Here's an example of what the user sees, when posting a message.  This example comes from a system that's currently in use by the Montgomery Co. (MD) Police Dep't:

When the user clicks on the link for an "incident," s/he fills out the fields for this form (I haven't shown the entire form):

When the post is displayed, it shows the entire form, minus any "irrelevant chunks" (I'll say more about this point later):

This system contains a number of advanced features:

• It supports any number of forms: to build a form, you only have to be able to code the necessary HTML (or hire someone who can).

  Forms design is a sophisticated skill, but that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of folks who possess it.

• HTML enhancements allow you to split up a form into "chunks".  If a "chunk" has no modified fields, then it will not be displayed, when the post is displayed.  You may also specify that a "chunk" must always be displayed, even if it contains no information.

  Our example form contains sections for "victims," as you can see:

  

  And yet, when it's displayed, these sections don't appear.  That's because no data has been entered into them.  However, your application may require that parts of the form must be displayed, even if no information has been entered into them.

• You may designate certain form fields as mandatory.  Users can't post a form without filling out these fields.

• Every form has a "plain text" version, which can be printed or viewed via the a link, when the post is displayed (in this case, the links is labelled "B&W Print".

  The link is shown in red (on the upper right):

  

  Here's what the "plain text" version looks like:

  

• It's also possible to view or print all forms that have been posted in the same conference.

  Consider the blue square near the bottom of this illustration:

  

When forms are coded, you can include any of these "special" tags, that can make it particularly easy to control their display.  Note that "optional" sections don't appear unless there's actual data in them, and that the definitions of "hard" and "soft" dividers can be configured:

G_FormOptlSectStr0  = '<F-OPT>',    /* Start of "optional section"    */
G_FormOptlSectStr9  = '</F-OPT>',   /* End   of "optional section"    */
G_FormHTMOnlyStr0   = '<F-HTM>',    /* Start of "HTML only" portion   */
G_FormHTMOnlyStr9   = '</F-HTM>',   /* End   of "HTML only" portion   */
G_FormPrtOnlyStr0   = '<F-PRT>',    /* Start of "Printed only" part   */
G_FormPrtOnlyStr9   = '</F-PRT>',   /* End   of "Printed only" part   */
G_FormPrtCapsStr0   = '<F-PRTCAP>', /* Start of "Print capitals" part */
G_FormPrtCapsStr9   = '</F-PRTCAP>',/* End   of "Print capitals" part */
G_FormPrtFFStr      = '<F-PRT-FF>', /* TOF (ASC 12, AKA Control-L)    */
G_FormPrtHardDivStr = '<F-PRT-D1>', /* "Hard divider"                 */
G_FormPrtSoftDivStr = '<F-PRT-D2>', /* "Soft divider"                 */
G_FormPrtBRStr      = '<F-PRT-BR>', /* Line feed                      */
G_FormPrtSpStr      = '<F-PRT-SPS>',/* Force 2 spaces in printed form */

Forms can interact with information that's stored in a database, and the data from forms can be easily extracted, since it's stored in message board posts.

The three critical concepts in this system are "exporting," the "export pool," and "publishing applications."

You export a post by clicking on a new link that's available on the posting page.  Only staff (WebBoard Administrators, virtual board Managers, and conference Moderators) can see or use that link.

Once a post is "exported", it becomes part of the "export pool."

Think of the "export pool" as the candidates.  Each box of chocolates (i.e. each set of lusciously-tempting "information nuggets) will be composed of one or more posts from the "export pool."

Now, if you really like chocolate, you know that people have diverse tastes in chocolate.  So it might make sense to have a white chocolate sample box, a liquer-filled chocolate sample box, a dark chocolate sample box ... etc.

These different types of "sampler" boxes are known as "applications."

"Publishing" an application means to create an HTML page, composed of an assortment of posts.  But there's more.

You already know how posts are added to the "export pool": as I said before, a staff member simply clicks on the new "export" link which has been added to the post display pages.

The next step is to take all the possible posts and determine which one will be part of which application.  This is done via the "more" menu:

In this particular case, there are 5 applications: "alerts," "brochure," and 3 additional ones known as "extra1", etc.

This system will support any number of applications.  So you can have a dark chocolate "sampler", one for liquer-filled chocolates, one for white chocolate, one for pecan chocolates, one for macadamia nut chocolates, one for cream-filled chocolates ... ad nauseum.

The "delete" option lets you remove posts from the "export pool".  Perhaps the general public has lost its taste for carmel chocolates, so you don't see the need to offer them anymore in your sample boxes.  I'll explain the "Global" option later.

Now we have to build the sample box of "chocolates." (i.e. posts).  The first thing we need to do is to select which posts are to be displayed in this application (i.e. this particular box of chocolates):

This is part of what you see when you actually attempt to "publish" an application: after all, you don't want to include a post in a particular sample page unless you know what it looks like.

But a box of chocolates has structure: some chocolates are going to be in the center, others around the edges.  So you need some way of determining the sequence of posts in this page, and you also need a way of putting your own HTML tags before and after the list of posts:

As you can see from the above image, you can not only determine the precise sequence of posts in the "published" page, but you can also include special posts that will carry the HTML for the beginning of the page, and the end of the page.  (You probably want to do these posts in a private conference, so they don't confuse your users.)

(Note: for those of you who hate to type numbers, the numbers will automatically appear in the box whenever you select the checkboxes associated with each post ... the list of numbers in the box is there only to provide you with more control over the sequence.)

But we're still not done configuring our "box" of sample posts: we also need to consider the fact that people are very visually-oriented.  So, I've provided a very familiar way to manage the colors:

Finally, this system allows you to manage the privacy issues involved:

Hopefully, you now see just how easy it is to build an HTML page that consists of nothing but posts (and whatever additional information that you choose to provide).

Next question: where does this page go?

The answer is that it can go anywhere on your server!  For example, if you put it on the help subfolder of a "no authorization" board, then anyone can see it, even if they're not a registered WebBoard user!

This URL: http://www.yourdomain.com[:8080]/~BOARD/help?PAGENAME will do the trick.

Now anyone can browse to your page of sample posts!

What if you wish to attract customers to a group of boards?  Easy: this system also allows a special kind of exporting: exporting to a "global" pool of posts, i.e. a set of posts that may come from many different boards.

Publishing these "global" applications is just the same ... although you don't have to have a global board if you don't wish to.

Naturally, this system has a "preview" option, so you can view the generated HTML page, before "publishing" it (i.e. copying it to a file on the server).

No special server access is required: once this system is installed, everything can be done from the web.