I currently have a site thats just a forum, based on phpbb3. I am very interested in turing my forum into part of a larger site, that incorporates a landing page, a forum and a blog (where only i author posts and others comment).
The content management systems availible are similar to how id want the landing page to look, a place where there is enough content, but also as a portal...a starting point, for accessing everything my site would have to offer.
In anycase here are some questions;
-Is it possible, and how difficult would it be, to apply the style my phpbb3 forum has to Drupal if i switched?
-I currently run ads on my forum, including a banner in the header and footer, banners inbetween posts and above the forst post, and text ads at the bottom of each forum category.
This is essentially my goal, that its beginning to look like phpbb cannot achieve...
I want a standard site, a forum, and a blog, using the same style (preferably the one i use already), and i want them to use 1 login per user. Integrated style and integrated login.
It apears the integrated login would not be an issue with drupal, but what about carrying over the style i currently use? And what about modifying pages to place ads?
For reference, here is my forum, so that you can see the style and layout and placemnt of things. If the above can be achieved with relative ease, i will drop phpbb like a bad habbit and switch to drupal.
digitalvisions.org
Comments
sure
I think it is generally possible, but it may require a lot of work on your part and some (at least rudimentary php knowledge).
The theming is probably what will take most work.
The beauty is, that you can define blocks in your theme any way you want (after the first post, left, right, floating, fixed ...) and put ads in those blocks. You can enable them based on sub-categories or whatever suits you to target your ads better. For those purposes Drupal clearly has an edge.
Now to the downside: I don't know how hard it is to port your phpbb database over to drupal. You could run a phpbb integration and two databases (phpbb + drupal) but I would advice against it. You will have to maintain two systems which will become more work intensive and you will have no good cross search.
Drupal forums are very basic, but with the Advanced Forum Module you should be half way there already.
I recently put it on my travel site, but I didn't bother to theme it as much as I should. When I have some time I will do that too.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
O i have no concern about
O i have no concern about importing database info from my current forum as there is not much there. I essentially am concerned with haveing ofrums/blogs/main site integrated as far as login is concerned (not an issue from what i can tell).
Secondly, im hopeing its possible to theme a drupal site with the same styles from my phpbb forums. At this point im even starting to let go of that idea and just considering dumping phpbb and using drupal and starting from the ground up.
Just a few questions.
How much flexability does drupal offer for SEO?
How is the support?
How easy is it to find the mods and themes you want, and how easy are they to install? how well are they supported?
How complicated is drupal to setup and maintain, how dificult is it to customize?
Does drupal have any limitations or drawlbacks?
Yes
I think you are on the right track. I think theming for Drupal has come a long way, but you should check these pages:
http://drupal.org/theme-guide/5
http://drupal.org/theme-guide
I am sure you can make a drupal forum as pretty as any phpbb forum, but its a bit of work.
How much flexability does drupal offer for SEO?
Its simply the best there is for free. Check out the urls of my forum posts:
http://www.opentravelinfo.com/forum/travel-talk/useful-tips-and-intervie...
Those are completely auto generated. Same is true for the rest of the site wher I have this enabled. I am using the pathauto module which lets you define rules how these urls are generated. Haven't seen anything this good except for vbulletin + some expensive seo plugin.
How is the support?
The forum is always a good point to start. If you create an issue in the module section it usually gets answered. But remember, people donate their time for free, so what you are getting is always more than what you are paying for. There are plenty of people here offering paid support as well.
How easy is it to find the mods and themes you want, and how easy are they to install? how well are they supported?
Since I started on 4.5 it has come a very long way. I would say its easy, but keep the number of modules low. It makes it easier to upgrade a site.
How complicated is drupal to setup and maintain, how dificult is it to customize?
Its hard for me to say. I for one find it more logical than phpbb or joomla (the only two others I played with). Basically you can try it in a matter of minutes. Get yourself a copy of xampp (local web server) and install drupal on it. Should only take minutes once you have all the files.
Does drupal have any limitations or drawlbacks?
It can be resource intensive to build a page with lots of replies. The caching has also improved a lot, but I still maintain a simple html caching for high traffic pages:
http://www.aguntherphotography.com/projects/website_cache.htm
In its new form I simply specify 10 urls and let it cache those. Based on referrers I decide if they get the cache or the dynamic version, so people can still log in and post (referrer ist hen my own site). I have been able to survive a massive digg with this:
http://www.aguntherphotography.com/blog/surviving-100000-instant-visitor...
Theming and forums have been criticized a lot, but I think they are great (SEO, integration) so that I can live with some of the downsides (you need modules for splitting posts, joining, moving). I have initially tried other solutions and decided to stick with Drupal a long time ago. I have no doubt that the forums will be as good as any others in due time, seeing the speed things are happening over here.
Sometimes modules don't work out of the box. After installing advanced forum it was broken on Internet Explorer (wide columns). I am always one version behind (I recently upgraded to the 5 branch while 6 is current). This way others often ran into the problem before me and have posted fixes somewhere. I just don't get why the modules don't get updated all the times. Often its a simple php line or css hack.
Don't let this list deter you. I could write pages of things I hate about Joomla. In fact I find it so bad, that I taught my wife to administrate it and refuse to touch it. Seems to me that Drupal is written by professionals, people who want to get the job done and Joomla is written by kids who love to play around.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Thanks for your reply, very
Thanks for your reply, very insightful and helpful. I have since installed drupal on a test server and so far really like it, module installation couldnt be easier (unlike phpbb). Im really looking foreward to playing with drupal and learning it so i can develop my site the way it is in my head.
So far i think that drupal not only will meet my expectations but exceed them.
While installation was a little bumpy for me, i attribute that to my host not to drupal. Im actually going to write a guide to help others with similar issues as i could not find a consolodated source for my troubles.
Thanks again.
How much time?
How much time do you have for this? Getting your forum to look like that wouldn't be too hard, but I'd advise waiting a couple of weeks if you can. Or get the dev of advanced forum and play with it. I don't recommend using the dev on a live site but I'm hoping to get the next alpha (which are fairly stable milestones) out in the next couple of weeks.
Michelle
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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.
huh
Is that also true for the v5 branch?
Seems to be running fine.
Always develop your site locally before uploading it.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
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Yes, both branches are undergoing massive changes right now. I need to finish the new features then beat on them a while and then I'll release new alphas. Anyone looking to theme their forums is better off waiting for the alphas if they can.
Michelle
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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.
great
Excellent. Glad to see v5 still supported.
Thanks!!!
I would still recommend to go ahead and play with Drupal locally to get familiar with the concepts, including theming of the cms itself.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
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D5 will be supported for quite a while. I still use it. :)
I'm pretty familiar with Drupal so I assume you're advising the OP to play with it? ;)
Michelle
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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.
Yea my phpbb site is still
Yea my phpbb site is still up, im experimenting with drupal on a test domain/server. Its really not a huge deal as my forums were only weeks old and only had content from myself, which im willing to redo in drupal.
My biggest issue now is learning how to effectively use drupal to achieve what i want.
While id love to get it done and over with (setup), i most likely will have to wait regardless because of my ignorance when it comes to drupal.
My brain is fried right now, i taught myself a bit about phpbb and html,php, css within the last month or so...now ive gotta forget phpbb and learn drupal lol. on top of it i have my normal work to do...so sometimes i just feel overwhelmed, and silly...cause some of the termonology and concepts are not hard, but they just slip away from me...thats when i throw in the towel for the day and give it a go after some food and rest.
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Don't feel bad. Learning a whole new system takes time. If someone handed me a PHPBB site to do I'd be lost, too. Just take it a little bit at a time, read the docs where we have them and ask questions if you get stuck. You'll get there. :) And if you take your time that gives me more time to get another alpha out. LOL!
Michelle
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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.
yes
Yes I meant the OP. He can prob use some time to play around with Drupal
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com