Forum's

[h4ted]

Ey, I need help on this real quick. Im not sure of a forum is a CGI script but guessing what a friend of mine was talking about I think it is. Well, in her control panel in another site host has a forum which she made/custimized her self, she was going to help me on mine but turns out she just had that option and it was free. I thought mine would be the same but I guess not, or I just have no clue to whats going on with my site. Well, I want to put a forum up, can someone tell me where I can learn it or what I need to begin? I want the forum to look really good and come out all custimized by me, yet I don't want to pay for it like at vbulletin.com/.org

Help.

Cheers.

[don5408]

"Im not sure of a forum is a CGI script"

Hi. While there are still a few CGI message board scripts written in Perl available most of the popular forum scripts these days are PHP/MySQL based (written in PHP and backed up by a MySQL database) and HR recommends using PHP/MySQL boards as they tend to use fewer server resources.

"Well, in her control panel in another site host has a forum which she made/custimized her self, she was going to help me on mine but turns out she just had that option and it was free. I thought mine would be the same but I guess not"

Well she may be using a different forum script however you should also have an option to a setup for a similar free forum (XMB) available in your HostRocket Control Panel. Under look for an "XMB Setup" icon under "Scripts and Programs" in your CP, you can setup a forum there fairly easily.

Now there are plenty of other options (phpBB2, Invision Board etc) and as I believe that the HR Control Panel may still offer the 1.6 version of XMB which has a few security issues you would probably be better off either getting the latest version of XMB from their website or trying one of the other free PHP/MySQL forum scripts. Here are some links to possible options:

phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com)

Invision Board (http://www.invisionboard.com/)

XMB Forum (http://www.xmbforum.com/download/)

YaBB SE (http://www.yabbse.org/)

"I want the forum to look really good and come out all custimized by me, yet I don't want to pay for it like at vbulletin.com/.org"

Any of the above forum scripts should fit the bill. There are installation instructions, readmes and FAQs available both at the sites linked to above as well as usually within the script downloads themselves, if you have any questions after reading the documentation or need help feel free to holler back (technically the "PHP/MySQL Related Help" forum would be the most appropriate venue for such posts however nobody here seems overly fussy about posting netiquitte ;-)

Best o' luck!
Don

[h4ted]

Huha, thank you so much, I got to use XMB. Where would I go if I were to seek support about the XMB site, knowing myself I would probably call for it.

[Albert Lewis]

Do you know if XMB has a database transfer tool as in turn UBB members into XMB member files?

[don5408]

"thank you so much, I got to use XMB"

You're welcome, glad to hear that you're up and running. Hopefully you were able to grab the latest version (1.8), however if you installed the 1.6 version via the HR Control Panel I'd suggest checking the XMB forum site and it's message boards for details on making the 1.6 version more secure (if memory serves there are a few simple procedures which can go some ways towards plugging the known security issues in the v1.6 "Magic Lantern" version of XMB).

"Where would I go if I were to seek support about the XMB"

Well as the XMB Forum script is freeware there is no free support as such (one can purchase phone support however the number is based in the UK), however I'm sure you'd be able to find answers to many of your questions by either browsing through or posting to the XMB Community (http://www.xmbforum.com/community/boards/) forum at xmbforum.com.

Enjoy!
Don