How to Set Up and Manage Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community Portal Forums

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community Portals were designed to bring organizations closer to their community members, helping them to provide resources for customer success and problem-solving.

Forums in Community Portals were designed to encourage and allow users to start conversations in the form of posted messages.

Microsoft describes Forums as “heirarchial or tree-like in structure: a forum can contain a number of topics, also known as threads, and can be replied to by many users.”

To create, edit, or delete Forums in the Community Portal, Microsoft provides these instructions:

1. Sign in to your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Portals
2. Navigate to Community > Forums
3. Select “New” to create a new Forum
4. Or select the name of a Forum to edit an existing one
5. Enter appropriate values in the fields
6. Select “Save & Close” once you’re ready

To manage Forums in the Community Portal, Microsoft advises these steps:

1. Go to the Forums parent page within the portal
2. Select “New” on the portal inline editing toolbar
3. Select “Child Forum”
4. Sepcify values for the fields provided, and then click “Save” once you’re ready

There are many Forum attributes used by portals.

Microsoft reminds userse that, “it is important to note that the way many of the content and display-oriented attributes are rendered is controlled by the page template used, and thus by the portal developer.”

Attributes include:

• Name
• Website
• Parent Page
• Partial URL
• Display Order
• Publishing State
• Hidden From Sitemap
• Forum Page Template
• Thread Page Template
• Description
• Thread Count
• Post Count
• Last Post

You can learn more about these attributes and how to properly manage Forums within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Community Portal here.

As a reminder, Forums are also available in:

• Customer Self-Service Portals
• Employee Self-Service Portals
• Partner Portals

If you have a Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM issue or concern you need resolved, reach out to our Microsoft Dynamics 365 Support Team to get the help you need.

Contact us to get started.

Resource:

• Sbmjais. “Set up and Moderate Forums for a Portal.” Set up and Moderate Forums for a Portal | Microsoft Docs, Microsoft Dynamics 365, docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/portals/setup-manage-forums.