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I am looking to purchase a secure bulletin board that will only allow only registered users to post and reply to messages. Does your company have any scripts for sale that will accomplish this task for me, and if so in what price range are they? You can contact me at dave@jrc-hosting.com.

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You could check out WWW Threads, which is the script that Gossamer Threads uses:

http://www.wwwthreads.com

Regards,

Regards,

AnthroRules
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I am looking to purchase a secure bulletin board that will only allow only registered users to post and reply to messages.
Well there are a whole bunch out there so here's a couple a places to get you started. First some resource centers with dozens of Forum/Discussion scripts.

http://www.cgi-resources.com
http://www.hotscripts.com
http://www.perlarchive.com

Now some individual sites each offering a program that falls within your requirements.

http://www.ub2k.com - UltraBoard 2000
http://www.UltimateBB.com - Ultimate BB or UBBS
http://www.phorum.org - Phorum
http://www.dcscripts.com - DCForum2000

This list is certainly not inclusive but should get you headed in the right direction. You'll find that all have their strengths and weaknesses either from a WebAdmin side or user side. Some offer "lite" versions for free, others only offer demos but must purchase the actual product, while still others are free. As noted in the reply above, also check out wwwthreads.

easy does it
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vbulletin.com

PHP/MySQL. Best forum available.

Michael Bray
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WWWThreads is getting ready to release the 5.1 version. This will have mostly template based formatting.

This has been the single biggest problem/hold-up with WWWThreads. Once this is in place, I think it will become _the_ new standard for web/forums.

This was a total suprise for most people, but it's being warmly welcomed.

Check out what is coming:

http://www.wwwthreads.com/CHANGES





http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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This has been the single biggest problem/hold-up with WWWThreads. Once this is in place, I think it will become _the_ new standard for web/forums.
How true, good lord, do you know how long it took to change from the default look to this one (I didn't do it, but was told 30+ hours). Ack! Long live templates.

Cheers,

Alex

--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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<G>.... Now you know why I'm so _patiently_ waiting for the next release of Links SQL, rather than modifying the code in 1.11 any further ;)

http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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Try:

MWforum http://www.mawic.de/mwforum/

mySQL, mod_perl and open source. Don't waste your money!!


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Is there any place that explains what the heck to do with templates? I understand Perl pretty well, but I look at those template pages in Links and think "Huh?" Smile

JPD
http://www.jpdeni.com/dbman/
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A template is really simple.

You create your page, but you use a tag <%tag_name%> for replaceable data.

For instance, to put a header on each page, that is the same (or even different in some ways), you'd set your template page:

<%include header.txt%>

The tag above would be replaced by the contents of the file header.txt in the default templates directory.

Really easy to edit one header.txt file than 10,000 hard-coded pages on a site!

Same with a file like "navi_bar.txt"

You can include that, then change the navigation links by editing one file, not every page.

<% %> marks the begin/end of a tag.

Very, very easy to use, to maintain, and easier than HTML or perl :)


http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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I understand that it would be much easier to edit templates than 10,000 hard-coded pages. That makes sense to me. But what I don't understand is editing all the template files (in Links SQL, for example), when one wants to change a field name, for example. Or could the form be in an <%include form.txt%> file, instead of in each of the .html files?

I guess my main problem is that I don't understand how it works. Not that I don't understand what syntax to use, but how the syntax makes it happen. When I first got DBMan, I didn't know anything about Perl, so I got a book on Perl and followed the progression of the script, line by line. I got a pretty good understanding of both DBMan and Perl by doing this. Is there a book I could get to help me understand about templates?

Would it be better to start another thread? Smile

JPD
http://www.jpdeni.com/dbman/
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Not really.

Hopefully the documentation in the next release will have some detailed instructions on templates.

I never thought about 'learning' templates. It just made perfect sense to me. but, I know how things that are totally clear to 80% of the people can be clear as mud to the other 20. (I'm usually in that other 20).

If you can explain the part you are having trouble with, maybe I can explain it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "changing a field name".

I've taken most of my templates, and have made them a bunch of include files. I've done a further mod, where the smaller include files are turned into variable names. The problem I had with that is that include files are processed for <% %> tags, but the variables are not.... In the next release if that is not possible, I'm going to see what it takes to allow <% %> that are "variables" not include files to also go through the parser looking for <% %> tags. There should be a great performance increase than including the files.

Anyway, just create a template, start with the home.html, since that is a unique file that uses the subcategory.html file, but doesn't have "cascade" effects. Or, you can use search.html (but the problem there is that search.cgi does things a bit differently than the nph-build.cgi that the rest of the site uses).

Anyway, you can do anything in the templates, and the include files you want.

To show you how far this can be abstracted with the current release (I hope to take it further in the next release) here is the copy of my catalog.html that I use to generate my catalog pages at

http://www.postcards.com/DigitalPostcards/

I've actually taken it further in some other sites, by taking the reusable pieces of the code (parts that I keep using over and over) and turning them into <%variable_tags%> and inserting them into a passed hash of values. (like the %GLOBALS hash).

All the bgcolor="#FFFFFF" and similar links are now

bgcolor = "<%color_nn%>" tags, so I can just edit my HTML_Templates.pm file, and change the color scheme of the whole site (or set up a new site) by editing the colors.

I have to e-mail them to you, since the forum stripped out all the html and other codes....




http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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If you can explain the part you are having trouble with, maybe I can explain it.
It's the concept I'm having trouble with.

In Reply To:
I've taken most of my templates, and have made them a bunch of include files. I've done a further mod, where the smaller include files are turned into variable names. The problem I had with that is that include files are processed for <% %> tags, but the variables are not.... In the next release if that is not possible, I'm going to see what it takes to allow <% %> that are "variables" not include files to also go through the parser looking for <% %> tags. There should be a great performance increase than including the files.
See, that's all "Greek" to me. I understand the words you're using, but put together they make no sense to me.

I haven't worked at all with Links-SQL yet. I was looking at the mod that someone wrote for DBMan so it could use templates. And my brain boggled just looking at the files. I do have MySQLMan running on my site, but I haven't changed anything about the way it looks. Since it's just for me, I didn't worry about it, but it would be nice to be able to understand what's going on with it.

When I used Links2.0, I turned off the templates and spent a long time getting rid of other stuff so I could have something simple -- a subroutine to create the beginning and the end of the .html pages. But it doesn't look like I can do that with Links-SQL. Templates can't be turned off.

So, getting back to the purpose of this forum, my request would be that templates ought to be an option and not a requirement.

JPD
http://www.jpdeni.com/dbman/
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You are missing the point. From a programming and support point of view, templates are _much_ easier. The writer of WWWthreads just spent a month and a half rewriting the code to make full use of templates. #1 reason was it was too difficult to modify (ask Alex) and any upgrade required changes to all the program files. With templates, you can upgrade the program code, and not have to worry about editing them to keep your look/feel.

Why don't you install a new copy of Links 2.0 and start working with the templates? The Links SQL will work virtually the same (with a few extra templates a one or two field changes in the search box).

Run the Links 2.0 in the default version, then make a change to the templates, see what happens, and just keep working with it.

In a matter of days you'll dread going back to non-template programs.

I guarantee it.



http://www.postcards.com
FAQ: http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

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Thanks for the explanation. Smile

JPD
http://www.jpdeni.com/dbman/
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I've been reading this conversation and trying to think of a way to explain the templates concept. Like pugdog, they just made sense to me from the start, which makes it hard to explain.

It might help to consider templates as standard HTML, but with SSI tags (in this case, <%tag%>) inserted to include things like counters and banner rotators. The advantage to templates over working within the Perl script is that you don't have to worry about things like matching up brakcets in subroutines, escaping quotes, etc. Just code it like you would HTML and you can pretty much see your layout as you work.

Hope that helps ('cause you've certainly helped me a ton with DBMan! Smile )

Dan

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Thanks, Dan.

When I get some time I'll see if I can play around with it and figure it out.

JPD
http://www.jpdeni.com/dbman/