So we have some options;
NewBB
PHPBB2 Module
IPB Module
YabbSE Module

Can someone who is actually using these comment upon how your usage of a particular forum has been. How well have they integrated with the rest of XOOPS (eg. single login, recent posts, hot topics, etc).

Why did you make the choice that you did?

While opinions from people of what they "would" do are welcome, what I really am seeking is people's experience of what they "have" done, and their reasons.

Kerry.

Hiya kerrysl, I've been using IPB for well over a year now and have built up a fairly large online community. I've used a number of boards in the past (though admitedly not BB2 or YabbSE) and IPB is by far the most advanced.

I was using a portal system with it but it was extremely limited and poorly supported with little development work going on, so when I saw XOOPS and learned that it could be integrated with IPB I scrapped the old site, and started work on a new using xoops.

Technically I'm very good with HTML and flash and I have a reasonable grasp of php; but integrating XOOPS (2.0.4) and IPB (1.22) has had me banging my head against the wall. Putting aside the headache of 2 login systems, incompatible templates and vannishing Admin rights (in ipb!) the main feature that makes IPB so good (its highly advanced admin system) has made me decide to look for an alternative as I can't be doing with having the 2 systems battling with each other.

At the end of the day people use a board to post messages, silly pictures and the odd attachment either to each other, the clan or the world in general. Every one of the systems you mention above does that but only one of them integrates effortlessly into the XOOPS system. Unless you have a particularly strong reason for needing a heavyweight forum I'd go for NewBB and spend the time you save exploring the other features of xoops!


This leads quite neatly into my question for all of you out there... is there a conversion script anywhere that will import the content of my ipb forums into NewBB?

Did similar, was impressed with IPB but gave it up due to the core changes,

one BIG thing IMO that is hardly noticed/talked about with NEWBB is the option where thanks to the XOOPS notification system you can have every post emailed in full to every member. (memory says had to hack the newbb notification a little so "full text" was available to all members

Am almost sure that newbb or ipb doesnt have this feature, think just replies or topics can be emailed.

With a bit of tweaking think this little mentioned feature could be a big plus for xoops

Rayzor

Koudanshi has recently completed an upgrade compatible with 2.04, it works seemlessly with XOOPS on my system anyway. No two logins, or any other problems at all. In fact he has an extra file which brings IPB into a 100% view bypassing blocks settings.

Koudanshi

I am building a site using the 4image patch by Koudanshi as well. I appreciate the reasons many people prefer the core newbb, but I wanted to inform those who are interested in IPB, that the upgrade is available and working fine..

regards

id stick With newBB.There the best if you ask me.

JackJ,

I agree totally - Koudanishi's work is second to none. It was thanks to the downloads and resources on his site that I eventually manged to get IPB and a clean install of XOOPS working together smoothly in the first place.

The real problems started when I wanted to apply the 6 different levels of user access that I use throughout the forum to the various XOOPS modules I'm putting together. Not to mention the hassel of getting the IPB skins and templates to match the ones I'm using in Xoops. I don't doubt for a second that these problems couldn't have been fixed - but my goal is the development of a new flash mx2004 pro based module which will bring together all the functionality of the various cgi and perl based web resources that clan sites use in a single side-bar block. With IPB, even when the two systems run together smoothly they are still 2 systems and I decided that having a single integrated system would offer benefits in efficiency that far outweigh the benefits that the undoubtedly superior IPB board software offers.

Quote:

That would be YaBB TDfX, however, just like IPBM and phpBB2M there's a huge conflict with the XOOPS 2 template. The XOOPS 1.3 version works with out a hitch. Also YaBB TDfX installs much easier than IPBM or phpBB2M. One thing to keep in mind if no one else has mentioned in this thread is that newBB is built from phpBB2 so your hack for your phpBB2 board would be easy to implement into newBB.

Quote:

He didn't intend for "bypassing" the blocks as a feature. this is due to the template conflict as I mentioned in my previous post. If that's what you prefer then YaBB TDfX 2 works like a charm as well.

The biggest problem I have in newbb is that I cannot directly click a "Quote" button when I wanted to reply an article. Instead of that, I have to do this by manually clicking the "quote" button after clicking the Reply. Beside, newbb shows no user information just below his/her article (such as msn, icq, website...etc.) Otherwise, newbb is almost a simple forum that suites my website.

I think this is very bothering/inconveinent for most users who were used to phpBB, is there any hack for newbb that has these features? Thanks!