The new forums?

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admin
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The new forums?

Post by admin »

Okay guys..... its taken a while, my first replacement didn't seem to go down to well so I decided to integrate one of the big forum systems..... Please test it out..... the login and logout functions are integrated so if you click logout on the forum page you will be logged out of the entire site....
Simon Hardy
admin
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Re: The new forums?

Post by admin »

Can the next person to visit please post a reply, I want to know if these new forums are working for you guys
Simon Hardy
admin
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Re: The new forums?

Post by admin »

Seems to be working so far, although the right side of the forum screen is truncated (my display is 1024x768)
Simon Hardy
zephyr
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Re: The new forums?

Post by zephyr »

Thanks Simon! :) It seems to be working OK here.
admin
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Re: The new forums?

Post by admin »

shardy wrote:Can the next person to visit please post a reply, I want to know if these new forums are working for you guys
Ahhh phpbb, yeah that'sa the one a lot of sites use, has a lot of usefull features like the code tag for posting formatted code etc.

One small problem is that clicking on the link to the forums in the left hand menu brings up a 404 not found page, tried both at work and at home in firefox.
Looks like it's a FF related problem, seems to work OK in Internet Exploder. I'll check when I get home to see what (if any) the difference between the URLs that they are trying to access FF & IE to see if I can spot what is goind wrong....

Cheers.

Phill.
Simon Hardy
admin
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Re: The new forums?

Post by admin »

prime wrote:
shardy wrote:Can the next person to visit please post a reply, I want to know if these new forums are working for you guys
Ahhh phpbb, yeah that'sa the one a lot of sites use, has a lot of usefull features like the code tag for posting formatted code etc.

One small problem is that clicking on the link to the forums in the left hand menu brings up a 404 not found page, tried both at work and at home in firefox.
Looks like it's a FF related problem, seems to work OK in Internet Exploder. I'll check when I get home to see what (if any) the difference between the URLs that they are trying to access FF & IE to see if I can spot what is goind wrong....

Cheers.

Phill.

Its calling some code that is effectively an IFRAME wrapper.......I'm tempted to just open the forums in another window on their own rather than use this wrapper as it does limit the width of visible space
Simon Hardy
sixxie
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Re: The new forums?

Post by sixxie »

Probably the best choice - phpbb has good usability. Just be sure to keep your install patched up: it's not got a great security track record!

Does data migration look straightforward? The markup used within posts is very similar, so shouldn't need much munging (I'm sure we could put up with mistakes in the old material), so it seems it would mostly be down to how easy it is to import data to phpbb outside of its interface.
admin
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Re: The new forums?

Post by admin »

The one thing PhpBB has going for it is a great support community. I found when I was researching which to choose for a site some time back that was my main criteria, without support you have nothing.

As for security yes keep them patched up as these are the (official) patch updates for serious security breaches but there are a number of things you can do to reduce your risk factor, but if you have a determined hacker then back-up is your best defense (there is a cron ? job available that will run automatically backing up your SQL and emailing it)

Do a search in the forums for 'site security' (like I need to tell you that) but the truth is a site is only as secure as the person who designs it there are a number of things there you can do which will never be in any patch because they only patch holes these are preventative measures.

I did that and spent a couple of weeks reading suggestions and decided which to use/ignore but remember one thing, IF you install a security measure AND you intend to install any add-ons to your chosen CMS then you will have to undo your changes PRIOR to installation and re-apply afterwards if you know some of the code you changed will be replaced by the chosen add-on (depending on your experience sometimes you can skip).

The more security measures you put in, the more secure your site is BUT the more hassle it is from maintenance point of view. Most of the obvious holes are covered,.

Its good fun until you realise just how much work there is.

P.S.
I found some of the best 'tricks' were using the .htaccess on the server, using that you can cause 'em some major headaches.
Simon Hardy
admin
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Re: The new forums?

Post by admin »

Sorry Sixxie I only just read all your post, yes there is a little script that every coder should keep in his toolbox. It's called Bigdump and you can get it over at Hotscripts.com or err - here

http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/20922.html

Piece of piss to use, just fill in the php with your SQL database info, if you need to change the tables names you do it here. Then upload with your SQL file named correctly and hey presto, when you call up the file in your browser its self explanatory after that. Neat uh! - MAKE SURE YOU DELETE AFTERWARDS.
Simon Hardy
admin
Site Admin
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Re: The new forums?

Post by admin »

I seem to have a cookie problem here; every time I visit the forum (without exiting the browser) I must log in anew.
Simon Hardy
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