Better SMF

Better Contact gives SMF 2.1.x a more private and controlled way for members, guests, and forum staff to communicate without unnecessarily exposing email addresses.

The idea is simple: keep normal member communication inside SMF through Private Messages, while still giving guests a clean way to contact forum staff and receive an email response.

Main Features:

• PM-first member contact
• Optional hiding of member email links and addresses
• Optional hiding of guest poster email links
• Private Contact Staff form
• Contact Staff link in the forum footer
• Private reply-email storage
• Unique Contact #ID records
• Staff notification through SMF Private Messages
• Native-style Reply by Email PM action
• Server-side email replies through SMF
• Configurable Contact Reply Address
• Live contact status
• Close and reopen contacts
• Original message and latest staff reply shown together
• Theme-friendly language fallback
• Upgrade support from earlier Better Contact / Better Profile Contact builds
• Better SMF-style uninstall/data retention behavior
• Member Privacy

Better Contact can suppress normal member email links and addresses from SMF surfaces that use member context.

Members can continue to contact one another through SMF's native Private Message system without exposing an email address through a public mailto: link.

The account email stored internally by SMF is not deleted or changed. Better Contact controls how that information is presented.

Guest Contact Staff Form

Administrators can enable an optional Contact Staff page.

Guests or members can privately submit:

• Name
• Reply email
• Subject
• Message

The supplied reply email is stored privately in the Better Contact record. It is not placed in the staff PM body and is not displayed publicly.

Once submitted, active administrators receive the message through SMF Private Messages.

Each submission receives its own identifier:

Contact #123

This gives staff a clear record to work with and prevents unrelated contacts from becoming mixed together.

Staff Reply Workflow

Better Contact keeps the staff response workflow inside the forum.

A Better Contact PM includes a native-style Reply by Email action.

Staff click that button, compose their reply inside SMF, and Better Contact sends the message using the forum's configured SMTP/sendmail system.

No external mail client or mailto: link is required.

A forum-controlled Contact Reply Address can be configured under:

Administration → Configuration → Better Contact

If no custom address is entered, Better Contact falls back to the forum webmaster address.

Truthful Delivery Status

Better Contact does not mark a message as replied merely because an email was added to SMF's mail queue.

Staff replies are attempted immediately through SMF's mail system.

The contact is marked Replied only when SMF reports that the send succeeded.

If mail delivery fails, Better Contact leaves the record unchanged and displays an error so staff do not get a false success indication.

Contact Status

Each Better Contact record has a live status:

• New
• The contact has not yet received a successful staff reply.
• Replied
• A staff email reply was successfully sent.
• Closed
• The contact has been closed by staff.

Closed contacts can be reopened if another reply is needed.

The live status appears directly on the associated Private Message, so multiple administrators can see whether another staff member has already responded.

Reply Screen

The internal reply screen shows:

• Contact number
• Current status
• Original contact message
• Most recent staff reply
• Email reply editor
• Send Reply by Email control
• Close or reopen controls
• Return to Private Message button

This keeps the full context of the conversation in one place.

Administration

Better Contact is managed from:

Administration → Configuration → Better Contact

Available settings include:

• Enable Better Contact
• Hide member email links and addresses
• Hide guest poster email links
• Enable Contact Staff form
• Configure Contact Reply Address
• Theme Compatibility

Better Contact includes language fallback behavior designed for custom themes.

If the active theme contains customized Better Contact language strings, those remain authoritative. Missing strings are filled from the default theme language file.

This helps prevent stale or incomplete custom-theme language files from breaking the interface.

Upgrade Compatibility

Better Contact retains the historical Better Profile Contact package ID so earlier development builds upgrade in place rather than installing as a separate MOD.

During upgrade it can migrate old Better Profile Contact settings, remove obsolete hooks, and clean up old package files automatically.

Older Contact Staff Messages

Contact Staff submissions created before the record-based workflow introduced in dev3 did not have a Better Contact record ID.

Those older PMs cannot gain the newer Reply by Email/status workflow retroactively.

New submissions use the complete Better Contact workflow.

Uninstall Behavior

Better Contact follows the Better SMF uninstall standard.

Normal uninstall

• Removes Better Contact hooks
• Removes package files
• Preserves Better Contact settings
• Preserves stored contact records

Uninstall with Package Manager "Remove data" selected

• Removes hooks and files
• Removes Better Contact settings
• Removes legacy Better Profile Contact settings
• Drops the Better Contact contact-record table

This allows the MOD to be removed temporarily without automatically destroying stored contact data.

Compatibility

Better Contact: 0.1.0
SMF: 2.1.x

Release Status

Better Contact 0.1.0 is based directly on the live-tested dev3c code line.

Better Contact 0.1.1 added CAPTCHA for guest submission of Contact Staff form.

The PM-first contact behavior, guest Contact Staff workflow, private reply-address handling, staff email reply system, delivery-status handling, contact statuses, administration controls, theme compatibility, upgrade path, and uninstall behavior have all gone through development testing.

Theme Lab is a visual theme-building and workspace system for SMF 2.1.x designed to make creating polished forum themes faster, easier, and much more approachable.

Instead of manually digging through theme files and CSS every time you want to change the look of a forum, Theme Lab gives administrators a dedicated environment for building, previewing, refining, saving, and publishing custom SMF themes.

The goal is simple:

Make professional SMF theme creation feel like design work instead of file surgery.

What Theme Lab Does

Theme Lab provides an administrator-focused theme workspace where visual settings can be adjusted without rebuilding a theme from scratch by hand.

It is designed around the idea of reusable Workspaces.

A Workspace represents a Theme Lab project that can be opened, edited, refined, and published as a complete SMF theme.

Administrators can create multiple Workspaces for different designs, experiments, client projects, seasonal themes, or site variations.

Visual Theme Building

Theme Lab gives administrators control over the major visual areas of an SMF theme, including:

• Forum width and page layout
• Header and upper-section styling
• Navigation appearance
• Board index surfaces
• Topic and message areas
• Buttons and control styling
• Borders
• Border radius
• Padding and spacing
• Backgrounds
• Typography
• Menu and dropdown behavior
• Forum logo visibility
• Logo alignment
• Topic-view styling
• Quick Reply styling
• Posting-page styling
• Administration interface compatibility

The aim is not simply to change a few colors.

Theme Lab is built to create a cohesive complete theme, where the header, forum body, board list, posts, controls, menus, forms, and footer all feel like parts of the same design.

Workspace System

Theme Lab uses Workspaces rather than disposable one-time theme generation.

From the Workspace area, administrators can manage their existing Theme Lab projects and create new ones.

A Workspace can be reopened later so a theme can continue evolving instead of forcing the administrator to recreate it from memory.

Theme Lab also supports importing existing Theme Lab-generated themes back into the Lab so they can be edited and republished.

This makes Theme Lab useful as an ongoing design environment rather than just a one-click generator.

Theme Import

One of the key goals of Theme Lab is avoiding the familiar problem of:

"I already built this theme — why do I have to recreate it just to change one thing?"

Existing compatible Theme Lab themes can be brought back into a Workspace for further work.

This allows administrators to:

• Continue an older design
• Make small visual changes
• Create variants
• Correct layout problems
• Republish an updated version
• Use an existing theme as the starting point for another design
• Premium Layout Polish

Theme Lab places strong emphasis on the small details that make a theme feel finished.

That includes things such as:

• Consistent forum widths
• Proper alignment between header and content
• Seamless joined panels
• Controlled border radii
• Consistent padding
• Clean button surfaces
• Proper dropdown sizing
• Correct menu stacking and z-index behavior
• Connected post header/body styling
• Clean attachment areas
• Integrated Quick Reply surfaces
• Proper posting-page layout
• Consistent board-row styling
• Clean administration controls

A major part of Theme Lab development has been eliminating the subtle inconsistencies that often make otherwise good themes feel unfinished.

SMF Logo Controls

Theme Lab includes controls for the SMF logo area.

Administrators can choose whether the logo should appear and control its positioning.

Available positioning includes:

• Left
• Center
• Right

The logo can also be removed entirely when the design does not need it.

Board Index Styling

Theme Lab includes detailed control over the Board Index.

The board list is treated as a primary design surface rather than an afterthought.

Styling work includes:

• Row padding
• Icon spacing
• Statistics alignment
• Header styling
• Consistent cell backgrounds
• Border treatment
• Outer-corner radius handling
• Continuous panel appearance

The objective is to create a Board Index that feels like a deliberate part of the theme rather than stock SMF with different colors applied.

Topic View

Theme Lab also pays close attention to topic and message presentation.

Topic styling includes improvements such as:

• Message header/body joins
• Reduced unnecessary gaps
• Connected surfaces
• Attachment-area cleanup
• Controlled inner and outer radii
• Consistent post controls
• Proper Quick Reply integration

The result is a more unified topic view with fewer disconnected boxes and visual breaks.

Posting and Reply Pages

Posting pages are included as a first-class part of the theme.

Theme Lab works to keep:

• New Topic
• Reply
• Modify Post
• Quick Reply

visually consistent with the rest of the forum.

The goal is for the composer experience to look like part of the theme instead of a stock SMF page appearing inside a custom design.

Navigation and Dropdowns

Theme Lab includes styling for SMF navigation and hover menus.

Special attention is given to:

• Dropdown width
• Option padding
• Hover behavior
• Menu visibility
• z-index
• Nested control backgrounds
• Administrative dropdowns
• The SMF More... menu

This helps prevent common custom-theme problems such as clipped menus, blinking dropdowns, narrow menu items, or controls appearing behind nearby containers.

Administration Compatibility

Theme Lab is designed to style the public forum without breaking the SMF administration interface.

Admin menus, dropdowns, buttons, icons, settings pages, and controls are treated carefully so front-end theme rules do not unintentionally damage administrative functionality.

This is especially important for broad CSS rules that might otherwise affect:

• Cog icons
• Delete controls
• Moderation buttons
• Admin dropdowns
• Form controls
• Package Manager screens

Theme Lab development places strong emphasis on keeping those surfaces clean and usable.

Publishable SMF Themes

A Theme Lab Workspace can ultimately be turned into a usable SMF theme.

The generated result is intended to behave like a normal SMF theme rather than requiring Theme Lab to remain active just to display the design.

That means Theme Lab serves as the design environment, while the published theme remains the finished product.

Designed for Iteration

Theme Lab is built around refinement.

A typical workflow is:

Create Workspace → Design → Test → Refine → Publish → Reopen Later → Improve → Republish

That makes it suitable for both quick theme creation and long-running theme projects.

Better SMF Philosophy

Theme Lab is part of the broader Better SMF project.

Like the other Better SMF MODs, its purpose is not simply to bolt another feature onto SMF.

The goal is to improve an area of the forum that administrators regularly struggle with while preserving the flexibility and independence that make SMF useful.

Theme Lab is intended to become a tool an administrator can install on a fresh SMF forum and immediately use to create something that feels distinctly their own.

Compatibility

Platform: SMF 2.1.x

Theme Lab is being developed specifically around the SMF 2.1 theme and administration architecture.

Current Status

Theme Lab has gone through extensive development and live testing across forum layout, Board Index styling, topic view, posting pages, Quick Reply, dropdown menus, administration screens, logo controls, Workspace management, import behavior, and theme publishing.

The project has evolved from a basic theme generator into a much broader theme workspace and design system for SMF.

Enjoy 

PM Attachments brings full file-attachment support to the SMF 2.1.7 Personal Message system.

It is designed to make PM attachments feel native to SMF rather than bolted on, while preserving the privacy and access rules that private messages already use.

The goal is simple:

Give private messages the same kind of attachment experience users already expect from forum posts.

Main Features:

• Drag-and-drop PM attachment uploader
• Multi-file uploads
• Sequential upload handling for Chrome and Edge
• Native-style attachment cards inside private messages
• Image thumbnails
• Secure attachment downloading
• Configurable file limits
• Configurable file-size limits
• Configurable allowed extensions
• Configurable thumbnail dimensions
• Optional aspect-ratio preservation
• Optional opening of attachments in a new tab/window
• Automatic camera/iPhone image orientation correction
• Pending-upload recovery after PM validation errors
• Automatic attachment assignment when a PM is sent
• Optional attachment deletion when a PM is permanently removed
• Attachment Health & Maintenance Center
• Orphan attachment detection and cleanup
• Protection from SMF attachment-repair routines
• PM Attachment Manager
• Administrative PM Inspector
• Search and filtering tools
• SMF-style pagination
• Safe administrative deletion
• Alternate-theme Package Manager compatibility
• Non-destructive uninstall
• Native PM Attachment Workflow

PM Attachments integrates directly into SMF's normal Personal Message composer.

Members can add files while writing a PM using a drag-and-drop uploader rather than having to upload somewhere else and paste a link.

Multiple attachments can be queued and uploaded during the same message.

The uploaded files are temporarily held until the PM is successfully created, at which point PM Attachments adopts them and permanently associates them with that private message.

This keeps attachment ownership tied directly to the PM itself.

Drag-and-Drop Uploads

The uploader is designed to feel similar to SMF's normal attachment workflow.

Users can:

• Drag files into the uploader
• Select multiple files
• See uploads handled individually
• Continue composing while files are processed

Uploads are intentionally handled sequentially for improved compatibility with browsers such as Chrome and Edge.

Validation Error Recovery

A failed PM submission should not mean starting over with the attachments.

PM Attachments preserves pending uploads when SMF returns the user to the compose page because of a validation error.

That means something as simple as a missing recipient or another form error does not automatically force the member to upload all their files again.

Image Thumbnails

Image attachments can automatically receive thumbnails.

Administrators can configure:

• Thumbnail generation on/off
• Maximum thumbnail width
• Maximum thumbnail height
• Whether aspect ratio should be preserved

The thumbnail system uses SMF's attachment handling rather than maintaining a completely separate image store.

Camera & iPhone Image Orientation

One of the more useful image features in PM Attachments is automatic EXIF orientation correction.

Photos taken by phones and digital cameras often store their orientation in metadata rather than physically rotating the image pixels.

This can cause an uploaded picture to appear sideways or upside-down depending on where it is displayed.

PM Attachments can automatically normalize JPEG orientation before SMF creates the final attachment and thumbnail.

It supports ImageMagick when available and also contains its own JPEG EXIF-orientation handling with GD fallback.

The result is that the original image and its thumbnail should agree on the correct orientation.

Secure Downloads

PM attachments do not become public files simply because they are stored in SMF's attachment system.

Attachment downloads are routed through PM Attachments' own access checks.

Normal Personal Message permissions remain relevant to whether the requesting member can access the associated PM and its files.

Download counts are also maintained.

Configurable Upload Limits

Administrators can control PM attachment policy independently.

Available settings include:

• Maximum attachments per PM
• Set a specific number or use 0 for unlimited.
• Maximum attachment size
• Configured in KB and validated against the server's actual PHP upload limits.

Allowed extensions

A configurable comma-separated extension list.

The default package includes common formats such as:

• jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp, pdf, txt, zip

Attachment Display

Attachments are displayed inside private messages using native-style attachment presentation rather than raw file links.

Image attachments can show thumbnails while other file types remain available through attachment cards and filename links.

Administrators can also choose whether attachment links should open in the same browser window or a new tab/window.

Automatic Cleanup

PM Attachments can optionally delete associated files when a private message is permanently removed.

This includes attachment and thumbnail cleanup.

Administrators can disable this behavior if they prefer to retain the files.

Orphan Protection

Temporary uploads create an important maintenance problem: not every uploaded file necessarily becomes part of a completed PM.

PM Attachments handles that with an orphan safety window.

Fresh unassigned uploads are treated as potentially active and protected from cleanup.

Only attachments old enough to fall outside the configured safety period are presented as stale orphan candidates.

The default safety window is:

24 hours

Administrators can configure the period from 1 hour up to 30 days.

Safe Orphan Cleanup

Stale orphan attachments can be reviewed and removed through the administration interface.

Cleanup uses SMF's native attachment-removal handling rather than simply deleting database rows manually.

That means associated thumbnail files and attachment metadata follow SMF's normal cleanup path.

Recent uploads remain protected.

Health & Maintenance Center

PM Attachments includes its own administration health checks.

The system can inspect items such as:

• Whether PM Attachments is enabled
• Attachment-directory availability
• Directory write permissions
• Available disk space
• PHP file-upload support
• PHP upload limits
• Configured PM attachment limit
• GD/ImageMagick availability
• Camera-orientation support
• Allowed extension configuration
• Required database columns
• SMF attachment-repair protection
• Stale orphan attachment status

The overall health state can identify a setup as:

• Healthy
• Degraded
• Misconfigured

This makes attachment problems much easier to diagnose than waiting for members to report a failed upload.

Protection From SMF Attachment Repair

Because PM attachments live in SMF's native attachment table but are not attached to forum posts, they could otherwise look like attachments without messages.

PM Attachments integrates with SMF's attachment-repair process and protects legitimate PM-owned attachments from being incorrectly treated as abandoned files.

Fresh pending uploads inside the orphan grace period are protected as well.

PM Attachment Manager

Administrators get a dedicated PM Attachment Manager for inspecting attachment records.

Available views include:

• Assigned
• Attachments currently associated with private messages.
• Unassigned / Orphans
• Uploads that are not currently attached to a PM.
• Missing / Broken
• Attachment records where the expected file or thumbnail is missing.

The manager also provides search and filtering by information such as:

• Attachment ID
• PM ID
• Filename
• MIME type
• Minimum size
• Maximum size

Results use SMF-style pagination.

Safe Administrative Deletion

The manager allows attachments to be removed administratively, but assigned PM attachments require explicit confirmation.

This helps prevent a routine cleanup operation from accidentally destroying files still attached to live private messages.

Deletion is routed through SMF's native attachment-removal system.

Administrative PM Inspector

PM Attachments also includes an Administrative PM Inspector.

This allows a forum administrator to inspect the private message connected to a managed attachment when troubleshooting or maintaining the attachment system.

The inspector can show:

• PM subject
• Sender
• Sent date
• Recipients
• Message body
• Attached files

This tool is restricted to users with the admin_forum permission.

Importantly, administrative inspection does not change normal member access rules.

Inspector access is also recorded through the SMF administrative action log.

Database Integration

PM Attachments extends SMF's native attachments table with PM ownership information rather than introducing an entirely separate file-storage system.

The added PM ownership field allows an attachment to belong to a private message while continuing to use SMF's existing attachment engine, file hashes, folders, thumbnails, and removal routines.

Uninstall Policy

PM Attachments takes a deliberately conservative approach to uninstalling.

Uninstalling the MOD removes:

• PM Attachments hooks
• PM Attachments settings
• Source files
• Template files
• CSS
• Language files
• Installed template modifications

However, uninstall does not automatically destroy historical attachment data.

The following are preserved:

• Existing PM attachment database rows
• PM ownership data
• Attachment files
• Thumbnail files

This is intentional.

A package uninstall should not silently delete files that may represent historical private-message data.

Destructive cleanup remains an explicit administrator decision.

Compatibility

PM Attachments: 1.0.0
SMF: 2.1.7

The package also contains direct upgrade coverage for the earlier RC development line through RC3d.

Default Configuration

The 1.0.0 package installs with practical defaults including:

• PM Attachments enabled
• Attachments open in a new tab/window
• Camera image auto-orientation enabled
• Maximum file size: 10 MB
• Maximum files per PM: 5
• Thumbnails enabled
• Thumbnail size: 300 × 300
• Aspect ratio preserved
• Delete attachments with permanently deleted PMs enabled
• Orphan safety window: 24 hours

Administrators can change these values from the PM Attachments configuration area.

Release Status

PM Attachments 1.0.0 is the first public release.

It brings together the full member upload workflow, secure PM ownership, image handling, thumbnail support, validation recovery, maintenance tools, repair protection, attachment management, administrative inspection, and non-destructive uninstall policy into one completed package.

Better Chat adds real-time community chat, private member conversations, and an optional customer-support workflow directly to SMF 2.1.x.

It is designed to feel like part of the forum rather than a separate chat application bolted onto it.

The goal is simple:

Give an SMF community modern real-time conversation without leaving the forum.

Main Features:

• Community / group chat
• One-to-one private member chat
• Messenger-style minimized private chat bubbles
• Compact private chat windows
• Support / Customer Service mode
• Hybrid Community + Support mode
• Optional guest support chat
• Staff support queue
• On-duty support controls
• Image attachments
• Optional video attachments
• FFmpeg detection and video processing
• Emoji picker
• Online / presence indicators
• Typing-aware chat behavior
• Sound notifications
• Browser-title notifications
• Optional Better Reactions integration
• Chat-only moderation controls
• Per-member chat restrictions
• Audit logging
• Separate retention policies
• Participant-side private-history clearing
• Administrative history cleanup
• Upload cleanup
• Better Reactions lifecycle cleanup
• Server capability diagnostics
• Safe non-destructive uninstall
• Protection for CAPTCHA, downloads, XML, AJAX, and other non-page responses

Community Chat

Better Chat can provide a persistent Group Chat directly on normal forum pages.

Members can communicate in real time without opening another page or leaving the topic they are reading.

The administrator can configure the public chat title and chat-window width.

Community chat can operate on its own or alongside the Support system.

Private Member Chat

Registered members can open direct one-to-one conversations with other members.

Private chats appear as dedicated chat windows and are kept separate from the public Group Chat.

Members can keep several conversations available while continuing to browse the forum.

Messenger-Style Chat Bubbles

Better Chat supports two minimized private-chat styles:

Compact Windows

Minimized conversations remain as small traditional chat windows.

Messenger-Style Bubbles

Minimized conversations become chat bubbles stacked along the side of the page.

Unread-message badges can appear on minimized bubbles, making it easy to keep several conversations available without covering the forum.

Private Conversation Clearing

A member can clear a private conversation from their own view.

This does not erase the other participant's copy.

That provides a familiar messaging-style behavior while avoiding the surprising result of one participant deleting another member's private history.

Permanent administrative cleanup remains a separate controlled action.

Support / Customer Service Mode

Better Chat can also operate as a live support system.

Available operating modes include:

• Community Chat
• Support / Customer Service
• Hybrid Community + Support

Hybrid mode allows the normal community chat and the support system to operate together.

Member and Guest Support

Administrators can choose whether support requests are available to:

• Registered members
• Guests
• Both

Guests can enter a display name and request a private conversation with available staff.

Support conversations remain separate from the public community chat.

Support Staff

Support staff are selected using SMF membergroup IDs.

Administrators are always recognized as support staff.

Staff members can mark themselves On Duty, making them available to handle incoming support requests.

Support Queue

When a visitor requests help, the conversation enters a support queue.

Staff can see waiting customers and choose Accept Chat.

Once claimed, the customer and staff member enter a private live support conversation.

Either side can end the session when complete.

Screenshot Uploads in Support

Support chat can optionally allow image uploads.

Supported image types include common web formats such as:

• JPEG
• PNG
• GIF
• WebP

The same Better Chat image size and extension policies are used for support conversations.

This is particularly useful for technical support where a screenshot often explains a problem faster than several messages.

Chat Attachments

Better Chat supports image uploads directly inside community and private conversations.

The administrator can configure:

• Maximum image size
• Allowed image extensions

Images are displayed inline as chat attachments rather than requiring members to upload them elsewhere first.

Video Attachments

Better Chat also contains optional video attachment support.

When FFmpeg is installed and available, administrators can enable video uploads and configure:

• Maximum video size
• Allowed video extensions
• FFmpeg executable path

If no custom path is supplied, Better Chat attempts to detect FFmpeg automatically.

Supported browser-friendly formats include MP4 and WebM.

Video Preview Processing

When video support is enabled, Better Chat uses FFmpeg to verify video uploads and generate preview/poster images.

Video messages can then be displayed directly inside the chat interface using browser-native video controls.

If the required server capabilities are unavailable, video attachments remain disabled rather than pretending the feature is functional.

Emoji Picker

Better Chat includes its own emoji picker for both group and private conversations.

The picker includes:

• Emoji categories
• Search
• Recently used emoji

This gives chat a more modern messaging feel without requiring an external emoji service.

Online Presence

Better Chat tracks active members for chat purposes and displays an online-user list.

The interface can distinguish members who are currently active in chat from members who are simply online on the forum.

Private conversations can be opened directly from the user list.

Notifications

Better Chat includes configurable private-message notifications.

Administrators can enable:

• Notification sounds
• Member control over notification sounds
• Browser-title alerts when the page is in the background

The browser-title notification text is configurable and supports the sender's username.

Example:

David has sent you a new message...

Better Reactions Integration

If Better Reactions is installed and enabled, Better Chat can use it for chat messages.

Members can react directly to chat messages using the forum's configured reaction set.

Reaction summaries and reactor information can be displayed directly in the chat interface.

Better Chat also understands that reactions belong to the chat message lifecycle.

When chat messages are permanently deleted, related Better Reactions data is cleaned up as well.

Chat Moderation

Better Chat includes its own moderation system rather than relying only on all-or-nothing forum bans.

Administrators can restrict a member from:

• Group Chat
• Private Chat
• Support
• All Better Chat features

These restrictions affect Better Chat only.

Normal forum posting and normal SMF permissions remain unchanged.

Temporary or Permanent Restrictions

Restrictions can be applied for periods including:

• 15 minutes
• 1 hour
• 24 hours
• 7 days
• 30 days
• Permanent

Each restriction includes an internal moderator reason.

Restrictions can also be revoked manually.

Moderation History

Better Chat keeps a history of chat-specific moderation actions.

Administrators can review:

• Active restrictions
• Previous restrictions
• Moderator
• Reason
• Duration
• Revocation information

This makes chat moderation auditable without mixing it into unrelated forum moderation behavior.

Better Chat Audit Log

Important Better Chat administrative actions are recorded in a dedicated audit log.

The log can include activity such as:

• Applying restrictions
• Revoking restrictions
• Clearing Group Chat history
• Purging private conversations
• Other destructive maintenance actions

The administration interface includes filtering and paging for these records.

History & Retention Policies

Better Chat supports independent retention periods for:

• Group Chat
• Private Chat
• Closed Support sessions
• Better Chat audit logs

Available periods range from short-term retention up to one year or Never.

This allows administrators to treat different kinds of conversation differently.

For example:

• Group Chat: 7 days
• Private Chat: 30 days
• Support: 90 days
• Audit Log: 1 year

Automatic Retention

Retention processing runs automatically during normal forum traffic, approximately once per hour when needed.

Active or waiting Support sessions are never removed by automatic retention.

When messages are permanently pruned, Better Chat also cleans up associated uploaded files and Better Reactions data.

Administrator History Cleanup

Administrators have explicit cleanup tools for chat history.

Group Chat history can be permanently cleared.

Private conversations can also be purged administratively when necessary.

Destructive actions are recorded in Better Chat's audit log.

Upload Cleanup

Better Chat tracks message-linked image and video uploads.

When messages are permanently removed by administrative cleanup or retention policies, associated files can be removed as part of the same lifecycle.

This prevents abandoned chat uploads from accumulating indefinitely.

Environment & Capability Checks

The Better Chat administration page includes server capability diagnostics.

It can report the availability of:

• SMF Cache API
• Memcached
• Memcache
• Redis
• APCu
• Selected Better Chat cache backend
• FFmpeg
• PHP command execution
• Video attachment readiness

This makes advanced chat features easier to troubleshoot.

Cache Awareness

Better Chat can use available caching facilities when present.

It checks SMF's cache API and common PHP caching extensions and selects an available backend where appropriate.

If no cache backend is available, Better Chat can continue operating using the database.

Administration

Better Chat adds its own administration area with dedicated sections for:

Settings

General chat behavior, private chat style, Support mode, notifications, retention, uploads, and server capabilities.

Moderation

Member chat restrictions and moderation history.

Logs

Better Chat administrative and moderation activity.

Output Safety

Better Chat includes an important response-safety layer.

SMF's theme hooks can run on requests that are not normal HTML forum pages.

Without protection, a chat MOD that blindly injects JavaScript could corrupt responses such as:

• CAPTCHA images
• Downloads
• XML
• AJAX
• Other binary output

Better Chat detects these non-page requests and does not emit chat HTML or JavaScript into them.

This keeps normal SMF binary and machine-readable endpoints clean.

Upgrade Safety

Better Chat preserves existing administrator configuration during upgrades.

The installer checks which settings already exist and only creates defaults for missing settings.

Existing values are not reset simply because a newer Better Chat package is installed.

Hook Normalization

Older development versions and earlier Custom Chat packages may have registered the same functions using different hook formats.

Better Chat normalizes those registrations during installation and upgrade.

Known legacy variants are removed before one canonical current hook is registered.

This helps prevent duplicate chat initialization and stale hook references.

Uninstall Behavior

Better Chat follows the Better SMF uninstall standard.

Normal uninstall

• Detaches Better Chat integration hooks
• Removes Better Chat package files
• Preserves Better Chat database tables
• Preserves settings
• Preserves uploaded chat files

This allows the MOD to be removed without automatically destroying chat history.

Uninstall with Package Manager data removal selected

The destructive uninstall additionally removes:

• Better Chat database tables
• Better Chat settings
• Stored chat uploads
• Related Better Reactions records for chat messages

Hook cleanup is deliberately separate from destructive data cleanup so stale hooks are not left behind when history is preserved.

Compatibility

Better Chat: 1.0.0
SMF: 2.1.x

The package declares compatibility with:

SMF 2.1 through 2.1.99

Release Status

Better Chat 1.0.0 is promoted directly from the live-tested 1.0.0-test33f baseline.

That development line includes the completed:

• Community chat
• Private chats
• Messenger-style minimized bubbles
• Support / Customer Service system
• Hybrid operating mode
• Upload support
• Optional video support
• Better Reactions integration
• Moderation system
• Audit logging
• Retention policies
• Cleanup lifecycle
• Safe uninstall architecture
• Login/bootstrap handling
• Non-HTML output protection

No feature logic was changed simply to call the package stable.

Newest

A dark theme that I use here at Better SMF.

Fallout 4 gaming theme is all out orange.

Better Gallery is a full media, gallery, download, resource, and portfolio system for SMF 2.1.7.

What began as Better Gallery grew into something much broader: a flexible media platform that can handle images, video, restricted content, reactions, comments, favorites, and member-owned albums while remaining fully integrated with SMF permissions and administration.

The goal is simple:

Give SMF a proper media system instead of forcing everything through forum attachments.

• Main Features
• Image galleries
• Video galleries
• Album categories
• Portfolio Mode
• Secure protected storage
• Album search and filtering
• Album sorting and pagination
• Album covers
• Multiple album access modes
• Separate discovery and access controls
• Request Access workflow
• Member storage quotas
• Image thumbnails
• Camera/EXIF orientation correction
• Video poster generation
• FFmpeg/ffprobe support
• Protected video streaming with byte ranges
• Album ZIP downloads
• Favorites
• Album likes
• Media likes
• Media comments
• Reporting and moderation tools
• Unique view counts
• Download counts
• Bulk media operations
• Maintenance and cleanup tools
• Optional Better Reactions integration
• Custom navigation identity
• Theme-safe template and language fallback
• Upgrade-safe settings and permissions
• Safe non-destructive uninstall
• More Than a Gallery

Better Media is not limited to photographs.

Administrators can choose how the system should behave using built-in Content Profiles.

Gallery

Designed primarily for:

• Images
• Video

Downloads

Designed for:

• ZIP
• RAR
• 7Z
• Documents

Resources

Designed for:

• Images
• Documents
• Archives

Media Hub

Enables the complete built-in safe catalog.

Custom

Allows the administrator to explicitly select which supported file extensions should be accepted.

This means the same MOD can be used as a traditional photo gallery, a software download area, a resource library, a media center, or a combination of all of them.

Safe File Catalog

Better Media includes a controlled safe catalog of supported file types.

Images

• JPG
• JPEG
• PNG
• GIF
• WebP

Video

• MP4
• WebM
• MOV
• MKV

Audio

• MP3
• WAV
• OGG
• FLAC

Documents

• PDF
• TXT

Markdown

• CSV
• JSON
• XML
• DOC / DOCX
• XLS / XLSX
• PPT / PPTX

Archives

• ZIP
• RAR
• 7Z

Executable and script types are intentionally excluded from the built-in catalog.

The server validates both the extension and detected MIME type rather than trusting the filename alone.

Albums and Categories

Members with permission can create and manage their own albums.

Albums can contain:

• Title
• Description
• Category
• Cover image
• Media items
• Access rules
• Discovery rules
• Comments
• Likes
• Download controls

Administrators can create and manage gallery categories from the Better Media administration area.

Discovery and Access Are Separate

One of the core design ideas behind Better Media is that being able to see that an album exists does not automatically mean being able to open its contents.

Albums can be:

• Publicly discoverable
• Discoverable but restricted
• Hidden

A restricted album may still appear in search or browsing while the actual media remains protected.

Hidden albums remain hidden.

This allows forums to advertise restricted resources or private collections without exposing their contents.

Album Access Modes

Better Media supports several access models:

• Public
• Logged-in members
• Approved members
• Password protected
• Approved member OR password
• Invitation only

Album passwords use PHP's secure password hashing functions.

Plaintext album passwords are never stored.

Request Access

Restricted albums can optionally support a Request Access workflow.

Members may submit an access request along with an optional message.

The album owner or a gallery moderator can then:

• Approve the request
• Deny the request

Approved requests create a persistent access grant for that member.

Protected Media Storage

Better Media uses its own media tables and storage system rather than pretending gallery items are forum post attachments.

Files are stored in protected directories and served through permission-aware Better Media endpoints.

This means direct file URLs do not bypass album permissions.

Protected storage includes areas for:

• Original images
• Thumbnails
• Videos
• Poster images
• Generic files
• Temporary album download ZIPs
• Image Uploads

Better Media supports multi-file image uploads.

Images are validated server-side for:

• File type
• MIME type
• File size
• Image dimensions

JPEG camera orientation metadata is also normalized so phone photos do not appear sideways or upside down after upload.

Automatic Thumbnails

Images receive proportional thumbnails automatically.

Administrators can configure:

• Thumbnail width
• Thumbnail height
• Maximum image size

The original image remains protected while the gallery can display optimized derivatives.

Video Support

Better Media supports browser-native:

• MP4
• WebM

When FFmpeg and ffprobe are available, Better Media can also handle:

• MOV
• MKV

These formats can be normalized into browser-friendly H.264/AAC MP4.

FFmpeg can also generate poster-frame images for uploaded videos.

Video Streaming

Videos are served through Better Media's protected media endpoint.

HTTP byte-range support allows normal browser video behavior such as:

• Seeking
• Scrubbing
• Partial loading
• Streaming

This keeps the video protected without sacrificing normal playback controls.

General File Downloads

Documents, archives, and audio files are stored separately from image/video derivatives and are presented as file cards rather than broken image placeholders.

Downloads still respect:

• Album permissions
• Album access rules
• Allow Downloads setting
• Upload Queue

Better Media includes a dedicated uploader with configurable queue behavior.

Administrators can choose between:

• Compact overall progress
• Per-file progress

The uploader includes:

• Queue count
• Upload progress
• Clear Queue
• File validation
• File-size checks
• Extension checks

Files are uploaded sequentially, which also avoids depending on PHP's max_file_uploads value for one huge multipart request.

Member Storage Quotas

Administrators can optionally set a per-member storage quota.

A quota of 0 means unlimited storage.

Before accepting uploads, Better Media checks the member's existing usage against the configured allowance.

Media Management

Album owners and moderators can manage individual media items.

Available actions include:

• Edit title
• Edit description
• Delete media
• Set as album cover
• Move selected media
• Delete selected media

Bulk moves preserve associated data such as:

• Comments
• Likes
• Favorites
• Reports
• Tags
• Views
• Downloads
• Thumbnails
• Posters

Only the album ownership relationship changes.

Album Covers

Any suitable image can be selected as an album cover.

If media is moved out of an album and it was being used as the cover, the source album's cover reference is cleared safely.

If a destination album does not already have a cover, Better Media can automatically adopt an appropriate moved image.

Favorites

Members can maintain personal favorites for:

• Individual media items
• Albums

Favorites are bookmarks and remain separate from public Likes or Reactions.

A dedicated My Favorites area gives members quick access to saved items.

Likes

Better Media includes native Like support for:

• Media
• Albums

Album and media Likes remain available even when Better Reactions is not installed.

Better Reactions Integration

When Better Reactions is installed, Better Media can hand reaction presentation over to it.

This provides richer reactions for:

• Media items
• Comments
• Albums

Better Media's native thumbs-up Like remains the fallback when Better Reactions is unavailable.

Custom reactions and native Likes are handled so they do not create conflicting duplicate states.

Who Reacted

Reaction-enabled surfaces support professional reactor popovers displaying:

• Reaction icon
• Reaction name
• Member
• Profile link

These overlays are designed to remain usable inside the media viewer and album pages without being clipped by nested containers.

Comments

Media items can have comments when enabled globally and for the album.

The lightbox viewer includes a dedicated comment area so discussion can happen directly around the media rather than requiring a separate forum topic.

Comments can also participate in Better Reactions when that MOD is installed.

Reporting

Members can report gallery content.

Better Media includes a moderator report queue for handling reported:

• Media
• Comments

Moderators can review and resolve reports from the gallery system.

Media Viewer

Images and videos open in a dedicated Better Media viewer.

The viewer provides controls for things such as:

• Full Size
• Download
• Favorite
• Like / Reactions
• Report
• Comments

The viewer uses a deliberate dark presentation so images and video remain the visual focus.

Recent development also hardened these surfaces against active-theme CSS rules that might otherwise turn dark reaction trays, result chips, popovers, or the viewer itself white.

Media Statistics

Media cards can display useful statistics such as:

• Views
• Downloads
• Likes
• Comments

The presentation uses compact inline icons rather than long text labels.

Video duration, image dimensions, and file size are shown separately from engagement statistics.

Album Likes

Albums themselves can also be liked independently from media items.

With Better Reactions installed, album reaction results can appear directly alongside album controls.

Album ZIP Downloads

Albums that permit downloading can optionally be downloaded as ZIP archives when PHP's ZipArchive extension is available.

Large albums can be split into configurable archive parts.

This avoids trying to build one enormous ZIP file in memory or storage.

Download counters are updated only after the archive has been created successfully.

Search

Better Media includes permission-aware album discovery and search.

Search can match information such as:

• Album title
• Description
• Owner name
• Category

Users can also filter by category.

A dedicated option can limit results to albums the member can currently access.

Restricted discoverable albums may still appear while keeping their media locked.

Album Sorting

Album lists can be sorted by:

• Featured / Recently Updated
• Newest to Oldest
• Oldest to Newest
• Title A to Z
• Title Z to A

Search, category, access filtering, sort order, and pagination are preserved together while browsing.

Pagination

Better Media includes pagination for both album lists and media lists.

Administrators can configure how many media items should appear per page.

Album lists also paginate to avoid extremely long gallery landing pages.

My Media Dashboard

Members have a personal media dashboard containing information such as:

• Albums
• Media
• Storage usage
• Likes received
• Comments received
• Favorites received

This gives creators a useful overview of their activity within Better Media.

Portfolio Mode

Better Media can also operate as a single-creator portfolio.

Administrators can select one SMF member as the portfolio owner and provide:

• Portfolio title
• Portfolio introduction
• Portfolio owner

When enabled, public gallery discovery focuses on that member's albums while existing albums belonging to other members remain preserved.

This makes Better Media suitable for:

• Photography portfolios
• Art portfolios
• Project showcases
• Product galleries
• Personal media sites

without needing a separate gallery package.

Custom Navigation Identity

Administrators can change the public Better Media navigation label.

Examples:

• Media
• Gallery
• Downloads
• Resources
• Portfolio

A matching SVG menu icon can also be selected from built-in choices such as:

• Gallery
• Download
• Package
• Folder
• Portfolio
• Resource

The chosen identity is used consistently throughout public Better Media navigation and breadcrumbs.

Permissions

Better Media registers dedicated SMF membergroup permissions for:

• View Better Media
• Create and manage own albums
• Upload media
• Request album access
• Moderate Better Media

This allows gallery access to follow normal SMF membergroup administration.

Better Media Administration

A dedicated Better Media administration area includes:

Dashboard

Displays environment and schema information.

Categories

Create, edit, organize, enable, and delete Better Media categories.

Settings

Controls options such as:

• Upload limits
• Image size limits
• Video size limits
• General file limits
• Thumbnail dimensions
• Comments
• Likes
• Album ZIP size
• Media per page
• Member storage quota
• Navigation label
• Navigation icon
• Content profile
• Allowed extensions
• Portfolio Mode
• Maintenance

Provides scan-first diagnostic and cleanup tools.

Maintenance & Cleanup

Better Media does not blindly delete anything it thinks looks wrong.

Maintenance first scans and separates findings into categories such as:

• Safe cleanup
• Repairable warnings
• Items requiring administrator attention

Checks include:

• Orphaned stored files
• Missing original media
• Missing thumbnails
• Missing video posters
• Stale generated ZIPs
• Orphaned tags
• Orphaned comments
• Orphaned likes
• Orphaned favorites
• Orphaned access records
• Orphaned reports
• Invalid counts and references

Missing original media is reported for review and is not automatically deleted.

Recent physical files are also ignored during orphan cleanup to avoid racing active uploads or derivative generation.

Theme Compatibility

Better Media keeps one canonical copy of its:

• Template
• CSS
• JavaScript
• English language file

inside SMF's default theme.

This avoids an old copied template or language file inside a custom theme silently overriding a newer Better Media package.

Custom translations are still respected first.

Missing language strings are filled from the canonical default-theme language file.

This is particularly useful with Theme Lab and other custom SMF themes.

Upgrade Safety

Better Media's installer is deliberately upgrade-safe.

Existing administrator settings are preserved.

Only missing settings receive defaults.

Default Better Media permissions are created only during a true first install and are not recreated or reset during upgrades.

The stable package supports direct upgrades from the full development series through:

0.1.0-dev51m

Uninstall & Data Retention

Better Media follows the Better SMF uninstall standard.

• Normal uninstall
• Detaches Better Media hooks
• Removes package files
• Preserves Better Media settings
• Preserves permissions
• Preserves database tables
• Preserves uploaded media

This allows Better Media to be removed and reinstalled without automatically destroying the gallery.

Uninstall with "Remove all data associated with this modification" checked

SMF's native Package Manager option performs the destructive cleanup.

This removes:

• Better Media database tables
• Better Media settings
• Better Media permissions
• Better Media-owned stored files

Custom storage roots receive additional protection.

Better Media does not recursively wipe an arbitrary custom directory. Only its known storage subdirectories and scaffold files are removed.

Compatibility

Better Media: 1.0.0
SMF: 2.1.7

Release Status

Better Media 1.0.0 is the first stable release and is promoted directly from the live-tested 0.1.0-dev51m code line.

No feature logic was changed simply to call it stable.

The release promotion finalized:

• Stable version metadata
• Direct dev51m upgrade support
• Public release README
• Stable asset cache markers

The gallery, media upload pipelines, access control, downloads, reactions, comments, portfolio system, maintenance tools, theme compatibility, upgrade behavior, and uninstall architecture all remain on the proven development baseline.

Better Quick Reply adds attachments to your quick reply form.

An Upload Attachments button is added to the form which allows you to add files to your reply.
It even has an upload progress bar to keep you updated on the upload status.