Tips and Tricks-October 2004

(Please note that the forum mentioned in this article is not currently running due to a server hardware crash.)

Something Completely Different

I think that’s a line from Monty Python and is a slightly apropos for this month’s column. Usually, I talk about stuff that’s of fairly general interest, but this month, I want to talk about something a little more esoteric.

If you remember from prior columns, I have mentioned a couple of magazines from the U.K that I thought had some pretty good material in them, in particular for web site developers. In August, I picked up a copy of Web Practical Projects which is oriented toward Dreamweaver users. As always, it had a number of projects that looked interesting.

PCC has toyed with the idea of having a discussion board or forum for a long time. Last year, a new member volunteered to set up a forum, but it needed someone to administer it and no one stepped up. Many years ago, we had a short-lived forum using FrontPage that we abandoned because it kept breaking.

One of the projects in the magazine was how to set up a web forum using PHP and MySQL. This piqued my interest because I have been playing a little with PHP. The “recipe” used an open source program called phpBB.

I had previously set up a Windows 2003 server at home and had already installed both PHP and MySQL; this seemed like a natural. I downloaded the files from phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com/downloads.php, which didn’t take too long. In order to follow along with the recipe, I needed to install a tool that would allow me to create the MySQL database needed. The tool they recommended was phpMyAdmin, another open source product. I also downloaded that and set it up. It was harder to set up than either PHP or MySQL.

It took me a while to get the connections set up correctly so that phpMyAdmin would allow me to create the database. It took some trial and error and (gasp!) reading documentation, but I got it.

The recipe had 33 steps from start to testing, over six pages of the magazine. I followed the steps and without much hassle, I had the forum installed. That part took about an hour. The basic forum was pretty much like every other forum you’ve seen. I spent a few minutes with Macromedia Fireworks and created a quick logo to substitute for the standard one, added one forum and a couple of users.

The recipe took me through all of the functions available for configuration and administration. I used the default style for the forum. I created categories for some additional forums and the forums to fit the categories. I configured some censored words—the program will automatically make substitutions if someone posts with a word on the censored list. I created a couple of groups to manage the Executive Committee forum and the Board of Directors. I did all of this just using the instructions from the magazine. I invited members of the Executive Committee to register and got a few takers.

The site allows users to get email notification of new postings and allows private messaging among users of the board. I will probably keep this going as long as no one abuses it.

I downloaded some “avatars” for users—what’s an avatar? It’s an image that a user can select to represent him or her self. Currently I am not allowing users to upload their own avatars, but that also may change in the future. There are many sites on the Web that offer avatars and I found a few that I thought might be useful.

The forum is currently up and running. I am modifying things as I find problems or enhancements. The initial configuration allowed all users the right to see and post to forums. They were also able to view the forum’s member list. I went to the phpBB site and found some code that would allow me to require registration and login in order to access certain features, like the forum member list. The explanations were reasonably clear and not too difficult even though I am a complete novice at PHP. I have some additional modifications in mind, including requiring real names during registration so I can allow PCC members greater access to certain sections of the forum. The code for the modifications is available at the site, which includes a forum of its own for users and developers. The forum has search capabilities as well so it’s easy to find topics of interest.

I hope that some of you will start visiting the PCC Forum site, asking questions, answering questions and just communicating with each other. We’ve already at one lively exchange and I hope we will see more. We are still discussing whether some or all of the forums should be public. I am open to additional topics and or volunteers to act as moderators for forums. SIG leaders also can have a forum for their SIG discussions (which they will moderate).

I was very impressed by the ease with which I was able to set up the forum and with the stability of the application—at least so far. Come visit and offer your comments or suggestions.

PC Community, P.O. Box 3127, Hayward, CA 94540-3127
Copyright 2005

Banner Photo by Charles Scamahorn