Hello Dev team,
I am in the process of embedding a huge (WBB) forum into a website and I want to be able to dynamically add/delete users myself, automatically add threads etc.
So my questions are:
will phpbb3 allow for functions (like the addUser() function or whatever you have named it) being "hijacked" without the need of including a dozen different files? Would the dev team be willing to help out people who want to embed a forum into their website, i.e. by putting together a "dev faq" that lists functions, what they are there for, what files need to be included to execute them and what parameters they expect?
Naturally, I could figure this out myself when the time comes. I did that for WBB but I do not neccessarily want to go through something like that again.
I had that forum converted my phpBB2 to WBB a year ago due to the lack of even the smallest hint of when phpbb3 would be ready, but I would love to go back if I had reason enough.
hijacking phpbb3 functions
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Discussion of general topics related to the new release and its place in the world. Don't discuss new features, report bugs, ask for support, et cetera. Don't use this to spam for other boards or attack those boards!
Discussion of general topics related to the new release and its place in the world. Don't discuss new features, report bugs, ask for support, et cetera. Don't use this to spam for other boards or attack those boards!
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Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
FWIW, I think there was a thread about website integration (i.e. somekind of documented API) a few weeks ago. Since the search seems to be out, you might have a tough time finding it, though...
[Edit: Ha! Not it isn't, and might I say the new search (probably not new to all, but I hadn't sene it yet) rocks?]
[Edit: Ha! Not it isn't, and might I say the new search (probably not new to all, but I hadn't sene it yet) rocks?]
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Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
Thank you. I found some threads but most of them were about people who want to integrate phpBB into some CMS.
I am absolutely with psoTFX who says that phpBB wants to be a stand-alone BB in
the first place. If it would be different, I would not consider using it again. I am not aiming at crippling phpBB to integrate it into my website. In fact, I do not want to change phpBB at all, so I can easily apply updates.
The way I want to achieve the integration is by using encapsuled functions of phpBB so there is no messing with the actual code.
I am absolutely with psoTFX who says that phpBB wants to be a stand-alone BB in
the first place. If it would be different, I would not consider using it again. I am not aiming at crippling phpBB to integrate it into my website. In fact, I do not want to change phpBB at all, so I can easily apply updates.
The way I want to achieve the integration is by using encapsuled functions of phpBB so there is no messing with the actual code.
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Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
mxBB is the kind of system for you then! mxBB integrates phpBB without touching phpBB at all! It says that phpBB3 will be compatible with this without much difficulty because of this! So, consider that...
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Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
Sorry man, I do no think so.
The website I am talking about can not be run by a standard portal software because of its complexity.
The website I am talking about can not be run by a standard portal software because of its complexity.
Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
Integration with any CMS would be greatly simplified by opening up critical functions of the forum by offering some kind of API, without "crippling" the core software.
- Cheater512
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Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
I have a feeling that someone will make a layer for external user/post manipulation.
Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
I'm sure someone will, but I'm not too impressed with the current offering I'm using (but admittedly, I stopped at the first offering I found, maybe there's better options). It feels very much like a hack, I actually had to hack away at it myself to get something I feel is pretty basic stuff (getting the raw post code without interpreted BBcode). The core team recognizing there's more to websites than forums (i.e. allowing for easier integration by offering somekind of API) would be welcomed greatly. Anyway, no feature requests, maybe it's something for 3.2.
Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
I wonder if the dev team ever really thought that a website would consist only of a forum. For instance, I think the portal project would make less sense if they'd been assuming a forum was all anybody would need. And the template system was supposed to make site integration far easier than was remotely possible with phpBB 1.
I think it's more likely that they didn't foresee significant numbers of phpBB users wanting to use core phpBB functions (auth, etc.) site wide.
When it comes down to it, my impression is that there's more people who want phpBB to be a website-in-a-box than there are who want phpBB to be the centerpiece or anchor of a larger site and therefore want/need to "hijack" its functions. But, I could be way off.
I think it's more likely that they didn't foresee significant numbers of phpBB users wanting to use core phpBB functions (auth, etc.) site wide.
When it comes down to it, my impression is that there's more people who want phpBB to be a website-in-a-box than there are who want phpBB to be the centerpiece or anchor of a larger site and therefore want/need to "hijack" its functions. But, I could be way off.
Re: hijacking phpbb3 functions
Nah, I was just exagerating a bitI wonder if the dev team ever really thought that a website would consist only of a forum.
I think we're talking about different things here. I didn't mean ways to start using phpBB core functionality for other purposes, I simply meant an API to manipulate the phpBB database, for what it is: the backend database to the chosen forum solution. E.g., inserting user profiles through a function call (for the purpose of synchronizing with another application's user database), getting either raw, uninterpreted post source code or fully parsed with BBcode replaced for HTML, or inserting posts into a specific forum (e.g. to track news items on the frontpage on the forum as well), etc.
Such functions go a long way to allow for better integration with any website. All in the light of providing tighter integration with the forum on the rest of the site. Single sign-on (not necesarrily by means of a single user db, just by means of syncing DB's and exchanging session data), "Discuss this" links (including how many comments were already made on the forum) and/or "teaser" excerpts of forum-posts, inserting teasers for other site content into the forum because many users directly log onto the forum and wouldn't otherwise see frontpage news, etc.
Allowing other parts of a site to use core phpBB functionality such as permissions and templates is a step beyond that, I think. That's beyond integration, that's expecting to build a complete site on just phpBB.
Last edited by Eelke on Tue Apr 18, 2006 1:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.