Forum Feature Suggestions...

Dark_Phoenix

Actually, I don't know where this topic would go...

Anyway, I wanted to ask developers of PHP software what kind of features THEY would want in forum software. I'm sure no one here would expect the forums to become HUGE (though it'd be nice), but I'm creating some open source forums in PHP (and possibly JSP), and I'm looking for things that you might find convenient.

Current list of options:

Templates that use XML as a structural language.
Special generic Database class that can be extended easily to create database drivers for the forum.
Multiple attachments (vB style).
Built-in Welcome Panel.
Multiple board types: UBB style, threaded style, ImageBBS style, and 2 custom RP styles.
Built-in RPG stat system.
Custom BBTag system.
Instead of sig, have "header" and "footer".
Special "background" and "table" tags for full customization of post appearance.
Ultimate Buddy & Ignore Lists (lists people who have put you on their buddy lists, and on their ignore lists).
Each Category table's appearance can be customized on the front page (more of a convenience thing).
Option to have profile midis (though I don't know why anyone would want this, someone at my forums asked for this feature).
Topics marked "dead" if they haven't been posted in for a while (time configurable).
If a user tries to post in a dead topic, Javascript popup tells the person that the topic is "dead", and asks if they REALLY want to post in it.
Report post button.
Fully integrated Quick Post section, with Quick Edit (you can change from Quick Post to Quick Edit with one button press).
Group specific profile options (like Age, Gender, etc.)
Entire usergroups can be mods of a forum.
IP banning, by forum or board.
Censoring can be disabled for some forums.
Can choose from a list of avatars when a user posts (they can upload their own custom avatar lists).
Similar Threads.
Minimum character count, in both posts and PM's (adjustable from Admin Panel).
Reason for closing/editing/moving.
Poll posting is allowed AFTER the topic is posted.
"Are you sure?" page in Admin Panel for every option.

Any more ideas? Or maybe you'd like to join in?

planetsim

Pretty good list there, be careful people may steal some ideas though.

Why not make it user friendly. XML Templates may not be the wisest idea, user if wanting to make there own will need to learn XML and how to do it, most are still learning vB templateing style as well as PHPBB.

If i werent so busy with my projects i have no i may have been interested in helping out. But got some client work+a project which im still making after 1yr and still no sign of ever seeing it finished because its getting pushed back all the time. 😃

Dark_Phoenix

Well, the problem with doing anything more user-friendly is that I'm not very good with regular expressions. I've been working on an easy to design for template system for 3 years, and I believe XML is the answer.

The templates won't be that complicated. I was thinking something like this:

<document>
<variable><name>TEST</name><value>$obj->name</value></variable>
<variable><name>TEST2</name><value>$obj->name2</value></variable>

<section><function>test</function><code>(CDATA)<table><tr><td>{TEST}</td></tr></table></code></section>
<section><function>test2</function><code>(CDATA)<table><tr><td>{TEST2}</td></tr></table></code></section>
</document>

I'm not sure. All I do know is the class to parse anything else in PHP would be hopelessly complicated. After 2.5 years, I wasn't able to come up with anything decent.

planetsim

Fair enough, im assuming you will be the only one using though then?

Reason im saying its a bad idea, like i said in my previous post as well as this, Users like to see what they have, with it in XML, they must create then open up there browser to test it, while its different with other templating systems.

Well, the problem with doing anything more user-friendly is that I'm not very good with regular expressions.

Why do you need Regex? My templating system doesnt, it uses Arrays e.g.

Template:

{sitename} {title}

And will send arrays over like this

$content['sitename'], $content['title'];
Of course it will be in one variable and not displaying the index, its then just a foreach loop to search through the template file and then display.

With yours on the other hand, yours would have to gather the variables, replace anything within the XML (but will require searching a timely process) then build the template into its useful form.

Feel free to prove me wrong when you get the template class complete, and fast.

But i must admit its a fairly original idea.

Dark_Phoenix

Actually, I'm not going to be the only one using it.

And actually, that XML file isn't the template itself. I determined that the fastest way of doing templates would be in the forum of a PHP class. However, asking the average person to design a PHP class is a bad idea. What I'm looking for is a form to put it in that most people CAN understand, then I'll write a converter in PHP that turns that file into a PHP class, which is what the forum actually loads. This is similar to what IBF does with it's classes.

The tricky part comes in when you want to loop code, though I DO believe that if I convert to a PHP class, I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Dark_Phoenix

Actually, I think I may have come up with a brilliant way of designing templates so that pretty much anyone can design one, but has everything you'd need for forum software.

I'll probably post it here when I design it.

webdes03

I always liked the idea of being able to browse to a code file on your computer, ex: PHP, and have it insert it in your post with the coloring. To save you pasting it in. I've been told that has security issues though.

I wouldn't store it on the server, just have the post script read the contents and add it to the database. Don't know if the security issues outweigh the practicility though.