C5 and PHPBB3 integration

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I am currently working on a website which C5 would be absolutely ideal for in the main. That website is going to need a forum.

I am, at best, just a designer working in photoshop with only a little actual programming ability. I dare say that with a CMS as simple and intuitive as C5, there'll be many people in that position. I am also swamped with work at the moment and have very little time to delf under the hood of software for weeks in a perhaps futile effort to understand the mechanics of it and integrate two applications together.

I need a fully functional forum with all the features that exist in forum software such as vBulletin or PHPBB3, and I need that forum integrated with the main site such that there is one login only. Preferably, I will be able to use elements of the forum (such as a link near the header showing the number of unread PM's in particular) on the rest of the C5 site, but that's not absolutely essential. I believe that C5 desperately needs something such as this, simply because it's not likely to be an uncommon desire, and the ability to do it could really increase the number of people that see C5 as a worthy option and one that truly is flexible in meeting their needs.

I've been looking for bridges/connectors for C5 and a third party forum application, and have so far found two things... niether of which I understand in depth or have witnessed in operation.

The first is from a site called "theoryblister", which claims to have created a bridge called "Bridge Theory" between C5 and PHPBB3, available on taking out a $60 membership to their group - has anybody heared of this or had experience of it? Is it as good as claimed?http://www.theoryblister.com/market/club-extensions/bridge-theory/...

The second is a post on the PHPBB3 forums, which details code changes to integrate the logins of the two applications. I don't really follow everything they are talking about and the post is now a year old... does it work? And if so (and/or if it just needs updating), would it be possible for someone to make a C5 add-on based on it that linked the logins of the two systems... perhaps even for a small cost in the Marketplace?http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=1960165...

Many thanks... and I hope that if there's something in this post that does the job, it helps not only myself, but the rest of the C5 community and attracts even more potential users to the C5 CMS.

 
Adreco replied on at Permalink Reply
Adreco
Krissie,

Do you need to link to a third party forum, or can the Discussion Forum
add-on in the marketplace work for you? ( see http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/discussion/... )

Adrian
Krissie replied on at Permalink Reply
I've been looking at the discussion forums, but it doesn't seem to have notification of unread messages, I've seen no sign of it having a Private Messaging system, it's not easily configurable for a non-programmer such as myself to achieve some of the things offered by third party software, I'm used to the the two main pieces of third party software available,

... and I don't especially need the awesome, awesome, AWESOME level of page level integration the C5 Discussion Forums module has with the rest of the site. I only need the forum to integrate the login, logout and registration, preferably some minor level of integration of the PM system, and to appear under the same header and main nav menu as the rest of the website.

The C5 Discussion Forum is [i]truly amazing[/i], but never the less is in some ways too much and some ways too little for my immediate needs. The ways in which it's too much could be useful at some later date, but the ways in which it's too little are required now.
Krissie replied on at Permalink Reply
If anybody has an answer to this question apart from the Discussion Forums add-on, I'd really appreaciate it. As would, I dare say, many other C5 users/potential users for whom this issue is a complete dealbreaker - either because they need to integrate with an already existing forum, or because the available add-on simply doesn't meet their needs in some other way.
argvader replied on at Permalink Reply
argvader
Krissie,

We created the phpbb3 bridge so that we could use it for our forum. If you click on the forums link you will see our forum.

We integrated the user registration and login process so that user's which are members in concrete5 of a defined group will be automatically entered into the phpbb3 user base. Currently, if the profile images in C5 match the size defined in phpbb then they will be used as the profile image on the bulletin board.

All user links are routed through a concrete5 controller so we can extend our functionality - we dont have any extensions on the near horizon however.

Finally, we didn't do anything with the design of the UI from phpbb. So you will need to create a phpbb template to look like your C5 site. Using the controller i mentioned above we had a way to strip off the surrounding html from the raw bulletin board but thought that was too fragile so we removed it.

Hope this helps you. Feel free to email me here or by sending an email to the contact us form on the TheoryBlister site.
Krissie replied on at Permalink Reply
I think my concern over it is that it's not available in the marketplace, because I suspect it could make you a lot of money there to be honest... that, and there would be more information from users of it available.

In waiting for a reply to your post, I tried sighning up to theoryblister - though stopping short of payment - in an attempt to post a message on your forums. When I did so, I was able to log in to the c5 part of the site, but when I clicked the link to the forums I was not logged in - when I tried to log in on the forums page it threw a fatal PHP error. Obviously that's provided me with some concern as to either it's functionality or it's stability... though I accept that it could be due to an improper use of your sign-up process somehow - though don't see why I could log into C5 and not your forum even so.

My other concern is whether it's futureproof - PHPBB updates regularly, and C5 updates from time to time too... for how long will it be maintained... will it be abandoned at some point or discontinued, or no longer updated. I don't see many forum users, and I'm not sure I want to pay $60 on an apparent potential risk.

If it works, it's truly awesome, though I hope you understand my concerns and any reassurance you may be able to offer would be gratefully recieved.
argvader replied on at Permalink Reply
argvader
We have not abandoned it - and yes keeping up with changes to C5 and phpbb3 is something I have been doing. I altered alot of the internals to make that easier in the last release. Futureproof without periodic updates is not possible. I am using the phpbb api code as much as possible so i havent had to make many changes because of updates. The last one was required because of Concrete5 changes from 5.3 to 5.4

The behavior you saw on my site is one part intentional and one part error. Since you did not complete the registration process you have an account but it doesn't have membership. Only users in the Members group can create entries in the forums.. perhaps that is something I need to revisit.. Anyway that is why you were not logged in when you went to the forums. Now when you clicked the login link on the forum page you should have been taken to a page with a message that indicates only members can login into the forum - that message page was obviously not tested after the last update.

I will look into that error and update the extension and/or my C5 site. I didn't consider using the marketplace but perhaps I should rethink that as well. Marketplace extensions have been vetted by the C5 team before inclusion and the integrated comments would be a good resource for users. I have posted the Who's Online extension as a free one on the marketplace.
Krissie replied on at Permalink Reply
Thank you - that's rather reassuring :)
argvader replied on at Permalink Reply
argvader
FYI - I changed my permissions on TheoryBlister so anybody who enters profile data will be allowed to add to the forums.

So you can post comments on the forum by logging in now if you wanna..
nothingserious replied on at Permalink Reply
Is this still in existence? The download link on the Theory Blister site doesn't link to anything. The discussion forums just aren't going to work for us in present condition.
argvader replied on at Permalink Reply
argvader
Yes it is in existence. If you are a club member you should be able to download this extension. If you are a member can you provide your member name via the contact us link on TheoryBlister.

If the link is present and you are using the latest version of Chrome I found a recent issue with my styling and chrome which I have been updating so perhaps that is the problem.

If your an active member I would be glad to send you a zip of the extension directly.
taltal13 replied on at Permalink Reply
Is that bridge theory still available?
BR549 replied on at Permalink Reply
No. The related site is closed - TheoryBlister.com.
utomo replied on at Permalink Reply
The club is closed


how you look at this bridge ?
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/vanilla-forums/...

But vanilla we must pay monthly.

I hope somebody creating bridge for phpbb
CygnetMidwest replied on at Permalink Reply
CygnetMidwest
Vanilla is open source. It is only a paid product if you host it with them. You can download the forum software and host it yourself-- for free.

And, Vanilla has an Exporter script that can export other Forums (included phpBB3!), so I think I will be switching to Vanilla and using the bridge add-on that utomo mentioned.

Thanks for the link utomo!
utomo replied on at Permalink Reply
Thanks for the clarifications

please post here your experience with the bridge

Good luck
utomo replied on at Permalink Reply
anybody here try this Concrete5 and PHPBB3 integration/ bridge ?
and what is your experience. please share it here
hypertransit replied on at Permalink Reply
This piece of klingon crap doesn't work! It starts with a php error message and ends up useless. Seems to be do-nothing-code! I will code that piece of #*.!? myself.
Vapor replied on at Permalink Reply
Vapor
I do not care for phpbb3. I use vanilla and a simple embed code with my c5.
scrivener replied on at Permalink Reply
scrivener
This seems to have been a popular question a couple of years ago, but I can't find any resolution or even much discussion since then. Did anyone ever come up with an integrator or bridge for phpBB? Does anyone know what happened to argvader and his "Bridge Theory" add-on, that seems to have been working back in '11 but is now not available? Anything else out there that works to integrate a phpBB forum with a c5 site?
argvader replied on at Permalink Reply
argvader
yeah its been awhile. I havent coded anything for C5 in a long time. Its
good to see it still has traction. I think i still have the code around. I
can send it to you when I find it. Its not pretty and will need many
updates. The integration with phpbb and c5 was rough because of model names
and php at the time not having good packaging.

Gary.
scrivener replied on at Permalink Reply
scrivener
That. Would. Be. Awesome.

Many thanks,
A