How to create a discussion forum? -...

User 2167670 Photo


Trial User
10 posts

I'd like to design a discussion forum that would be similar to this one. How easy would this be with VSD? Are there any templates?

Thanks,
Don Culp
User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

hiya dculp,

Are you proficient with PHP and databases etc.? You would need to have very good knowledge in those and a I'm sure a few other things in order to actually create a forum. There are a lot of great forum programs out there already, one of the best being SMF Forums which you can find at:
http://www.simplemachines.org/

And there is also the standby which is what most have used for use being PHPbb forums:
http://www.phpbb.com/

Both of these forums are right now the top ones being used by the general public, there are many many others out there too that are pretty nice. These 2 above can also be installed via the cPanel of most servers if you have access to that for your server.

Other than that, yes I'm sure you can create one... no I don't believe you could do that "with" VSD at all, but I'm sure you could incorporate one using your menu in VSD to direct you to an external one like those above.
User 364143 Photo


Guest
5,410 posts

I would recommend SMF forum. It is easy to update via the backend with a click of the mouse. It also has a nice Project HoneyPot plugin to combat spam. I would not suggest you attempt to create your own forum with little knowledge, unless you first learn how to code securely.
CoffeeCup... Yeah, they are the best!
User 92156 Photo


Registered User
272 posts

Most of the various forums that I log onto use SMF - seeems to be very popular and I noticed they claim it's free.
User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

yep 100% free, lots of addon modules, it's pretty slick, I use it on 2 different sites at the moment. You can get a small feel for what it does and is like on my son's music site that we put on just before Chrismas:

http://proudayou.com
User 2167670 Photo


Trial User
10 posts

SMF looks good.

Do you know if there's any way to save the user discussion files to my local computer in case SMF would no longer be available. Are these files in such a format that they could be imported to another forum such as PHPbb?
User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

hmm no clue on that sorry, you could go to those 2 particular websites and search around and see if they have any information on that there. Usually if they can import from other forums they have something somewhere on it. Same with the saving, look around. I've never looked into that as I've used PHPbb for like 8 years and never lost a board, been using SMF for about a year now and so far no issues at all, much easier than PHPbb. Also if you have access to your server you can always do database backups of your own too.
User 122279 Photo


Senior Advisor
14,447 posts
Online Now

dculp, you can save the installation files locally, and a backup of your database too. If you have your database backed up, I would think it should be possible to port it over to a PHPBB forum, as they both use MySql databases. I don't know the exact details of that process, though, but it would be an idea to ask in the forum of the discussion forum that you want to import to.
Ha en riktig god dag!
Inger, Norway

My work in progress:
Components for Site Designer and the HTML Editor: https://mock-up.coffeecup.com


User 364143 Photo


Guest
5,410 posts

SMF is established and is not going to disappear any time soon. I wouldn't worry about it.
CoffeeCup... Yeah, they are the best!

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