Adding a forum to your website
Adding a forum page to your store allows your customers to interact with you and each other. Having a forum is a great way to help your SEO rankings – especially if you keep adding lots of fresh content in there. If you are just starting your forum, the first thing you will have to do is create a forum group, for example ‘Sales’. Within this group, you can then add different forums, such as ‘Pre-sales’, ‘Aftersales’ and ‘Special promotions’. Each of these forums will then host the numerous topics and threads posted by you and/or your customers.
To add a forum to your online shop, go to the 'My content' tab in your homepage and select 'My forums' from the drop-down menu. Click the ‘Add new group’ button to get your forum page started.
On the following form, complete the group title and description. Also enter in a number to reflect the order in which you’d like this group to appear on your forum page. Click ‘Save details’, then ‘Go back’.
You will now see the group has been added to the ’My forums’ page. If you ever want to amend any details or delete a group, simply click the ‘Edit’ button next to the relevant group.
Next, click the ‘Add new forum’ button and on the following form, select the group you’d like to place this forum into.
Enter a name and description, along with a number to reflect the order in which you’d like this forum to appear in your chosen group. Click ‘Save details’, then ‘Go back’.You will now see the group has been added to the ’My forums’ page. If you ever want to amend any details or delete a forum, simply click the ‘Edit’ button next to the relevant group.
Making a customer a forum moderator
If you want to make any of your customers a forum moderator, you will need to go to ‘Orders & customers’,
followed by ‘Customers and statistics’. Click ‘Edit’ next to the relevant customer and on the ‘Customer info’ form, tick the box next to ‘Is forum moderator’.
Forum settings
To edit your forum settings, select 'Forum settings' from the 'Forums' drop-down menu. Here you can view and edit the settings for your forum:
Forums enabled: Tick this box if you would like to make your forums live on your store. If you untick this box, it will disable your forums – this means Storefront will save any topics and posts you and your customers may have already have made, but the forums won’t be visible on your store
Show customers post count: Tick here if you want to display how many posts have been left for each topic
Allow guests to create posts: Tick here if you’d like to allow un-registered customers (guests) to post on your forum
Allow guests to create topics: Tick here if you’d like to allow un-registered customers (guests) to create topics on your forum
Allow customers to edit posts: Click here if you’d like to allow your customers to edit their posts
Allow customers to delete posts: Click here if you’d like to allow your customers to delete their posts
Topics per page: Enter how many topics you’d like to display per page
Posts per page: Enter how many posts you’d like to display per page
Signature enabled: Tick here if you want to allow customers to leave a signature at the end of their forum posts – this can be set up by the customer in ‘My account’ (see this article for more info on customer accounts)
Click ‘Save details’ when you are happy with your forum settings