Backtalk Installation Guide

Part V: Backtalk Customization

Version 1.0.9

© 1996-2000 Jan Wolter, Steve Weiss

Prev: Part IV: Apache Configuration (Backtalk Accounts or Backtalk Accounts)


At this point your Backtalk system should be working, but you will probably want to customize it.

(1) Edit the Global Configuration Script

Almost all Backtalk pages are generated by scripts written in the Backtalk script language, which is a stack-based language somewhat similar to Postscript. All scripts are installed in the script directory under the Backtalk directory. The script/config.bt script is a header script run before every other Backtalk script. Many global settings are defined here. You will probably want to change at least some of them.

Note that lines starting with '%' are comments. Most options are described in details by the comments in the file.

  1. Edit the automatic recompilation flag. Look for the line
    /auto_recompile 1 def
    This controls what checks Backtalk does to decide if a script needs to be recompiled. For most people, 1 is a good value. If you are going to be doing significant amounts of script development, then you might want to reset this to 2. If eventually your system configuration gets stable enough that you aren't going to be making changes to the config.bt file, and if you want to make Backtalk run a wee bit faster, you may eventually want to change it to 0.

  2. Edit the system name. Look for the line
    /bbsname (SITE-NAME) defconstant
    and change the portion in parenthesis to the name of your conferencing system. It can have spaces in it. For example, if you conferencing system is to be called "Star Forum" you might set this to
    /bbsname (Star Forum) defconstant

  3. Set up your system's logo. Backtalk allows you to define an image to use as a logo for your conferencing system. Create the image as a .gif or .jpg file and store it in the image directory under Backtalk's home directory (where backtalk.jpg already is). Look for the lines
    /bbsgif imghost(/backtalk.jpg)+ defconstant
    /bbsgif.h 125 defconstant         % height of bbsgif
    /bbsgif.w 285 defconstant         % width of bbsgif
    and replace the (/backtalk.jpg) part with the name of your logo image file, replace 125 with the height of your image, and replace 285 with the width of your image. For example, if your logo is a 200 by 400 pixel GIF file named `starforum.gif', then you'd change these lines to to
    /bbsgif imghost(/starforum.gif)+ defconstant
    /bbsgif.h 200 defconstant         % height of bbsgif
    /bbsgif.w 400 defconstant         % width of bbsgif
    If you want the image to be clickable, then find the line that says
    %/imageURL (http://localhost) defconstant
    uncomment it by deleting the initial percent sign, and change the `http://localhost' part to the URL that you want people sent to if they click on your logo image.

  4. Should Anonymous Reading be Allowed? By default, Backtalk is configured to allow users who have not authenticated, and possibly don't have accounts, to read all open conferences anonymously. They can't post, and the system won't remember what they have seen, but they can observe. If you would like to disable anonymous reading entire, so that only people with accounts may read the conferences, then edit the line that looks like:
    /allowanon 1 defconstant
    Just change the 1 to a 0.

  5. Set Author Powers Different systems have different ideas of what kinds of editing powers the person who originally posted an item should have over that item. These are configured with the settings below:
    /author_freeze  1 defconstant
    /author_kill    1 defconstant
    /author_retire  1 defconstant
    /author_retitle 1 defconstant
    /author_erase   1 defconstant
    /author_hide    1 defconstant
    /author_edit    0 defconstant
    They are all normally enabled by default. You can disable them by changing the 1's to 0's.

    The author_freeze option, if enabled, allows the original poster of an item to freeze it, so that no further postings can be made to it by other users.

    The author_kill option, if enabled, allows the original poster of an item to delete it so long as no responses have yet been made by other users. If other people have responded to an item, then it cannot be deleted by the author, even if author_kill is enabled.

    The author_retire option, if enabled, allows the original poster of an item to retire it, so that it is no longer displayed to users who ``read new'' or ``read all'' but can still be seen by people who explicitly request to see it.

    The author_retitle option, if enabled, allows the original poster of an item to edit the title of the item.

    The author_erase option, if enabled, allows the original poster of a response to erase that response at a later date. (Normally copies of erased responses are logged.)

    The author_hide option, if enabled, allows the original poster of a response to hide that response at a later date. Hidden responses aren't displayed unless the reader makes an extra mouse click. Disabling this would be a bit weird.

    The author_edit option, if enabled, allows the original poster of a response to change the text of that response at a later date. (A copy of the previous text is logged.) We think this disrupts the flow of the conversation, and should almost never be enabled. It defaults off.

  6. Set Fairwitness Powers Different systems have different ideas of what kinds of editing powers that conference hosts should have. (Conference hosts are traditionally called ``fairwitnesses'' in Backtalk. They are users appointed by the system administrator to oversee one particular conference.) These are configured with the settings below:
    /fw_erase   1 defconstant
    /fw_hide    1 defconstant
    /fw_retitle 1 defconstant
    /fw_edit    0 defconstant
    They are all normally enabled by default. You can disable them by changing the 1's to 0's.

    System administrators always have all of these powers. Fairwitnesses can always freeze, retire, and kill items.

    The fw_erase option, if enabled, allows the fairwitnesses to erase other user's responses to items in their conferences. The erased text is logged so it can be recovered, but becomes inaccessible to other users.

    The fw_hide option, if enabled, allows the fairwitnesses to hide other user's responses to items in their conferences. Hidden responses are not normally displayed to users, but they can see them with one extra mouse click if they want.

    The fw_retitle option, if enabled, allows the fairwitnesses to edit the titles of items in their conferences. This may be useful if the author chooses undescriptive titles, or the conversation drifts into other topics.

    The fw_edit option, if enabled, allows the fairwitnesses to edit the content of items and responses posted by other users. The original content is logged. We think letting someone change someone else's words is a horrible idea, so this option defaults off, and we strongly discourage turning it on.

  7. Allow HTML Postings by Default? With Backtalk fairwitnesses (conference hosts) can decide if HTML is to be allowed in postings to their conferences. The dflt_html switch sets the default value for conferences where the fairwitness has not set the option. It is initially set to 1. Set it to 0 to disable HTML by default. Note that only a safe subset of HTML is allowed, and if you are sharing conferences with Yapp or Picospan, Backtalk automatically filters the HTML out of the versions of the postings that they will display.

  8. Edit the show_motd switch. If you want the web interface to display your system's /etc/motd file, then you should uncomment the line:
    %/show_motd 1 defconstant
    by removing the percent sign from the front. This is most often used on installations with real Unix logins.

  9. Edit the useplan switch. If you want to store user's personal information in their .plan files instead of in their .backtalk files, then you should uncomment the line:
    %/useplan 1 defconstant
    by removing the percent sign from the front. This is most often used on installations with real Unix logins.

  10. Edit the text_interface definition. If you are setting up Backtalk to share conferences with Picospan or Yapp, you should define the text_interface constant to the name of that system, either:
    /text_interface (Picospan) defconstant
    or:
    /text_interface (Yapp) defconstant

    Otherwise, just leave it commented out:

    %/text_interface (Picospan) defconstant

  11. Edit the usepublic_txt switch. If you are setting up Backtalk to share conferences with Picospan or Yapp, then the usual place to store the list of conferences is in a text file named "public.txt". Backtalk strongly prefers to use a more rigidly formatted file named "confmenu", but if you want to be compatible with Picospan, you should uncomment the line:
    %/usepublic_txt 1 defconstant
    by removing the percent sign from the front.

  12. Edit the shyfile switch. If you have anonymous reading but some of your users don't want their responses read by unregistered users, then Backtalk supports a "shyfile" facility where particular user's responses are hidden from unregistered readers. If you want to use this, uncomment the line
    %/shyfile (/usr/local/backtalk/etc/shylist) defconstant
    by removing the percent sign from the front, and change the path name in the parenthesis to the place where you want to have your shylist saved.

(2) Edit Pistachio Configuration Script

The ``pistachio'' interface is the most commonly used Backtalk user interface. It consists of a set of scripts. It has it's own configuration file, where there are a few settings you may want to alter. The file is installed under the Backtalk directory at script/pistachio/config.bt.

  1. Edit the default background color. Each conference fairwitness can set a different background color for their conferences. The color defined here is used for conferences with no defined background color, and for other, non-conference pages.

    Actually, you might as well just leave it for now, but if you ever decide you don't like it, this is where to go to change it.

  2. Edit the default button style. Again, probably just leave it be for now.

  3. Edit the global page header. This is some HTML that is inserted at the top of every Pistachio page. The default is nothing. This can be used for ad rotators and such (yick). You should also set global_header_height to the approximate height in pixels of the page header. This is used to enlarge the size of the top frame on read pages enough to hold both the header and the buttons.

  4. Edit the global page footer. This is some HTML that is inserted at the bottom of every Pistachio page. The default is a Backtalk copyright message in small print. You are welcome to take that out (though we would prefer that you display the copyright someplace, it doesn't have to be on every page) and replace it with anything you like.

  5. Disable user sorting? There is a page in Backtalk that lets you list the other users on the system. Normally there is an option to sort these in several different ways. But one place where Backtalk is used has 26,000 users, and generating and sorting such a list of users would take a long time, consume a lot of memory (Backtalk sorts in memory), and produce an output that nobody really wants to look at. To keep people from accidentally requesting this, there is a switch to disable that form of user report for everyone except administrators. You can still get unsorted user listings (which only show up 50 per page), or search for particular users.

    If you only have a couple thousand or so users then you don't need to disable sorting, so you can define dont_sort to 0. Otherwise, set it to 1.

(3) Edit the Makeacct HTML Files

If you are using Backtalk accounts, then you'll likely be using the makeacct CGI program to create accounts. There are two HTML files installed under the directory you specified as htmldir which are used with this: ``newuser.html'' and ``newacct.html''.

The ``newuser.html'' is the application form for creating new accounts. At a minimum, you'll want to replace all occurrences of the name SITE-NAME with the name of your system. You may ultimately want to do quite a bit more editing on this page. You can add other fields, which will be logged and saved, but which will not be displayed unless you modify the user information scripts to do so.

The ``newacct.html'' file is displayed after an account is successfully created. At a minimum, you'll want to replace all occurrences of the name SITE-NAME with the name of your system. You may want to do more editing on this page, especially if you are creating unvalidated accounts, or if you have other instructions to give users before they use their accounts. I tend to regard the moment when a person has just been given a new account and is wondering what to do with it as a "teachable moment" - a good time to tell the user some things you want all your users to know - since they are more than usually likely to be willing to read instructions at that point.


Prev: Part IV: Apache Configuration (Backtalk Accounts or Backtalk Accounts)