CjForum comes with a built-in personal messaging system to help the forum members interact with each other in private conversations. As the name suggests, this is neither an email server nor a full-fledged messaging system. The PM system is meant for one-to-one communication between the forum members.
Enabling PM system
The personal messaging system is enabled using the permissions configurations. That means you have the flexibility of allowing or disallowing the messaging system to any Joomla! user group. To configure the messaging permissions, go to Components -> CjForum and click on the Options button the toolbar. Now click on the Permissions tab to see the CjForum permissions configuration and Allow “Messaging” permission to the required user groups. PM does not work for Public users even if you enable the permissions, only registered users can use this feature.
Create a menu item
By default, any page in Joomla! will default to the home page menu item, unless it has an associated menu item created. The PM system has its own view for which you can create a menu item so that the pages can be shown on its own menu. For this, create a menu item for the “CjForum -> Messaging” view.
How to use Personal Messaging?
When you enable Messaging permission for a particular user group, the user can see the PM icon below the avatar of the user in the topic replies. Also, an icon with any new notifications is shown on the toolbar. The quick way to send a PM to the user is this button. The logged-in user can click on the PM button below their avatar and a PM modal box will be shown. Users can enter the title and message and send it.
Users can click on the notification icon and access the Messaging pages. The filters on the Messaging page allow the users to filter inbox as well as sent items. The compose button allows the user to send a message to any other registered user.
When the user receives a personal message from another, the notification icon on the toolbar will show the number of such unread messages in his inbox. This will alert the user about the new message. Users can click on the notification button and see his inbox. The user can reply to the new message by navigating to the message just like a forum topic. However, the conversation will only be visible between those two people involved in that personal message and cannot be accessed by other people.
When composing a new message, the user can browse and select any of the forum members. To exclude any user group from this listing, select the group in the “Exclude User Groups” option of CjForum component options.
Email notifications
When the user gets a personal message, he can be notified by an email. To enable email notifications for new messages and message replies, go to Extensions -> Plugins and edit the “CjForum – Topics” plugin. Under the Emails tab of the plugin, enable the “New Message” and “New Message Reply” options. Now the users will be notified to their registered email address whenever someone sends a PM to them.