Admin Panel Guide

Flatboard Team • 21/12/2025 • 10 min de lecture

Admin Panel Guide

The Flatboard 5 admin panel provides a comprehensive interface to manage your forum. This guide covers all features, navigation, and management tools available to administrators.

Accessing the Admin Panel

Navigate to /admin on your forum
Enter your admin credentials
Click "Login"

Only users with admin permissions can access the admin panel. Ensure you have the correct permissions before attempting to log in.

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

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)

Pro Feature

The Analytics Dashboard is available exclusively in the Pro edition of Flatboard 5.

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

Metric	Description
New discussions	Created in the last 7d vs 30d with trend indicator
New posts	Published in the last 7d vs 30d
New members	Registered in the last 7d vs 30d
Avg. posts per discussion	Engagement depth indicator
Avg. posts per member	Contribution rate
Peak activity day	Day of the week with highest historical activity

Health Indicators

Quick-status badges for:

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

Managing Categories

Access: Admin Panel > Discussions > Categories

Creating Categories

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

Editing Categories

Find category in list
Click "Edit"
Modify settings
Click "Save"

Deleting Categories

Irreversible Action

Deleting a category will delete all discussions and posts within it. This action cannot be undone. Consider moving content first.

Click "Delete" on category
Confirm deletion
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

Find user in list
Click "Edit"
Modify:
- Username, email, password
- User group
- Profile information
- Permissions
Click "Save"

Banning Users

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

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

Moderation Tools

Reports

Access: Admin Panel > Discussions > Reports

Handle user reports:

View reported content
Review report details
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

Recommended Method (since 5.2.2)

Install plugins directly from the admin panel — no FTP or shell access required.

Download the plugin .zip from the Flatboard Resource Center or the plugin author
Go to Admin → Plugins
Click "Install a plugin"
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

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

Uninstalling permanently deletes the plugin directory. Plugin data stored in stockage/ is not automatically removed. Always backup before uninstalling.

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

Configuring Plugins

Find plugin in list
Click "Settings"
Configure options
Click "Save"

Updating Plugins

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

Always backup your forum before updating plugins.

Theme Management

Access: Admin Panel > Themes

Installing Themes

Recommended Method (since 5.2.2)

Install themes directly from the admin panel — no FTP or shell access required.

Download the theme .zip from the Flatboard Resource Center or the theme author
Go to Admin → Themes
Click "Install a theme"
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

Find theme in list
Click "Activate"
Theme is immediately active

Customizing Themes

Select active theme
Click "Customize"
Modify:
- Colors and fonts
- Layout options
- CSS variables
Preview changes
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

Regular backups are essential. Create backups before major updates or changes.

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

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.

Field	Description
URL	The HTTPS endpoint to call
Events	Which events trigger this webhook (`discussion.created`, `post.created`, `user.registered`, `report.created`)
Active	Enable or disable without deleting

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

The audit log is append-only — entries cannot be edited or deleted from the interface.

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:

Action	Description
Scan (`dry_run`)	Reports group type conflicts without modifying anything
Fix conflicts	Corrects the `type` field of every group whose stored type does not match its canonical name, purges group/permission caches, and re-synchronises plugin permissions

This tool is intended for troubleshooting after storage migrations or manual permission edits. It is only accessible when debug mode is active.

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:

You have admin permissions
Session is valid
No maintenance mode active
Check error logs

Settings Not Saving

Solution:

Check file permissions
Verify disk space
Check error logs
Try browser cache clear

Plugin Issues

Solution:

Deactivate problematic plugin
Check plugin compatibility
Review error logs
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: March 28, 2026