Forums Extension

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
I am building a member's area for one of my sites. One of my clients wants to have forums. And I was thinking rather than having clunky forum code, is there any library or something to add into my existing CI to add this feature?

Thanks for your help!

[eluser]jedd[/eluser]
If you do write your own, be sure to respect localisation .. and don't assume everyone enjoys the utterly bewildering MM-DD-YYYY format. <glances wistfully at header of this page>

[eluser]davidbehler[/eluser]
As a forum is a rather complex structure, I doubt you will find a drop-in library.

But I have created a forum using CI and am thinking about making the download available somewhen soon. I just have to add a feature or 2 and update the layout a bit

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
It doesn't have to be a drop in library. But maybe something that can easily be integrated.

[eluser]drewbee[/eluser]
A basic forum really doesn't constitute that much. It's when you try and make a Vbulletin counterpart that it really bites you!

I am currently working on building a custom forum system myself, and naturally, it has balooned way out of control! Surprise... huh. Permissions is the big one you have to focus on.

[eluser]Computerzworld[/eluser]
you can go with vanilla forums.. its easy to integrate with CI and very light weight...

you can get it from here...

http://getvanilla.com/

[eluser]jedd[/eluser]
Vanilla looks pretty cool. They hide their licence information remarkably well - had to go to WP to find out that it's released under the GPL.

I suspect two problems with integrating this into a CI site. First, Vanilla has its own framework. Possibly not insurmountable, but it depends how much stuff you want to do under the hood. Second it includes its own user auth system.

I suspect that anyone contemplating a 'drop-in forum system' already has their own auth system (only because otherwise it implies that so far they've installed MySQL and PHP and are now looking for a 'drop-in-and-does-everything' system). Probably the same huge integration problem you'll have with any drop-in, rather than tack-on, lump of code.

[eluser]Computerzworld[/eluser]
actually there is one tutorial in CI wiki that teach you how to integrate vanilla to CI & also its having many extensions that you can install and customize your vanilla forum.