Well, the dreaded thing has happened. A client wants to use CMS but "absolutely needs" an integrated forum.
So the question is ... do I integrate the UserID module with something like SimpleMachines? Anyone know of a simple forum that is well written? It doesn't have to be super feature-rich.
Oh boy. This'll keep me out of trouble...
Integrating a Forum
Integrating a Forum
Many modules available from the http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org
The CMS Made Simple Developer Cookbook is now available from Packt Publishers!
The CMS Made Simple Developer Cookbook is now available from Packt Publishers!
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Alex_Leipzig
Re: Integrating a Forum
Phorum is a web based message board written in PHP. Phorum is designed with high-availability and visitor ease of use in mind. Features such as mailing list integration, easy customization and simple installation make Phorum a powerful add-in to any website.
http://phorum.org/
miniBB (an abbreviation of "minimalist bulletin board") is a flat-type (not threaded) open source PHP bulletin board, discussion forum software, written in PHP and using mySQL or another PHP-compatible database as data backend. But it's not from "yet one more bulletin board" series. We are not planning to include every possible feature that bulletin board may have, and we find it as a positive moment. While a lot of identical forum software comes up around, we have our strong critical position of how our bulletin board must look like, and we are glad many users are supporting this position. That's why we are paying more attention on really important things that most people need, but not on custom things needed by few people.
http://www.minibb.net/
In short, PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU Public License. Its primary goal is to be a faster, smaller and less graphic alternative to otherwise excellent discussion boards such as phpBB, Invision Power Board and vBulletin. PunBB has fewer features than many other discussion boards, but is generally faster and outputs smaller pages.
http://www.punbb.org/about.php
http://phorum.org/
miniBB (an abbreviation of "minimalist bulletin board") is a flat-type (not threaded) open source PHP bulletin board, discussion forum software, written in PHP and using mySQL or another PHP-compatible database as data backend. But it's not from "yet one more bulletin board" series. We are not planning to include every possible feature that bulletin board may have, and we find it as a positive moment. While a lot of identical forum software comes up around, we have our strong critical position of how our bulletin board must look like, and we are glad many users are supporting this position. That's why we are paying more attention on really important things that most people need, but not on custom things needed by few people.
http://www.minibb.net/
In short, PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU Public License. Its primary goal is to be a faster, smaller and less graphic alternative to otherwise excellent discussion boards such as phpBB, Invision Power Board and vBulletin. PunBB has fewer features than many other discussion boards, but is generally faster and outputs smaller pages.
http://www.punbb.org/about.php
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Consul
Re: Integrating a Forum
Yeah, my project, which I want to use CMSMS for, is also going to require a forum and some community tools. I was going to see about integrating something that already exists as soon as I have the time to work on it.
Re: Integrating a Forum
At this point, this is what I'm thinking. I'd love further input and/or "strategy corrections."
Goals:
- least amount of impact to CMS and Forum
- least amount of work to implement
- easiest to maintain as CMS and Forum continue to be upgraded
Approach:
I think I'd like to use PunBB. It'll be installed in a directory under $config['root_path'].
I will create a PunBB module that basically is a wrapper around PunBB's install. It will create the config file and initialize the database.
PunBB will exist in its own little world -- it won't use the CMS template system. To use the forum from a CMS site, links are added from the CMS menu to the PunBB install. To style the PunBB portions of the site to look like the CMS portion, the PunBB templates will need manual editing.
I'll also create a PunBBRestrictedPages module, which will basically use the same API as the RestrictedPages module. It will, however, use PunBB's user authentication and profile for its backend. This means that the non-Admin user accounts will really reside in PunBB, but will be usable by CMS. Login, profiles, etc, will be handled by PunBB.
If someone has a better approach (or code!), I'd love to hear about it before I dig in too deeply.
___Samuel___
Goals:
- least amount of impact to CMS and Forum
- least amount of work to implement
- easiest to maintain as CMS and Forum continue to be upgraded
Approach:
I think I'd like to use PunBB. It'll be installed in a directory under $config['root_path'].
I will create a PunBB module that basically is a wrapper around PunBB's install. It will create the config file and initialize the database.
PunBB will exist in its own little world -- it won't use the CMS template system. To use the forum from a CMS site, links are added from the CMS menu to the PunBB install. To style the PunBB portions of the site to look like the CMS portion, the PunBB templates will need manual editing.
I'll also create a PunBBRestrictedPages module, which will basically use the same API as the RestrictedPages module. It will, however, use PunBB's user authentication and profile for its backend. This means that the non-Admin user accounts will really reside in PunBB, but will be usable by CMS. Login, profiles, etc, will be handled by PunBB.
If someone has a better approach (or code!), I'd love to hear about it before I dig in too deeply.
___Samuel___
Many modules available from the http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org
The CMS Made Simple Developer Cookbook is now available from Packt Publishers!
The CMS Made Simple Developer Cookbook is now available from Packt Publishers!
Re: Integrating a Forum
I'd recommend X.Forum ... but only, because it is lean and mean. Otherwise I'd prefer Phorum which I used with Smarty in version 3 and it was not really easy to integrate. Template-Handling was a mess but performance was great. Administration was hell, but maybe things have changed until now (version 5) --- however, I wouldn't use it because it does not produces valid accessible XHTML code.
Regards,
Nils
Regards,
Nils
