Can you recommend any forum software?

lmc148 · #1 Jun 8th, 2006, 23:41

Firstly, if this question is in the wrong place I apologise. There didn't seem to be a natural home for it & as setting up a forum involves php it seemed to be related!

I want to add a discussion forum to my website. I've never done this before, so easy setup/installation would be a main consideration & either cheap or free forum software another.

I've heard that Phorum is supposed to be good. Has anyone installed it & was it easy? Do you have it installed on a website so I can see how it looks?

Any recommendations/advice gratefully accepted!

Thanks
Lynn

sypher · #2 Jun 9th, 2006, 00:40

It depends what type of forum you want.

Such as:
http://www.phpbb.com/
vBulletin (which is what the forum your talking on uses)
http://www.invisionpower.com/ip.dyna...ard/index.html (quite expensive for a lisence but well worth it)

jpmitchell · #3 Jun 9th, 2006, 14:46

Dont forget:

Simple Machines (http://simplemachines.org/) - good, stable, and free

lmc148 · #4 Jun 13th, 2006, 08:40

Hi

I have configured Simple Machines & got it working on my website!

However, I'm not sure of the best way to incorporate it into my website & I'm not happy with the way I've done it at the moment.

<div class="menusub" title="Discussion Forum"><a href="/forum/index.php" target=blank>Discussion Forum</a></div>

I added the target=blank because otherwise it opened it up in the existing window of my website but I don't think I can format it to have my menus, so the only way to get back to my website is to press the windows back button, which is far from ideal.

Plus if a user has spent some time in the forum doing multiple things, then they'd have to press the back button umpteen times, which isn't any good.

The other problem is that if they have opened the forum, then try to do so again from another page on my website, because it is already open it doesn't open it again - which is great - but to the user nothing appears to happen as the system stays on my website page & doesn't take them to the already open forum page.

So, is there any way I can incorporate the forum into one of my pages with my headings/logos/menus?

If not, is there a better way to add it to my website?

Thanks for your help so far.

Cheers
Lynn

sypher · #5 Jun 13th, 2006, 18:53

should be target="_blank"

lmc148 · #6 Jun 13th, 2006, 19:49

Do you think that is the best way to integrate a forum to a website anyway, or is there a better way?

sypher · #7 Jun 13th, 2006, 20:49

Use php includes to include it dynamically into your page.

lmc148 · #8 Jun 18th, 2006, 18:53

OK, thanks for the tip. I know absolutely nothing about PHP, but I've tried various things to see if I can incorporate the forum page into an existing page with my menus using PHP include, without success.

I'm sure it's a pain in the bum to explain how it works, so can anyone recommend a website link that explains it?

From what I've been able to discover about PHP include, it looks as if it could be really useful for integrating menus, headers & footers into web pages too? (At the moment I'm duplicating my menus in each page of my website, so if I make any changes I have to go into each page & modify it! Don't laugh!!! I did an XHTML course & it only covered XHTML & basic CSS, so it's the only way I know!)

If someone could just point me in the right direction that would be great.

Thanks
Lynn

flann · #9 Jun 18th, 2006, 22:45

php includes will make it easier to make changes to your headers and footers. At its most basic form you could do the following. Say you want to use an include for an image on certain pages. Create a page called header.php

PHP: Select all


<?php
function header1() {
 echo ("<img src='header.gif' border='0'>");
}
?>

that would be all the code you need for that page. What is is doing is creating a function that you will be able to call at will. You can also echo out what ever html you need.

Then on what ever page you want to include this image, at the top of the page above every other html tag you will include the file and then when you want to include it, you will simply call the function.

PHP: Select all


<?php
include "header.php";
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<html>
<head>
    <title>Untitled</title>
</head>

<body>
<?php header1(); ?>


</body>
</html>

lmc148 · #10 Jun 19th, 2006, 12:53

Thanks, I'll give that a go.

Cheers
Lynn

Donny Bahama · #11 Jul 6th, 2006, 04:49

Has anyone used SimpleMachines forum and phpbb enough to comment on the relative merits of each? I'm currently using phpbb, but on their own community forums, they're rather Draconian, so I'd like to explore other options.

Rob · #12 Jul 6th, 2006, 08:59

vbulletin is STILL the best... for SEO, usability and Accessibility..... it wins out on all fronts and is very inexpensive.

Whats more, adds ons and plug-ins can be done without modifying base code.... which makes upgrading REALLY REALLY EASY!!!

Something users of snitz, phpbb and lots of others will appreciate the benefits of.

vBulletin is my first choice everytime.

Donny Bahama · #13 Jul 6th, 2006, 12:57

Inexpensive is relative; $160 + $30/year isn't inexpensive to me.
I agree that it's the creme de la creme, but at the moment, this is just a hobby for me.

lmc148 · #14 Jul 19th, 2006, 10:22

I haven't been able to get this to work, but it might be because I'm trying to include my heading which is coded in html?

I also want to include my menu & footer which are both coded in html.

Any tips?

Cheers
Lynn

lmc148 · #15 Jul 19th, 2006, 10:24

Regarding my previous post just now, I'm referring to the PHP include (not the forum software)

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Can you recommend any forum software?