PHPBB Integration ... (again)

Ok, Seems as I read posts here it opens old wounds. One of the biggest issues I have ever had is with the fish forum. It is incomplete, unknown, hard to manage, hard to use and has absolutely ZERO features. I have been ignoring the problem since Esase bailed on me back in 2010 but enough is enough.

It affects how many users join my site. They come, they use, they hate and they leave. It really is that simple...

I have that package from Esase still. I am going to modify the config file to allow it to load to 7.1.4 and reinstall it.

.

.

.

Never mind. I'm not doing this again. Like someone else here, and after several thousand dollars of wasted money, I am about done with this lame duck project...... My users hate Dolphin.

My users love Dolphin, the average visit time has gone up to 40 minutes. Not bad at all I think.

Yes I agree, the forums by default are not nice at all, therefore I worked on the code and  created a new module that I'm selling in the market for $35. For all the modules I wrote, without this one, my site would not have gone live. Luckely I just finished it before a dissaster happened to my old site and I was forced to make a decission about putting my old software back or start using Dolphin. I decided to go for Dolphin and have no regrets!

http://www.boonex.com/m/killer-whale-forums

http://www.boonex.com/m/dolphin-essentials

My team can not abandon Dolphin, we simply don't have the resources to dustbin what we have done.  We can not afford to go with another platform and start over with spending money we don't have and working to get code to perform as we need it.  Even if Boonex shuts tomorrow, we will continue with the Dolphin platform.

The biggest issue here is getting Boonex to listen to us.  I came in and the TinyMCE was loading the wrong toolbars.  Boonex answer was we can not repeat the issue.  Then I go to the demo site and hammered a bit and low and behold I got it to do the same on the demo site.  There were topics two year old on the exact same issue; two years and Boonex had not fixed it.  Whatever the cause, outdated TinyMCE, or the init structure, it was finally fixed in the 7.1.0 release.  Then there was the collpased replies issue where one had to click to death to see replies to replies.  Bad design and it is still not in the core even though AlexT came in and showed us how Boonex was doing it and how to fix it.  Hopefully it will be in 7.1.5.  There were old topics on that issue as well. 

Since the OP was about the Fish Forum; here is another example of Boonex not listening.  We told Andrew Boon how bad the idea of Auto Pilot was.  Yet, they ignore what we had to say and it is still in the code.  It is horrible.  One almost think that it was Andrew's idea and as such can not be labelled bad.  Here is a pointer that I will give freely; employees should always be allow to criticise decisions of upper management even if it hurts the feelings of upper management.  Do you want to know the way to get the best solutions to problems?  Go out on the factory floor because the ones out there doing the day to day dirty work knows what is wrong and what needs fixing.  Going to a topic that has 16 pages of Auto Pilot is a nightmare because you have no idea how many pages are there and you have to scroll to the bottom of EACH page to find out and get the link to the next.  Andrew Boon, go to one of those topics and see if you think Auto Pilot is such a great idea.  Listen to the users!

 Those are nice mods that attack a couple of the problems of the fish forum. But I have some questions. What about sharing, sub forums, video upload/embeds, photo uploading, user banners at the bottom of the posts? Proper and diverse security protocols?, FULL integration with the rest of the damned Dolphin script?, I mean, come on. I could list at least 25 other 'lack of function' problems that every other forum script builder ON THE PLANET has made available in their scripts. This thing is a hack, has always been a hack and until it's completely replaced, will remain to be the single worst abortion Boonex ever created.

I have been working on and developing a non-iframed integration of phpbb for a while now.

Everyone is whining for a forum integration that does not run in iframes due to SEO problems caused by the iframes.

Now i have determined that i can do it with a boat load of work and time, but there is a catch. There allways is. If i do the non iframed version i will have to provide the skins because i have to create the dolphin header from within phpbb. So this means a modified version of phpbb with two custom skins. A light similar to the UNI template and a Dark.

The header and menu layout will not match the website 100% unless they are running the UNI template.

So i am wondering if i should even do it as i know there will be tons of complaints about that. So i don't think i can win. Iframed or not there are advantages and disadvanges to both.

A few of the issues you mentioned can be done simply by adding a few plugins to TinyMCE.  Video embeds are easy by adding an embed plugin (you can also do it by HTML editor but users need a quick dirty way and the embed plugin does that.  I also changed the default htmlpurifier handling of YouTube and other video sites iframe codes.  Of course to upload a video it has to be processed first and stored on the server; doing that directly in the forum might be tricky and the user has to sit and wait.  I don't have a lot of knowledge about XSLT; which is what the default forum is built on.  For the photo uploading, the way Boonex has it, at least on the 7.1.x version is that you upload the photo, then click save, then you edit and use the "insert to post".  However, there is a free open source plugin for both TinyMCE 3 and 4 that handles it by uploading the image, stores it on the server, then inserts the image tag into the editor since it knows the URL to the stored image.  It is easy enough to add this plugin to TinyMCE.  User banners at the bottom of the posts?  Mmm, I wonder if the tag line could be used for this?  If one could store HTML in the tag line I don't see why not, I might play with that one.  Of course the banners would then show under the comments so maybe not a good solution.

Sub forums.  This is one that I really don't understand.  Could you provide me to a link to a forum or script example that has sub forums set up?

Explain what Full Integration would entail?

Sub forums. You can create Groups, then 1 layer of forums underneath that group. You can't go any deeper. Having said that, I only touched the surface by giving a few examples of what's missing. I also know that some issues can be fixed by modifying the forum here and there with TinyMCE upgrades and such but that's not the point.The entire forum is a foreign bastardization to the Dolphin script.

A good example of non integration is the way the forum handles photos. I can create separate folders and by modifying TinyMCE I can allow users to create a folder within the forum script to store photos for their posts but even then, there's no integration with the site as a whole. The whole setup is just lame. If you want to place an image in a post, you have to copy the url from where the image is hosted and place it in your post. You can't just select a photo from your own Dolphin photo gallery. There should be an upload function that automatically places the photo in a 'forum' folder within your account, then allows you to use it as much as you want in your forum posts.

Creating a phpbb integration, while being a GREAT improvement, still does not properly handle the lack of integration. This is probably why Esase gave up on it once he started looking at the actual integration requirements.

If I were a master coder and a web application guru, here's what I would do. Delete the entire idea of Orca and rebuild the forums from the ground up as a mod just like any other mod. To make is user friendly, I would NOT try and reinvent the wheel making use of as much of the phpbb script as I could. Marry it to the photo mod, video mod, profile mod, etc. In short, actually make it part of Dolphin instead of some piece of crap that's been tacked onto the outside with rusty nails.

Just to be clear. My users have been complaining for a long time that this site is just too difficult to navigate and use. Many don't visit the site because of this. The lack of photo integration I posted above is a perfect example of that problem. It's just too much work to use.

 Sorry i don't understand how its different from Orca, can you explain a bit more?

 That is Orca. You create a group, then below that group, you can create multiple forums. You cannot go any deeper than that....

For example: lets say I have a truck repair site.

• Trucks.

1. Intertrashional
2. Mercedez

Now what if I wanted to build the following under Intertrashional. 'Body components, Engine components, Wheels & Tires'. I can only create threads of these topics, not a sub forum of the main forum....

Thanks for explaining.

I have "sub forums" in my orca http://www.rangerschat.com/forum/ .................i want a new forum setup so we can properly monetize our forums with adsense, like all the other cool sites do :(

This can be done with a file browser plugin to TinyMCE.  I have such a plugin on my site that works with the forum.  You can upload images (and other file types as well) and then the next time you just browse your folder; and not just forum but will be for the blog and other areas that has the TinyMCE toolbar.  I am using a free version of file browser TinyBrowser that works with TinyMCE 3; they have yet to update it for TinyMCE4 but I am not sure I would go to TinyMCE 4 or not if they did.

I mentioned the other quick upload and insert tool that you can add to TinyMCE.

Now, yes, a plugin that would allow you to browse to your Dolphin photo albums would be nice.  Not sure how to do that one.

What we are attempting, or at least me, is to help knock out some of the ones that we can easily fixed to help improve your forum.  I will be happy to try and help with this when I can find the time.

Yes, I can see how that would be nice to have.  

• Trucks.

1. Intertrashional

• Body Parts

1. a forum topic
2. a forum topic

• Engine Parts

1. a forum topic
2. a forum topic

1. Mercedez

 I checked your forum. You do not. I think you misunderstand. Yours goes GROUP - FORUM - TOPIC like everyone else's. What we're looking for is GROUP - FORUM - TOPIC - SUBTOPIC - SUBSUBTOPIC. Some forum scripts have the ability to set how many levels deep you want to go.

Here is the terminology from the wiki:

Structure

A forum consists of a tree like directory structure. The top end is "Categories". A forum can be divided into categories for the relevant discussions. Under the categories are sub-forums and these sub-forums can further have more sub-forums. The topics (commonly called threads) come under the lowest level of sub-forums and these are the places under which members can start their discussions or posts. Logically forums are organized into a finite set of generic topics (usually with one main topic) driven and updated by a group known as members, and governed by a group known as moderators.^{[citation needed]} It can also have a graph structure.^[8] All message boards will use one of three possible display formats. Each of the three basic message board display formats: Non-Threaded/Semi-Threaded/Fully Threaded, has its own advantages and disadvantages. If messages are not related to one another at all a Non-Threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and multiple replies to that message topic a semi-threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and replies to that message topic, and replies to replies, then a fully threaded format is best.^[9]

 AHHH OK why didnt you just say so,, geeze!

There is never, ever going to be a good third party forum integration.  First of all, none of the mainstream forums are a good fit for Dolphin.  Vbulletin, IPB, and phpbb all probably are built with more lines of code than Dolphin, and within Dolphin they will all seem a bit 'clunky'.  It's like trying to put a Detroit diesel in a golf cart.  Even if someone managed to integrate one of these forums, there is no way on earth they will put the effort into a complete integration where the same forum is used in groups,ads, events, and the 500 modules in the market that are not much more than a renamed group module with a few extra bells and whistles.  That would leave users with two completely different forums to use, and that will make the whole site feel clunky.  Not to mention that awful BBcode that people would have to use in the main forums.    There's just too many things wrong with a third party forum integration before you even get started.

The best thing to do here, is to start an uprising.  I don't think Boonex will ever recode the forum module from the ground up, but maybe if enough people persisted, some of the most needed feature could be added.  Some things to ask for:

• Nested categories..... sub forums might be asking too much
• Moxiecode imagemanager bundled with Dolphin.  If Boonex buys a very reasonably priced enterprise license, this is feasible and adds on-the-fly image upload and basic image editing.
• Forum user groups with enhanced permissions
• etc....

It's much more reasonable to ask for some basic structural enhancements that can be built upon, and not ask for everything at once.  I'd suggest we build a list of the 10 most needed enhancements and then start a revolt.  If Boonex does not comply, then we start organizing a road trip to Australia.

 Besides the forum, if people wants to start an uprising, then we can also push for some changes to the store module.  It is so blimmin' limited.

• At least allow the admins to take a commission from sales.
• And to sell more than downloadable products.

Yes, there are workarounds in the store (selling in the Ads module, for example) but that makes the site rather confusing for the user.

Also, the world has evolved and wants to have the ability to share on the go!   Boonex needs to catch up!!!  So, upgrading the video system to allow vine-style shares would make a real difference.

And responsive templates!! For Pete's sake. Its 2014.

That's my 2 cents.

I always wanted to go to Australia. First I would check out a 'road train', then we could all head over to Boon's house for a little shrimp on the barbie!

Bet that would make him at least a little nervous.

 RE:

 You've got some change coming.  This thread is about the forum module... your comments are entirely off-topic.

 Beside sub forums and imagemanager. What you want in enhanced permissions and etc?

 RE:

 Here's a page describing vBulletin permissions..... although it's a more complicated example of what is needed here.  Before we can talk about enhanced permissions, we'd have to reach a consensus on what the various forum user groups should be. 

Some quick thoughts:

• Guests
• Logged in users
• Male members
• Female members
• Admins
• Moderators

Also, user definable groups would be nice.  Often the various groups would be based on criteria such as tenure, age, or total number of posts. 

Some initial thoughts on per-group permissions:

• Post in forum
• View forum
• edit own posts
• edit others posts
• delete own posts
• delete others posts

Then, for every forum, per-group permissions are assigned.