phpBB Web Hosting

phpBB Web Hosting

phpBB is a popular internet forum package written in the PHP programming language. The name “phpBB” is an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board. This is a free software and is available under the GNU General Public License. phpBB was first started by James Atkinson on June17 2000, which was meant to be a simple UBB-like forum for his own website. Subsequently, Nathan Codding and John Abela joined the development team after phpBB’s CVS repository was moved to the SourceForge, and work on 1.0.0 began. It was on December 9, 2000, that phpBB 1.0.0 was released followed by improvements to the 1.x codebase. The final release in the 1.x line was phpBB 1.4.4, released on November 6, 2001. After a year of development and extensive testing, phpBB 2.0.0, dubbed the “Super Furry” version, was released on April 4, 2002. Though initial releases supported PHP 3, recent versions of phpBB 2.0 require PHP version 4.0.3 or above. phpBB2 is not officially supported with PHP 5. Nonetheless, phpBB developers have changed the code to function better in such environments.

phpBB is a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customizable Open Source bulletin board package. It features a user-friendly interface, a fairly simple, uncomplicated and easy to use administration panel and an informative FAQ section. Its other key features include powerful permission systems, private messaging, search functions, a customizable template and language system, as well as support for multiple databases. Based on the powerful PHP server language and your choice of MySQL, MS-SQL, PostgreSQL or Access/ODBC database servers, phpBB is the ideal free community solution for all web sites. Since its inception, phpBB has been a highly favored bulletin board solution and is one of the leading Open Source forum software in the world. One of its recent releases includes the phpBB3 “Olympus”, which made its debut in May 2007, brings with it custom bbCodes and profile requirements, support for sub forums and attachments as well as a vast array of other commonly requested features. The version 3.0 incorporates a professional-quality modular design, high security, multiple-language interface, support for a multitude of database servers and complete layout customization, all with a low execution overhead. Below is a brief outline of its new as well as improved/enhanced features:

1. Private Messages:

• Ability to send to multiple recipients, groups as well as BCC.
• Forward messages and attach files to Private Messages.
• An address book that’s equates to a friend’s list.
• Private Messages folders and filters.
• Drafts and export messages.

2. Registration:

• Enable/disable COPPA
• Ability to set a min/max username and password length.
• Limit registration attempts and ability to force password change.
• Allow/disallow e-mail address re-usage.

3. Search:

• Ability to search topics, multiple forums, categories or within the post of a particular topic.
• Select search backend (MySQL/phpBB) and set search flood interval to limit server load.

4. Admin Control Panel:

• Allow/disallow access to different functions, accessible and user friendly tab layout and easy extensions.

5. Moderator Control Panel:

• List of warnings and reports and forum, topic, and post detail views.

6. Polls:

• Each user is entitled to multiple options and ability to allow/disallow vote changes.

7. User groups:

• Have multiple group leaders, ability to set display color for group members, set group rank and group avatar.

8. Profile Views:

• User statistics, signatures and user groups on profile view.

9. Permissions:

• Permission systems are more flexible and powerful.
• Moderator access and admin access can be fine-tuned.

10. User Management:

• Features an advanced user editing interface as well as the ability to show and edit all attachments of users.
• Ability to edit user preferences and group memberships.
• View Permissions directly.

11. Other Improvements and enhancements:

• Moderator and admin control panels.
• Set temporary bans as well comment on bans.
• Manage group memberships in the ACP.
• Search members by all attributes.

12. Attachments:

• Attachments in posts and Private Messages attach images, documents, video streams, archives and display attachments online.
• Automatic image thumbnails and multiple attachments are allowed as well.

13. Unlimited Sub Forums:

• Create unlimited sub forums and display active topics of all sub forums.

14. Custom BBCodes:

• Create own BBcodes and add buttons to posting screen.

15. Custom Profile Fields:

• Add new fields on user profiles and display them at registration and on the profile view.
• Hide new profile fields and support different data types.

16. User Control Panel:

• Manage subscribed topics & forums, bookmarked topics, saved drafts, private messages, user groups, friends and attachments.

17. New Moderating Tools:

• Moderation queue.
• Topic merging, copying and history.
• Locking single posts.

18. Caching and Performance:

• Templates, Forum configuration, permissions and data base queries are cached.

19. Friends and Foes:

• Add members as either friends or foes.
• Friends are displayed in the friends list while posts by foes remain hidden

20. Warnings and Reports:

• Users can report topics and posts and moderators can also warn users.

21. Improvements for Users:

• Bookmark topics and subscribe to forums.
• Jabber/XMPP support for notifications.
• Mail or print topics.

22. Improvements for Admin:

• Global announcements and weed out inactive users.
• Display forum rules on forum page.
• User, moderator, admin and error logs.
• Language pack editing and user notes.
• Detect search spiders.

Complete support is offered to users in case of installation problems or any other software related issues and queries. Support system includes documentation (installation guide and full documentation to the forum (board) system), Flash tutorials, IRC support (support channel registered on the freenode.net IRC network for phpBB discussion or support), a comprehensive knowledge base, a support forum as well as an international support system as phpBB is multilingual.