Getting Started

NetForum Enterprise is a membership management, enterprise system that allows you to coordinate association management, Marketing, eCommerce, content management, and business operations in a web-based environment. With over 25 modules, NetForum Enterprise has an underlying architecture with the flexibility to support easy configuration and adaptation. This help system assists both end users and administrators in navigating NetForum Enterprise 2017.1. NetForum Enterprise Developers using Toolkit can find the documentation they need on the Developer section of the Help.

• What's New in 2017.1.1?
• What's New in 2017.1?

End User Basics

NetForum is a database-backed application organized into a selection of Modules. Within the Modules are the Group Items, content groups that contain all of the functionality within the system. Under each Group Item are Group Item Links, functionality within these content groups where you can enter and edit data using an array of forms, pages, wizards, and windows.

Most Group Items contain the following five Standard Group Item Links, or functionality: within each:

• List Page: Click this group item link to see a list of all the records of that type in the database.
• Find Page: Click this group item link to see a page that allows you to craft a search using the fields provided.
• Add Page: Click this group item link to see a page that gives you all the fields you need to add a record.
• Run Query: Click this group item link to see a page that helps you craft a SQL query that is customized to this group item.
• Query Central: Click this group item link to see a list of queries designed for this group item by you, other users, and NetForum baseline.

The detailed data that you add in the Add page is organized into a Profile Page, which groups all the information and functionality for this particular record into one convenient and powerful page. Drill down into more details with sub-forms called Child Forms in these Profile Pages. Child Forms store data related to the parent, or primary topic, of the profile.

NetForum provides functionality that spans seamlessly across multiple modules to give you, the primary user, access to volumes of different data. From the Individual Profile page alone, you can navigate to information from the Inventory, Events, Membership, Accounting, Marketing, and Subscriptions modules.

Refreshing NetForum

If you haven't used NetForum in a while, refresh the session to prevent a Session Time Out message. To refresh the session, click the Abila logo in the upper left corner. NetForum reloads the page without requiring you to log in again and resets the clock for Session Time Outs.

Setting User Preferences

You can configure the application according to your personal preferences. You can choose: what module you see first when you log in by setting your Primary Module, to have all Child Forms open or closed by setting the Open Child Forms by Default option, or to have modules listed alphabetically in the Module menu by setting the Organize modules alphabetically option. For a complete list of NetForum user preferences, their defaults, and what they do, see the User Preferences help topic.

Administrator Basics

If you are a NetForum administrator, start by reading about the Admin module. In the Admin module you set up user preferences, user security groups, and system options. Once you have configured your users, then you need to add information specific to your organization to each module. Each module has an Overview group item with at least one Setup group item link. For help on module setup, see the Administrator help topics.