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Which PHP based open source forum do you recommend?

by burton247
6 replies
Hello,

Basically I am looking for a forum which is cleanly written and easy to customise. It will act like a normal forum but I need to add a few extra features on it and will need to edit the PHP and database (preferably MySQL) (unless a forum has the functionality I want built in).

So on to what I would like to do. Those of you who know the The Escapist this is what I would like (or so I am told, I haven't really experienced the site). But simply I would like the usual forum categories and the ablity to set permissions on these. For example all the people from an area in the UK has there own private category, but they can also belong to multiple. I believe I should be able to get this built in.

Another thing which I think is built in is the ability to have fields on the users profile that are only editable by an admin or with necessary privileges.

The functionality I will likely have to code myself is the escapist bit. Basically I would like it so a mod/admin can turn the forum post into an article. So have a tick box or something on the post. Then all these threads can be displayed in a separate section on the website and then link back to the forum. I know how to go about doing this but I don't really want to try and implement it on a messy forum as I will be there for ages just figuring out what is going on.

If anyone has a couple of forums to suggest that would be cool. This I'll download them and take at look at each and decide form there.

Thanks,

Michael
#based #forum #open #php #recommend #source
  • Profile picture of the author darkhazza
    Thing is you don't realistically want to take a hit on features just to find a forum that is fairly small and clean, because then you end up reprogramming those features back in.

    PhpBB3 would be my first choice. Whichever forum you choose you'll have to decode and reverse engineer it. PhpBB3 has a database of modifications here. So you get a base to work from, and get a general feel for how other people extend it.

    On a first looking, this plugin looks a little bit like it has part of the features. As far as I can see you want a sort of sticky section that instead of just showing sticky topic titles, it shows the whole text. I may be wrong, and it may be implemented differently than I'd imagine though...
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  • Profile picture of the author Adam Struve
    Simple Machines forum (SMF) simplemachines.org is great. It has been around awhile. It used to be YABB PHP which was a PHP port of YABB that was written in Perl. Basically it has a footprint going back to the late 90s. Easy to modify as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author phpbbxpert
      Originally Posted by burton247 View Post

      PHP and database (preferably MySQL)
      phpBB3 is PHP and runs on just about any database type, including the most common and default MySQL

      Originally Posted by burton247 View Post

      But simply I would like the usual forum categories and the ablity to set permissions on these. For example all the people from an area in the UK has there own private category, but they can also belong to multiple. I believe I should be able to get this built in.
      phpBB3 has an extensive permission system.
      For instance you can set people from the UK to the UK group and assign that group permissions to a specific set of forums. Multiple groups is also possible.


      Originally Posted by burton247 View Post

      Another thing which I think is built in is the ability to have fields on the users profile that are only editable by an admin or with necessary privileges.
      Custom Profile Fields is a feature built into phpBB3.
      It can be set to Admin editable only, required on registration, where to show them, etc..

      Originally Posted by burton247 View Post

      The functionality I will likely have to code myself is the escapist bit. Basically I would like it so a mod/admin can turn the forum post into an article. So have a tick box or something on the post. Then all these threads can be displayed in a separate section on the website and then link back to the forum. I know how to go about doing this but I don't really want to try and implement it on a messy forum as I will be there for ages just figuring out what is going on.
      I have done something similar quite a while ago with one of my old sites.
      Basically what I did is topics in a specific forum where assigned as pages on the site.

      What your looking for is a bit more specific but if you have a good PHP knowledge it can be achieved with any PHP forums software I'm sure, including phpBB3.

      Some useful phpBB coding links
      Coding guidelines - phpBB Development Wiki
      Category:Tutorials - phpBB Development Wiki
      Category:API - phpBB Development Wiki
      Categoryatabase - phpBB Development Wiki

      These links are very helpful for understanding how to correctly write PHP to work with phpBB3's built in classes, methods, and functions.
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  • Profile picture of the author burton247
    Thanks for the quick responses

    It looks like phpBB3 will be the way to go, I'll have to download it and take a look and see if I can figure out how it fits together. The guides will be a good place to start. There must be a reason why it is so popular.

    Thanks again
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  • Profile picture of the author kjhosein
    Not sure if it can do the post-to-article conversion, but FusionBB is pretty feature-rich and in particular has a pretty active community and good support.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrFolx
    Another vote for Simple Machines Forum (SMF). It's been around for a long time and has lots of features.
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