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Logistics of building a forum from scratch

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Dec 15.2008

Hi

I have looked at phpBB3 but i just cant seem to get it to integrate with my site. My site already has a registration/login script and uses a social netwroking style of profile pages.

Although phpBB3 would be great, i dont think it would fit nicely with my site, so im thinking of building my own.

Realisticly, how logical is this?

Also, has anyone got any other ideas as opposed to phpBB3 thats perhaps a little easier to integrate?

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@aj_nscDec 15.2008 — I've built a low key forum before. To make it really really good like vBulletin with all these bells and whistles, no doubt it would take a while and be quite an enormous task, especially one that just re-invents the wheel, as it were.

However, for just a forum for a small site that you want to really integrate seamlessly and add your own personal look and feel to, then I would say go for it. The forum I built before for a small site didn't have many features, but it had all that you really want in a forum which include:

post editing

thread locking

stickies

file attachments

and of course a simple user hierarchy which allows general users/guests to access and post in a couple of forums, priveleged members to access and post in all forums, and administrators to lock threads, post stickies, and delete (and restore previously deleted) threads and posts.

I would say it probably took me about 30-40 hours to come up with such a system. Plus you learn a lot along the way.
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@birdy247authorDec 15.2008 — I think i will go for it. It really would complment my site.

What did you use to allow users to input text so that its similar to this box im typing i now.

I think fckeditor would do the trick but its a little slow and clumsy at times.
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@NogDogDec 15.2008 — Ultimately, "how logical is this" is directly related to how good a programmer you are and how much time/effort you're willing to put into it.

Personally, even though I'm a fairly decent PHP programmer, I'd almost certainly look for some third-party software I could plug in to my site rather than writing it from scratch. Check out www.opensourcecms.com for about 20 open-source forum packages you could look at. Perhaps something like [url=http://bbpress.org/]bbPress[/url] might be easier to integrate into your site, using its library of plug-ins to add only the extra bells and whistles you actually want and need.
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@birdy247authorDec 16.2008 — I'm looking at UseBB. Would i be able to customize it so it uses my login and registration systems, or is this starting to get complex?
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@aj_nscDec 18.2008 — Sorry for not checking this thread in a while birdy247. FCKEditor I think is ideal, just set it on it's very basic setting (bold, italic, underline, lists, etc) because there isn't a whole lot more that you will want your users to post.


Ultimately, "how logical is this" is directly related to how good a programmer you are and how much time/effort you're willing to put into it.
[/quote]

Almost totally agree with NogDog on this one. You need to be willing to put a lot of time and effort into it and you can't be a php novice or beginner, but there's also no need to be a guru, just a willingness to experiment and look stuff up and learn. If you're on a deadline or want to get something to move along quickly, then don't choose this option, and get something ready-made, but if you've got time to spare and would like to get more into PHP then I think this is a great exercise.
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