Better integration into a CMS in phpbb 2.2 ?

[Techie-Micheal]

@Skeleton:
Please keep it on topic and factual. As I pointed out, phpBB portal may parallel the original phpnuke and other community based solutions, but not a typo3 or xaraya.

He is keeping it factual ... *nuke has ripped out so much phpBB that things like user_level are completely different in a default phpBB and a *nuke phpBB. And how do you know what the phpBB Portal is going to be like? Do you have information that not even the devs have?

[valiant]

I didn't intend to run down phpbb portal. I'm not interested in phpbb portal, this discussion wasn't about phpbb portal. All I assume is that phpbb portal is built around phpbb and is a community based portal solution, less like a content / framwork centred CMS like typo3 or xaraya.
So much about *nuke or phpbb portal, which this is not about.

[DoD]

Either way, its the closest of which you will get to good integration into something else.

phpBB won't make their forums so they are easy to fit in with a CMS. They will make their forums the way they want. They have no interest in any CMS, and its not their responsibility to make it easy for you.

The only way you will get 100% integration is when BOTH the forum and CMS are built for each other - what the portal is planned to be.

[valiant]

My point is that the phpbb dev team could make this integration as easy as possible. If I was a developer of phpbb, I would be proud if it was modular and the best professional CMS would work hand in hand with my product making it a quasi standard not only for stand alone bulletin boards, but also as forum in other applications.

[Skeleton]

why are you so obsessed with CMS, u must be developing one and not getting very far.

[valiant]

No, I'm not involved in the developement of any CMS or other project. But I do know quite a few CMS and bulletin boards.
Competition is a good thing, we need several CMS and forum projects to compete with each other, to constantly improve the surfing experience and make it more powerful.
But there's no need to reinvent the wheel a thousand times and there's of course no need to create nearly a 1:1 copy of phpbb just because the original makes it really difficult to integrate it into other applications. And there are not enough good, loyal developers to nurse all those mimicries.
It's not a sign of weakness if you make your product more compatible, it's what big companies do: define standards and interfaces between applications and in the end it's a win win situation. The customer can use the best forum with the best CMS, the forum advertises with the compatibility to the best CMS and vice versa can the CMS people advertise with the compatibility to the best forum.

[psoTFX]

I think I've answered your question already ... no need to keep beating a dead horse I will end on this note however. You've said "competition" is good that there is no need for dozens of CMS's/boards. As I've said already, good point. Let me however direct you to a little "fact" ->

Sourceforge 7 day downloads:

phpBB -> 71582 (10)
XOOPS -> 14965 (60)

Nuke and Typo3 ... not (apparently at this moment) in top 100

Sourceforge Top downloads (total):

phpBB -> 2988641 (12)
phpNuke -> 2646123 (19)

That's with a screwup in the stats collection some time ago which saw phpNuke gain a few extra hundred thousand downloads and phpBB relegated some 10 places lower. Nothing else appears in top 100.

Of course this makes the assumption those boards make use of SF's free storage facilties. If they don't their stats will be affected. But then phpBB is available for download from many non-SF sites and thus our stats too are not entirely accurate. It does in any case lead me to question your insistence that people want CMS/portal ahead of discussion capabilities.

However as noted my reply has been given. Perhaps at some future stage the position will change, never say never. But for the forseable future the road we're on is quite scenic and very pleasant to drive down

[AdamR]

My point is that the phpbb dev team could make this integration as easy as possible. If I was a developer of phpbb, I would be proud if it was modular and the best professional CMS would work hand in hand with my product making it a quasi standard not only for stand alone bulletin boards, but also as forum in other applications.

My apologies to psoTFX for keeping this going after he put down the end point, but I wanted to interject something here.

phpBB doesn't acatour to everything else out there, trying to make it easier for others to integrate. phpBB is and was designed to be a stand-alone, and the dev's can't account for every possible CMS product that exists, and make phpBB more "user friendly" to those systems.

What your asking for is like asking a car company why they didn't make their vehicle easier to be modified by mechanics and other customers who want to convert an SUV into a pickup, or make the engine more powerful, etc.

[valiant]

IMO your analogy doesn't really fit in here.
however, i quote someone from the xaraya.com forum:

It's
rather disappointing that world class forum developers aren't interested
in CMSs and world class CMS developers aren't interested in forums. There
are loads of messages on the phpBB forum asking how to integrate phpBB
into all sorts of CMSs, portals, web sites, etc.

from: http://www.xaraya.com/index.php/xarbb/topic/74" target="_blank
note: this isn't about a specific CMS.

[DoD]

I would suggest that you dont drag this topic on...