My PHP forum script - coded from scratch

krt · 2005-08-10T01:59:15+00:00

I'm aiming to make an open-source forum that will hopefully be better and faster than the other major forum softwares (ipb,phpbb etc.) It is also going to b...

My PHP forum script - coded from scratch

LoganK

This might be more appropriate in code critique...I honestly don't know which is right!

I like your forum! Real nice! However, forums like phpBB have been around for a long time and have gained a strong foothold in the OSS community. I don't mean to belittle, but it will be hard to find such a following with a new board.

What I'm confused about is: why is PHPBuilder.com - a site for an open-source language, PHP - using a commerical forum?

krt

LoganK wrote:
This might be more appropriate in code critique...I honestly don't know which is right!

I read the rules and the code critique is moreso for the code, this has not been released yet so I have yet to make the code visible therfore you can't really critique the code.

LoganK wrote:
I like your forum! Real nice! However, forums like phpBB have been around for a long time and have gained a strong foothold in the OSS community. I don't mean to belittle, but it will be hard to find such a following with a new board.

Yes, I know, I have a few people willing to make mods already and this number will increase hopefully, I will have a lite and full version, the full one containing a lot of on/off switchable mods to add to the current plans for customisations.

LoganK wrote:
What I'm confused about is: why is PHPBuilder.com - a site for an open-source language, PHP - using a commerical forum?

Because phpBB is not that good from my experience, hence the reason I'm making this to be the new best and free forum script.

Jason_Batten

Wow mate, you've really done it hey. That looks good. The sort by your threads filter is great mate. I read you can import from other BBs now does that mean say someone who has a phpBB can transfer all their members and posts?

BTW on your main site the second column (on any page) doesn't display correctly in IE6. Dispite peoples love for Mozillas FireFox IE still holds the market. So I would think about fixing it 😉

I'll support it if it has less bugs than phpBB, you'd think they'd iron them out by now. Good board but grrr!

planetsim

LoganK wrote:
What I'm confused about is: why is PHPBuilder.com - a site for an open-source language, PHP - using a commerical forum?

Technically vBulletin is open source, just because its open source doesnt mean its free, so your right about it being commercial.

krt

NetNerd85 wrote:
Wow mate, you've really done it hey. That looks good. The sort by your threads filter is great mate. I read you can import from other BBs now does that mean say someone who has a phpBB can transfer all their members and posts?

BTW on your main site the second column (on any page) doesn't display correctly in IE6. Dispite peoples love for Mozillas FireFox IE still holds the market. So I would think about fixing it 😉

I'll support it if it has less bugs than phpBB, you'd think they'd iron them out by now. Good board but grrr!

Thanks 🙂
Also, what do you mean by the second column, do you mean the article categories? If so, that is what I am working on now 🆒

Jason_Batten

Yeah that's what I was talking about.

krt

I have made a temporary fix for that.
Anyways, back to the forums discussion 🙂

Shrike

Some errors for you to look at 🙂

http://www.nexusfx.net/forums/viewthread.php?t=1000 - lots of uncaught MySQL errors.

Error messages on registration seem to be Javascript only - not a good thing.

Other than that I can't find any obvious problems. When you show some code perhaps... 😉

LoganK

krt wrote:
I read the rules and the code critique is moreso for the code, this has not been released yet so I have yet to make the code visible therfore you can't really critique the code.

That's allright, like I said, I didn't really know myself, so I'm glad it's clarified.

krt wrote:
Yes, I know, I have a few people willing to make mods already and this number will increase hopefully, I will have a lite and full version, the full one containing a lot of on/off switchable mods to add to the current plans for customisations.

Is the one on your site the full or the lite version? You should install both with links so we can demo/beta-test both.

krt wrote:
Because phpBB is not that good from my experience, hence the reason I'm making this to be the new best and free forum script.

What a coincidence that your forum could be tied into the answer! 😃 Although I have heard a lot of people say that about phpBB. What was the other PHP forum? Not vBulletin, not phpBB, but something else...

Planetsim - did I say we weren't using an open-source forum? 😉 Although in my mind, open-source should mean free - free to distribute, free to edit, free to do anything with it (except charge). Maybe I'm like one of those old-skewl hackers back from the 80s, involved with the EFF. 🙂

Krt - didn't seen any errors yet, but I'll let you know.

justsomeone

The question re forum imprting is crucial. You have to make it easy for people to migrate. Best of luck!

krt

Shrike wrote:
Some errors for you to look at 🙂

http://www.nexusfx.net/forums/viewthread.php?t=1000 - lots of uncaught MySQL errors.

Error messages on registration seem to be Javascript only - not a good thing.

Other than that I can't find any obvious problems. When you show some code perhaps... 😉

Thanks.
The MySQL errors are nothing, I am rewriting hte code and am still re-doing parts of core components so the template issues will be done later. That was written back in a time when I didn't know I should use mysql_fetch_array 😛

LoganK, the lite version is merely this with features striped, the coding will be very similar meaning the same bugs. The one running is the full version.
and the other main forum script is IPB.

LoganK

Thanks for editing it and adding a response for me. Apparently I'm too uninportant to be written in the first time 🙁

You're right, that's the other one I was thinking of. IPB. Interesting forum - easy to hack though. Many holes.

krt

LoganK wrote:
Apparently I'm too uninportant to be written in the first time

I'm assuming you aren't being serious but just in case, the reason was that I saw the post of the guy that posted first and pressed the Quote button, this was on a computer with a 15" monitor and 800x600 resolution so I didn't see your post until after I posted and looked back.

LoganK wrote:
You're right, that's the other one I was thinking of. IPB. Interesting forum - easy to hack though. Many holes.

And is IPB really that vulnerable? I thought that was good relative to phpBB but then again, I haven't bothered trying to hack it.

LoganK

krt wrote:
I'm assuming you aren't being serious but just in case, the reason was that I saw the post of the guy that posted first and pressed the Quote button, this was on a computer with a 15" monitor and 800x600 resolution so I didn't see your post until after I posted and looked back.

No, I wasn't serious, but I appreciate your response. My 15" CRT is running at 1024 x 780 that way I don't run into things like that...I'm hoping to get a 19" LCD soon...wishfull thinking

krt wrote:
And is IPB really that vulnerable? I thought that was good relative to phpBB but then again, I haven't bothered trying to hack it.

For the most part, it is pretty secure. However, once you open up its source code (because it's open-source), you see how insecure it is. It's vulnerable to what I like to call the "admin-image" hack - whereby an ordinary user types in an image tag, but instead of a URL for an image, he types in a PHP/SQL command. When an admin of the board logs in, the PHP/SQL query is executed under the admin's rights. Scary, huh?

And about not trying to hack it - I'm not a pen tester, but I like to dabble ocasionally in the world of security.

Merve

Love the forum! The features list is impressive! I'm hoping that in the future you'll make many improvements to make it look and work even better. 🙂

Just one little nitpick: (please don't shoot me) In your features list word document, you've spelt 'compliant' as 'complaint' right at the end of the document...

Good luck with your forum! 🙂

krt

I will be developing an information page for the forums and will add the feature list there but thanks for the spelling mistake notification. It's fixed 🙂 - Actually that comment was obsolete, I found a workaroud for that issue.
And no, I won't shoot anyone, please tell me about bugs of any sort! I don't care if I have already addressed them or am about to!

I am now in the process of adding a new better looking neutral skin.

LoganK, I see, I decided to have a look at that and I was surprised!

LoganK

By your surprised comment, are you talking about IPB's admin-image exploit? Millions (allright, not millions, thousands) of exploits like this exist in lots of web applications or RIAs (Rich Internet Applications). Like I said, I'm not a pen tester, but since I like to dabble in the world of security, every now and then I'll go out and try to find some exploits for something. When I do, I'll alert the owner of the site. I like to consider myself a part-time grey hat hacker (although I'm not gonna mention the black-hat side of my hacking here 😃)

Jason_Batten

although I'm not gonna mention the black-hat side of my hacking here

Nah I wouldnt unless you want to be banned. In-fact I'd never bring the subject up again unless you want to seriously piss someone off.

krt

I was suprised about other things I found in IPB in a quick look, I thought a commercial software that has been in the works for years would have been better than that...

LoganK

Well, it's commercial and they make all their money by renting out space on their servers to host user's boards. The "full-featured" board really only sells support which none of us here need 😉 So all their money goes - guess where? - to their bank accounts, and they don't spend a cent on making improvements or hiring pen testers, unless someone else finds a major exploit and uses it as a 0-day against some high-profile company.