Hello,

okay on a site im doing which has a user system i want to try and include a forum.

the forum must fit with the style and all that and i want it to be seamless, would it be easier to get one (say phpbb3) or create one from scratch?

Dan

I would say don't build it from scratch if the forum is gonna be the primary activity of the sites users; Also if there are a lot of users - because the solution you make at first might be OK, but 1000 users later might not hold up so well (scalability). I would rather let (say phpbb3) take care of the work that goes into making such a good experience. Not because I want the easiest way out, but because trying to make a good forum, somethin that lives up to expectations of average forum users, is kinda hard without some background experience in forum development.

Managing a forum with moderators alone can be a task in itself. Can anyone else share experience with this?

okay i will give more detail.

I am thinking on a much smaller scale.

its a local charity website, AT the moment im thinking might be a better way for the committee to communicate and stuff, but maybe in the future open it up so anyone can sign up and ask questions and stuff, but it would never be big and maybe never even have anyone else but me moderating it.

????


I have litterally just started having a go and have a basic DB structure for it.

If anyone has something to as PLEASE do. and if anyone does know a really easy to modify simple forum to work with my current user system and site design?

Thanks,
Dan

I don't know how many users you currently have in the DB, but you could just synch up your user registration to insert into the forum users table.

at the moment the user system isnt public so just me really.

I think i have kind of made my own mind up.

I think i will make it myself so can completely customise it into my CMS as much as possible, willl just mean wont be instanttainious results.

Thanks anyways!


Dan

Sounds appropriate for a small user base. Good Luck! Maybe even eliminate the idea of having forum sections > subcategories. It might just be ability to make new posts, all under one section. That might make things easier.

nah that bits easy lol already done that >< http://calmcharity.org/forum/ just all the rest which is the bother ><

Dan

I think it would be much easier to either just create an iFrame or your own forum skin (For example, you'd just take all your current template code and make a skin out of it, then just apply it to you PHPBB forum.)

But if you have your heart set on doing everything from scratch from here on out, then disregard my comments

When I was first learning php, I decided to try and create a forum. It was very fun to do and I recommend the expirence. The one thing that I had trouble with at the time, was being able to add style to the text like bold and underline without allowing the user to type html. I didn't want to allow html because of security issues (use strip_tags()), but I still wanted to allow style. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have used regular expressions. Good luck and it should be a great learning expirence to do it yourself.

I'd really love to make a simple forum all by myself from scratch.

So you are basically working for your own ideas and imagination, if you are not so eager to get to the results. If latter is the case, you'd just modify an existing mature one.

cant u just use strip_tags('$tex', '<strong><b><i><u>'); and it strips all but those tags?

I know its something like that i use it else where on the site.

I think the biggest problem is not necassarily a learning curve more a thinking/planning curve if that make sense, i would think i know plenty of code to do all the stuff needed its just the planning and thinking of how best to use them that will slow me down.

No doubt i will be on here asking how to best do something in the near future.

- I should really start blogging more about what i do might get me some readers..