suggested forum software?

what is a recommended open source forum that does not have security holes

i will probably not synchronize the user logins but chances are it will be using the same db

You normally get what you pay for so apart from VBulletin, which is NOT free, and used here now at zencart, free forums which appear stable are PUNBB and Simple Machines
Urls:
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php/
http://www.punbb.org/

Another vote for SimpleMachines here.

cslhypnotech:

Another vote for SimpleMachines here.

I need something that I would be able to change the style sheet easily to match the look of the main shiopping site

is phpbb just not a good idea?

is phpbb just not a good idea?
You requested the most stable forums, PHPBB, in recent months, has had
numerous security upgrades. Probably ok now, purely a matter of choice
really :wink2:

JForum :thumbsup: mmmm Java

I don't know anything about it really. :smile:

Simplemachines allows a live preview as you edit the stylesheet. Very handy, if you ask me.

Simplemachines (SMF) is the most user-friendly, and includes many features which you would need to install separately in phpbb. SMF is also far easier to upgrade than phpbb. However, phpbb has more mods that you can install to give your forum more flexibility. I think this is the case simply because phpbb has been around longer.

I use SMF on my forum. It has its limitations, but it's pretty much worry-free.

I settled on PunBB as I like its simplicty. I find phpBB and vBulletin to be a little too busy and flashy.
http://www.punbb.org/

I also tried out Vanilla which was also nice, but is better suited for smaller sites.
http://www.getvanilla.com/

This one also looks pretty interesting. Uses AJAX in moderation and it looks like it would work nicely.
http://www.blursoft.com/metaForum/

It is it has to be free- another vote for SimpleMachines

If not, vBulletin is the most stable, economical and secure forum software currently out there. (and given the support crew backing it, it's inexpensive software).

Hello Everyone,

This is an old thread, but no less relevant for me now.

I have some ideas for a forum, and I would like to take a look at various Zen Cart sites that have a working forum or conversely, a working forum that has a zen cart shop; either way is interesting enough.

If you could PM me with or post some example URLs, I'd be grateful.

Thanks!

I suggest you take a look at SMF (Simple Machine). the main reason is:
it's quite stable, user friendly, and it has an API. How does it help you? It will let you later integrate the forum into the cart much easier.

Thanks Yellow1912,

SMF, and Vanilla are being made available thru their Hosting Connection feature at GoDaddy. It also seems as though SMF can be made to look alot like vBulletin. I did some reading about SMF and have heard good things about it.

I was hoping to see actual forums associated with zencart websites.
Anybody?

Hi Zinfandel,

I have a forum set up, but it is crappy in the sense that no-one has posted on it probably
a. because I don't promote it,
b. because I haven't posted any starting topics (I actually don't know much about the subject of quilting anyways!) and
c. the sign-up process is a little complex and needs to be refined slightly. For instance the default (can be changed fairly easily) warning that phpBB gives before a user can sign up is like 3 paragraphs long, I don't need that b.s. just tell my users in one sentence to behave... or else!

So, it is a phpBB 3 forum. This release is considered stable at this point. Some people for Zen Cart have been working on integrating the sign-up so that you can choose a nickname while signing up for Zen Cart, and just use the same password.

I think the design for phpBB 3 has much potential for a serious user, and the admin is quite an improvement of the previous phpBBs.

phpBB 3 has many templates, and customizing them just takes a bit of digging around.

I was able to make the header look the same as my Zen Cart header which would be important for seemless viewing <- if anyone was actually viewing the forum ;)

Anyhow, you can check out what the layout looks like at:
www.fabstash.com/forum
This layout is actually a modified version of a template called "Milky Way".

The main reason I would recommend phpBB is because it has rather genuis type programmers working on the code, and has been around for a while plus has a very large user base.
I do think you could go pretty damn far with phpBB 3 if you had average or above skills to make it cool.

Hi again,

I just found this forum called Orca which is AJAX based:
http://freeajaxscripts.net/directory/Ajax_Forum_Scripts/Orca_-_Interactive_forum_script/details.html
(by the way, freeajaxscripts.net looks to be a site worth checking out for AJAX scripts to use and abuse on your own site)

They have a demo of the Orca forum here:
http://www.demozzz.com/orca/demo/

This page gives info about Orca developement, where its going, where it came from:
http://www.boonex.com/products/orca/orcademo/

"Orca works as a standalone forum or can be plugged-in to any website with a member database. " - from the Orca makers website, boonex.com

They have a community working on making this some supreme open source software
Info here

rainthebat:

So, it is a phpBB 3 forum. This release is considered stable at this point. Some people for Zen Cart have been working on integrating the sign-up so that you can choose a nickname while signing up for Zen Cart, and just use the same password.

Has anyone accomplished this yet?

Yes, they have created code that works for this, but there is a little bit of rummaging around to get the code into the right place.

It is all explained in a couple post on this topic:
phpbb 3 integration

It is not the Zen Cart team that has done it in this case, it is some of the users, so I guess it is a little unofficial.

No one has posted a way to get someone to sign up via the forum and get that user into Zen Cart as well, only the other way around (sign up for your Zen Cart store gets you an account for phpBB Forum).

Also, the code that they developed while good, may be a little confusing for the user signing up. All it says is "forum nickname" and you enter a nickname. It doesn't explain that you may want to right the name down, and that the password will work for the forum - you'd just have to guess that this is the case. One could put that info in there easily though.

You can just use the user email as login for forum as well.

Indeed, it's very easy to do so with SMF. And when user logins to the cart, he/she is logged into the forum as well.

(I have used SMF API to do something like that 2 years ago _)

rainthebat:

Yes, they have created code that works for this, but there is a little bit of rummaging around to get the code into the right place.

It is all explained in a couple post on this topic:
phpbb 3 integration

I think I am much blonder than I thought, because I have diligently done everything in that integration area and I still don't even get the option for a nick name to come up. I'm just so lost at this point.:( :dontgetit

Hi StarDancer,

Yes, some of that code in there is a bit over the top for a beginner (like me).
How much did you change, and did you keep a mental record of what edits you made?

Since I got you into this mess, I'll have to help you out.

This is what Sadr1an1 said in that forum topic:

I have succesfuly begin integration with phpbb3, all i have managed to do is synchronizing account creation from zencart into phpbb. After the modification in admin section Configuration->My store->Enable phpBB linkage? = true, and the config file, i have to modify class.phpbb.php, just the following function:

All the code in the postings before this one were irrelevant, since they didn't actually accomplish the desired goal. This post by Sadr1an1 was post #12.

So the file to edit was this one: includes/classes/class.phpbb.php
and you need to replace the function phpbb_create_account which formoraly looked like this:

function phpbb_create_account($nick, $password, $email_address) {
if ($this->phpBB['installed'] != true || !zen_not_null($password) || !zen_not_null($email_address) || !zen_not_null($nick)) return false;
if ($this->phpbb_check_for_duplicate_email($email_address) == 'already_exists') {
// $this->phpbb_change_email($old_email, $email_address);
} else {
$sql = "select max(user_id) as total from " . $this->phpBB['users_table'];
$phpbb_users = $this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
$user_id = ($phpbb_users->fields['total'] + 1);
$sql = "insert into " . $this->phpBB['users_table'] . "
(user_id, username, user_password, user_email, user_regdate)
values
('" . (int)$user_id . "', '" . $nick . "', '" . md5($password) . "', '" . $email_address . "', '" . time() ."')";
$this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
//could do a check here to see if Insert_ID() matches $user_id...

// @TODO: MySQL5

    $sql = "INSERT INTO " . $this->phpBB['groups_table'] . " (group_name, group_description, group_single_user, group_moderator)
            VALUES (0, 'Personal User', 1, 0)";
    $this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
    $group_id = $this->db_phpbb->Insert_ID();
    $sql = "INSERT INTO " . $this->phpBB['user_group_table'] . " (user_id, group_id, user_pending)
            VALUES ($user_id, $group_id, 0)";
    $this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
    //might optionally send an extra email welcoming them to the phpBB forum, reminding them of their nickname?
  }
}

you would replace this code with this:

function phpbb_create_account($nick, $password, $email_address) {
if ($this->phpBB['installed'] != true || !zen_not_null($password) || !zen_not_null($email_address) || !zen_not_null($nick)) return false;
      if ($this->phpbb_check_for_duplicate_email($email_address) == 'already_exists') {
//        $this->phpbb_change_email($old_email, $email_address);
      } else {
        $sql = "select max(user_id) as total from " . $this->phpBB['users_table'];
        $phpbb_users = $this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
        $user_id = ($phpbb_users->fields['total'] + 1);
        $sql = "insert into " . $this->phpBB['users_table'] . "
                ( username,username_clean, user_password, user_email, user_regdate)
                values
                ( '" . $nick . "','" . $nick . "', '" . md5($password) . "', '" . $email_address . "', '" . time() ."')";
        $this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
//could do a check here to see if Insert_ID() matches $user_id...


// @TODO: MySQL5

 //$sql = "INSERT INTO " . $this->phpBB['groups_table'] . " (group_name, group_desc, group_single_user, group_moderator)
        //        VALUES (0, 'Personal User', 1, 0)";
        //$this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
        //$group_id = $this->db_phpbb->Insert_ID();
        $sql = "INSERT INTO " . $this->phpBB['user_group_table'] . " (user_id, group_id, user_pending)
                VALUES ($user_id, 2, 0)";
        $this->db_phpbb->Execute($sql);
        //might optionally send an extra email welcoming them to the phpBB forum, reminding them of their nickname?
      }
    }

After this, you could go the extra mile and do what user neteasy did which they explained in post#18 on that topic:
"I have to update the CONFIG table in PHPBB3 so the newest member will be displayed on the PHPBB3 homepage"