Admin Panel Guide

Admin Panel Guide

Accessing the Admin Panel

Login

1. Navigate to /admin on your forum
2. Enter your admin credentials
3. Click "Login"

Dashboard Overview

After logging in, you'll see the admin dashboard with:

• Statistics - Forum activity, user counts, discussion counts
• Recent Activity - Latest discussions, registrations, reports
• Quick Actions - Common administrative tasks
• System Status - Server information, PHP version, storage type

Navigation Menu

The admin panel is organized into sections:

Dashboard

• Overview of forum statistics and activity
• Quick access to common tasks

Discussions

• Manage categories
• Moderate discussions and posts
• Handle reports
• Configure reaction types (Discussions > Reactions)

Users

• User management
• Group management
• Permission configuration
• Ban management

Settings

• General settings
• Email configuration
• Security settings
• Performance options

Plugins

• Install and activate plugins
• Configure plugin settings
• Manage plugin dependencies

Themes

• Activate themes
• Customize theme settings
• Manage theme assets

Tools

• Backup and restore
• Cache management
• Log viewer
• System information

Analytics (Pro edition only)

• Traffic and visitor analytics
• Growth and engagement metrics
• Accessible via Admin → Analytics

Analytics Dashboard (Pro edition only)

Access: Admin → Analytics

The Analytics Dashboard gives administrators a data-driven overview of forum health and visitor activity, all processed server-side with no third-party tracking service.

KPI Cards

Two time windows are available — last 7 days and last 30 days — for each metric:

• Total page visits
• Unique visitor count

Traffic Chart

A 30-day stacked chart displays daily total visits and unique visits side by side, making traffic spikes and trends immediately visible.

Top Pages

Ranked table of the most-visited pages on the forum with their view counts.

Traffic Sources

Referrer domains table showing where visitors come from, with:

• 90-day data retention — referrer records older than 90 days are automatically pruned
• GDPR-compliant — only domain-level referrer data is stored, no full URLs or user identifiers

Growth & Engagement Metrics

Health Indicators

Quick-status badges for:

• Members — active, banned counts
• Content — pinned discussions, locked discussions

Managing Categories

Access: Admin Panel > Discussions > Categories

Creating Categories

1. Click "New Category"
2. Fill in category details:
   • Name - Category display name
   • Slug - URL-friendly identifier
   • Description - Category description (supports Markdown)
   • Icon - Category icon (optional)
   • Color - Category color (optional)
   • Order - Display order
3. Set permissions (who can view/post)
4. Click "Create Category"

Editing Categories

1. Find category in list
2. Click "Edit"
3. Modify settings
4. Click "Save"

Deleting Categories

1. Click "Delete" on category
2. Confirm deletion
3. Choose to delete or move discussions

User Management

Access: Admin Panel > Users

Viewing Users

• List View - All users with search and filters
• User Details - Click username to view profile
• User Activity - Discussions, posts, reputation

Editing Users

1. Find user in list
2. Click "Edit"
3. Modify:
   • Username, email, password
   • User group
   • Profile information
   • Permissions
4. Click "Save"

Banning Users

1. Find user in list
2. Click "Ban"
3. Set ban details:
   • Reason - Why user is banned
   • Duration - Temporary or permanent
   • IP Ban - Ban by IP address
4. Click "Ban User"

IP auto-fill on member selection (since 5.6.6)

When you pick a member in the "Add ban" form (/admin/ban), Flatboard automatically fetches the member's IP history from the core user record and displays two clickable badges below the IP field:

• Red badge — last_ip (with a login icon), pre-filled automatically into the IP input
• Grey badge — registration_ip (no longer in active use, kept for reference)

Click either badge to swap it into the IP field. No plugin is required — the data comes from the last_ip and registration_ip columns added to the user record in 5.6.6.

The endpoint is GET /admin/users/{id}/ips (requires user.ban permission).

Auto-IP ban when banning by user ID (since 5.6.6)

If you ban a member by user ID without specifying an IP, Flatboard automatically creates a separate IP ban for that member's last_ip (or registration_ip if last_ip is empty). 0.0.0.0 is never auto-banned.

A secondary info toast ("Ban IP automatique créé pour x.x.x.x") appears 600 ms after the success toast so you know the implicit IP ban exists and can revoke it independently if needed.

The IP ban is isolated in its own try/catch, so a storage failure on the IP-ban side cannot mask the already-committed user ban.

IP ban list — members sharing the banned IP (since 5.6.6)

Each IP ban row now displays small clickable badges for every member whose last_ip or registration_ip matches the banned IP:

• Red badge — banned member
• Grey badge — active member (potentially affected by collateral damage)

Each badge links to the member's admin edit page. The lookup is one batched query regardless of how many IP bans are listed (no N+1 cost). Duplicate users on the same IP are deduplicated server-side.

This makes it easy to spot when an IP ban catches multiple legitimate users (e.g. a shared NAT) — and to convert the bare IP ban into targeted per-user bans if needed.

User Groups

Access: Admin Panel > Users > Groups

Manage user groups and permissions:

• Default Groups - Guest, Member, Moderator, Admin
• Custom Groups - Create custom groups
• Permissions - Configure per-group permissions

Filter Users by Group (since 5.5.0)

The user list (/admin/users) has a Group dropdown in its filter bar. Selecting a group restricts the table to members of that group; the filter is preserved across sort and pagination links. The reset button clears the group filter along with the other filters (search, email-verified, etc.).

Combined with the email-verified filter (5.5.0), this makes it trivial to identify, for example, all unverified members in the Guest group still waiting on email verification.

Moderation Tools

Reports

Access: Admin Panel > Discussions > Reports

Handle user reports:

1. View reported content
2. Review report details
3. Take action:
   • Dismiss - Report is invalid
   • Warn User - Send warning
   • Delete Content - Remove content
   • Ban User - Ban the user

Discussion Moderation

• Pin Discussions - Keep at top of category
• Lock Discussions - Prevent new replies
• Move Discussions - Move to different category
• Delete Discussions - Remove permanently

Post Moderation

• Edit Posts - Modify content
• Delete Posts - Remove posts
• Split Posts - Move to new discussion
• Merge Posts - Combine posts

Settings Management

General Settings

Access: Admin Panel > Settings > General

• Site name, URL, description
• Language and timezone
• Registration settings
• Storage configuration

Email Settings

Access: Admin Panel > Settings > Email

• SMTP configuration
• Email templates
• Test email sending

Security Settings

Access: Admin Panel > Settings > Security

• CSRF protection
• Rate limiting
• Password requirements
• Two-factor authentication

Performance Settings

Access: Admin Panel > Settings > Performance

• Caching options
• Asset optimization
• Database optimization (Pro)

Plugin Management

Access: Admin Panel > Plugins

Installing Plugins

1. Download the plugin .zip from the Flatboard Resource Center or the plugin author
2. Go to Admin → Plugins
3. Click "Install a plugin"
4. Select the .zip archive and confirm

The server validates the archive integrity, MIME type, size, and the presence of a valid plugin.json before extracting. The plugin appears in the list and can be activated immediately.

Manual installation (FTP/SSH): extract the archive locally, upload the plugin folder into plugins/, then activate from the admin panel. See the Plugin Guide for full details.

Uninstalling Plugins

1. Deactivate the plugin first — the Uninstall button is blocked for active plugins
2. Click the Uninstall button (trash icon) next to the plugin
3. Confirm in the dialog

Core plugins (cantDisable = "1") cannot be uninstalled.

Configuring Plugins

1. Find plugin in list
2. Click "Settings"
3. Configure options
4. Click "Save"

Updating Plugins

1. Download the new version archive
2. Go to Admin → Plugins → Install a plugin and upload the new .zip — it will overwrite the existing plugin files while preserving your settings
3. Alternatively: replace files manually via FTP, then clear the cache

Theme Management

Access: Admin Panel > Themes

Installing Themes

1. Download the theme .zip from the Flatboard Resource Center or the theme author
2. Go to Admin → Themes
3. Click "Install a theme"
4. Select the .zip archive and confirm

Manual installation (FTP/SSH): extract locally, upload the theme folder into themes/, then activate. See the Theme Guide for full details.

Activating Themes

1. Find theme in list
2. Click "Activate"
3. Theme is immediately active

Customizing Themes

1. Select active theme
2. Click "Customize"
3. Modify:
   • Colors and fonts
   • Layout options
   • CSS variables
4. Preview changes
5. Click "Save"

Tools and Utilities

Backup

Access: Admin Panel > Tools > Backup

• Create Backup - Full forum backup
• Download Backup - Download backup file
• Restore Backup - Restore from backup

Cache Management

Access: Admin Panel > Tools > Cache

• Clear Cache - Remove cached files
• Rebuild Cache - Regenerate cache
• Cache Statistics - View cache usage

Log Viewer

Access: Admin Panel > Tools > Logs

• View error logs
• View access logs
• Filter by date/type
• Download logs

System Information

Access: Admin Panel > Tools > System

• PHP version and extensions
• Server information
• Storage statistics
• Performance metrics

Updates (since 5.3.7)

Access: Admin Panel > Tools > Updates

The Updates page lists the available updates for the core as well as for every installed plugin and theme that declares an update_url in its plugin.json / theme.json. For each outdated resource you'll see the current version, the latest version, and a direct link to its changelog when one is published.

How it works:

• Each update_url is expected to return {"version": "x.y.z", "changelog_url": "..."}.
• Results are cached for 1 hour to avoid hammering update servers on every dashboard visit.
• Resources hosted on the official Flatboard update server (versions.flatboard.org) display a green badge; resources from any other host show a prominent third-party source warning so you can decide whether to trust the update.
• The admin sidebar badge counts core + plugins + themes combined; it hides itself when nothing needs updating.

To opt a plugin or theme out of the check, simply omit update_url from its manifest.

Maintenance Actions

Access: Admin Panel > Dashboard (Maintenance card)

The Maintenance card on the admin dashboard exposes one-shot cleanup actions that don't fit anywhere else:

Each action shows a confirmation modal and returns a result toast with concrete numbers ("Usunięto 17 osieroconych postów" / "27 unverified accounts deleted").

Reactions Management

Access: Admin Panel > Discussions > Reactions

Manage the emoji reactions users can leave on posts:

• Create a new reaction type — set its name, emoji, display colour, and sort order
• Edit an existing reaction (rename, change emoji or colour)
• Delete a reaction type (existing reactions of that type are removed)

Changes take effect immediately for all users.

Webhooks

Access: Admin Panel > Tools > Webhooks

Configure outbound webhooks to notify external services in real time when events occur on your forum.

Each event sends a POST request with a JSON body and an X-Flatboard-Event header. Use the Test button to send a sample payload and verify the endpoint is reachable.

Delivery history is available at Admin Panel > Tools > Webhooks > History — view each delivery attempt, its HTTP status, response body, and whether it succeeded or failed.

See API Documentation — Webhooks for payload formats and supported events.

Audit Log

Access: Admin Panel > Tools > Audit Log

A paginated, filterable record of all significant actions performed on the forum (by admins, moderators, and users).

• Filter by action type — narrow the list to a specific category of events (login, content deletion, settings change, etc.)
• Filter by user — view the activity of a specific account
• Each entry shows the action, the entity affected, the user responsible, their IP address, and the timestamp

Maintenance — Permissions Diagnostic (since 5.2.5, debug mode only)

Access: Admin Panel > Dashboard > Maintenance (visible only when debug mode is enabled)

A diagnostic tool to detect and fix group type conflicts in the permissions system:

Permissions Page (since 5.2.6)

Access: Admin Panel > Users > Permissions

View Modes

Two display modes switchable via the Badges / Matrix toggle (state persisted in localStorage):

• Badge view — each permission is shown as a clickable badge per group; click to toggle directly
• Matrix view — rows are permissions, columns are groups; cells are clickable toggles for a full audit in one pass

Group Filter

A filter strip lists all forum groups. Clicking a group:

• In Badge view — dims other groups' badges (opacity + non-interactive)
• In Matrix view — hides other groups' columns

This allows a complete audit of one group's permissions in a single view.

Best Practices

Regular Maintenance

• Review reports daily
• Monitor user activity
• Check error logs weekly
• Update plugins regularly
• Create backups regularly

Security

• Use strong admin passwords
• Enable two-factor authentication
• Review user permissions regularly
• Monitor for suspicious activity
• Keep Flatboard 5 updated

Performance

• Clear cache when needed
• Optimize images before upload
• Monitor storage usage
• Review slow queries (Pro)

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl+K - Quick search
• Ctrl+/ - Show shortcuts
• Esc - Close modals

Troubleshooting

Can't Access Admin Panel

Check:

1. You have admin permissions
2. Session is valid
3. No maintenance mode active
4. Check error logs

Settings Not Saving

Solution:

1. Check file permissions
2. Verify disk space
3. Check error logs
4. Try browser cache clear

Plugin Issues

Solution:

1. Deactivate problematic plugin
2. Check plugin compatibility
3. Review error logs
4. Contact plugin developer

Resources

• Configuration Guide - Detailed settings
• User Management - User and group management
• Security Guide - Security best practices
• Plugin Guide - Plugin management
• Theme Guide - Theme customization

Last updated: May 31, 2026