Simple PHP discussion forum tutorial

"stenknz" wrote:

Does any one know where there is a good introduction to Discussion
Forum scripting using PHP and MySQL. (Apache WS)

I just need the nuts and bolts to get an overview of whats required. Regards,

Sten

As one with extensive knowledge of phpbb (a php discussion forum) let
me caution against doing anything like that from scratch. Discussion
forums are very very complex, and free ones like phpbb are available.
So usually there is no need to start from scratch.

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On 9 Sep 2004 00:46:02 -0400, steve <Us************@dbForumz.com> wrote:

"stenknz" wrote:

Does any one know where there is a good introduction to Discussion
Forum scripting using PHP and MySQL. (Apache WS)

I just need the nuts and bolts to get an overview of whats

required.

Regards,

Sten

As one with extensive knowledge of phpbb (a php discussion forum) let
me caution against doing anything like that from scratch. Discussion
forums are very very complex, and free ones like phpbb are available.
So usually there is no need to start from scratch.

Agreed =)

I started one a few years back.. after about 9 months of operation, I
ditched it in favour of phpBB.

While what I had worked, it was a massive project that I didn't have the
time to follow properly. I'm normally one who likes to write his own
code, but sometimes it's best to look at 3rd-party alternatives =)

Regards,

Ian

--
Ian.H
digiServ Network
London, UK
http://digiserv.net/

"Ian.H" wrote:

On 9 Sep 2004 00:46:02 -0400, steve
<Us************@dbForumz.com> wrote:

"stenknz" wrote:

Does any one know where there is a good introduction to Discussion Forum scripting using PHP and MySQL. (Apache WS)

I just need the nuts and bolts to get an overview of whatsrequired.

Regards,

Sten

As one with extensive knowledge of phpbb (a php discussion forum)

let

me caution against doing anything like that from scratch.

Discussion

forums are very very complex, and free ones like phpbb are

available.

So usually there is no need to start from scratch.

Agreed =)

I started one a few years back.. after about 9 months of operation,

I ditched it in favour of phpBB.

While what I had worked, it was a massive project that I didn’t
have the
time to follow properly. I’m normally one who likes to write his
own
code, but sometimes it’s best to look at 3rd-party alternatives
=)

Regards,

Ian

Yes, and it is perfectly ok to take something like phpBB and add your
own extensions, and give it your own look. Doing it that way, you can
focus on more higher level features (and marketing!) vs. getting stuck
in the knitty gritty of it all, and like Ian says, give up after a
while.

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On 9 Sep 2004 13:01:06 -0400, steve <Us************@dbForumz.com> wrote:
[ snip ]

but sometimes it’s best to look at 3rd-party alternatives
=)

Yes, and it is perfectly ok to take something like phpBB and add your
own extensions, and give it your own look. Doing it that way, you can
focus on more higher level features (and marketing!) vs. getting stuck
in the knitty gritty of it all, and like Ian says, give up after a
while.

I can't say I regret coding as much as I did for it, I learnt a lot
(including security) but unless you're planning on spending a _LONG_
time with "constant" work, as Steve points out, it's much easier and
still quite rewarding to write mods / extensions to phpBB. I've done a
few now from simple things to an "upload / download repository" and
other bits and pieces. The main reason I wrote the one I did was that I
had the most basic of "forums" written as one of my first projects ever
to learn Perl. This was then ported to ASP when I played with that for a
couple of weeks (horrid it is!) and then ported to PHP. I wanted
something more UBB styled at the time, so I started work on the bigger
version.

It maybe something good to do as a learning project in stages, but as
for a production level release, this is a high goal to reach if you want
to do it properly.. and there's some already well developed competition
out there if you're looking to release it publicly as an alternative to
the likes of phpBB and others.

Looking forward to the new 2.2.x release(s) as I believe this uses (some
of) Smarty for the templating which is a lot more flexible / powerful
than the home-grown phpBB version =)

Regards,

Ian

--
Ian.H
digiServ Network
London, UK
http://digiserv.net/

"stenknz" <st*****@gmail.com> wrote in message news:<ch********@odak26.prod.google.com>...

Does any one know where there is a good introduction to Discussion
Forum scripting using PHP and MySQL. (Apache WS)

I just need the nuts and bolts to get an overview of whats required.
Regards,

Sten

....some scripts are complex.
Some are quite simple:

http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/1313.html