Message Boards

I'd like to host a message board for chatting with some of my online friends, but i thought it would be cool to manage the board on our own site(not using on of those free, link to it message boards) I imagine that John Vranesevich and his staff keep this board running. How would I go about creating a message board? is there someplace i could download some source code that i could easily implement a site? maybe a tutorial on how to do it?(i have the basic idea, but i might hit a few snags or something). I could try using a free board but it would be more fun to try making our own, also i dont think those boards give the admin as much control, we would need the ability to modify user/password, and banned user lists for deleting accounts, banning people etc. since we would only be for a small number of people, i think we could do it fairly easily.

thanx for the help :D

1) JP does not run this crappy site.
2) google is your friend.
3) http://www.phpbb.com

Uhh, you could look to the bottom of the page to at the "Related Topics" or whatever the exact title of them is...

There are a lot of free forum apps..., lots. Many run on php and somekind of database, but then there are also ASP and CGI solutions...

Basically it depends on the kind of server you have access to.

And, it has been a while since JP sold this site to corporate america..., but then if it was as crappy as many "old-timers" complain it is... (Granted it has changed..., but such is life really.)

Invision have free boards that are quite good, google them.

i use phpbb at www.stekdoza.com/forum and i host a friends forum at www.stekdoza.com/djracer those are exmples of phpbb boards, i download the zip file from phpp.com and modified the board to look like as it does now...if you want to see Invision Power Board .... me and d00dz attackin use it on www.introonline.com/forums . In my opinion IPB is much better....the AdminCP is better etc....for phpbb modification www.phpbbhacks.com is great, also for skins, mods and icons, smilies etc....

do you have a domain name ? .com ? if you do IM me at "LSysAdmn" and i'll help you set phpbb up ...if not tell me how many categories you'll need and how many people are gonna be on that forum and mayb'e i can host it for you at like www.stekdoza.com/phonedog or whatever. ...

I got phpbb off of phpbb.com and i am not totally sure how to install it. I dont have any hosting as of yet. I read the installation instructions and I understand how to do it, in theory, but i havent been able to try it out. so i have a few questions about it:

1.) is it normal for all of the pages to be blank or just jumbled php code when i try to view them from my desktop?

2.) do most servers have php and mysql installed? a host doesnt, is it likely that i would to ftp the php and mysql installations onto the server and just install them?(i think the readme file for mysql or php says to do this)

2.) Can i get a tutorial or something on doing those customizations i really liked those.(i havent worked with php much)

i was going to use comcast hosting that comes with my isp, but its not real hosting, its only lets you host pages that you make useing their limited wizards and junk. I dont have a domain name yet, bout i could get some kind of redirection service or even a cheap name off of somplace like go-daddy.com. and to memorY, I have your name in my contact list and I guess i'll talk to you sometime, that will be cool :)

1) PHP is an interpretted language. This means that PHP files are basically text files that begin with <?php and end with ?> and have a .php extension. The .php tells the server that they need to go through the PHP engine and the <?php and ?> tells the engine that it actually has to do stuff. You can read the entire source for phpbb if you feel so inclined, just grab everyone's favorite text editor Notepad.

2) Host that have PHP and MySQL will advertise the fact. If they don't tell you they have it then probably they don't. If a host doesn't have them installed, it is very unlikely that you would be able to install them yourself. And you certainly wouldn't be able to install them simply by ftp'ing the files for MySQL and PHP there, you'd need to ssh in to run the configure and make commands. You'd probably pay more for a host that allows you to install mysql and php yourself than you would for a host that has it pre-installed, silly but true. You could install Apache/MySQL/PHP on your computer just to fool with it, just becareful as that's how I ended up learning PHP.

Peace,
Dhej

but, alot of the pages are blank, even in notepad, whats the deal with that?

Some of them are being written to as they are viewd as i understand....some should be blank..dont worry about it....If you have web server space, upload the extracted folder to it, and i can help you further ...

is there a way that i could try it out on my home computer? i tried installing mysql and php on i cant get it to run. i was hoping i could kind of simulate it locally before i buy hosting, etc. also, when people do all of those mods on phpbb message boards and stuff, do they install it and then modifiy it or do they modify the installation files?

I'm not sure about simluating it....but with the mods, you first upload them(install them) then modify them in the admin CP ....or like www.stekdoza.com/example/example.php and u may have option there...

I run a MySQL server and an Apache server compiled with PHP on my laptop, and on my desktop for development purposes.

If you run Windows, this looks promising http://sourceforge.net/projects/phptriad/

OR there's this site: http://www.firepages.com.au/

Or there's the google search I just did:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ache+mysql+php

Just as a note, you'll probably access your server with the url http://localhost or http://127.0.0.0

I'm just assuming you run Windows, the most common platform for Apache, MySQL, and PHP are on Linux, a setup typically referred to as LAMP. I run it on both my MacOS X laptop and my OpenBSD test box. The only windows box I run is for my mom and sis so that I don't have to take the time to show them "where the internet is" or any such painful concept.

I dunno about those blank pages and jumbled code then, never had that experience, well not when opening them from teh desktop, sometimes I've forgotten the <?php and ?> to encapsulate the file and been scratching my head for a second or to wondering why I'm reading code rather than looking at a website..., or I've accidently navigated to an include file and wondered why it showed up blank..., but then that is why I run a copy locally, so that I can make those stupid mistakes before the public can do those same stupid mistakes.

Peace,
Dhej

When I started using phpbb I had no experience with servers. I had to struggle through it.

Phonedog-
install the apache web server at apache.org.
Then install php at php.net
Configure apache to use php, details in the php instructions
Install mysql at the mysql site.

Put the php folder into your apache root folder (usually htdocs)
make sure you apache server is running, windows has a monitor in your system tray.
go to your http://localhost, you should see a apache page
this comes from the htdocs folder, so http://localhost/phpbbwhatever will go to your phpbb installation.

It will ask you to fill in mysql database information, google to find tutorials on adding tables and such.


Reading your posts it seems you are getting blank pages because you do not have a server installed. Thats what apache is. The .php files are interpreted by the server with php installed. When you double click the file on your desktop, you completely skip the whole parsing of php code, therefore nothing shows. When you browse to it with IE to your localhost server in the browser, you send a request to apache. Apache then reads and interprets the code with PHP, and then sends HTML to the browser, not PHP. So set up the apache server first, When you get Http://localhost to show you the feather logo, then that works. Then install PHP. Try to find a hello world script in php and put it in your htdocs folder. then browse to http://localhost/helloworld.php and youll see how php pages work by server side scripting. Then the big boy, MySQL. Keep posting if you have any problems, ive done this a few times by now.

sounds good, ill do it tonight :)

easiest way to install apache/php/mySQl IMHO is using phptriad

you can pick it up free of sourceforge and is just one exe you run which installs all 3

once installed go to (asuming you used the default directory) c:\apache\mysql\bin\winmysqladmin.exe to setup up your username/pass

then to add databases first ensure mySQL is running (in the system tray you should see a set of traffic lights) then open apache (under start >> programs >> phptriad >> apache >> start apache)

in your webbrowser got to localhost/phpmyadmin type in whatever name you wish for your dtatbase and hit create

that should be you - to install your message board software simply put it in c:\apache\htdocs and then in your browser type localhost/forum/install.php or wherever the install file is for the forum software

the normal things these scripts ask for is (i think)

database location = localhost
username = the one you set in mySQL
password = again one you set in mysql
database name = the one you set in phpmyadmin

fill those in and you should be fine :)

v_Ln

Just remembered...

This is a bundle of php, apache, mysql that is preconfigured to work on localhost for php developers.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpdev5

I used it, worked great, click a button and start developing.

i just installed using the php5dev and i can view the install pages and stuff, but when i try to fill out the information in install.php and submit it, it give me a "critical error, could not access the database" error. whats this? i thought it was going to create a database during the installation. im pretty sure im using mysql 3.x or 4.x but i tried it with both and it does gives me the same error

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/...tw=programming

Try to make the database by hand. Use the instructions in the link to create your own database through the program in DOS, set your own password, maybe try to throw a -version flag to see what you have. The documentation should give you info about versions, though.

thanx, ill do that now :)

ok, i got the server running, installed the board and made my admin account... now i just have a few more problems

1. when i try to make a regular user account it has some kind of "could not send email" error. i guess there needs to be some kind of email authentication. do i need to be running an smtp server for this? if so, do most webservers(for when i host it) come with smtp functionality?

2. the database is saved outside the actual web content folder in the "mysql/data" folder as "mydb" right now in my local setup. if i put it on a webserver, where will the database be? would it be in my folder or in some "mysql/data" folder that everybody on the server uses? if thats the case, will i need to modify phpbb and tell it to look to the new place for a message board? also, do most servers let you login to mysql and query your databases in command prompt? that made things alot easier for me, id hate to have to write a php script(since i dont know php very well) everytime i want to do some adminy stuff on my site.

edit:
3. is it hard to modify these things aesthetically? i want to spiff it up a little, anybody know where i can get some good templates to customize it with and some instructions on how to use them?

1. There is a way to turn off the email notificatin functionality in the admin panel. You would have to have a mail server setup (SMTP), something I have never done. That's what will give you errors.
2. No clue :p
3. http://www.phpbb.com/styles/ or download gimp or get photoshop and learn how to edit the graphics yourself. Then you can learn how to edit the code to move stuff around.

1. not familiar with the board system your using but in any i have come across there should be an option in the admin panel to turn user (email) authentication off - enable that on your test one as you dont need to authenticate accounts your creating to test it :)

2. you will need to install the script on to a new database on your host - normally most paid hosts have a control panel where you can set up your databases etc - set one up trough it and then install the script much the same way as youve done just with the new information (database name etc) I doubt you'll ahve command line access to dbases and you will only be able to access your dbases same as anyone else won't be able to access yours.

3. what soda said

v_Ln

sounds good, i had email authentication diabled already(by default) and it still has the error. i think ill take the email question over to phpbb.com