PHP/mySQL Forum/BBoard Recommendations

Adotek

Hi All,

I am looking to add a forum to our PHP/mySQL website. I have decided
to get an off-the-shelf solution as it seems there are plently of
excellent packages available - No point in re-re-inventing the wheel!

Can anyone recommend a particular forum package, given the points
below:

- SEO canonical issues must have been addressed (e.g. Only one URL per
page of content)
- I want to link from existing articles in our website to a forum
"Discuss this" - Ideally, at this point the forum software will create
a discussion automatically, based on values passed in the URL (Maybe a
dream feature?!)
- Ideally, must have a user base that is exposed via an API - So I can
use this for other features of the site

So far I have looked briefly at PHPBB and vBulletin.

Any recommendations/advice/etc will of course be appreciated!

Simon.

May 31 '07 #1

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2194

Mike P2

On May 31, 9:29 am, Adotek <simonmhar...@googlemail.comwrote:

- SEO canonical issues must have been addressed (e.g. Only one URL per
page of content)
- I want to link from existing articles in our website to a forum
"Discuss this" - Ideally, at this point the forum software will create
a discussion automatically, based on values passed in the URL (Maybe a
dream feature?!)
- Ideally, must have a user base that is exposed via an API - So I can
use this for other features of the site

phpBB can be modified to work like this, using it I've done the second
two before and I've seen the first done. The difference is I made it
create topics automatically when the content is submitted, which isn't
what your description looks like (I'm not sure what you're saying
toward the end of that list item). There must be a pre-made
modification to some forum software, maybe phpBB has one, that covers
everything you're asking for without doing any programming work. They
don't use the SEO thing by default for performance (can't just create
tens of thousands of files) and portability (automatically rewriting
the URL would not be the same on UNIX and Windows) reasons, but it's
fine to add it yourself.

-Mike PII

May 31 '07 #2

Adotek

On May 31, 9:02 pm, Mike P2 <sumguyovrt...@gmail.comwrote:

On May 31, 9:29 am, Adotek <simonmhar...@googlemail.comwrote:

- SEO canonical issues must have been addressed (e.g. Only one URL per
page of content)
- I want to link from existing articles in our website to a forum
"Discuss this" - Ideally, at this point the forum software will create
a discussion automatically, based on values passed in the URL (Maybe a
dream feature?!)
- Ideally, must have a user base that is exposed via an API - So I can
use this for other features of the site

phpBB can be modified to work like this, using it I've done the second
two before and I've seen the first done. The difference is I made it
create topics automatically when the content is submitted, which isn't
what your description looks like (I'm not sure what you're saying
toward the end of that list item). There must be a pre-made
modification to some forum software, maybe phpBB has one, that covers
everything you're asking for without doing any programming work. They
don't use the SEO thing by default for performance (can't just create
tens of thousands of files) and portability (automatically rewriting
the URL would not be the same on UNIX and Windows) reasons, but it's
fine to add it yourself.

-Mike PII

Thanks Mike - Sounds like phpBB is certainly worth investigating -
I'll give it a go.

May 31 '07 #3

Obsidian

Might be alone on this one, but I would strongly suggest against
PHPBB. I've had nothing but trouble with trying to mod that forum
software on a couple different sites I've written in my time as a
developer.

I would, however recommend SMF (Simple Machines Forum) @
http://www.simplemachines.org/. This is by far the most customizable
interface I've found, and it comes with an API to use not only the
membership, but other aspects of the forum throughout your site as
well.

Hope this helps.

Jun 1 '07 #4

Jerry Stuckle

Obsidian wrote:

Might be alone on this one, but I would strongly suggest against
PHPBB. I've had nothing but trouble with trying to mod that forum
software on a couple different sites I've written in my time as a
developer.

I would, however recommend SMF (Simple Machines Forum) @
http://www.simplemachines.org/. This is by far the most customizable
interface I've found, and it comes with an API to use not only the
membership, but other aspects of the forum throughout your site as
well.

Hope this helps.

Gee, I've had great luck with modding the software for several sites -
as long as you're using the subSilver template. Change to another
template, however, and most mods fall apart rather quickly - mainly
because the templates don't follow the specs, not due to a problem with
the mods.

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

Jun 1 '07 #5

keith

Another vote for SMF from http://www.simplemachines.org/. I'm doing an
integration of this with a larger custom designed site, and it's easy
to theme and work with.

The database is nicely laid out, I wrote my own simple APIs that
manipulate the database so I can custom create topics/discussion
boards from other parts of the site. The templating is at least decent
too, albeit a little messy.

Jun 1 '07 #6

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