSquaredForum.SocialSquared.wsp solution is missing on
the Solution Management page, upload the Social Squared solution package using the
Add-SPSolution Windows PowerShell® command.
Activating your Social Squared License
Social Squared is available as a 14 day trial. You can use the full functionality of the Social Squared for 14
days, after which the product will need to be licensed, or you may request a trial extension from
sales@lightningtools.com. The number of days remaining in your trial will be shown within the Social
Squared Web Part. After the 14 day period has expired, the Web Part will not display any posts until Social
Squared is licensed. If you require more time to trial the web part than the 14 days, please let us know and
we can extend the license key.
You can check the license information within each instance of the Social Squared Web Part by selecting
Edit Web Part on the Web Parts drop down menu.
*
If you have purchased a license of the product already and believe that the information in
the Web Part tool pane is incorrect, please contact Lightning Tools by clicking Submit
Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site. We will then gladly provide you with a license
key.
At the time of purchasing Social Squared, you will need to inform Lightning Tools of the number of Web
Front-ends and the number of SharePoint farms for which you wish to purchase a license, including
production and non-production Microsoft® SharePoint® environments. We will then provide you with a valid
license key for each SharePoint farm where you want to use Social Squared.
*
For licensing purposes, a SharePoint Web Front-end (WFE) is a server that has the
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service started.
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Once you have purchased Social Squared and have received the license key, you need to enter the key and
activate the product via the Lightning Tools license manager which can be found on the System Settings
page on the SharePoint Central Administration web site.
*
If the Manage Lightning Tools products licensing link is missing on the System Settings
page, complete steps similar to those documented on the Troubleshooting page.
You can activate Social Squared over the Internet or manually. Once a license key is activated, it will be
associated with a specific SharePoint farm, and can not be activated on a different SharePoint farm. License
keys are also specific to a Lightning Tools product, therefore you need a license key for each Lightning
Tools product that you install on your SharePoint farm.
Activate with Internet Access
To activate Social Squared, automatically when your machine has access to the internet:
1. In the browser, open SharePoint 2013 Central Administration web site.
2. On the Quick Launch, click System Settings, and then under Farm Management click Manage
LightningTools products licensing.
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*
If the Manage Lightning Tools products licensing link is missing on the System Settings
page, complete steps similar to those documented on the Troubleshooting page.
3. Select the Social Squared product from the Choose Product drop down list.
4. In the License Key text box, type the license key sent to you when you completed your purchase of
Social Squared.
5. In the User Email text box, type your email address.
6. In the Organization text box, type your organization or company name.
7. In the User Name text box, type your first name and last name.
8. Click Activate
The page is redisplayed with a License Status: The Product is properly licensed.
The Social Squared license is now activated and registered with Lightning Tools. You can check the license
information within each instance of the Social Squared Web Part by choosing Edit Web Part on the Web
Parts drop down menu. If you have purchased a license of the product already and believe that the
information in the Web Part tool pane is incorrect, please contact Lightning Tools by clicking Submit Support
Ticket on Lightning Tools web site. We will then gladly provide you with a license key.
Go to top →
Activate without Internet Access
To activate Social Squared when your machine does not have access to the internet:
1. In the browser, open SharePoint Central Administration web site.
2. On the Quick Launch, click System Settings, and then under Farm Management click Manage
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Lightning Tools products licensing.
*
If the Manage Lightning Tools products licensing link is missing on the System Settings
page, complete steps similar to those documented on the Troubleshooting page.
3. Select the Social Squared 201X product from the Choose Product drop down list.
4. In the License Key text box, type the license key sent to you when you completed your purchase of
Social Squared.
5. In the User Email text box, type your email address.
6. In the Organization text box, type your organization or company name.
7. In the User Name text box, type your first name and last name.
8. Now complete one of the following steps.
• If the server that you are using has email access, click Send Activation Email to send an email to
Lightning Tools with your identity key and license key, which is used to generate the license.
Or
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• Copy the contents from License Information text box, and save it in a manner so you have access to
that information from another computer.
• On a computer where you can send emails, paste the License Information into the body of the email,
and send to support@lightningtools.com with a Subject line of: Social Squared activation request.
Activation information will be sent in an email to the email address you provided in step 6.The email contains an
XML license which can be pasted in the License Information text box replacing the existing contents.
Click Save License.
The Social Squared license is now activated and registered with Lightning Tools. You can check the license
information within each instance of the Social Squared Web Part by choosing Edit Web Part on the Web
Parts drop down menu. If you have purchased a license of the product already and believe that the
information in the Web Part tool pane is incorrect, please contact Lightning Tools by clicking Submit Support
Ticket on Lightning Tools web site. We will then gladly provide you with a license key.
Upgrading the Social Squared Database and WSP
From time to time, Lightning Tools will provide an update to Social Squared. This is on average every 12
weeks. Before upgrading to the latest version of Social Squared, especially when it is installed in a
production environment, Lightning Tools, highly recommend that you backup your Social Squared SQL
Server® database(s) and restore them to a development or quality assurance environment, so you can run
the upgrade and test the upgraded version of Social Squared, to ensure the upgrade has worked and to test
that your existing topics and posts function correctly.
!
Lightning Tools does all they can to test the upgrade process and the upgraded version of
Social Squared, however, you should still take every standard precaution with your data.
Even if you do not want to take the recommended testing steps, please ensure you backup
your Social Squared database(s) before running any Microsoft® SQL Server® upgrade
scripts.
You can find the version of Social Squared you have installed on your Microsoft® SharePoint® farm, by
opening the Web Part tool pane for any Social Squared Web Part.
To upgrade Social Squared you will need to upgrade the:
• SharePoint components
• Social Squared SQL Server database(s)
You can upgrade Social Square using scripts, provided by Lightning Tools, or manually using the
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instructions below.
Upgrade Social Squared using scripts
Use the following steps to upgrade Social Squared using a Windows PowerShell® and SQL scripts
1. Extract the Social Squared zip file to your computer.
2. Within the root of the extracted SocialSquared folder, right click install.ps1 file, and from the drop
down menu, click Run with PowerShell:
3. Open SQL Server Management Studio, and on the standard toolbar, click New Query.
4. Open the UpgradeX.X.X.X.sql file in SocialSquared folder, by either clicking the Open File icon on
the standard toolbar, or by clicking File, Open, File on the menu bar.
5. On the SQL Editor toolbar, select your Social Squared Database from the Available Databases drop
down list, and then click Execute.
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Manual steps to upgrade Social Squared
Use the following steps to manually upgrade Social Squared
1. Extract the download of Social Squared zip file to your computer.
2. Within the root of the extracted SocialSquared folder and locate the .WSP file.
3. Copy SocialSquared.SocialSquaredForum.wsp to a folder on your SharePoint server.
4. Open the SharePoint Management Shell Window and type on one line:
Update-SPSolution-Identity SocialSquared.SocialSquaredForum.wsp-LiteralPath C:\Tools\
SocialSquared.SocialSquaredForum.wsp-GACDeployment
This command retracts the old Social Squared SharePoint farm solution, and deploys the new one.
*
Do not copy and paste this command from this page, as hidden characters may be included
which will cause the Windows PowerShell® command to fail in your environment.
5. Next upgrade the Social Squared database using the SocialSquared.DatabaseInstaller.exe
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application, which is in the extracted subfolder, Social Squared Database Installer.
6. Double click SocialSquared.DatabaseInstaller.exe.
7. In the Server text box, type the computer name, and SQL Server instance, if applicable, where the
Social Squared database is stored.
8. Select one of the radio buttons in the Authentication section so you are using an account that has
the necessary permissions to modify and create tables and stored procedures.
9. Select the Upgrade Database radio button, and then from the Database drop down list, select the
database you need to upgrade.
10. Click Upgrade.
The SocialSquared.DatabaseInstaller application executes the necessary scripts to bring your database up
to the same version as the SharePoint .WSP file you have used to upgrade the SharePoint components.
Testing the installation
Use the following steps to test your Social Squared installation:
1. In the Web applications where you have deployed Social Squared, choose a site where you will create
a page to test the Web Part.
2. In the browser, open the top level site of the site collection where you will test Social Squared.
3. Activate the Social Squared site collection feature.
4. Configure the connection string to point to the Social Squared SQL Server database where the forums
for this site collection will be stored.
5. Create a test Forum Group and a Forum.
6. Navigate to the site in the site collection where you are going to test the usage of Social Squared.
7. Create a new page.
8. Add the Social Squared Forum Web Part to the page.
9. Configure the Web Part and stop editing the page.
10. Add a post.
11. Review the page and check that the Web Part is displayed as expected.
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Creating pages
A website is a collection of webpages. The types of pages that you can create depend on the site that you
have created. Most users will be familiar with Team sites within a Microsoft® SharePoint® installation.
When you create a new Team site, SharePoint creates a wiki page library, named Site Pages, where
webpages are stored and new pages are created. Two types of webpages can be created in the Site Pages
library:
• Wiki pages. These are the default pages when a site is created from the Team site template. Wiki
pages are easy to edit and are used when users need to add static text, images, tables and a small
number of Web Parts.
• Web Part pages. These pages can only contain App Parts and Web Parts, and are a popular choice
for creating interactive dashboards or pages that aggregate information from several content sources.
Web Content Management (WCM) sites, also known as publishing sites are used for public facing sites or
for company portals. When you create a WCM page, known as a publishing page, they are created from
page layouts. Publishing pages may be able to contain Web Parts and SharePoint App Parts; however, it
depends on the page layout you have chosen for the publishing page.
Creating a wiki page >>
Creating a Web Part page →
Keyboard shortcuts for common tasks on SharePoint pages →
Create and manage pages in a publishing site →
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Creating a wiki page
To create a wiki page on a site created from the Team site template, complete the following steps:
1. Navigate to the site where you wish to create a wiki page.
2. Click the Settings icon and then click Add a page.
3. Type the name of your page and then click Create.
Adding Web Parts to a page →
Change the layout of a wiki page →
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Creating a Web Part page
To create a Web Part page on a Microsoft® SharePoint® Team site,
1. Navigate to the site where you wish to create a Web Part page.
2. On the Page ribbon tab, click View All Pages in the Page Library group.
3. On the Files ribbon tab, click the New Document down arrow and then click Web Part Page.
4. In the Name text box, type the name of your page and in the Choose a Layout Template list, select
the layout you require.
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5. Click Create
Using Social Squared
Social Squared allows you to create topics, which can be in the form of a question, or a description of a
discussion area. Users can reply to topics and therefore be part of the conversation. In Social Squared you
will also see reference to posts. A post can be a topic, a reply to a topic, or a reply to a reply.
Social Squared also offers a forum experience that categorize topics around subject areas, thereby allowing
users to seek or provide information about the subject area, and connect to users who have subject matter
expertise. Social Squared also provides reporting.
Forums are arranged into forum groups. Forum groups allows the development of dashboards,
(SharePoint® pages), using Social Squared Web Parts, that display information from forums in one or more
forum groups. Below is an example of the Social Squared Forums Web Part configured to displaying all
forums in one forum group, Products. You can use this Web Part to find information by navigating the forum
hierarchy and to search.
This Web Part also displays on the top far right, up to three tabs :
• Chat. This can be used to show or hide the chat pane, allowing users to chat to each other. This tab is
only displayed if Chat is set to true on the Forum Settings page.
• Notifications. This can be used to show or hide the notifications, allowing users to see who has liked
their posts. Notifications can be disabled within the Forum Settings page.
• Forum Tools. When a user hovers their mouse over this tab, they are provided with links to edit their
Social Squared User Profile, view email subscriptions, and to see followers.
Go to top →
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Navigation
The Social Squared Forums Web Part provides a mechanism of navigating down the forum hierarchy by
clicking the title of the Social Squared object, for example, to navigate to a topic, in the forum group view,
click the forum title to see a summary of the topics in the forum, and then click on the topic subject title.
Once you have navigated down the forum hierarchy, the Web Part provides a breadcrumb that allows you
navigate back up the hierarchy, for example, by clicking the Web Part title, or to a forum by clicking the
forum name, and to a topic by clicking a topic name. The breadcrumb is displayed at the top of the Web Part
which is not only a navigation aid but also allows you to keep track of your location within the forums. The
breadcrumb is displayed in the format < Web Part tile > < forum > < topic >.
Go to top →
Search
An alternative to navigating the forum hierarchy, you can use the Social Squared Forums Web Part, to
search the forums, by typing keywords in the Search text box, which is displayed to the top right of the Web
Part.
Go to top →
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Using Forums
A forum allows you to converse about topics of interest. In Social Squared forums are categorised into
forum groups. When you have navigated to a forum, then to the right of the forum name on the breadcrumb
is the RSS icon , which provides a link that you can use with your preferred RSS reader.
The Social Squared Forums Web Part provides a summary for each topic within a forum, displayed in
activity order. For topics that have unread posts, the topic heading appears bold. A maximum of 10 topics
are displayed per page. This number can be changed by the Social Squared administrator, using the Forms
Settings page. The Web Part allows you to navigate between the pages.
The Web Part also provides three links:
• Add a New Topic. Use to create a new topic.
• Download Topics CSV Use to download all topics and posts from the forum into a CSV file.
• Unanswered Topics View all topics that have not been marked as answered.
• Subscribe to Forum. Use to recieve notifications when a new topic is added to the forum. This will be
via email (if configured) or via the Notifications window.
The topic summary includes the following information:
• Topic subject. This is a link, which displays a detailed view of the topic and topic posts.
• The user who created the topic and their online status. Use this link to display the user’s Social
Squared User Profile page.
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• The date and time the topic was created,
• The number of replies (posts). This link displays the same information as when you click the topic
subject link.
• The number of times the topic and its replies have been viewed. This link displays the same
information as when you click the topic subject link.
• The user who last posted to this topic, and their online status. Use this link displays the user’s Social
Squared User Profile page.
• The date and time of the last post.
• Whenvoting is enabled for the forum, then a Votes column displays the number of users who have
voted for the topic.
To navigate to a topic, click either the topic subject, the Replies count or the Views count.
Go to top →
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Searching Forums and Posts
It is possible for users to search forums using Social Squared integrated search. To the top right of the
Social Squared Forums Web Part you can use the Search text box to type keywords.
Once you have clicked Go, the Social Squared Forums Search Results page is displayed, where you see
the topics and replies that contain the keywords you typed.
The Social Squared Forums Search Results page provides a number of advanced search options that will
help you narrow down the results displayed on the page.
Social Squared can be integrated in to SharePoint search by using Business Connectivity Services (BCS) in
Microsoft® SharePoint® 2013/2016 or Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010 or as it was known in Microsoft Office
SharePoint Server 2007, Business Data Catalog. This allows Social Squared topics and posts to appear in
the standard SharePoint search results page along with other SharePoint content. If you wish to use this
method of integrating Social Squared content with SharePoint search, please contact Lightning Tools for
further documentation by clicking Submit Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site.
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Send a private message
To send an email message using your default mail program, click the mail icon to the right of the users
name. The mail icon only appears when the user has a email address configured in their Social Squared
profile.
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Forum Tools Menu
In the top right of the Social Squared Forums Web Part you’ll see the heading Forum Tools.
Hovering over this heading provides a drop down menu with the following links:
• Edit Profile. This displays the Edit Profile dialog where users can set their Social Squared User
Profile properties and upload a profile picture.
• View Email Subscriptions. This displays the Forum Subscription dialog where users can view the
forums and topics they have subscribed to receive alerts. Users can use this dialog to delete their
subscriptions, and choose options such as notification frequency.
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• See Followers. This displays users who are following them.
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Email Alerts
Email alerts are a great way for your users to be notified of changes to topics that interest them. There are a
number of ways of subscribing to email alerts in Social Squared
1. Forum wide alerts can be enabled by clicking the Subscribe to Forum link within a forum. You can
also subscribe other users by clicking Subscribe Users.
2. Topic wide alerts can be enabled by clicking Subscribe to Topic at the topic level. You then receive
an email notification whenever a new post is created for that topic.
3. Subscribe for an alert when creating a new topic. When you create a new topic, receiving alerts is
really easy as there is a checkbox that is selected by default to receive alerts. If you do not wish to
receive alerts for new replies, uncheck this box.
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Topics
A topic is a way to start a conversation with other users in a forum. The subject of the topic can be in the
form of a question or the title of what you want to discuss. You can find a previous created topic using the
Search box in the Social Squared Forums Web Part or by navigating down the forum hierarchy and clicking
a forum name, then a topic, and finally the subject title of the topic, again using the Social Squared Forums
Web Part.
When this Web Part displays a topic, the following is provided:
• Links to Manage the topic
• Links allowing you to Rate on the topic.
• Links to Sort posts chronologically in ascending or descending order.
• AForum Tools tab
• Adashboard for each post that details the creator of the post, the post subject and body, plus links to
any attached files or to list items, and then a set of links that allow you to manage the post.
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Managing Topics
Above the Topic title, the following links are displayed:
• Download Posts ZIP. Click this link to download the posts in this forum topic to a ZIP file.
• Subscribe. Use to subscribe to email alerts for this topic. Once you have subscribe to email alerts for
a topic, the wording of this link changes from Subscribe to Unsubscribe, which you can use to
remove email alerts for this topic. You can also manage your email alerts, by clicking View Email
Subscriptions from the Forum Tools tab.
• Delete Topic. Use to delete the topic. A dialog box displays asking if you are sure to delete the topic.
When a topic is deleted all the posts associated with that topic is deleted. Using the Social Square
Forums Web Part there is no mechanism to undelete topics and posts. To retrieve deleted topics and
posts you need to contact your IT department.
• Move Topic. Use to move a topic to a different forum, including forum in other forum groups.
• Lock. Use to make a topic read only. Users can not create, edit, reply or vote for posts, neither can
they rate the topic. However a lock topic can be deleted. Once you have locked a topic, the wording of
this link changes from Lock to Unlock, which you can use to remove the lock on the topic. When you
navigate to a forum, then topics that are locked have a lock icon to the right of the topic in the Details
column.
• Make Sticky. Social Squared Web Parts display topic in the order of most activity. Use this link to
place this topic above the list of most active topics. This is useful for a topic that you want to highlight
or a topic that is an announcement or an event. Once the topic is a sticky topic, the wording of this
link changes from Make Sticky to Make Unsticky. The topic remains sticky indefinitely until you click
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Make Unsticky.
• Featured Posts. Use this to display only featured posts for this topic. To mark a post as Featured,
click Mark as Featured at the bottom of the post.
• Subscribe Users
Go to top →
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Sorting posts within a Topic
On the Social Squared Forums Web Part you can sort topics chronologically, by author name and by votes.
By default, the ability to sort posts is not activated. This can be configured using the Forum Settings page.
Also by default, the ability to vote is not enabled. This can be configured by editing forum groups under Site
Settings.
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Create a Topic
Within the Social Squared Forums Web Part you will find forums where you can leave a reply. If you are a
Social Squared administrator, you can create new topics. Or, if the Social Squared administrator has
allowed it, non-administrators can create new topics. Once you have created a new topic, you can monitor
the replies by subscribing to the topic, vote on the replies, click Report Abuse when you find any
inappropriate replies, and when a reply answers your question correctly let other users know by clicking
Mark as Answer.
*
Before creating a new topic in a forum, you should familiarise yourself with the types of
subjects that are created in the forum. Instead of creating a new topic, it may be best to
reply to a post in an existing topic, or if you want to ask a question then there may be a
topic that answers your question. By reviewing existing posts and topics, you will soon
recognize those posts you like most, and that you can use as a guideline for the content you
provide in your own topics and posts.
When you want to start a new conversation, decide in which forum you want to create the new topic, and
then use the following steps:
1. Navigate to the forum group that contains the forum where you want to create a topic.
2. Click Add a New Topic.
3. Text boxes, and rich text toolbar are displayed on the page.
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• Type the Subject of the new topic. Although Social Squared does not prevent you from creating a
topic with a subject the same as another topic, you should use a unique subject to prevent confusion,
and to ensure that you are not generating a topic for a conversation that has already been created.
The length of the title should not be so long that it looks like a full message, nor should it be so vague
that it does not help users to decide whether the subject of the topic is of interest to them. Users
browsing forums do not have time to click through and read each and every post, so provide a
descriptive and accurate topic subject. The subject of a topic also appears in the search results, when
keywords match works in the subject. Do not sensationalize the subject of a topic by using asterisks
or using all capitals.
• Type and format the body of your topic Message. Use the rich text toolbar to format the text and
include links , images , emotions , embed media and code .
• Attach files, by clicking the Browse button to the right of the Attach Files text box.
• Add links to list items in any list or library within the site collection, by clicking the Browse button to
the right of Select SharePoint Library Items.
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• Select or deselect the Alert me when new reply appears check box.
Click Post to save the new topic.
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Un-read Topics
When you re-visit a forum, even though the topics are ordered by activity, it is sometimes difficult to tell
which topics have had a reply since you last visited. With Social Squared, any topics that have a post that
you have not seen have their topic heading appearing in bold characters. Once you have visited that topic
and read the posts the topic heading appears in a standard font.
If you then navigate away, and between now and your next visit another users adds a new reply to that
topic, upon re-visiting the topic title will again appear as bold.
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Topic Ratings
You can let your fellow forum users know how good or important you think a topic is by rating it:
In the forum view, the average rating given by all users to the topic is shown.
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Post dashboard
When a topic is displayed in the Social Squared Forums Web Part, for each post in that topic, a post
dashboard is displayed. A post is created when a topic is first created and for each reply.
The post dashboard allows you to:
• See who created the post, with information from the user’s Profile, for example, the number of posts
they have created within Social Squared, one or more badges that represent their achievement level /
reputation, signature, and if chat is enabled, a link that allows you to instantly chat to the user if they
are online.
• Post subject. This is the subject or title of the post. When you reply to a post, the default subject is the
same as the subject/title of the post being replied to. This can be changed when the post is created.
You can modify the post and it’s subject if you created the post or if you are a moderator of the forum.
• The ability to vote on the post, and to see the number of votes by other users. This option is only
available if voting has been activated for for the forum.
• Post description. This can include formatted text, as well as links, images, video, and emotions.
• Post attachments and links to list items and files in libraries.
• Tags. When tagging is enabled, the creator of the post can associate keywords with the post.
Keywords quickly tell users what a post is about. Tags also make it easier for users to find content
especially when the Social Squared Forums Tagging Web Part is added on the same SharePoint®
page as the Social Squared Forums Web Part.
• Links that allow you to manage the post:
◦ Delete. Use this link to delete the post. A dialog box displays asking if you are sure you want to
delete the post. Using the Social Square Forums Web Part there is no mechanism to undelete a
post. To retrieve deleted posts you need to contact your IT department.
◦ Mark as Featured.
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◦ Mark as Answer.
◦ Edit. Allows you to edit the post.
◦ Reply. Allows you to reply to the post.
◦ Reply with Quote
◦ Report Abuse
*
When a topic is locked, the links Edit, Reply, Reply with Quote are not available.
Go to top →
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Using the Rich Text Toolbar
EDIT: In version 11.0.0.3, released in August 2025, the Rich Text Editor was updated to a more modern UI (TinyMCE version 7.9.1).
Following are some screenshots from the updated RTE:
Following is the pre-11.0.0.3 RTE documentation. Much of the functionality is the same in the new version, but in a different menu layout.
When you create a topic, reply, or reply to a reply, then a number of input controls allow you to type content,
such as the Subject, Message, Tags, Attach Files, and list items. The Message input control allows you to
add and format text, as well as adding images, emotions and embedded media, using a Rich Text toolbar.
The toolbar contains two rows of controls that allow you to customise your content.
Voting on Posts
As of Social Squared version 4.0.0.1, voting functionality can be enabled, which allows users to vote on
posts, as well as rate an entire topic. You will soon recognize posts and topics you like most and those
users who provide great content, great ideas, great links, and breaking news. It is good practice to vote for
posts and rate topics that you like. Also when you find a person who does provide good content you should
consider following them.
When you like a post, click the up voting icon, which can be an arrow
or a thumb . The voting icon
is configured by a Social Squared administrator, using the Forum Settings page. You may also be able to
vote to dislike a post. You can only vote once on each post, and you cannot vote on your own topics or
posts. Topics and posts can be sorted so that they are displayed with the highest number of votes
appearing first.
Post voting is activated on a forum-by-forum basis using the Edit Forum page. In the Voting section, there
are two checkboxes:
• Allow Voting
• Allow Only Up Vote
When the main purpose of a forum is for questions and answers, post voting and order by vote is an
excellent aid for identifying posts with useful information. When a forum contains more discussion type
topics, post voting can be useful, however, many forum owners do not select the Allow Voting check box
on the Edit Forum page, thereby allowing posts to flow in a discussion type manner.
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Featured Posts
At the bottom of a post is a link, Mark as Featured, which allows moderators and site owners to highlight
replies. If the forum topic title is in the form of a question, the reply may not be an answer to the forum topic,
but the reply may contain useful information related to the topic, and allows the post to be highlighted. A
featured posts can be cleared by clicking Unmark as Featured when you are logged in as a Moderator or
Site Administrator.
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Reply with quote
When you reply to someone’s post you may want to include the text of their post in your reply. You can do
this by clicking Reply with quote, which is displayed at the bottom of their post.
This will include the text from the original post.
And when you have finished typing your reply, click Post at the bottom of the page, and you’ll see the quote
included.
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Replying to a post or creating a new Topic
using Email
A new feature introduced in Social Squared version 5.5.0.1, is the ability to create a new topic using an
email, when Reply Via Email is enabled. Using this new functionality either create a new topic using email or
reply to a post by replying to the email that notified you of the post.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7bdIyuy6xIw?rel=0
To create a new topic by email, simply send a new email to the email account your Social Squared
administrator has configured in the Reply Via Email settings. The subject of the email should be in the
format:
< ForumName >:The title of your new topic
Or
< ForumGroupName >:< ForumName>:The title of your new topic
For example:
BDC Meta Man:How do you use Stored Procedures?
This creates a new topic in the BDC Meta Man forum with the title How do you use Stored Procedures?.
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Report Abuse
If a user has created a topic or post that you find inappropriate you can report it by clicking Report Abuse at
the bottom right of each post:
When clicked the Report Abuse page is displayed. In the Reason text box, type why you think the post is
not acceptable and then click Report. An email alert is then sent to the site owners and any moderators that
may have been setup for the forum where the post was created.
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Inserting and Uploading an Image
In previous versions of Social Squared, when you wanted to include an image into your post or reply to a
post, you had to already have the image loaded on the web somewhere or upload the image to a
SharePoint® library. In either case you had to know the URL of the image. Then using the URL, you were
able to insert the image into your post. Either way, it wasn’t the best experience.
Inserting an image is now easier. From Social Squared version 3.0.0.2, the Insert Image functionality has
been extended. Now when you click on the insert image icon in the rich text toolbar, you can still provide
the image URL if the image is already uploaded, however you will see that a new Upload tab has been
added to the Insert/edit image dialog box, that allows you to quickly upload an image from your computer.
The Insert/edit image dialog box contains four tabs: General, Upload, Appearance and Advanced, which
are described below. Once you have provided the necessary information click Insert. If you are editing a
previously inserted image, then the text of the button is Update and not Insert. A link to the image is
provided at the bottom of the post.
Go to top →
General
Use the General tab to specify the Image URL, Image description and Title. You will see a preview of the
image in the Preview box. If the image is not uploaded to the web, then use the Upload tab. For
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accessibility reasons, you should provide the text for both the Title, which appears when a user moves their
cursor over the image, and Image description, which is assigned to the alt attribute that is displayed if the
image can not be displayed, which is used by screen readers.
!
When you use the Upload tab to upload your images, they are stored in the Social Squared
database, thereby ensuring that everyone who sees the post can see the image, no matter
which site the post is displayed. If you choose to upload your images, for example, into a
SharePoint® document library and then provide the URL to the image in the Image URL
text box on the General tab, then you must ensure that which ever site the post is
accessible, that all users have permissions to see the image in your post.
Go to top →
Upload
To upload an image, click Choose file, select the image you want to use, and then click Upload. When the
image has been uploaded a message in red text appears below the Upload button, Image has been
uploaded, please click on the General tab to preview your image. A link to the uploaded image is displayed
at the bottom of the post as a file attachment.
Supported image file formats are: gif, jpg, png and bmp. If you try to upload an unsupported image file
format a message in red text appears below the Upload button, Not supported Image file format.
Go to top →
Appearance
On this tab you can configure how the image is displayed within the post using the following options:
• Alignment. From the drop down list, select, Not Set, Baseline, Top, Middle, Bottom, Text top, Text
bottom, Left or Right. This is equivalent to using vertical-align CSS property.
• Dimensions. Use the two text boxes to control the height and width of the image in pixels. If no
values are typed into the boxes then the image is rendered using the dimension of the original image.
Ideally you should not use these text boxes to constrain the dimensions of the image when rendered
in the browser – the size of the image should be changed before uploading it to the web, using Paint,
iPhoto®, Microsoft® Office Picture Manager, Photoshop®, other third party image editing tools or free
online web sites. If you’re unsure of the dimensions of your image, before you upload your image,
right-click on the image file, click Properties and then on the Details tab you should see the
dimensions of the picture.
• Constrain proportions. Select this check box, when you want the proportion of the height when
compared to the width remains that same as those in the image file.
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• Vertical space. This specifies the whitespace that appears above and below the image, and is
equivalent to using the margin-top and margin-bottom CSS properties.
• Horizontal space. This specifies the whitespace to the right and left of the image, and is equivalent to
using margin-left and margin-right CSS properties.
• Border. Use this option to configure a solid black border around your image. Type the width of the
border in pixels for the border to appear. When no value is typed in the text box, no border is
displayed around the image.
• Style. As you specify the previous options, in the Style text bottom you will see the CSS properties
that the options translate too. If you know CSS you can type CSS properties in this text box.
Go to top →
Advanced
Use the Advanced tab to configure the following options:
• Swap image. You can specify an alternative image when a user’s moves their cursor over the image
and / or when a user moves away from the image. You must previously upload the mouse over and
mouse out images, and then specify the URL of the images in the text boxes.
• Id. In this text box, specify a unique identifier for the image.
• Language direction. From the drop down list you can select, Not Set, Left to right or Right to left.
This specifies the text direction/writing direction.
• Image map. Use this text box to specify an image map, which is a list of coordinates relating to the
image, which when clicked directs the user to different web destinations. Image maps provide an easy
way of linking various parts of an image to hyperlinks, without the need to divide the image into
separate image files.
• Long description link.
Go to top →
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Like
Rather than, or in addition to, using the ratings or voting features within a Social Squared topic, it is also
possible to like a post that somebody has created. Each option has a use, for example:
1. If a topic was informative, you may wish to show your appreciation by clicking Like.
2. If a topic or post provided an answer to a question, but there were also better answers provided by
other users, you could use the voting to vote up the better answer.
3. If a topic required more feedback than just Like, you could rate it from poor to excellent.
You can click the heart icon in the bottom right hand corner of each post in order to show your appreciation.
A counter will also show how many other users have like the post.
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Notifications
Notifications is a feature of Social Squared from version 10.0.0.0 and after.
If you or another user of Social Squared likes a post that you created, the next time you visit Social
Squared, you will notice that the Notifications button turns red. Clicking the notifications button will show
which post was liked and by whom.
In a later release, the notifications will include replies, and votes. The notifications and like feature can be
turned off within the forum settings.
See Like to learn how to Like a post.
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User Profile
Social Squared provides two modes for configuring user profiles:
• Social Squared can maintain User Profiles for users who do not have Microsoft® SharePoint® My Site
functionality, either because your organization is using Microsoft® SharePoint® Foundation or your
organization has not made My Sites available for all users. SharePoint® My Site functionality is part of
the User Profile service in SharePoint Server.
• Social Squared can work with your SharePoint® User Profile service, allowing users to manage their
User Profile signatures, About me and User Profile picture through their My Site. In addition, Social
Squared can be configured to integrate Social Squared posts with the SharePoint® newsfeeds.
A summary of the User’s Profile is displayed within the Social Squared Forums Web Part, when a forum or a
topic is displayed, and the user has contributed to topics within the forum. The user’s name is a link to either
the their SharePoint® My Site About Me page or the Social Squared User Profile page, depending on how
the Social Squared administrator has configured Profile Settings.
The Social Squared User Profile page, contains information about the user, such as, their name, photo,
email address, a count of the posts they have created and signature. The User Profile page also allows you
to follow the user.
Links to a user’s profile page can also be found within the Social Squared Forums Popular Topic Web Part
and the Social Squared Forums Active Users Web Part.
Users can modify their User Profile by clicking Edit Profile from the Forum Tools tab, or by clicking Edit
Profile on the User Profile page, which displays the Edit Profile dialog where users can modify their
signature and upload a new image of themselves. Depending on how your Social Squared administrator has
configured Profile Settings, the user may also be able to type a nickname and modify their email address.
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User Signatures
Social Squared users can create a custom signatures that appear below every post they create. Typically
this is a link to their blog, or maybe a quote they feel represents their views in life.
You can create a signature using your User Profile page, which can be displayed using one of the following
steps:
• From the Forum Tools tab, click Edit Profile.
• Clicking your name in a post and then click Edit Profile.
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Once the User Profile page is displayed, in the Signature text box, type your signature, and then click
Update.
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User Post Count
To find out who the most influential users are in your forum, view the user post count that is displayed just
below their name for each post.
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Follow a user
If you like the answers or discussions a particular user contributes to Social Squared forums, you can
subscribe to get alerts each time they post. Click the person’s name to display their User Profile page, and
then at the bottom of the page, click Follow.
Administering Social Squared
To administer Social Squared, you must activate the Social Squared Forums site collection feature, on at
least one site collection. The Social Squared Forums site collection feature, when activated, adds:
• A set of links, under the section heading, Social Squared Forum, on the Site Settings page.
• The Lightning Tools Web Parts category in the Web Part gallery, if it does not already exist, and
displays the Social Squared Forums Web Part in that category.
Once the Social Squared Forums collection feature is activated, you can administer Social Squared using
any site in that site collection, where you will see on the Site Settings page, a heading Social Squared
Forum. Under the Social Squared Forum, you can use the following links to administer Social Squared:
• Forum Groups: Use this to create, modify and delete Forum Groups and Forums.
• Role Manager: Microsoft® SharePoint® like previous versions Forms Based Authentication (FBA).
Use this option to specify the role for FBA registration.
• Connection String: Use to connect to the Social Squared SQL Server database, where all
configurations and forum data is stored.
• Path Manager: Use to specify where the CSS files, images and user controls are stored.
• Forum Settings
• User Merge. Use to merge users from the free phpBB bulletin board software solution to Social
Squared.
• Modify Email Template
• Timer Jobs Log
• Online Documentation. A link to this online documentation.
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Activating the Site Collection Feature
By installing Social Squared on your Microsoft® SharePoint® environment, five site collections features
allow you to use Social Squared functionality. The five site collection features are:
• Social Squared Forums
• SocialSquared Forums Active Users
• SocialSquared Forums Popular Topic
• SocialSquared Forums Tagging
• SocialSquared Reporting
To administer Social Squared 2013/2016, you must activate the Social Squared Forums site collection
feature on at least one site collection.
Use the following steps to activate a Social Squared site collection feature:
!
You must be a site collection administrator to complete these steps.
1. In the browser, open the top level site of the site collection where your site exists.
2. Click the Settings icon, and then click Site settings.
3. On the Site Settings page, under Site Collection Administration, click Site collection features.
4. On the Site Collection Features page, locate the Social Squared features and to the right of each
feature, click Activate.
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*
Administering Social Squared and using the Social Squared Web Parts are discussed in the
Using Social Squared section of this online documentation.
References
Using Social Squared →
More information on site collection features →
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Setting the connection string
A Social Squared Microsoft® SQL Server® database stores configuration and forum data. An organization
may have multiple Social Squared databases to separate forums for security reasons. You configure at a
site level, the Social Squared database that should be used, by users of that site, that is, all users in a site
could use forums stored in one Social Squared database, whereas users in another site, even within the
same site collection, could use forums stored in a different Social Squared database.
To configure the Social Squared database that a site should use, use the following steps:
1. In the browse navigate to your site.
2. Click the Settings icon, and then click Site settings.
3. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click on the Connection String.
4. On the Connection String page, in the Connection String section, click on the Generate
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Connection String button.
5. Enter the SQL Server name, authentication method, and Database name. Clicking the radio button for
Existing Databases will allow you to click the Load button to select an existing database from the
drop down menu.
6. Click Generate. This will close the dialog window.
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7. Click Update to store the Connection String.
A message will appear if the connection string is valid.
When SharePoint® and SQL Server® are on separate servers, and you are not using Kerberos, then you
will need to use either a Secure Store Target Application or a SQL Server® account to authenticate to the
Social Squared database database, to remove any issues such as the Double Hop problem that occurs with
Windows Authentication. For more information, see the section in this online manual: Plan the installation of
Social Squared. Once you have created a SQL Server® account that has access to your Social Squared
database you can use a connection string similar to the one shown below:
Data Source=sql1;User Id=socialsquared;Password=P@ssw0rd;Database=SocialSquared
If you’d like assistance configuring this via a remote support session please contact Lightning Tools by
clicking Submit Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site.
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Configuring Secure Store
The Secure Store Service in SharePoint 2013 and 2016 can be used for authentication between the
SharePoint users and the SQL server. It is recommended to use the Secure Store for two reasons:
• Using Secure Store masks the username and password within the connection string when using
mixed mode.
• Using Secure Store, you can overcome the double hop issue whilst still using Windows
Authentication.
To configure Secure Store:
!
You must be a SharePoint Farm Administrator to configure the Secure Store.
1. Navigate to SharePoint Central Administration
2. Under Application Management, click Manage Service Applications from the Service
Applications category.
3. Click the link for the Secure Store Service Application.
*
If a Secure Store Service Application has not been created, follow Microsoft’s guide for
creating a Secure Store Service Application. Once created, continue to next step.
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4. Click New to create a new Secure Store Target Application
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5. On the New Target Application page, Provide a Target Application ID, Display Name, and email
address for Contact e-mail .
6. Set the Target Application Type to Group and click Next.
7. Click Add field for Domain, and again for SQLServer and Database. Set the field type to key for the
Domain & SQLServer fields.
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8. Set the Target Machine Administrator, and the users who will be Members of the secure store target
machine.
9. Select the target application by checking the box to the left, and choose Set Credentials. Set the
credentials that have permissions to read and write to and from the Social Squared database.
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10. Finally, you can set the Connection String and enter the Target Application ID name, which you
created in a previous step, in the Connection String settings.
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Managing Forums
This page details the key components of Social Squared, how to manage forums and forum groups, and
what you need to create to start using Social Squared.
Key Components
The two key components of Social Squared are Forums and Forum Groups.
Forum
A forum is the place, where like-minded users contribute information and ask for help from other forum
members. Such groups of users were probably in existence in your organization and communicating prior to
the creation of the forums within Social Squared. They may have previously used SharePoint® discussion
list apps to facilitate communication and exchange information. Such forums can be department based, but
can be based on job types that span the entire organization, such as nurses, lead firefighters, or project
managers.
Forums consist of members and moderators. When a user first views a page that contains a Forums Web
Part, that user is included in user’s list within the Social Squared database”#db, which is associated with the
site, where the page lives. Moderators manage the forum, for example, by setting rules, reviewing and
addressing inappropriate posts.
By default, all users can view the posts in all the forums in all the forum groups that are displayed by a
Forums Web Part. Users can therefore create any new topics in those forums, and new posts in existing
topics. You can alter this default behaviour. You can also allow users who are authenticated into SharePoint
to post anonymously and if your SharePoint site allows access to non authenticated users, you can let those
anonymous visitors to post anonymous topics or replies to forums.
Forum Group
A forum group is a container of forums. You can create multiple forum groups, for example, one for each
department in your organization, where all the forums for that department are created in their department’s
forum group. Then on different sites you can configure the Social Squared Forums Web Part to display
forums, from one or more forum groups. This would allow you to have a single instance of Social Squared
with different forum groups used throughout different areas of SharePoint®. However, it is important to note
that forum groups should not be used as security boundaries as somebody who can edit the Web Parts
properties of the Forums Web Part, could select a different forum group.
As stated in the Deploying Social Squared section, it is important to plan your forum groups and your forums
before fully deploying Social Squared in your organization; including forum topic names as, to assist with
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the forum topic is shown in the URL.
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Go to top →
How to Manage Forums and Forum Groups
To manage forums and forum groups, you need to navigate to any site in a site collection where the Social
Squared Forums collection feature is activated, and where you have configured the site with the connection
string to the Social Squared database where information about the new Forum Group or Forum are to be
stored.
Once the Social Squared Forums collection feature is activated. To manage forum and forum group on the
Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups to display the Forums Groups
page.
The Forum Groups page allows you to create new forum groups, and provides three links for each forum
group, that you can use to manage the forum group:
• View Forums. Use this link to display the Forum [ forum group name ] page. This page allows you to
create new forum; edit, delete and manage subscribers for existing forums.
• Edit. Use this link to display the Edit forum group page. This a page allows you to:
◦ Change the name of the forum group.
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◦ Specify the forum group ordering.
◦ Configure permissions. The permission settings made on this page can be propagated to all
forums within the forum group. Permission options including:
▪ Users who will have no permissions to forums in the group.
▪ Users who can approve topics and posts.
▪ Whether topics and posts appear without approval.
▪ Users who can administrate forums
• Delete. Use this link to delete the forum group.
The Forums [ forum group name ] page allows you to create new forums, and provides the Moderate All
Forums link and up to four links for each forum that you can use to manage the forum.
• Edit. Use this link to display the Edit Forum page. This a page allows you to:
◦ Change the name of the forum and the forum description.
◦ Specify the forum ordering.
◦ Allow users to vote on posts, as well as preventing users from negative voting.
◦ Allow attachments for the forum. Note: you can configure this at a global level by using Forum
Settings.
◦ Allow links to SharePoint® list items and files stored in libraries.
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◦ Notify poster by sending an email for users’ own new topics and replies.
◦ Allow administrators to highlight important posts as featured posts. Users can filter on featured
posts and topics.
◦ Allow Non-Administrators to create new topics.
◦ Allow authenticated users to post anonymously, as well as allowing anonymous users to post.
◦ Specify forum permissions, including.
▪ Users who will have no permissions to the forum.
▪ Users who can approve topics and posts.
▪ Whether topics and posts appear without approval.
▪ Users who can administrate the forum.
• Delete. Use this link to delete the forum group.
• Manage Subscribers. Use this link to display the Manage Subscribers page, which allows the
addition or removal of forum subscribers.
• Moderate. This link is available when moderation is enabled.
Go to top →
What to create when you first install Social Squared
In Social Squared, before users can create posts, respond to posts, rate posts, and use the voting controls,
you need to complete the following tasks:
1. Create Forums, and group like forums into Forum Groups. You must create at least one Forum Group,
which has at least one Forum.
2. Configure permissions to Forum Groups and Forums.
3. Identify and create moderators. Moderators manage the forum, for example, by setting rules,
reviewing and addressing inappropriate posts, and marking interesting content.
4. Manage the Forum Settings.
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Go to top →
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Creating Forum Groups and Forums
This page details how to create a Forum Group, and a Forum for Social Squared from Lightning Tools. First,
you need to navigate to any site in a site collection where the Social Squared Forums collection feature is
activated, and where you have configured the site with the connection string to the Social Squared database
where information about the new Forum Group or Forum are to be stored.
*
Although Social Squared does not prevent you from creating a Forum Group or a Forum
with a name of an existing Forum Group or Forum, you should use a unique name to
prevent confusion, and to ensure that you are not generating a Forum Group or Forum that
has already been created. Unique Forum Group and Forum names are particularly
important if you want to allow users to create topics using Reply Via Email functionality.
Note: You must create at least one forum group, which contains at least one forum, before you will be able
to use the Social Squared Forums Web Part on a SharePoint® page.
Creating a Forum Group
To create a forum group, complete the following steps:
1. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups.
3. On the Forum Groups page, click Add Forum Group.
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4. In the Name text box, type your Forum Group a name, click Add Forum Group.
The Forum Groups page is displayed, where you should see the new forum group you just created.
Go to top →
Creating a Forum
To add a forum to a forum group, complete the following steps:
1. Navigate to the Forum Groups page, that is, on the Site Settings page, under Social Squared
Forum, click Forum Groups.
2. Click the View Forums link for the forum group where you want to add a new forum.
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3. On the Forum [ forum group name ] page, click Add Forum.
4. In the Name text box, type name of your new forum and type a brief description in the Description
text box. Both of these text boxes are required fields.
5. Click Add Forum.
The Forums [ forum group name ] page is displayed, where you should see the forum you just
created.
Go to top →
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Attaching Files to Posts
From Social Squared version 1.0.0.7 it is possible to attach files to posts within a forum. By default this is
turned off. When this is enabled users will see the Attach Files text box together with a Browse button.
It is also possible to select from files that are stored within SharePoint® libraries.
When the post is created, links to attached files appear below the main body of the post.
To activate the attach file functionality for a forum, complete the following steps:
1. Click Site Actions, and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups.
3. On the Forum Groups page, to the right of the forum group which contains your forum, click View
Forums to display the Forums [ forum group name ] page.
4. For the forum you wish to configure permissions, click Edit.
The Edit forum group page is displayed.
5. In the Attachments section, select the Allow Attachments checkbox.
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Anonymous User Permissions
Social Squared allows users to anonymously create new topics or replies within a specific forum. There are
two scenarios where an organization may wish their users to use Social Squared anonymously:
• Authenticated Users. Users have authenticated, say using their Active Directory user IDs, and the
organization wants to get honest feedback from employees. The feedback may be deemed better if
employees can leave the comments completely anonymously.
• Anonymous Users. When an organization provides a public facing web site then it is unlikely that
everyone that visits the site will be authenticated. Social Squared allows anonymous visitors to post
anonymous topics or replies to forums that are configured for this.
To allow users to post anonymously or to allow anonymous users to post on a per forum basis use the Edit
Forum page using the following steps:
1. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups.
3. On the Forum Groups page, to the right of the forum group which contains your forum, click View
Forums to display the Forums [ forum group name ] page.
4. For the forum you wish to configure permissions, click Edit. The Edit forum group page is displayed.
5. Scroll down the page until the Anonymous Users section is displayed.
6. The Anonymous Users section initially consists of two check boxes.
• Allow authenticated users to post anonymously.
• Allow Anonymous Posters.
7. When you select either of these two check boxes, other check boxes are displayed:
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• Can create topics. Allow users to anonymously create new topics.
• Can create replies. Allow users to anonymously create replies to existing topics.
• Require name. When this check box is selected, a textbox is provided where the user can type a
name.
• Require email. When this check box is selected, a textbox is provided where the user can type an
email address.
• Store User Id. This check box is only visible when authenticated users are allow to post
anonymously.
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Forum and Forum Group Permissions
There are five types of forum users:
• No Access– This user has no access to forum posts.
• Readers– This user can read and rate posts, they cannot create posts, or reply to posts.
• Contributors– This user can create posts, respond to posts, rate posts, and use the voting controls
• Moderators– This user can approve topics and posts.
• Administrators– This user can complete all management tasks, including, creating new topics and
assigning permissions.
By default, when Social Squared is first installed, only two types of users are configured:
• Administrators– that is those who are mapped at the site level, to the Full Control permission level.
• Contributors– All users who have access to a site, are allowed to create posts, respond to posts,
rate posts, and use the voting controls for any forum group or forum that is displayed using the Forum
Web Part.
You can override the default permissions at both:
• Forum Group
• Forum
If a user attempts to access a forum that they do not have permissions to, an access denied message will
be displayed.
Managing Forum Group Permissions
First navigate to any site in a site collection where the Social Squared Forums collection feature is
activated, and where you have configured the site with the connection string to the Social Squared database
where information about the new Forum Group or Forum are to be stored.
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To manage the permissions of a forum group, complete the following steps:
1. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups.
3. To the right of the forum you wish to configure permissions, click Edit.
The Edit forum group page is displayed.
This page allows you to configure the following permission related settings:
• No Permissions. You can configure No Permissions for each user means they cannot gain access to
the Forum Group in question. Note that if the user is sent a link to a specific forum, the user will be
able to see the forum in question. To avoid this, set the Deny permission on the forum in question in
addition to the forum group.
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• Read Post permission. Members of this group cannot create posts, or reply to posts. Users with this
permission will only be able to read the posts as well as rate them
• Moderate Post permission. Members of this group can approve topics and posts. You can also, allow
posts to appear before moderation.
• Administrate Forums permission. Members of this forum group can administrate forums. They can
configure users and groups to the Read Post permission, as well as, Moderate Post and other
Administrate Forum permissions.
• Propagate All permissions. When this check box is selected the permission settings to the forum
group is propagated to all forums in this forum group.
Go to top →
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Managing Forum Permissions
As well as setting Forum Groups permissions, permissions can be set on a forum. This will override the
permission setting configured at the forum group level. This allows you to deny permissions to the forum for
specific users, set who can just read the forum, as well as who can moderate or administrate the forum.
To manage the permissions of a forum, complete the following steps:
1. First navigate to any site in a site collection where the Social Squared Forums collection feature is
activated, and where you have configured the site with the connection string to the Social Squared
database where information about the new Forum Group or Forum are to be stored.
2. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
3. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups.
4. On the Forum Groups page, to the right of the forum group which contains your forum, click View
Forums to display the Forums [ forum group name ] page.
5. For the forum you wish to configure permissions, click Edit.
The Edit forum group page is displayed.
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This page allows you to configure the following permission related settings:
• No Permissions. You can configure No Permissions for each user, this means they cannot gain
access to the forum in question.
• Read Post permission. Members of this group cannot create posts, or reply to posts. Users with this
permission will only be able to read the posts and rate them
• Moderate Post permission. Members of this group can approve topics and posts. You can also
choose to allow posts to appear before moderation.
• Administrate Forums permission. Members of this group can administrate forums. They can add
Read Posts permission users and groups, moderators and other
administrators.
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If you have any questions related to this documentation or the Social Squared product, please contact
Lightning Tools by clicking Submit Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site.
Go to top →
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Moderation
When Social Squared is first installed, all posts and replies are visible to all users. Depending on your
organization and the forum, new topics, posts and replies may need to be reviewed before they are
available for general viewing by all other members of the forum. Therefore when you create such a forum,
you need the commitment of at least two or three moderators.
Moderators should welcome new members, be active in the community, and where appropriate, identify
replies to posts as a Featured posts. Moderators should also manage topic titles, also know as the topic
subject, to make them accurately reflect the discussion taking place in the forum. To edit the topic title, first
the topic must be unlocked and then you edit the first post in the thread. The first post of a topic is always
listed as the top most post no matter how you sort the posts. In your organization, there may be other
guidelines that your moderators and users need to be aware of.
By default moderation is disabled. Moderation is enabled on a per forum basis and is activated when at
least one moderator is specified. The Moderate link is then displayed to the right of the Edit, Delete and the
Manage Subscribers links to the right of the forum on the Forums [ forum group name ] page. When at
least one moderator is specified for a forum, then all users mapped to the Full Control permission level or
who are a Site Collection Administrator can moderate that forum.
Specifying Moderators
To configure a user as a moderator, complete the following steps:
1. Navigate to the Site Settings page on a site associated with the Social Squared database that
contains the forum you wish to add a user as a moderator.
2. Under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups and then select View Forums for the forum
group that contains the forum.
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3. Click Edit to the right of the forum.
4. On the Edit Forum page, scroll down the page until you find the Moderate Posts permission in the
Permissions section.
5. In the Select Groups and Users box, either use the Browse icon
or type a user or group and click the Check Name icon
to search for a user or group;
to ensure the user / group exists.
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6. Click Save Selected Users/Groups.
7. At the bottom of the page, click Update.
Now whenever a new topic or reply is added to this forum the user will receive a notification to let them
know that it will not immediately appear. Moderators will also receive an email alert.
Specifying topics and posts to appear without approval
Once Moderation is enabled, and if you do not want posts to be in pending mode until a moderator approves
them, then you can select the Topics and posts appear without approval check box. When this check box
is selected, the users who are chosen as moderators can edit or delete posts after they’ve been created.
Moderating posts
To moderate a post:
1. Navigate to the Site Settings page on a site associated with the Social Squared database that
contains the forum you wish to moderator.
2. Under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Groups and then select View Forums for the forum
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group that contains the forum.
3. Either click Moderate All Forums, or click Moderate to the right of the forum you wish to moderate.
4. To the right of the post are links that you can use to View, Approve or Delete the post.
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Moderator Highlighting
Moderators can now be more easily identified with their own css styling
Customizing the Social Squared Look and
Feel
When Social Squared is installed, User Controls, images and CSS files are deployed to the SocialSquared
folder in the SharePoint root directory, also known as the 15 folder. You should not directly change the files
that are deployed in the SocialSquared folder, because when you install an update to Social Squared your
changes will be overwritten. To customize the look and feel of the Social Squared forums use the following
these steps:
• Create a folder in the SharePoint root folder, copy the files installed by Social Squared to your folder
and customize them using the following rules.
◦ The CSS file name must be styles.css.
◦ New/modified image files must be named as they are in Social Squared folder, \_layouts\15\
TEMPLATE\Images\SocialSquared.
◦ When you deploy Social Squared you’ll find the Social Squared user controls in \_layouts\15\
TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES\SocialSquared. In this folder you’ll find a structure where
each user control is contained in its own sub folder. When you want to customize these user
controls, copy the sub folder structure to your user control folder and then customize them.
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!
You should only manually create your own customized user controls, images and CSS in a
development environment. In production and integrated test environments, you should
deploy your customized files as a .wsp file to ensure that all your SharePoint servers
contain your customizations.
• Once the files have been deployed into the SharePoint root folder, in the browser, navigate to a site
which is configured to use the Social Squared database that contains the forums for which you want
to change the look and feel. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
• On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Path Manager.
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The Path Manager page is displayed, where you can type the new location where you have created
you customized CSS, images and user controls.
If you want help implementing a custom Social Squared forum design please contact Lightning Tools by
clicking Submit Support Ticket on Lightning Tools web site.
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Applying a new style
Using the Social Squared path manager, you can configure a new modern style to Social Squared.
To apply the new style:
1. Navigate to Site Settings, and then Path Manager within the Social Squared category.
2. Change the path to point to the v11 subfolder for Css, Images and Usercontrols.
The new style will be applied
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Forum Settings
To navigate to the Forum Settings page, use the following steps:
1. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Settings.
Use the Forum Settings page to configure the overall settings for any forum that is stored in the Social
Squared database and to which the site is connected. Therefore the configuration settings on this page
need only be configured once for each Social Squared database, and not for each site that you connect to a
Social Squared database.
Specifically you can configure:
• Relative URL– Use this field when forums are not at the root of a Web Application
• Search User– Enable Social Squared integrated search
• Page Count– The number of topics and pages to be displayed per page and in search results.
• RSS
• Recent Topics– Show or Hide Recent Topics and set the number of days to display
• Page Title– Specify words to be appended to the HTML page title
• File Upload– Specify maximum upload file size and allowed file types
• Votes– Specify the voting icon to use. The choices are either Arrow or Thumb
• Registration– Allow Forms Based Authentication (FBA) registration
• Enable Captcha– Enable Captcha in FBA registration.
• Sorting
• Post Numbering– Enable post numbering
• Private Message– Enable private messaging
• Original poster– Highlights the original poster
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• Moderator highlighting– Labels each moderator
• Chat– Enable chat feature
• Likes/Notifications– Enable likes/notifications for posts
• Follow User– Enable the feature to follow other users
• Select Tags– Enable tagging ,specify the tag delimiter, and allow both enterprise and term stores.
• Social Features– Enable publishing posts to the Social Feed of My Site including Mentions and Tags
• Phone Settings– Configure Phone Settings
• Profile Settings– Configure profile settings, such as picture, email, and alias.
• Reply via Email– Enable reply via email for either or both, POP3 and Exchange Web Services
• Terms and Conditions– Add your own terms and conditions for forum usage
• User Reputation Scores– Configure Reputation Scores
!
You will need to be a Social Squared administrator to configure Forum Settings.
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RSS feed
If your users prefer to see their forum update notifications through an RSS feed, then they can click on the
RSS icon when viewing a forum. They can use this icon to display the data in RSS format or obtain the
URL of the RSS feed, and subscribe to it in their preferred RSS reader.
Using the Forums Settings page, you can configure the extent of data that is displayed:
• Leave the RSS text box emply to display all feed.
• Type a value in the RSS text box, for example, 7, to display feeds from the last 7 days.
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Page Title Customization
By default, the HTML page title is used in the browser to show the page that is displayed. In Internet
Explorer, for example, the page title is displayed on the browser tab. You can customize the HTML page tile,
to include the current forum title as well as additional text. To modify the Page Title to include extra text,
complete the following steps:
!
You will need to be a Social Squared administrator to complete these steps.
1. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Settings.
3. On the Forum Settings page, in the Page Title section type the text that you want to append to the
HTML page title.
4. At the bottom of the page, click Update.
5. Navigate to the page where you have added the Social Squared Forums Web Part and put the page
in edit mode.
6. From the Web Part menu, click Edit Web Part.
7. In the Web Part tool pane, select the Show Page Title check box, and if you want a Forum name
included in the Page Title, select the appropriate check box(es).
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8. Click OK, and then save the page.
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Instant Messaging
Social Squared 2013/2016 supports instant messaging, which allows users to instantly chat with other users
who have a Social Squared user profile, as well as posting within forum groups. The instant messaging
feature can be enabled or disabled from the Forum Settings page, by selecting true or false from the Chat
drop down list:
If the Chat feature is set to true, then when a page is displayed where the Social Squared Forums Web Part
is added, each user can then show or hide the instant messaging pane by clicking the Chat (show) / Hide
Chat Pane tab:
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The Chat pane initially floats to the right hand side of the page, but can be moved, resized, or closed. The
Chat pane is divided into two parts. The top part, shows Recent Posts and the lower part, shows Users
who have a Social Squared user profile.
Using the Chat pane, you can click a post in the Recent Posts part, and therefore see posts recently
created by other users.
Using the Users part of the Chat pane, you can start an instant chat with a user by simply clicking their
name. A chat window appears allowing you to send a message to the user and, emoticons. If the user is
online, they may respond immediately. If not, they will see the chat pane open with their message when they
next login to the team site containing the Social Squared Forms Web Part.
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Emotion icons can be inserted by clicking the emotion icon symbol in the bottom right hand corner of the
chat window. The chat window can also be moved by dragging it using the title bar, closed or resized.
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Newsfeed Integration
If you use My Sites in your Microsoft® SharePoint® Server on-premises installation, it is possible for your
Social Squared posts to appear on the My Site Newsfeed. This is set at Social Squared database level, that
is, when the Social Features is set to True, then a link, Post on my Newsfeed, is added to a post for all
forums in forum groups that are saved in one Social Squared database. Therefore, any posts you create in
any forum in any forum group in the associated Social Squared database, you can choose to post to the My
Site Newsfeed.
Any other SharePoint® user that follows you, will see that you have shared the post, when they navigate to
their newsfeed.
To activate the newsfeed functionality, complete the following steps:
!
You will need to be a Social Squared administrator to complete these steps.
1. From the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Settings.
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The Forum Settings page is displayed.
2. Scroll down the page, and select True from the Social Features drop down list.
3. At the bottom of the page, click Update.
The newsfeed posting functionality is now available.
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Tagging
From Social Squared version 4.0.0.1, you can tag your topics and posts. Tagging by default is deactivated.
Tagging can be activated at the Social Squared database level by using the Forum Settings page, and then
selecting true from the Show Tags drop down list. Here you can also choose between the Social Squared
Tag Store, the Enterprise Term Store and the Local Term Store. Using the Enterprise Term Store allows the
administration to control which tags are created and that the users are able to use.
You can also type a character that you want to be used as the Tag Delimiter character. By default the
delimiter is a space, that is, any word separated by a space is treated as a different tag, for example,
Football Rugby Liverpool-FC
The tags for the topic would be Football, Rugby and Liverpool-FC. When you set the Tag Delimiter
character is a semi-colon, to enter the same tags you would have to type:
Football;Rubgy;Liverpool FC
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For tags that consist of more than one word, such as “Lightning Conductor”, using the space as a delimiter
would not work, as it would treat each word as a separate tag. In this scenario, it would be better to use the
semi-colon as a delimeter. For example,
Lightning Conductor;
Once users have begun tagging topics and posts you can add the Social Squared Forums Tagging Web
Part to your SharePoint® page:
The more a tag has been used, the larger the font size. You can quickly find all posts that reference a tag by
clicking the tag. You will be taken to a forum view that shows all the topics that have posts that have been
‘tagged’ with the tag.
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User Profile Configuration
On the Forum Settings page you can configure the Social Squared user profile settings.
The Profile Settings section of the Forum Settings page, allows you to configure the following options:
• Show Profile Picture. By default this is set as true. When false is selected, a user’s image is not
shown in the Social Squared Forums Web Part or the Social Squared Forums Popular Topic Web
Part, however they are displayed in the Social Squared Forums Active Users Web Part and on a
user’s User Profile page.
• Profile Picture Type. Using the Profile Picture Type drop down list, you can either allow users to
upload their own image to the Social Squared database, or allow Social Squared to use the user’s
image from the Microsoft® SharePoint® Server user profile database. The default is set to Uploaded
to Social Squared.
• Profile Page Type. Use the Profile Page Type drop down list to select either Social Squared Profile
Page or SharePoint My Site. The default is to use Social Squared’s User Profile page.
• Show User’s Email. By default this is set as true.
• Allow Name Aliases. A Name Alias is also known as a Nickname. Some organizations allow users to
provide an alternative name, other than the one associated with their authentication credentials. In
this way users are allowed to provide a name that they think better suits them. By default this is set as
false.
• Allow Edit Email. By default this is set to false.
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!
You need to be a Social Squared administrator to configure Forum Settings.
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Enabling Reply via Email
In previous versions of Social Squared, users could subscribe to forums and individual topics to get alerts
when new posts were created. Lightning Tools’ customers wanted the ability to reply directly to these email
alerts within their email client, whether this was Microsoft® Outlook® or on their iPhone® or BlackBerry®.
Starting from Social Squared version 3.0.0.2, Social Squared can be configured to periodically poll a
mailbox, retrieve replies and apply them to the correct topic.
Overview
Social Squared sends out an email alert to a user if they have subscribed to a forum or topic which has had
activity. When the Reply to Email functionality has been configured, the user can then reply using their
email client.
As part of the configuration of Reply via Email a SharePoint timer job needs to be configured for the web
application where you use Social Squared. By default this timer job is scheduled to run every 5 minutes and
checks the inbox of the email account, which is setup for Reply via Email. The SharePoint timer job
processes each message in the inbox and assigns it to the various topics.
Configuration
There is a choice of two options when configuring Reply Via Email functionality:
• SMTP/POP3
• Exchange Web Services (EWS), which you can use if you are using Microsoft® Exchange Server
2007 SP1 or higher.
!
Lightning Tools, highly recommend you first check your configuration with Email Checker
tool that is shipped with the Social Squared package, to ensure your SMTP/POP3 or EWS
is configured correctly, before configuring Reply Via Email.
To configure Reply Via Email, complete the following 4 steps:
1. Decide and configure an inbox (email address) to be used by Reply Via Email for each Social
Squared database where you want this functionality.
2. Navigate to a site associated with the Social Squared database that contains the forums that contains
the topics that you want users to reply to using email. If you have multiple Social Squared databases
and you want the Reply Via Email functionality available on each database you will need to complete
this task for each database.
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, and then click Site Settings.
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• Click Settings
• On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Settings.
• In the Reply Via Email section select the Reply Via Email check box, and then select either Use
Smtp and Pop3 or Use Exchange Web Services.
You can configure SMTP/POP3 to send alerts and other options as described below:
◦ Email address: This is the email address that alerts will be sent out via, and also the mailbox
that will be checked for new replies.
◦ Login: This is the login to the email account. The login is often your email address, but in case
you the use Fully Qualified Domain Name in your environment it can be different from the email
address.
◦ Password : This is the password for the mailbox
◦ POP3 Address : POP3 address for the email account
◦ POP3 Port : The port used to access the POP3 account. This is usually 995 or 110.
◦ SMTP Address : SMTP address used to send email
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◦ SMTP Port : The port used to send alert emails. This is usually 25.
◦ Enable SSL: If your server requires a secure connection, then this option should be set true.
When you select Exchange Web Services you can configure the following options:
◦
• Exchange service version: Exchange Server version(2007 SP1, 2010, 2010 SP1). Exchange
Service URL: The exchange web service is located at http://< yourserver >/EWS/Exchange.asmx.You
can first open this url in browser before putting it in forum settings.
• Email Address: This is the email address that alerts will be sent out via, and also the mailbox that will
be checked for new replies
• Login: This is the login to the email account. The login is often the email address, but in case you use
Fully Qualified Domain Name in your environment it can be different from the email address
Password: This is the password for the mailbox.
3. Activate the SharePoint timer job for each Web Application where you want to use the Reply Via
Email functionality.
• On the SharePoint 2013 Central Administration web site, under Application Management, click
Manage web application.
• Select the Web Application where you want to use Reply Via Email, and then on the Web Application
ribbon tab, click Manage Features.
• Activate the Social Squared Reply Via Email Job Installer feature if it is not already activated.
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4. Activate the site feature SocialSquared Reply via Email for the site where you want to use
Reply Via Email. This feature cannot be activated using the browser. You need to use Windows
PowerShell®.
•
5. Open the SharePoint 2013 Management Shell.
6. Type on one line, a command similar to.
Enable-SPFeature "SocialSquared.ReplyViaEmailJob_SocialSquared.EmailJobWebFeature" -url
http://YourWebUrl
Where YourWebUrl is the url of a SharePoint site (web) that contains a connection string for each Social
Squared database that contains the forums where users want to use Reply Via Email functionality. The
Social Squared Reply Via Email Job Installer timer job will find all sites that have a connection string
configured, and post the reply accordingly.
!
To complete step 2, you need to be a Social Squared administrator. To complete steps 3
and 4, you need to be a SharePoint Server Administrator.
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Forum Terms and Conditions
You can configure Terms and Conditions for Social Squared. When activated, the Terms and Conditions
are displayed and the user is asked to accept the conditions before the Social Squared forums are
displayed. By default this option is turned off. To activate Terms and Conditions, complete the following
steps:
!
You need to be a Social Squared administrator to complete these steps.
1. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Settings.
3. On the Forum Settings page, scroll down to the Terms and Conditions section, select true from the
Accept Terms and Conditions drop down list, and type text in the Terms and Conditions text box.
4. If you want all existing and new users to re-accept the new Terms and Conditions, select the Re
Accept Terms and Conditions check box.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Update.
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Badges and User Reputations
Badges and user reputation are an important way to encourage the usage of a forum through game
mechanics. Gamification is not new to social media, but seems to be one of the key areas required in any
Enterprise-wide forum product. Gamification is the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. The
real benefit of gamification is about understanding how users behave, what motivates them, and using
techniques that reward them for doing things that ultimately help an organization achieve their aims. Users
see their scores and badges change as they use the forum, and as their colleague’s score and status
change users are encouraged to stay involved.
Social Squared awards points for creating new posts, having posts marked as an answer to a question, and
receiving votes. The default badges are little medals. The more reputation points a user has the more
medals are displayed.
A users reputation score is the sum of all the different awarded points. Using the reputation score, a badge
is display depending on which achievement level the score falls into. Badges are a way for to provide
special recognition to a user who has a particular impact in the forums. By default, User Reputation is
enabled, with new posts awarded 1 point; when a post is voted up, 5 points; and for posts marked as
answers, 10 points, and four achievement levels are configured by default, as shown in the table below. You
can modify these achievement levels, reduce or increase the number of levels, and provide your own
images.
Achievement Level Minimum Score Maximum Score
Newbie
0
100
Member
101
1000
Silver
Gold
1001
5000
5000
You use the Forum Settings page to configure the number of achievement levels and images to be used for
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the badges. These settings are configured at the Social Squared database level, that is, users scores are
acculumated across all forums that are part of forum groups that are stored in the same Social Squared
database.
To configure User Reputation Scores, use the following steps:
!
You need to be a Social Squared administrator to complete these steps.
1. Click Settings , and then click Site Settings.
2. On the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Forum Settings.
3. On the Forum Settings page, scroll down to the User Reputation Scores section, and configure
accordingly.
When posts are displayed or on the user profile page, Social Squared checks the user’s reputation
score, finds the appropriate badge, using the values typed in the Min Point and Max Point columns,
and render badge image, detailed in the Image Url column displaying the tooltip from the Title
column, when the cursor hovers over the image.
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Customizing the Email Template
If you do not like the default email that is sent by Social Squared, you can customize it. To customize the
email template that Social Squared uses, complete the following steps:
!
You will need to be a Social Squared administrator to complete these steps.
1. From the Site Settings page, under Social Squared Forum, click Modify Email Template.
2. Amend the contents in the Email Subject, and Email Template text boxes.
3. Click Save.
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Reporting
Social Squared allows you to create reports. To report on Social Squared, you must activate the Social
Squared Reporting site collection feature, on at least one site collection.
The Social Squared Forums site collection feature, when activated, adds a section heading, Social
Squared Reporting, on the Site Settings page, that contains links to Social Squared reports.
The reports are based on data from one Social Squared database, and therefore, the site you are using to
generate the reports must be connected to a Social Squared database.
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The Social Squared Reporting section contains the following reports, and their respective filters (shown with
anX):
Report Description Forum
Group Forum Topic Start
Date
End
Date
Topics per Forum Count of number of topics for chosen forum
in chosen date range. x x–x x
Posts per Forum Count of number of posts for chosen forum in
chosen date range. x x–x x
All Topics Counts the number of topics per day in date
range chosen.–––x x
All Posts Counts the number of posts per day in date
range chosen.–––x x
Topics’ Replies Count the number of replies per topic–––x x
User’s Points Points awarded per user within chosen date
range.–––x x
New Users Number of new users in chosen data range.–––x x
Marked As Answered
Topics Per Forum
Number of posts marked as answers from
chosen forum in chosen date range. x x–x x
Topic Ratings Users who rated a chosen topic. x x x––
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Abuse Postings
Number of posts marked as abuse from a
chosen forum in a chosen date range. x x–x x
*
All input fields other than Start Date and End Date are required fields. When no Start Date
is provided then the date when Social Squared was installed will be used. When no End
Date is provided then today’s date is used.
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Using Social Squared Web Parts
Social Squared provides four Web Parts, that can be added to any SharePoint® page, including wiki, Web
Part or publishing pages, using the browser. Each Web Part has a number of properties specific to Social
Squared plus the common Web Part properties, which can be configured.
• Social Squared Forums. This is the main Social Squared Web Part, that allows users to use Social
Squared. Once you have created a forum, within a forum group, you should add this to a page, so that
topics and posts can be created, and users can reply, identify posts as answers and vote on posts.
This web part also displays two tabs to the top far right:
◦ Chat. This can be used to show or hide the chat pane, allowing users to chat to each other. This
tab is only displayed if Chat is set to true on the Forum Settings page.
◦ Forum Tools. When a user hovers their mouse over this tab, they are provided with links to edit
their profile, view email subscriptions, and to see followers.
• Social Squared Forums Active Users. Use this Web Part to display the 10 most active users over
the past 30 days. Use this Web Part to encourage forum participation.
This Web Part caches the results for 60 minutes to help with performance, and displays the top 10
people who’ve made the most posts across all the forums over the last 30 days. By editing the web
part properties, you can show and hide forum groups. Otherwise, a user may show as most active,
even if they do not participate within the forums on the current page.
• Social Squared Forums Popular Topics. Use this Web Part to display the most popular topics from
the forum groups selected in the Web Parts tool pane. Users of the forums are able to view comments
on a topic by hovering over a user’s image.
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• Social Squared Forums Tagging. Use this Web Part to display a visual depiction of the tags used in
topics and posts, where the font size of the words that make up a tag name becomes larger as the
frequency of that tag increases. Such a visual display is often known as a tag cloud.
By default tagging is deactivated, therefore first activate tagging using the Forum Settings page,
before using this Web Part.
Adding a Social Squared Web Part to a page →
Configuring Social Squared Web Parts →
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Adding a Social Squared Web Part to a page
To add a Social Squared Web Part to a Microsoft® SharePoint® 2013 page, use the following procedure.
1. Navigate to the SharePoint page where you want to add a Social Squared Web Part.
2. Click Settings , and then click Edit page.
3. Depending on the page type, complete one of the following:
• If it is a wiki page, place the cursor where you want the Web Part to be displayed, and on the Insert
ribbon tab, click Web Part.
• If it is a Web Part page or a publishing page, in the Web Part zone where you want to add the Web
Part, click Add a Web Part.
Under Categories, click Lightning Tools Web Parts and then under Parts, click the Social Squared Web Part
you wish to add to the page, and then click Add.
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*
Troubleshooting: If the Lightning Tools category or the Social Squared Web Parts do
not appear in the Web Part pane, the Social Squared Web Part site collection features have
not been activated. Contact your site collection administrator to activate the Social Squared
site collection feature(s).
References:
Add, move, minimize, or delete a Web Part from a page →
Create and manage pages in a publishing site →
Open and use the Web Part Maintenance Page →
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Configuring Social Squared Web Parts
Social Squared consists of four Web Parts that are usually added to the same Microsoft® SharePoint® page
to form a Social Squared forum dashboard, similar to the following diagram. Then on your site’s home page
you can provide a link to this page, so that users can use Social Squared.
Each Web Part has a number of properties specific to Social Squared plus the common Web Part
properties. Using the Social Squared Web Parts properties, you can configure these Web Parts to show all
forum groups or only specific forum groups using the Web Part tool pane, as described below.
*
To display the Web Part tool pane, put the page in edit mode; point to the Web Part, click
the down arrow that appears on the far right of the Web Part title and then on the Web Part
menu, click Edit Web Part. The Web Part tool pane is displayed to the right of the page.
You may have to scroll right to see the Web Part tool pane.
Social Squared Forums Web Part
The Web Part tool pane for the Social Squared Forums Web Part displays the following check boxes:
• Show Page Title. By default the page title is displayed on the browser tab. When this checkbox is
selected, the browser tab contains the text, Recent Forum Activity, when a forum is selected, the tab
displays the name of the forum name and when a topic is selected the browser tab contains the name
of the topic. Additional text can be appended to the page title using the Forum Settings page.
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• All.
• A check box for each forum group created in the Social Squared database associated with the site
where the SharePoint page is created. When selected, only forums from those forum groups, and
topics within those forums are displayed by the Web Part. When you configure to display only a
subset of the available forum groups, it is recommended that in the Web Part tool pane, under
Appearance, you type an appropriate title for the Web Part in the Title text box.
Other Social Squared Web Parts
The Active Users, Popular Topics and Tagging Web Parts require very little configuration. In most cases,
you just need to add them to a SharePoint page. When the Social Squared Forums Web Part is display on
the same page as one of these three Web Part, and you have configured the Social Squared Forums Web
Part to display only a subset of the available forum groups, then it is recommended that you configure these
Web Parts to show the same forum groups.