building php forum advice

php_2004

Hi,

I'm looking at writting a simple forum script, i know there are plenty of free scripts for this area.

But i was looking at creating the forum myself, i have a few basic ideas about the forum, i was wondering whether anyone could give any good resources (e.g. tutorials ) on writting a php/mysql based forum.

Thanks for any advice or help in advance..

planetsim

If you are asking for tutorials you shouldnt be creating a forum. Sorry if this sounds agressive but its just my opinion on the matter.

Anyway as a matter of tutorials there arent any specifically on creating Forums but you can do a search here on Forums or forum help should come up with a good amount of help required, i also suggest that you download most of the free ones to see how they work.

parawizard

i have recently coded my own forum and it took several months of coding 🙂 1000+ lines probally lol i would start with a few simpler things like a guestbook and such

ucbones

Coding a forum is a massive work, and should only be undertaken under two circumstances really:

You have an enormous amount of free time, but no particular need for a forum that is tailored exactly to your requirements, and are willing to learn.
You have a large amount of time to give to it, and you desperately need a forum other than the excellent http://www.phpbb.com or vBulletin, and have been PHP'ing for a while now...

Other than that, it's really too difficult.

Due to a very specific problem with PHPBB (it doesn't fit with my site, and the PM'ing system isn't moderatable, which is needed for a site primarily catering to minors), I've had to start writing my own, which is causing all sorts of problems, what with marking things unread, with checking user input, with displaying posts carefully, with being secure, etc etc. I spent a whole day just getting the front page to look right. It's quite fun though!

php_2004

found something in the mean time that isn't too bad @ http://www.morrowland.no/apron/tutorials/web/php/forum/index.php

that does most i need to do.... i just want something simple that does a forum type service, i know there are more advanced forums such as "vbulletin" and "phpbb", but i don't have the time to sit down and build something like that...

thanks for the advice that has been given

planetsim

Why do people think it takes so long to make.

If you have prebuilt classes like Database Abstraction, Templating System and error Reporting. It can take probably 1week to make, i know it only took me a week to make one similar to vB.

ucbones

planetsim,

Lots of things in a forum can be adapted from previous work, it depends to what extent you want users to be able to control their content.

Ensuring the integrity of user's posts and registration can be time-consuming, and is something that needs serious testing and being put under strain.

It depends also what features you want to add, surely some things will take a while (who's online, birthdays, private messaging etc). It also depends how much you care about layout (e.g. wordwrap). Things like this can take a lot of time, can't they?

ucbones