Set Up Subcommunities - HL Vanilla Community
<main> <article class="userContent"> <p>The <strong>Subcommunities </strong>feature is one method of dividing your <strong>Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla)</strong> community into multiple "mini communities" (often by language or product). For more information about subcommunities, check out the article below.</p><div class="js-embed embedResponsive" data-embedjson="{"body":"The Subcommunities feature is one method of dividing your Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) community into multiple \"mini communities\" (often by language or product). Subcommunities are a great way to manage a community in multiple languages on the same instance. A subcommunity divides a single community or a node into…","photoUrl":"https:\/\/us.v-cdn.net\/6030677\/uploads\/VWGAXAF5OFCO\/microsoftteams-image.png","url":"https:\/\/success.vanillaforums.com\/kb\/articles\/53-subcommunities","embedType":"link","name":"Subcommunities - Vanilla Success"}"> <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/53-subcommunities" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc"> https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/53-subcommunities </a> </div><p>In this article, you'll learn how to set up the Subcommunities for your Vanilla community.</p><h2 data-id="create-categories">Create Categories</h2><p>Subcommunities are built on top of Categories, and require a specific Category structure to work.</p><p><strong>📝 NOTE</strong>: If you're unfamiliar with Categories, <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/8-categories" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">check out this article</a>. </p><p>1. Access the Dashboard.</p><p>2. Navigate to <strong>Settings > Forum > Categories</strong>.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-large float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/8SMTQC125I2C/access-categories.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/8SMTQC125I2C/access-categories.png" alt="access_categories.png" height="401" width="1040" loading="lazy" data-display-size="large" data-float="none"></img></a> </div> </div> <p>3. Create top-level (should have no subcategories), <strong>Nested</strong> type Categories for each Subcommunity you would like to have.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-large float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/HGEVEME9SEDY/nested-structure-example.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/HGEVEME9SEDY/nested-structure-example.png" alt="nested_structure_example.png" height="176" width="770" loading="lazy" data-display-size="large" data-float="none"></img></a> </div> </div> <ul><li>With few exceptions, every other Category should be inside one of these Nested Categories. </li><li>Each Subcommunity must have at least one subcategory (child Category).</li><li>Categories found outside of these categories will likely not be accessible to your users. </li><li>With Subcommunities and a <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/53-subcommunities#setting-a-default" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">default subcommunity set</a>, <em>there will be no way for users to reach top-level categories outside of their current Subcommunity with navigation</em>. </li><li>See our instructions for <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/53-subcommunities#navigate-between-subcommunities" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">navigating between subcommunities</a>.</li><li>Exceptions to this rule are the <code class="code codeInline" spellcheck="false" tabindex="0">Social Groups</code> Category created by the <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/70-groups" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">Groups addon</a> as well as the Reported Posts Category from the Reported Posts addon. </li><li>Groups and Reported posts are <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/53-subcommunities#shared-content" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">shared between subcommunities</a>, and are accessible from all subcommunities.</li></ul><h2 data-id="create-subcommunities">Create Subcommunities</h2><p>1. Access the Dashboard.</p><p>2. Navigate to <strong>Settings > Forum > Subcommunities</strong>. </p><p><strong>✔️ TIP</strong>: Alternatively, append the following to your community URL: <code class="code codeInline" spellcheck="false" tabindex="0">/subcommunities</code>.</p><p>3. Click <strong>Add Subcommunity</strong>.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-large float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/7KW6ZSE1S3S0/create-subcomm-1.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/7KW6ZSE1S3S0/create-subcomm-1.png" alt="create_subcomm-1.png" height="439" width="1054" loading="lazy" data-display-size="large" data-float="none"></img></a> </div> </div> <p>4. Fill out the fields as appropriate for the Subcommunity you're creating:</p><ul><li><strong>Name</strong> - The name of the Subcommunity. This will appear in the <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/53-subcommunities#navigate-between-subcommunities" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">SubcommunityToggleModule</a>.</li><li><strong>Description</strong> - Describe the purpose of the Subcommunity.</li><li><strong>Folder</strong> - The bit added to the URL to differentiate the Subcommunities from each other.</li><li><strong>Themes</strong> - Select which Theme to apply to the Subcommunity. </li><li><strong>Category</strong> - Select one of the Nested Categories that you created earlier.</li><li><strong>Locale</strong> - Select the language to use for the Subcommunity. Subcommunities are often used to separate a community into different sections based on language, but different languages are not a requirement for subcommunities. <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/378-locales" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">(See main article on locales)</a>.</li><li><strong>Icon URL</strong> - If you want to upload an icon image to represent the Subcommunity, you can do so here.</li><li><strong>Banner Image</strong> - If you want to upload a banner image to represent the Subcommunity, you can do so here.</li><li><strong>Homepage</strong> - Select which page should be the homepage for the Subcommunity. You can choose the <em>Discussions </em>page, <em>Categories </em>page, or the <em>Knowledge Base </em>page.</li><li><strong>Default</strong> - You can check the Default box if you'd like this Subcommunity to be the default Subcommunity. There can only be one default Subcommunity at a time. See <a href="https://success.vanillaforums.com/kb/articles/53-subcommunities#set-a-default" rel="nofollow noreferrer ugc">considerations when setting a default subcommunity</a>.</li></ul><p>5. Click <strong>Save </strong>to create the Subcommunity. If you set a default, you may notice your URL in the Dashboard adjusting to reflect this change.</p><h2 data-id="subcommunity-list">Subcommunity List</h2><p>After creating your Subcommunities in the previous step, verify that your Subcommunities align with your top-level Categories. The image below depicts a proper Subcommunity setup.</p><div class="embedExternal embedImage display-large float-none"> <div class="embedExternal-content"> <a class="embedImage-link" href="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/180/W6F6DMZIHUCR.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener ugc" target="_blank"> <img class="embedImage-img" src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6030677/uploads/180/W6F6DMZIHUCR.png" alt="image.png" height="294" width="1842" loading="lazy" data-display-size="large" data-float="none"></img></a> </div> </div> <p><br></p> </article> </main>