Better integration into a CMS in phpbb 2.2 ?

[mastermike707]

Here is my 2 cents:
phpBB portal (wish they would relese some info/status on it) is going to be an awesome CMS system because it is based on the most awesome forum system (phpBB). In the meantime, modders will create mods for phpBB and for portal systems to integrate them into each other because of lack of a better solution. This modification of the CMS/phpBB will not be seamless nor will it have all of the functionality you want it to have.
phpBB should not try to make itself easier to integrate with these other CMS systems because it would sacrifice functionality and speed/effciency. Plus as previously stated the developers would come out with the next phpBB in 2050. Modders will always find ways to integrate these systems together, anyway.
Yet the most powerful and overall best CMS/Forum System will be one built for each other, such as phpBB portal or another such solution (which I do not know of, I might add, but I never really looked either).
Modders will always be out there adding features and systems to existing CMS/Forum Systems. There purpose is to add features and functionality, not to increase effciency or take into account the other missing features that also should have been integrated to make the trasition from forum to CMS more smooth.

[ve4jhj]

unfortunately the search feature isn't working right now, or i'd have the exact post to go from, but as far as i recall, the dev team has said that the portal is on hold right...so there's no info to give.

[mastermike707]

Once they finish 2.2, will they begin development of it (the portal)?

I am going to download a CVS of 2.2 right now.

[SamG]

The portal project is, at this time, on indefinite hold.

[profpete]

2.2 has made working with CMS a LOT easier already. The new php inclusion function in the styles is a godsend (I get bored of hacking page_header.php very quickly)

FCK Editor takes the complex parts of the CMS away, and it doesn't take many lines of PHP to get a working CMS after that. Sessions are easy to hack, and the whole of phpBB is modular enough to replace any bits you need to.

So I don't see what more the developers could do to ease integration?!

[bug_face_uk]

It's been almost six months since this last died, so it seems time to kick it off again...

After re-reading from scratch it just doesn't seem clear what people mean when they say integration. For me it's really simple:

1) If a site is to be based around a CMS (such as Mambo) it seem reasonable that we would like to consider its user-list as authoratative. If you are really using the CMS functionality you need to have all kinds of user data (authors, editors, publishers) that a forum is not interested in.
2) The CMS should also provide a simple way for components/modules/plugins (sorry I'm a Mambo guy) to store "additional" data with a user.
3) A stand alone forum must capture a user-name and password, validate that they exist and do whatever it does to manage the session. The CMS should provide hooks so that a lightweight forum<->cms integration on the forum side can just say "validate these dude".
4) A stand alone forum must store it's own data about user levels etc (the user cp). It should provide a replacable persistance layer which can use the afforementioned CMS abilities to persist non-indegenous user data
5) If you want your CMS messaging system to be integrated with your forum messaging system you need a CMS messaging module which shells the forum's. Odds on the forum's is better, why re-invent the jet-engine?
6) The CMS provides the outer (non-forum specific) styling, the forum will style the forum. A forum embedded in the CMS as a component should should wrap the forum, then let the forum style itself inside (as you can currently do with Mambo and PHP, 3.0 will free us from hacking page_header etc)

Just to be clear, I think the CMS must bear the brunt of the integration responsibility. A CMS system should be designed with a plug-in architecture (it is expected of them as base functionality), and they should consider the requirements of generic forum plug-ins when designing it.

The forum authors should only worry about any integration at a user-data persistance level. They should define what they need (through an API) to do, implment it for a stand-alone forum. And leave it there.

I've no idea if PHPBB3.0 does this. But I also believe we all have access to the source, as we do also for many CMS like Mambo. In the end, anyone could build this architecture using phpbb 2.0.x and Mambo 4.x. Some have built little hacky extensions, but none have tried to engineer a solution.

At some point one either needs to stop whining that we are getting free software to do whatever we want, or write it and share it ourselves.

Bug

[stubbers]

Yeah... Topics die for a reason...

[expert01]

If you want a BB for your CMS, then modify the CMS to use phpBB cookies and such, not the other way around.

[estoke]

Roberdin
phpBB have their own portal project lined up which will be fully intergrated.

Where is this project? any link ?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

It was abandoned.