Drupal post to phpbb3 thread?

I am looking for something very similar as well. But I would like for Blog Posts or Page / Book / Story etc, basically any thing that can "Create Content" on the Drupal site, to have a drop down menu when creating the content, that contains all the Categories / Forums in the embedded phpbbforum, that allows you to selects an area to duplicate and post your content to the phpbbForum simultaneously.

I know with some sites, people may visit the forum more than the main site, so having this feature would ensure that visitors are alerted to all new content on the site.

This would be inclusive on all 6.x versions.

thanks

Hi,

I modified the current phpbbforum-module and added the feature list Jeremy mentioned. You can activate a node-submission for every content type (blog, page, story ...) and upon node creation, you can select your forum (to which you have access to) using a drop-down list. Additionally, you can decide whether the system should add an comment link or not which will link to the created forum thread. On submission, the node-content will go through every activated drupal-filter and will be written into the phpbb-database-tables afterwards.

Unpublishing and publishing a node also works for the thread changing it's approval status (from not approved (=unpublish) to approved (=published). You can create and edit a node and always submit the changes to phpbb. Deleting a node is currently not supported. Everything mentioned is working from drupal2phpbb, not vice versa, so every phpbb-side change (like editing the message in the forum) will not synchronize with drupal.

Atm, I am testing the modifications made and will create a patch soon. I am considering creating a sub module because it's getting crowded in the code files ;).

Cheers,

This sounds awesome Melkon!
Exactly what I was wanting!

Let us know when you have it up and working. I'll test it out for you.

jeremy

Well, here it is.

I am using a slighty different version 'cause i am using www.phpbb-seo.com as well and had to modify some files to get it working. I hope I didnt miss anything.

A few words how to use this patch.

Installation:
- patch the files
- since the patch uses a database-table, visit update.php and update the phpbbforummodule (should work, at least as I tried)
- if not, try uninstalling & installing the module again

Activation:
- go to the content types and select the content type you wish to activate
- there should be a fieldset called phpbbforum settings
- set the radio to activated
- mark the 'Add comment link' as checked if you want to add an comment link to the node by default (author can uncheck it during content creation)

Short description regarding 'comment link':
If checked, the system will add a link (using hook_link) below the node to the created phpbb-thread and highlight the first post. The system will count the comments which were posted into the phpbbthread. Beside the number of comments, a friend of mine wanted to be able to set a fixed text for 2 situations:

1) no comments
2) one or more comments

You can set those texts for every content type. You're looking for the textfields below the default-link checkbox ;)

Content creation:
- create a new, fresh node of the content type you just edited
- a new fieldset called phpbbforum settings should be below the input filters
- select the forum to which you want to submit the content from the drop down

fill out the mandatory fields of the content type and save the node. Done!
The entered title wil be the thread's title. The content will be the thread's content. The content will go through every activated drupal-filter. The content will be written into the database after filtering. Hint: Because I make use of the drupal-filter, you can use other modules like video-filter and the video will be posted in the phpbbthread as well.

If you marked the node as unpublished, the phpbb-thread is in approval-status. You can edit and re-submit the node to change the status for the phpbb-thread too.
Do not forget: Changing the thread in phpbb will not synchronize with drupal!

http://www.earthrise-portal.de - it's live for about 3 days and no complaints so far.

Known bugs:
- dunno how the drop-down handles more than 2-level forums. We (at earthrise-portal.de) are just using 2nd-level forums (first are categories). I still have to check how it behave.
- the font size of the content submitted via drupal differs from the rest of the forum.

in development:
- delete node -> delete phpbbthread
- outsourcing code (submodule)

Hope it works and I hope you understand what I've written ;)
I'll be in France from tomorrow until sunday, so I won't be able to support you.

Cheers,

I am back - any updates, tests or bugreports?

Cheers,

Hey Melkon,
I'm really wanting to run this patch, I just have reservations about making changes to the actual module files, for if the module is updated, these changes will be wiped out, correct? Or does the patching work in some other manner.

If we can get "vb" http://drupal.org/user/27449 to test your patch and maybe make it part of the actual module then it would be included in the next update?

What do you think?

jeremy

For testing purposes it's okay to modify the module-files. For a live-production I would not recommend it.
It depends on whether it's better to create a submodule or include the patch into the current phpbbforum-module. vb should decide it. He's the main-supporter.

I would offer creating a patch for every phpbbforum-release until the next steps are clear.

I'm very interested in this module too, but it should be written as an additional module, maybe depending on phpbbforum...
The idea is great though.. only suggestion is to add an iframe under the node and link to the comments to that thread..

Something like this (demo):
News: http://www.hardware.no/artikler/joost_omstilles-_igjen/66698 (Look at the iframe)
Topic: http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php?showtopic=1049835&s=hardware.no

Melkon, thank you for your work.
Sorry for delay. I have just downloaded this patch.
I will test your patch and think about all ideas suggested in this issue.

It works great, but there are two issues:

First is that I had to replace all instances of "phpbbforum_drupal2phpbb" to "drupal2phpbb" in phpbbforum.module, as it was looking for a non-existing table.. (table that was created by the installer was called "drupal2phpbb"...

Second issue is a bit more serious and I don't know the solution as for now. When submitting a content type and make it post the content in the forum, the message is not parsed, but inserted directly into the database. That way, the font-size is wrong, smileys are not appearing before editing the message once and it's not possible to use bbcode.
The solution would be to submit the node through the phpbb-parser before adding it into the db, but I'm not sure how it's done... :/

I've changed my mind after playing around a bit, and this feature is implemented so nicely that it should be a part of the phpbbforum module...great work! :)

Edit: The reason for the font-size to be incorrect in issue #2 is that Drupal wraps the topic in a paragraph... It can be fixed by changing the css, but it may break something else...best thing would probably be to strip them...
Edit2: Feature request... a link to the Drupal node in the forum topic.
Edit3: Might be interesting: http://wiki.phpbb.com/Parsing_text

Happy New Year!

New year, new energy to get back to old problems and missing features :). vb - any updates? :)

The message will be parsed before inserting into the database but it's parsed by the drupal's filter-system and not by the phpbb-parser.
This way, you can use every drupal-filter (ordered correctly) to get the same results on the forum and on your drupal site. Even BBCode works, but you have to use a drupal-bbcode-parser (same for smileys, images etc). I would not recommend editing the thread's content using the phpbb because it will not synchronize with drupal (and it will strip the created html which will mess up the original message).

I am using the drupal-filter 'cause it's much more powerful than phpbb's. The Font-size-issue is an issue which has to be solved, indeed, but I had no clue why it happend. Knowing that drupal wraps the message in a paragraph is a good start. Maybe it's enough to change the filter settings.

Cheers,

Happy New Year!
I have included your code in new dev version, fixed something and added new features. Teasers instead of full text in phpbb topic and backlink to node.
Melkon, thanks.
I am planning to embed phpbb inside drupal page and will release new version after this.

Isn't phpBB already "inside" Drupal by your iframe-solution? If you manage to integrate phpBB in the same way as gallery2 has been, your seriously my hero... :P
A good integration and possibility to use the Drupal-blocks system "in phpBB" would probably become the best Drupal-module out there for people that needs to have a website and forum running. Anyway, good luck! Thanks both to vb and Melkon! :)

Does this implementation includes a link on the node to the forum topic?
E.g. (x comments) or (x replies) or just (comments)?
Also would not be nice if there is an option to display the full story or a teaser on the forum topic?
Thanks.

NeoID
No isn't, try middle click on a forum link inside the frame, you will get that forum page outside the frame.
No titles are shown for the forum topics and pages inside the frame.
No scrolling can be done inside the frame.

panas, using frames, especially for a setup like this is a bad thing for many reasons. Like you mentioned, some links and style can break the layout and your your URL's will be "cloaked", so people can't copy the address and send it to a friend...

While I haven't looked to closely at the gallery2-approach, they've managed to at least make it possible to integrate the gallery without the use of an iframe.
I've played around a little bit and the other option is to create a template for phpbb that matches the rest of your site. That solution works, but may be very complex for some (as you'll have to write some SQL-queries by yourself... The best thing would be to analyze the way gallery2 does it and maybe do the same for phpBB. :)

While I haven't looked to closely at the gallery2-approach,

gallery module does many things, but that is another case.
and yes that bridge is almost perfect
But that is different code.
Phpbb devs somehow where not willing to provide functions
for easier integration.
That changed after joomla adopted phpbb3 as forum.

I've played around a little bit and the other option is to create a template for phpbb that matches the rest of your site.

That has been done, http://custombuttons2.com/
we also on our site have somewhat the same approach.
We also use the gallery2 bridge.

At the end the forum visually, beside colours and css, needs the main links of the site
on header and footer.
You can do that by including a plain text file.

Or as vb wrote, you can wait and see the results of the new integration that he is working on.

Whatever suits better your needs.

The patch that Melkon wrote is a must have option, in order
to avoid the gap and double posting.
Thanks

Hi vb, could you please tell me a little bit more about how you plan to embed phpbb inside Drupal?
I have a site which development highly depends on how this is implemented. Would it be possible to display phpbb inside Drupal so blocks and links don't brake?

Would be nice with some more information of this one.. :)

Hi vb,

Is any version available to try this feature with or without frame? or new release date aprox.?

Thanks you very muchs.

Something like this, just for phpBB would so awsome: http://www.vbdrupal.org/

any updates?

Main things already work. Within a week or two i will publish alpha1.
phpBB3 inside drupal - it is cool :)

That's good to hear :)

Very happy to see this taking shape!
Have clean direct URLs to posts will be wonderful, also getting tigheter user profiles and login will be a much added bonus.

I am about to update to the latest version of phpBB as well. There was an update a few weeks ago that I have avoided.
Is there anything we should or shouldn't do before your new update VB ?

jeremy

subscribing (don't heisitate to tell me if there is another way, if not, is there a "subscription" bug I should subscribe to?)

Please test phpbbforum 6.x-2.0-alpha1

I may have done something wrong.. but after patching the files my forum goes blank (white screen)...
I'll take a closer look at it tomorrow. Would be cool if anyone else could test this and check if the patch file is ok.

The patch was made from clean phpBB3-3.04.
And I have tested it on a fresh phpBB3 installation.
You did not forget to restore original functions_user.php?
The new patch contains these changes.

All changes made by the patch do not affect the standalone behavour of phpBB3.

I have a working phpBB 3.0.4 following instructions inside the module, then I updated to alpha2 without problems. Now I'm looking for css in drupal page integration mode, but I don't like too much the current approach. It seems there are too many ways to customize it, and I would prefer only one method without drupal theme integration also because I'm using a personal theme. I would see a premade css from subsilver and prosilver with no conflicts with drupal itself. Something like have all classes nested in the phpbbforum-page div id...
Anyway I will look into it next days.

Tnx guys!

EDIT:
One more note. I have had installed 6.x-1.04 before, then disabled the module and unistalled it. When I downloaded the alpha1 and installed it I got database error on pages, so I'd go to update.php, handy select the phpbbforum entry on dropdown list, run update process and everithing goes ok.

Hey VB,
Just ran this update and got everything working fine so far.
Made some changes so it would use my CSS file and that worked, until I browsed away and came back. When I go anywhere else on the site and come back to the forum, it stops using the custom CSS and goes back to using the default DRUPAL CSS. Then if I go into the ADMIN section of phpBB3, purge the cache, the Custom CSS comes back. Then I click somewhere else on the site and it goes back to the default DRUPAL CSS.

Also, in the block for Recent Forum Topics, the Author / Date / Etc has disappeared now and just the Topic Title shows up? Anyway to adjust what is displayed there?

Thanks!

btw. I am using a very slightly modified theme in phpBB, it is based on ProSilver I just renamed it to my own theme name and change a few layout stuff to get rid of things I don't need.
Also I am using a custom theme for Drupal that is basically Garland renamed and a few things edited and moved around for my liking.

jeremy

I do not know which alpha you have installed. So you'd better to upgrade to newest alpha6. Read INSTALL.txt.
alpha6 has improved css handling so your problems may not appear.
But you have to adopt starter theme prosilver-embed if you theme has different name and make new yourthemename-embed.
Your default theme still should be yourthemename. yourthemename-embed will be used inside drupal.
>in the block for Recent Forum Topics, the Author / Date / Etc has disappeared now and just the Topic Title shows up?
go to phpbbforum settings select and save needed mode.
Read another my answers in the last issues.

It seems I am having a bit of a problem with this feature.

I had my site all set up and ready to go live so I moved it to my main site address, but things went a little nuts on me. For the most part it was this module that made things all messed up so I finally was able to uninstall it and reinstall it but after the reinstall this feature stopped working for me. I was wondering if I should just uninstall this again and try to find all of the varibles and what not in the database and remove them and see how that goes.

Anyways I should get more to the point of what I think my issue is. From what I have understood from the posts here, it seems that the submit post to forum thing works by using a table in my database called drupal_drupal2phpbb or something along that lines. I have not been able to find that table at all so I am guessing that is my issue.

Does anyone know what needs to be done to create this table? I am guessing it should be made with the install but maybe during my poking and proding of my site to return the phpbbforum functionality to it I inadvertantly removed it somehow.

Anyways some help would be appriciated.

Oh and VB .... great work. I love this module with all my heart!!

Strydaris, thanks.
I think you will be able recreate the table by running update.php after enabling it.
In next release I will not remove the table if the module has been uninstalled in order to save the data.
You may comment line 19 in phpbbforum.install.
To create this table manually you can run in SQL window the statement

CREATE TABLE `phpbbforum_drupal2phpbb` (
          node_id integer UNSIGNED DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
          topic_id integer UNSIGNED DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
          linked  integer UNSIGNED DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL,
          PRIMARY KEY (node_id, topic_id)
        ) TYPE=MyISAM /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 */;

does it not need to be drupal_phpbbforum_drupal2phpbb or something like that?
My Drupal database prefix is simply just drupal_

And most likely it wasnt you that caused the problem in your code. I have been doing some thinking and I believe it was myself that deleted the table in an effort to get rid and any and all phpbbforum settings to do a complete and fresh install of it. For the most part that approach worked except for this function.

And thanks for the quick reply.

Edit: and I hate to bring this up as well but now when I got to add new content like a page or story, the submission settings are gone. Meaning there is no area that phpbbforum adds to the content type where you can select what forum you wish to post the info to.

Edit 2: You were right about running the update.php. It has inserted itself back into my database in the proper spot and name. As for the phpBBforums not showing up... well that was my mistake for not checking content types first before posting this. One thing though, is it possible to add a selection of the possiblities on where you want this information posted. Lets say you have 4 boards on your forums and you only want to have pages able to post to one of them and have stories be able to only post to a different one. I know this isnt the area to post this but it was a brain storm I just had while typing this.
Thank you

>does it not need to be drupal_phpbbforum_drupal2phpbb
without the prefix `phpbbforum_drupal2phpbb`
>I got to add new content like a page or story, the submission settings are gone.
Open collapsed section 'phpBBforum submission settings' on a node edit form.
Or i did not understand you. What i should save for a new content?

I messed up with some module in phpBB3 and I had no access anymore to the administration control panel (ACP). I had to clean the tables in phpBB3 with an extra tool outside the ACP, which is called Support Toolkit (STK), http://www.phpbb.com/support/stk/. I then lost the ability to login in the Drupal site. When I created a new user in Drupal it told me that a new user was created in phpBB. So I already guessed where the problem was, there was something wrong with the phpbbforum module after the database cleanup. I had to rename the phpbbforum module folder via FTP to have access again to my Drupal site (my guess was that if Drupal would not have access to that module anymore it would log me in again). I could log in again after that. I then took the module out of my site. Apparently there is something wrong with the drupal2phpbb table in MySQL, which is still present in my MySQL database. Can I simply remove (DROP) that table from within phpMyAdmin and start again ?

You can, but you will lose all links to phpbb topics. You may simple disable the phpbbforum module via phpMyAdmin to see what is going on and who is guilty.

I'm a newbie and I'm still not sure that I understand how to patch. Does patching require SSH? Or is there a way to patch without SSH?

It seems to me that once the phpBB3 is patched, the patched phpBB3 could be uploaded from a development site to a production site.

Is that so?

If that is the case, can someone with a clean and patched install of phpBB3.0.7 send me a copy of the patched phpBB3.0.7?

I do not have shell access and as such, cannot complete the usual process of applying the patch.

If there is another way to do this without shell access, please explain.