[Project] Basic Native MODx forum

I have been thinking on this, and playing with a couple of simple forum scripts to see how they basically work. A bare-bones forum can be devised with slight modification to MODx parts already available. Bells and whistles and odds and ends can always be added in a methodical, modular fashion, if the core is simple and a good pluggable API designed from the beginning.

The thing causing me the most itch right now is user registration and login. We already have a user registration snippet that will automatically assign the user to a given user group. This is used right now for the Blog commenting feature. So, suppose a site has a blog, with commenting, AND a forum. The same user login would be used, and the same user registration. This means that the blog system, the forum system, and any other restricted systems (such as a shopping cart) would need to be all using the same user group.

Plan B. There could be one main registration, one login system, but several "mini" registrations. So, a person registers and is assigned a default user group. A web designer developing a fairly simple site could choose to use that same group for any restricted areas he may develop. Or, he could have a "join this group" box or button for each area, which would then add the user to the appropriate user group. A corresponding "leave this group" box or button would allow users to remove themselves from the group.

I like this second method, since it would open the door for many options, such newsletter management. This way, you can send a newsletter to all of your shopping cart customers for new items or specials, another newsletter to your support forum users, etc, all by user group.

And with this method you could have support forums with one user group, developer forums with another user group, special interest forums each with its own user group...real MODx-style flexibility!

This would probably never really compete with a module connecting to a serious forum app, but it’s pretty simple and doable right now for basic forum needs.

Plan B sounds like a great idea. I’m thinking that the usergroups could also apply if you have more than one forum, for instance if you have your site supporting more than one language, and a forum for each language.

That’s assuming, of course, that more than one forum will be possible with this . . .

Great idea Susan... love the checkbox/button to add/remove from groups!

Quote from: kickass at Dec 17, 2005, 05:29 PM

Plan B sounds like a great idea. I’m thinking that the usergroups could also apply if you have more than one forum, for instance if you have your site supporting more than one language, and a forum for each language.

That’s assuming, of course, that more than one forum will be possible with this . . .

Of course it will. The "forums" will just be folders, with the posts document in the folder. I plan to hack the UserComments snippet to use individual documents for the posts, instead of putting them all on one page. So you’ll be able to have all the forums you want, just put the snippet on each parent folder/document.

This method will even make nested posts possible, slashdot style. I’ll probably have to hack the UserComment snippet again to be able to read/post to three levels. I think it would probably be wise to limit the depth of "replies". But that will come later.

The key to the whole system will be the user management, and what kind of user options we can plug into the app’s core system. Avatar images won’t be a problem; we’ve already got the basis for tying an image to a user.

Cool, but...
Would not it be easier, and a lot faster, to offer an existing forum integration ? Like SMF ? It would probably only answer to 99% of MODx users forum needs, still it would be nice to have such an option
Usually car makers do not make tyres

It’s as much about the exercise and demonstration as it is about using it as a forum. It would be WONDERFUL actually to have for a support ticket system or other such type of implmentation for low volume applications. One system to install, one database, done!

Exactly. Similar to my shopX project, these are really only going to be suitable for small operations, but they will be totally native MODx, no fiddling with database tables or anything, just the basic document structure and plugins, snippets, TVs.

As Ryan mentions, it’s mostly for the exercise and to show what a little imaginative use of the MODx core structures can do. If any of this gives somebody a neat idea, then I’ll be happy.

Hi

you can see miniBB

The manuel is complete, the code light.
You can choose your user datable table name and define the $dbUserSheme .

This database scheme array describes relations between field names in user_data_form.html (registration, profile) correspondingly to database, and database indexes used in userinfo viewing. So, you can use your own database table for usernames (for example, as another part of your site) and only define relations here. Relation format: [MINIBB DEF] => array([NUMERICAL_INDEX_KEY],[TABLE_FIELD_NAME],[FORM_FIELD_NAME]); Pay attention that the structure of fields, their types must be default as in miniBB database, for example, user_password must be saved in md5 format. Edit this option ONLY if you are NOT NEWBIE!

You can rename the index.php file of the forum :

$indexphp=’index.php?’; The name of your index file; you can rename it to something else if miniBB’s index is conflicting with existing site’s index name. Don’t forget to put "?" after filename.

It is a good exemple.

Aour

Ultimately, I think that as MODx matures and its developer community expand, we’ll see a lot of apps developed for native MODx. I don’t see any reasons why native modules couldn’t rock the world, but right now, effort is being put in elsewhere.

Quote from: sottwell at Dec 17, 2005, 07:10 PM

The "forums" will just be folders, with the posts document in the folder. I plan to hack the UserComments snippet to use individual documents for the posts, instead of putting them all on one page. So you’ll be able to have all the forums you want, just put the snippet on each parent folder/document.

I like the idea of a native MODx forum, but from the text above I get the impression that each post will be a seperate page in the documenttree. Isn’t that going to be a bit much for the documenttree? I mean you will have a couple of hundred messages in a forum pretty fast. I wonder what this will do to the MODX performance.