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Integrated Forum Software?

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Integrated Forum Software?
I know this has been discussed several times, in several different ways, and there are two main camps -- PHP and PERL.

w3t decided to put further development of the templates on-hold, which is a step backwards from total site integration.

What software are people using to run forums, and how well have you been able to integrate it into the total look/feel of your site?

I may have to switch from w3t to another program, just so I can get better maintainability. The big problem is without templates, each new release reqires a lot of work to get ready for deployment.

The main features are not all the smileys, and bells, but whether the forum can be easily maintained, built in to the overall site, and share user data between Links and other programs.

Actually, I think SPORUM is furthest along in that respect, with SPORUM+SPMAIL.

These are "interesting times".


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

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
I agree with your message, pugdog. At one time, I did attempt to integrate DBMAN and UBB...but nothing worked successfully. And I am looking at MySQL solutions for my next BBS since processing flat files and static pages is restrictive and uses a lot of server resources.

It would be nice to see something like Jerry's forum.cgi integrate with LINKS SQL. While integration is a goal in the Internet/Web industry...there are very few products that address this goal successfully.

Anyway...may be something will come along with future releases of LINKS SQL...

Regards,

Eliot Lee

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
forum.cgi is a really simple program.. it has 4 databases.. qw!Forums Boards Topics Posts!;

the user portion of course is links sql's.. adding features should be really simple.. preview post is basically outputting the tempoary data into the posting template and making another parameter to confirm the preview..

everything wwwthreads has can be added really easily because of Links SQL's core modules.. like DBSQL.pm for the search.. profiles i already got.. private messages is basically another database with a few fields and an interface to list the messages.. who's online basically is listing the owners of the cookie sessions.. the sessions table can be improved on in my opinion.. right now it creates MANY copies of the same user (i fixed that by adding a line in user.cgi).. you can also add another field to see where the user is at.. and parse the filename.. $ENV{SCRIPT_NAME} =~ /([^/]+)$/;.. emailing replies can be added simply by adding a few lines to the post routine..


Jerry Su
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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
I have already upgraded my Private Mailer Mod for Links SQL, which can be used with the forum.cgi to send private messages to users. Just a matter of changing references to .def files.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
what is your private mailer mod?

is it mail sent via email..?

i was talking more like the private messages that are stored in a DB.. and of course just like wwwthreads.. have a email saying you received a message.. it is really easy..

Jerry Su
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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
It sounds like we've got the good core of features to start with.

What's missing is one person to take the initiative to try to tie it all together into one system, and then adapting it to the new version session and profile data.

Perhaps this can be a "plug in" for the next links, depending on how developed Alex has gotten that idea.

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

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
i'm 100% sure forum.cgi is compatible with the next version of links sql..

i beleive alex still used the $db->get_record ($ID, 'HASH'); way of getting a record.. so why wouldn't it work..

maybe a few tiny knicks and knacks.. but the code i used is really simple.. i'm thinking about making threaded view as well.. but i myself do not like threaded view.. but i would simply just put the ID to the previous post.. in the record.. if i make any changes that would be to merge the Topic and Posts tables.. It would be much easier to have a field that says 'Type' => ['Topic','Post']. .something like that.. that way I could have unique ID numbers for threading messages.. currently my modify post routine needs a second parameter to distinguish between topic and post.. i find that annoying..

Jerry Su
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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
It is mail sent via email...however, it would not be too hard to tweak the script a bit and add the message to a "Message" table, which can be accessed by the recipient.

The nice thing about the script is that it does not indicate any time through the submission process what the recipient's email address is...thus...Private Mailer.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
Jerry,

I'm sure the code is compatible, what I'm referring to mainly are the user/profile features that the new Links will have, sessions, cookies, etc.

The get/add/modify type stuff will probably be very similar.

Most of DBSQL.pm's calls are wrappers for DBI/DBD calls, which makes it fairly easy. There are some links-specific calls to manage the data more fully for links use, of course, and it's those that are probably going to change the most.

I would expect some new functions, new parameters, and other changes to the internals.

I know I will need to expand the User table(s) to fit my needs, and maybe before everyone starts to make their own mods, we work on a consensus of what data we need to keep on users, and where to put it. That way the main "user" table will remain somewhat standard, but people can add extra user tables linked by the userid field, to hold their customized data sets.

If we start to come up with some developer guidelines, then mods will work together more easily, and new installations will have a place to start from to remain compatible with the core add-on developers.

Right now, everyone has made similar mods, but in different ways.

I've expressed my desire to turn the FAQ resource into a real FAQ and a developers' site, where everyone can work/share code.

I wouldn't mind doing it here at GT, but I think that at times there might be a conflict of interest, or question, that might make it better on a 3rd party site. I've had 'pugdog.com' for years, and "PUGDOGŪ" is a trademark of ours, for computerized database services, so I might move the FAQ/Developer site to that server. That should get rid of any conflicts or such that might arise, and keep this forum basicly what it is, and let the developers have a place to work without cluttering up this forum. Alex would be free to visit the site, but he'd have no responsibility to post, support, or even visit. He could even choose not to visit, if that makes better legal sense. I like open source products, and GT products are commercial/licensed so it would be a way to keep the open source portion out of the commercial portion as well. (Opens ource product using a commercial engine.)

What I probably will do, since I'm chomping at the bit for something to do, is move the FAQ site over, but start developing it for the next release, and leave the old FAQ site for the 1.11 version where it is, until it's safe to just take it down.

Any suggestions for what you'd like to see in such a developer's site pass them on! I do not intend to duplicate any resources like cgi-resources.com, etc, since links to them are equally as effective, and the whole point of this project is to SAVE and SHARE development time, not duplicate it :)

I've been working on a book review area, and will have the books from my library on-line shortly, with my own reviews (and hopefully soon a way to let others review them) and then links to at least Amazon.com and B&N , (Borders doesn't use ISBN to track books, and I never got a reply from them how to do an automatic linking). That code should help people maintain a suggested book list, above what the few spiders out there can do.

It's rockin' and rollin' out there, so I'm going to post this before we lose power <G>.......

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

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
I was just reading over the forums and saw this and wondered.. Has anyone gotten LinksSQL to work with Vbulletin?

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
vBulletin would be a sinch to mod to use Links SQL... Its PHP though and I think that I am one of the only people are here that uses PHP, so a Perl solution would probably be more popular. This forum software is hopeless. I can't use it on Internet Explorer anymore, it won't let me login, huh.

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
Which forum? This one? It works fine for me with MSIE, and I've (reluctantly) given up NN because of the windows crashes.

MSIE has cookie problems, but I haven't had any with w3t.

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

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
Yeah this one,

It always worked with I.E. before - then one day it just stopped. I tried logging out and logging back in, it lets me check my private mail etc, but as soon as I start reading the threads, it wants me to log back in before I can post, then I go through the same process... Now I just read all the posts in I.E. and if I want to respond copy & paste the URL over to Netscape & post...

Anyway - I think its a cookie problem, gonna try to figure out the problem and fix it anyway, its pissing me off.

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
This forum (win 2000 i.e. 5) seems to "forget" that I already read some messages, so any thread always has an old post (the first one) an all the replies are "new" (even if they are not).
However this only happens in "this forum", here, and not on the wwwthreads board on their site, so I believe it's not a problem with the software itself....

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
released forum.cgi (early beta)

demo: http://www.pdamania.com/forum.cgi

source: http://www.jerry07.com/source/forum.txt or http://source.jerry07.com/forum.txt

its a very simple script.. code is somewhat organized and easy to read.. modding is simple.. adding features should be really easy..

i need to create a sepearate template from main forum and forum categories..

NO INSTRUCTIONS.. ;) hahaha

Jerry Su
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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
i think this forum is slightly modded.. it never remembers my username anymore.. i have to login every time i come.. it used to save it..

Jerry Su
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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
Thanks, Jerry...I was about 40% completed with a similar Modification...since yours was not available and I also want to improve my mod_perl and MySQL skills...

Thanks.

Regards,

Eliot Lee

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
hello Could somebody send me the readme file, templates and the defs for the forum.cgi because i want to test my links-SQL version1.13 with that.

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Re: Integrated Forum Software? In reply to
Sorry...mine won't work with your version of LINKS SQL...mine are highly modded and still in testing stage.

Regards,

Eliot Lee