looking to Set up a boards style website

the Guru

Hi Guys

I have an idea at the Moment for a Community website I want to set up But It involves having a Bullitin Boards style site much like this one.

What is Involved in setting up a site Like this.

What do I need ie Programming skills, Servers etc.

Are they difficult to administer

And If you have any other relevent info Please advise me before I take the Next steps.

cheers Dec

tom-thebox

They are pretty handy to be honest, and this question has been asked here before "search" may be your friend in this matter.

Basicly you need a decent host one who allows forums and if you plan to get a good few users try and get a good bit of bandwith. MYSQL also would be needed in many cases.

As for setting up the board all you need to do is be able to read, the readme's, install guides and as a last resort find a tutorial.

You got a few choices in forums/boards to use heres a few.

http://www.invisionz.co.uk/ - i use this http://bbs.theboxnetwork.net
http://www.phpbb.com/ - http://hosting365.ie/phpBB2/
http://www.vbulletin.com/ - http://boards.ie uses this.

I put some example links beside the different forums so you can see whats what.

If you are after a place to host it check out the webhosting company list!

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/t57012.html

the Guru

Ok I have downloaded the PHPbb I take it I have to know PHP

or should I be able to blag it .

Also and I should probably read the notes what server do I need running on my machine and Mysql ????

seamus

You should probably be fine with Apache running with the PHP module on the server.

Any version of MYSQL above 3.x will do fine afaik.

You don't need to know php at all. phpBB is extremely straightforward.

Run the command

CREATE DATABASE phpBB (or whatever you want to call your DB

in your mysql interface. You also don't need to create a new db, but it's good practice if you do.

Once you have your phpBB files all uploaded, point your browser at
http://www.myhost.mydomain/phpBB/install.php

inserting in the relevant directories, etc...

It should be all explained to you from there.

Just remember to delete the install.php file once install is complete.....

the Guru

Cheers guys I will try it out over the Weekend and if I have any issues which I reckon I will I will get back you you who know

miju

Abrior do one that you can install with an automated program which takes about a half hour.

Look under their products, it's called Simplex Database you've to pay for it BUT there is a free one which I use called Simplex lite and it's VERY good IMHO

It's fully configurable and to give you an example of what it can look like have a look here IMN Mesageboards

PLEASE DONT POST IN IT YET COS I'M STILL TESTING A FEW THINGS AND IT'S TECHNICALLY NOT LIVE YET

PhilipMarlowe

Check out Infopop too.
I still love UBB.classic, brings back memories of this place back in the day...

the Guru

I am using Dreamweaver UD4 for posting the BB but when I preview in Browser all it is giving me is the PHP code I have

My IIS Server Running and Also SQL running too


What am I doing wrong

seamus

I've not much experience with IIS, but you'll have to install support for PHP, and also tell the server what to do when it encounters php/php3 files.

Check out www.php.net for downloads/docs

Download this : http://www.php.net/get/php-4.3.1-Win32.zip/from/a/mirror

Then use this to install it: http://www.php.net/get/php-4.3.1-installer.exe/from/a/mirror

CuLT

I assume you're not actually sitting at the server trying to install this,

if you're not, phpBB is very simple to set up remotely as its got that luvly self install thing. Just read the install guide on the site.

second, YOUR HOME PC DOES NOT HAVE PHP INSTALLED ON IT and therefore DW4 will NOT preview anything in nicely redisplayed HTML.

This is all if you're installing to a php supporting server like lycos or something like that.

imfree

Check out this script that prides itself on being small and fast. Includes support for MySQL or PostgreSQL.
www.minibb.net

---

imfree
http://www.freehost.ie

mneylon

If you want to test it all locally there are a number of out of the box solutions available.
Have a look on http://www.hotscripts.com/ where you'll find complete development kits for LAMP, or simply binaries for IIS.

Seth Brundle

Alternatively, if you wish go with ASP & Micro$oft Access - it is as easy as PHP / MySQL and is designed for IIS.
You can also download various ready to use forums from places like
Web wiz Guide or
www.aspin.com