phpBB is a popular free and open source forum system using the PHP scripting language and supporting a variety of database management systems including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Microsoft Access and with modification, Oracle.
Besides the database support, some of phpBB's greatest advantages are :
- A templating system designed with ease of use and rapid customisation in mind
- Internationalisation support with 54 translations available at the time of writing. Supporters of phpBB may claim that phpBB has the most translations available of any web-based forum software.
- Large community of users providing free support and modifications
Latest releases
- 1.4.x ( obsolete ) - 1.4.4
- 2.0.x ( stable ) - 2.0.18
- 3.0.x "Olympus" ( development ) ( formerly 2.2.x )
History
phpBB was started by James Atkinson as a simple UBB -like forum for his own website on June 17 , 2000 . Nathan Codding and John Abela (both now former team members) joined the development team after phpBB went into SourceForge CVS , and work on 1.0.0 began. A fully-functional, pre-release version of phpBB was ready by July 1, 2000.
phpBB 1.0.0 was released on December 16 , 2000 , with subsequent improvements to the 1.x codebase coming in two more major installments. (phpBB 1.2.0 was released on February 16 , 2001 and 1.4.0 on April 25 , 2001 .) The final release in the 1.x line was phpBB 1.4.4, released on November 6 , 2001 . During the lifetime of the 1.x series, Bart van Bragt , Paul S. Owen (former co-manager of the project), Johnathan Haase (now a former team member) and Frank Feingold joined the team. phpBB 2.0.x was begun on February 17 , 2001 . It was developed entirely from scratch; the developer's ambitions for phpBB had outgrown the original codebase . Doug Kelly (now a former team member) joined the team shortly afterwards. After a year of development and extensive testing, phpBB 2.0.0, dubbed the "Super Furry" version, was released on April 4 , 2002 (three days later than intended). The latest release in the 2.0.x line was 2.0.18 ("The Halloween Special"), on October 30 , 2005 . Releases in the 2.0.x line are now restricted to bug and security fixes, and 2.0.x is the only line for which support is currently given.
Future
With the new 2.0.x codebase in a stable state, the development team, now led by Meik Sievertsen , has begun building upon and altering the codebase to produce "Olympus"; when it reaches production quality, it will be released as 3.0.0. The improvements in "Olympus" to date are comparable with the improvements between 1.4.x and 2.0.x. It was originally planned to be released as 2.2.0, however, in keeping with the Linux Kernel numbering scheme , because 2.1.x eliminated virtually all compatibility with the 2.0.x line, the version number for release was changed to 3.0.0.
Improvements due in 3.0.0
The "Olympus" codebase is now feature frozen, but the developers are prone to keep some features up their sleeves. However, an incomplete list of additional (over 2.0.x) features expected for the 3.0.0 release follows.
| .: DBMS (DataBase Management System) support widened |
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Firebird |
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SQLite |
| .: Friend/Foe lists |
| .: Forum model overhauled |
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Forum rules can be given for each forum, either as text or a URI |
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Link forums added (redirecting to a specified URI) |
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Styles can be set on a per-forum basis |
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Subforum functionality added; subforums can be nested without limit.
.: Categories are now a type of forum; forums are added to them as subforums
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| .: Performance significantly improved, partially by removing PHP3 compatibility |
| .: Permission system reworked |
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Automatic groups
.: "Administrators"
.: "Bots"
.: "Guests"
.: "Registered Users"
.: "Registered COPPA Users"
.: "Super Moderators"
.: "Unapproved Users"
.: "Unapproved COPPA Users" |
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Fully atomic permissions; control even the abilities of administrators |
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Super Moderators" added, for easier creation of a board-wide moderation team
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| .: Private messaging reworked |
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Custom message boxes |
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Draft messages |
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Filters |
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Multiple recipients |
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Tracked conversations |
| .: Templating system overhauled |
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Images in a style can now be switched by changing the "imageset" |
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Online style editor added to the admin panel
.: Choose images to form an imageset
.: Edit CSS-based themes
.: Edit HTML-based templates, and store the changes on the filesystem or in the database |
| .: Topic/post system overhauled |
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Add attachments |
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Copy topics |
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"Global" announcements, displayed in all forums |
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Icons for topics |
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Move (merge) multiple posts into another topic |
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Posts can be automatically placed in a "moderation queue" for approval |
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Report posts to moderators |
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Other PhpBB Links :
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International Support
Because phpBB is multilingual, a number of 3rd party sites have appeared to support those whose first language is not English.
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Flash tutorials
A collection of flash tutorials provided by DemoDemo that introduce you step-by-step to many of phpBB's features.
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Userguide
The installation guide and full documentation to the forum system. This should be your first stop in finding solutions to problems you may be having, particularly administration and moderations issues.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Common questions can be found in the FAQ, which you should check before posting your questions.
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Knowledge Base
The knowledge base contains team and user submitted articles, covering a number of frequently asked questions.
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Support Forum
If you cannot find an answer in the resources, our forum is the place to go. Before posting a question please make use of the search facility.
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Bug Tracker
This page allows you to submit a bug with either the phpBB software or an element of this website. The Bug Tracker is not a place to ask for support, posting questions here just takes time away from working on real bugs.
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Security Tracker
If you have encountered a security vulnerability in the latest version of phpBB, please report it here.
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IRC Support
A support channel, #phpBB, is registered on the freenode.net IRC network (irc.freenode.net). After reading the IRC rules, feel free to drop in and ask a question. Several team members are usually there, but please don't flood the channel with support requests. Note that this channel is for phpBB discussion only.
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