Install & Setup
Configuration
Use Settings to manage community-wide behavior after PE Community is running. Available sections depend on your role and permissions.
First-run setup
Initialize a new community and its Owner once.
Environment variables
Configure deployment-level services and fallback values.
Security
Review authentication and platform protection guidance.
Notifications
Understand notification delivery, unread state, and preferences.
Reminders
Understand due dates, recipients, channels, and manual checks.
Message templates
Safely preview, test, and activate reminder and email copy.
Troubleshooting
Resolve configuration, email, and delivery problems.
Settings scope
Community controls are organized into General, Security, Reminders, Templates, and Notifications. Sections appear only when your assigned permissions allow access. Profile manages the signed-in administrator’s own profile rather than community-wide behavior.
General
General changes use Save changes. The saved language and timezone take effect in community defaults immediately; a user’s explicit language preference still takes priority.
| Setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Community slug | Displays the community identifier. This value is read-only in Settings. |
| Default language | Sets English or French for community-level defaults and users without a personal language preference. |
| Timezone | Sets the IANA timezone used for community scheduling and operational dates. |
| Support contact email | Sets the optional administrative contact address. The value must be a valid email address when provided. |
| Public user audit export | Downloads the available public user fields as a CSV audit list. |
Registration and member access
Save registration protection before using Test configuration. The test validates the saved fields; a live registration challenge is still required to verify provider credentials.
| Setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Registration entry method | Chooses Admin/Owner invite link or Portal registration. |
| Invite link | Generates, copies, emails, replaces, or revokes the active invitation link when invite-link registration is selected. |
| Member directory visibility | Allows active members to browse the directory, or hides the directory. |
| Registration protection | Enables or disables the configured CAPTCHA challenge for registration. |
| Enforcement mode | Uses Disabled or Always for registration challenges. |
| CAPTCHA provider | Selects Cloudflare Turnstile, Google reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, or Disabled. |
| Provider fields | Configures the site key, secret key, allowed hostname, expected action, and the reCAPTCHA variant and minimum score when applicable. |
| Registration limits | Sets attempts per IP and community, the IP window, notification cooldown, and daily registration-email limit. |
Security
- Require two-factor authentication makes enrollment available and requires the second sign-in step only for accounts that are already enrolled. Enabling it does not force unenrolled members to enroll immediately.
- Disabling the community policy bypasses the second sign-in step without deleting a member’s existing enrollment. Re-enabling it restores the challenge for enrolled accounts.
- Reset two-factor authentication opens Member management, where an authorized operator can reset an enrolled member’s 2FA after confirmation.
- Registration protection is managed in the Security section but documented above with the other registration controls.
Email delivery
When email delivery is enabled, host, port, username, password, sender email, and sender name must be complete. Community email settings are managed here; see Environment variables only for deployment-level fallback email configuration.
Send test email is available only after the current settings are saved. It queues a message in the community default language to the entered address, records the test in Audit logs, and returns before background delivery finishes.
| Setting | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Email delivery | Enables or disables community email sending. |
| SMTP host and SMTP port | Set the mail provider connection endpoint. |
| SMTP username and SMTP password | Set provider credentials. Leave the password blank to keep an already configured password. |
| Secure TLS | Enables the secure SMTP connection option. Port 465 requires it. |
| From email and From name | Set the sender identity shown on outgoing messages. |
| Test email recipient | Queues a test message to the entered address after the settings have been saved. |
Notifications
- Admin in-app alerts is the main switch for administrative alerts.
- Operational alert switches cover email delivery issues, registrations waiting for review, passport expiration, and reminder-run summaries.
- Pausing Admin in-app alerts also pauses the visible operational alerts that depend on that channel.
- These switches affect future supported alert creation; they do not delete existing notifications. The reminder-run summary switch is stored, but Run due reminders currently reports its summary through temporary feedback and Audit logs rather than creating a summary alert.
Reminders
Settings contains birthday, membership anniversary, and passport-expiration controls. The Reminders guide explains every toggle, exact UTC due-date behavior, recipients, channels, repeat safety, failures, and Run due reminders.
Templates
Templates contains reminder copy, localized transactional emails, and Task Board automation notifications. The Message templates guide explains inventories, variables, Preview, Send test, Save changes, Discard changes, and the family-specific Reset to default behavior.
Chat and media
Additional permissions control whether an operator can view or revoke community chat devices, inspect encrypted-media storage, change storage limits, or request supported media cleanup. These controls do not provide access to decrypted chat content.
Changing Maximum active chat devices affects later device registration. It does not automatically revoke devices that are already active; use the device controls for an intentional revocation.
| Setting | Allowed value |
|---|---|
| Maximum active chat devices | 1 to 8 devices; default 3. |
| Storage warning percent | 1% to 100%; default 80%. |
| Chat attachment limit | 1 MB to 10 MB; default 10 MB. |
| Chat media quota | Optional whole-gigabyte quota; blank means no quota. |
Saving and testing
- Settings do not auto-save. Save actions are enabled when a valid draft differs from the saved values and show progress while a request is running.
- Discard changes restores the last saved values. Success and failure are reported as temporary notifications.
- SMTP test email and CAPTCHA Test configuration require saved settings. Template preview and test actions use the selected language.
- Switching away from a template with unsaved changes requires confirmation where the editor supports it.
Permissions
Owners can access all settings. Administrators see and modify only the sections allowed by their assigned permissions.
| Section | Required permission |
|---|---|
| General | Manage general settings |
| Security and registration protection | Manage security settings |
| Email delivery | Manage SMTP settings |
| Reminders | Manage reminder settings |
| Templates | Manage message templates |
| Notifications | Manage notification settings |
| Chat and media | The matching chat device, storage, or media permission |
Related guides
Use the related guides above for initial community creation, deployment-level values, security guidance, notification behavior, and troubleshooting. This page remains focused on controls available inside Settings.