Drupal Forum Competition, who whas the best looking Drupal based Forum. post your links!
andre75 - March 27, 2006 - 18:44
I am thinking about building a forum centric website. I have checked out several non-drupal based solutions but I like neither (I am just a Drupal guy).
So I would like to find out who has the best looking / most feature rich / or otherwise very interesting Forum that is based on the Drupal internal Forum. Yes I have seen the flatforum theme, but I would like to see some customizations.
I want to find out how good the Drupal forum can be made.
If you have a really good looking drupal forum, could you post it here please!
Andre
What?
Noone running a decent looking forum?
The best one I have seen so far is this:
http://gallery.menalto.com/forum
I am wondering if someone else has a really nice looking / behaving forum.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
I really like the
I really like the gallery.menalto.com/forum , I think it is clean looking and it has that general "forum look" while its not as fancy as the stand alone forums, i think it gets the job done.
so my question is this. How do I make my forum look like that? Ive looked all over but I can't find anything that does a good job describing how to format the drupal forums. is it just a matter of having the right css entries, or is there more to it?
Your navigation menu
How have u made your navigation menu where submenu are hidden and displayed with mouse click at http://www.opentravelinfo.com. Thanks for your help.
Terminus is also great!
http://www.terminus1525.ca/forum
That is high quality as well. BTW, if you find the info on how all of this was done, I would love it if you post it here. I know that the handbook also has some documentation on this, with a list of helpful modules.
Good luck!
My Problem
My problem with those two is, that even though they look better than most drupal forums, they still look a little simple.
I was hoping for something that looks just like vB. That would be a killer thing.
I am sure that one can theme the forum to look like this, but I haven't found one yet.
Right now I am trying to figure out what goes and what doesn't.
I downloaded Joomla yesterday since it has a good SMF bridge but I hated Joomla too much, was confused by the admin interface with all its colorful buttons that I felt reminded of a kids toy and was not able to install a theme (the installer didn't work with xampp and copying stuff like you do with Drupal does not work either).
There is a SMF bridge for Drupal. It integrates the databases. I then called it via an iFrame but didn't like this solution either, since the url in the browser did not change. One could always go to mysite.com/smf but then I wouldn't be albe to use the sidebars and headers generated by Drupal. The iframe would make it hard for google to spider the whole thing and for people to email each other forum topics.
So I am back to square one, trying to find out how far one can go with theming a forum.
Most are based on the flatforum theme which is a good start but nothing spectacular.
For instance I tried using some fancy buttons instead of the boring reply text links, like most other BB have, but I couldn't figure out how. So I am trying to find someone who did it, so I know it can be done.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
umm
> I was hoping for something that looks just like vB. That would be a killer thing.
That's a feature. not a bug.
--
The future is so Bryght, I have to wear shades.
LOL
I bet you are working on a 386sx with Kernel 0.96 and OLWM or how else should I take your silly answer.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
LOL
LOL
This is a Timely Discussion
We are planning on redoing the forums at:
http://www.projectopus.com
Our Flat theme is all buggered up anyway, and we really need to improve it.
What about vBulletin do you like particularly? Just the look? Or some added functionality?
Both
When I see how good some of them look like, and compare it to Drupals built in forum, I guess we are loosing the battle.
I wan't to do a site that is centered around a forum and I am looking for solutions.
Most of the functionality can probably be replicated and most of the looks too, but all I have seen so far is some variations on the flatforum theme. Nothing too spectacular.
I would like to see a full blown vB clone or something that gets really close to looking like a killer forum.
I know I don't care myself (I even like this forum) since I am all about content. But if that was all that counts, people wouldn't use MS Windows either. Once there is a defacto standard (vB, phpBB, SMF) people will have a hard time accepting anything less.
The first step would be to make a Forum look really good, with all sorts of themes.
For instance I have never seen one that has Quote, Reply, IM, PM, ... buttons that you can see on other forums. Sounds trivial, but I bet people miss it, even if they don't know it themself.
I am not sure I made myself clear. Just find a random vB forum and a random Drupal Forum with flatforum theme.
So I was wondering, if someone had a killer Drupal forum.
BTW: I like your site. You have done one of the finest Drupal sites!
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Well, if you're able to
Well, if you're able to afford it, vBulletin has a vB Drupal module, so that they share databases and the like.
However, I had my users come up with some features, to see what they liked most about the vbulletin forum we're using. Here's some of the things they said:
1) Image-based: vBulletin's forum uses custom images for everything. It's basically like eye candy: it draws users in. Whereas Drupal has mostly used text for links, since it's more economic that way.
2) Navigation menu: vBulletin uses some great navigational menus using js, where you just click to open up a list of options. From a Quick Links bar to a search menu to a bar for quick navigation inside threads, these menus make everything simple as hell.
3) Search In Thread mode, for finding things quickly and easily.
4) Quoting, email, and PM on users' posts. That's always nice.
5) Better user profiles. Drupal doesn't have by default any formatting on their profiles, whereas vBulletin has multiple modules for changing profiles and changing the layout.
Also, speaking as an admin rather than a user, vBulletin has so much more options when it comes to tweaking forums. From user titles based on post counts to different permissions per forum, there's a lot you can do to make your forum yours.
Finally, vBulletin has literally thousands of modules for all sorts of things. This is what really makes it appealing, since it lets users quickly and completely reformat their sites.
I don't think Drupal can compete at this stage. Besides, I'd rather have a bridge to some other forums, and better CMS-related things, than have Drupal focus on forums.
yes, the design of the
yes, the design of the terminus forum looks really good. they did a pretty good job.
The proof
O.K. I guess I proved to myself that it can't be done then. I guess for that one project I will check out Joomla with the SMF bridge. Too bad though.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Looks or functionality?
Do you only want look? What about theming?
--
Tips for posting to the forums.
When your problem is solved, please post a follow-up to the thread you started.
Looks to start with
Having a better look is a very good start. I think there are enough modules available to enhance functionality.
Yes, I could just start theming and see how far I can push it, but quite frankly I am not good at it. It will take me very long.
So I would like to see an example first, to judge if it would be worth the time and effort.
Unfortunately noone seems to run something that goes beyond a flatforum theme.
I can't even figure out how to use buttons instead of links for reply, quote ....
I know this could be slapped together quite easily with Joomla, but I don't really intend to keep track on security updates for two different CMS and Drupal is so much better for most other parts.
EDIT: Alternatively, I could try to find out if there is enough interest so I could combine forces with others.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Joomla/Mambo have NO decent
Joomla/Mambo have NO decent forum links, if you look at most Joomla based sites, their forums are hideous, not standards compliant and have filthy code. There is NO forum for Joomla and they don't seem bothered about making one work.
Michael O'Toole
Gay Youth :: South East - Founder & Operations Administration
LOL
Maybe so. I don't like Joomla for other reasons. I am still quite happy with Drupal, except for one thing:
Since 4.7 Drupal has become a resource hog.
I mean 300 queries or more for a forum page is really beyond reason:
http://drupal.org/node/85009#comment-155724
I don't know what to say. I guess noone cares anymore how efficient the code is.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
They have it
The forum component call FireBoard. made by http://www.bestofjoomla.com
Forums
Andre,
Take a look at the UIEForum module. This guy has done an awesome job on a forum that is integrated really well with Drupal. It's still in Beta, but it works great and the future looks really good! I too love Drupal, but the base forum is lacking in features that every user expects, and in a community based website Forums are very very important. I think if Drupal had a better Forum, it would blow all of the other CMS's out of the water.
http://drupal.org/node/38830
Josh
I agree
Since Drupal is so much better than it's competitors when it comes to building communities, and a forum is a totally community-based feature, I really think Drupal would become more of a killer app with a better forum. The existing one works fine, but it's short on features and short on graphical appeal.
It reminds me of another topic on themes and graphic design that's been ongoing ( http://drupal.org/node/48695 ). In functionality, Drupal kills - and with the addition of bolder and more graphically pleasing themes and a better forum, there would be almost no reason for anyone to choose anything else.
Themes
Check out this thread by Duplin Drupaller:
http://drupal.org/node/38148
I have already bookmarked it and am keeping a really close eye on the development. This is IMHO the best Idea so far to get tons of themes of the ground. I already took some benefits by learning how to customize a flexinode.
To summarize his idea: Have a really good, but empty theme that works in each browser and a library of snippets. If you want a 3 column design, take the appropriate snippet and paste it in the right place, if you want roll-over menus, take the snippet and drop it in the theme. Something like a theme construction kit. Either way, I believe that this is exactly what is needed to solve that.
So getting back to this thread, do you have ideas for a killer forum?
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
quick one..
Hi Andre,
I've been threatening to start that section for a while now...I wanted to pull it out of the Drupal handbooks - I think the handbooks aren't designed very well and are ill suited to snippets + screen shots + quick navigation.
I'd prefer if we kept it seperate in a Drupal designers knowledge base that has php/css/template snippets and a reference guide simmilar to http://api.drupal.org but specifically for designers and in non-programmer-speak.
That said, I have attempted to kick-start the idea in the PHPTEMPLATE sections of the handbook, using the forums as a starting point.
Click on the link below...it should be self explanatory now it will work.
Customising the FORUM_LIST layout
(That's a work in progress, but the snippet has been tested on Drupal 5.x)
The concept is very like the other PHPTEMPLATE theme snippets, but, it also carries STYLE SHEET snippets you can drop into your own theme along with the snippets.
hopefully it will spark some ideas...and an understanding that the modular approach to theming should really be looked at (not in the handbooks, but in a seperate "Designers Knowledge base" that is instructional rather than explanatory).
Dub
Thanks Josh
Thanks for the link. Didn't know this existed. Defenitely this is worth bookmarking and paying attention to!
The thing that makes me nervous:
Otherwise it sounds really good. Thanks for the tip. I guess I will wait and see how this develops.
So far this is the only response to my thread that makes sense to me!
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Actually
Actually I think your suggestion is pretty similar to this:
http://drupal.org/node/40940
(SMF bridge for drupal).
I have tried the bridge above and it works nicely. The problem I have is how to include the smf forum into a drupal page. I want the forum to be on a drupal page with a sidebar generated by Drupal. The only way I found so far is by calling the forum through an I-Frame. The problem with this is, that the url remains static when someone browses the forums.
Lets say if I have the forum on mypage.com/smf. The user can still call this page directly and circumvent the drupal sidebar, or if he goes to the front page and calls smf through the I-Frame the url will always be mypage.com and not change when someone browses forum topics. There are some drawbacks with this. Google probably doesn't like it and if someone wants to email a specific topic to someone else he can't just copy the url.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Typohile is one of the best
Typohile is one of the best forum in drupal websites: http://typophile.com/forums
I'm workin on Drupal forum theme and module that is very similiar to Invision Board forums: http://forums.invisionpower.com/
It's completed and I will submit it as a theme this week. unfortunately I have not free host to upload a screenshot.
Thanks
Thanks for the link to typophile. I must say the forum looks like any other flatforum. Sorry to say this, but it doesn't look good. Even they have plain old text links instead of buttons. Unless I miss something, I don't think it looks better than the forum on my travel site.
I am very much interested int your theme though. Are you going to share it with the community? Do you need help?
You can get a photobucket account for free (photobucket.com) and upload a screenshot there.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Hi Andre, Actually I don't
Hi Andre,
Actually I don't like typohile forum myself and also I don't like other forums mentioned in this post. I personally think that phpBB, InvisionBoard and vBulletin feel and look is standard and users over the world like these feel and look and this structure more than every other forum.
What I have done in my forum theme is not very complicated. I override some forum theme functions like theme_forum_list, theme_forum_topic_list, etc and add lot's off css IDs and classes to default style.css to simulate feel and look of Invision Board. Also I tried to add collapse and expand button using new ajax features in Drupal 4.7 for categories but I could not handle it. I also write a module for displaying information of every posts. It's like flatforum but with anothor approach. Of course there are some little bugs and need to tested by different users. I decide to publish it end of this week.
Thank you
Cool. I'm looking forward
Cool. I'm looking forward to seeing how your forum will look, Mamouri.
There is some talk about vBulletin and Drupal integration here: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=97341
vB
vB is too expensive. Once I have a forum running and it gets people to sign up, I can always switch, but I am not going to throw money at a project when I don't know if it will work.
Forums may never take off or take a long time to do so.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Free and Licensed under GPL
According to the site vbdrupal.org, "License: vB Drupal is open source, free and licensed under the GPL, just like Drupal."
The bridge not the forum
Yes the bridge is free, vBulletin is not. It costs quite a bit.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
VBulletin
VBulletin costs $160 per website - it is commercial software.
wow
Thanks man. This would be awesome. Can't wait to see it.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Even they have plain old
Buttons? These are not the indicator of a good design. Sorry to break it to you, but it looks hundreds of times better than the forum on your travel site. You didn't even use a grid when you came up with that design, and it breaks in Opera.
Typophile is beautiful, if they added 'buttons' it would be ruined.
---
Web Design, GNU/Linux and Drupal.
vBulletin?
I have heard people recommend the commercial forum package vBulletin in combination with Drupal using the vBulletin module.
It is a shame that the forum facility in Drupal doesnt match up yet.
Well
vB is very popular, so I assume they make quite a bundle. With this it is possible to use a lot more resources on vB.
I wouldn't say its a shame, I would rather consider it a challenge.
There have been two very good suggestions in this thread. One is a new theming approach and one is a new forum being written for Drupal. Both are worth keeping an eye on.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
What are the specific features you need for a forum?
Andre75: Before you decide to not use the Drupal forum component, it would be helpful if you made a list of all of the features that you need or want that are causing you to look elsewhere. This would help spur future development. Also, it may just so happen that solutions are available for what you are requesting.
Just a thought...
Looks
Hello Rick,
I have repeatedly stated throughout this thread that at first I am interested in seriously changing the look of the forums to be anywhere near vB,phpBB,SMF ...
Not that flatforum isn't a huge improvement but quite honestly it still looks dull.
I would like some simple things, like buttons instead of links (reply this, quote that). But i am starting to repeat what I said above.
Just look at the forum of my host:
http://forums.site5.com/
It runs vB (I guess mostly out of the box), but it looks better than any Drupal forum I came across so far. I really don't know how to make myself clear here. Maybe someone else could help me out. I don't think flipping a few colors on the flatforum theme does the trick.
Features:
I am not an expert at forums. I simply want people who are used to any of the major forums feel at home on my site. I don't think this is so hard to understand. Online people very quickly turn away and find some other site if they like the features better.
I just don't want to fall victim to anything like this. I totally understand that nothing beats content, no matter how anything looks like, but a forum has to start somewhere, with little content. At least I wan't people to feel at home.
At the very least:
-PM
-User Profiles
-Forbidden threads (where only admins post)
-Closing threads by admins (no more posting allowed but content visible)
-Infinite Nesting of categories
-Polls in Threads (user can create a poll but only in the forum thread)
There are a lot more features. Bascially most of what goes with phpBB.
Another thing. Why is the thread starter treated different that the rest of the thread (my link says "add comment" while all other links say 'add reply").
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
-PM-User
PM and user profiles are readily available now. Closing threads and infinite nesting I think are available as well. Polls in threads I haven't seen just yet.
I think the issue here is how things have been themed, making these features easy to integrate and familiar. The issue regarding comments is important as well. I'm not a coder myself, but I think that by combining a few modules into a package and sprinkling it with a bit of "code glue", it may be possible. Then again, this is just speculation.
Rick
Hm yeah
But if you read my posts more closely, I have always said that I am not worried about functionality. I was rather hesitant to mention any of my desired features, because this gets me the standard answer: "use available drupal modules".
I have nothing against this, but I really do care about how the forum looks like.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Here is one of mine:
Here is one of mine: http://www.mobilepokernow.com/forum
Pretty good
This is certainly one of the very best flatforum forums I have seen so far.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Cool
Real nice site. I am very impressed with your theming abilities. I especially like what you did with the "whats going on" area.
I agree
I fully agree. Its certainly one of the best sites I have seen.
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Thanks guys, glad you like
Thanks guys, glad you like it. I actually fully agree with you andre75 about vB being the best. Since I haven't really seen a Drupal site that has a forum like vB I figured I would build one that is somewhat similar. Drupal is actually very powerful and I am convinced with some work all the vB functionality can be added to the Drupal forums. I agree with you about ppl recognizing stuff like buttons, member details, all that kind of stuff that is on vB and PHPBB and makes people want to communicate and talk on a forum.
But yeah, it's possible with Drupal but will just take some development knowledge to get something that you want. A lot of the stuff you want like showing top members, showing posting stats, PM, website, quote, signatures is all in Drupal and it's just a matter of displaying it in the right place.
There isn't really an out of the box module for vB forums with Drupal. I would actually be very interested in teaming up with a skilled programmer and working out some type of solid forum module that has all the functionality of the vB board - and then some. It would be awesome to make Drupal have a better forum than vB. It's possible. Just a matter of doing it.
Good luck!
PS: The comments say 'reply' and not 'add new comment' because forum topics in Drupal are counted as nodes just like any other page. All the forum replies are 'comments' which makes them different. This is easy to fix tho.
Collaboration
Slayerment,
If you are truely motivated to bring an awesome forum to Drupal, you and Zoro need to get together. With your combined skills, I have no doubt you could come out with a killer forum! EVERYONE here wants to see Drupal live to it's potential, and Forums are high on the list.
http://drupal.org/node/38830
Josh
Wow
I am starting to get excited. Unfortunately I have seen many posts such as this, but the momentum was lost rather quickly.
Nevertheless, some good suggestions have been made. Although I am not good at anything development related, I am willing to donate as little time as I have. I could do some graphic design though (buttons and stuff). I am pretty good at that. So if someone needs some graphics for this project, just tell me. I am also willing to do testing.
Would be a good starting point.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
What all did you have to do
What all did you have to do to get your forum to look like that. I like your forum as well as the gallery.menalto.com forum but I don't know how to make mine like that. ie. the comments say 'reply' and not 'add new comment'.
i agree with andre, we should try to get something going on this, at the very least a definitive how-to. The forum issue is a big one for drupal, often becoming the deciding factor for whether to use drupal, or try something else.
Buttons
I have made good progress to replace all links with buttons. "add new comment" and "reply" are both replaced with the same button. Please see this thread:
http://drupal.org/node/57504
A couple of if elses do the job very nicely.
I have rewritten major parts of it, and now it looks cleaner. It works for all users that are logged in. For users that are not logged in, I need to replace the login or register links with some good looking buttons next.
It is a piece of work, but it turns out its easier than I thought.
The next thing would be to make to forum style itself (boxes, headings, backgrounds) look a bit more interesting.
Unfortunately I am not a php coder, but if you like I can post everything here and maybe someone would like to pick it up and help me out, so we can make this a combined effort.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Hey Slayer, you really need
Hey Slayer, you really need to release this, lol, wow that's REALLY impressive, please add me on AIM or MSN for my forums on GameBGS.com. Send your aim or msn to my email please :) lapointe.charles@gmail.com
Visit GameBGS.com for all your gaming needs.
Public please
I possible I would like to see as much information as possible made public instead of sent via private channels, so that we can all benefit a little. I too love his work and would like to see some of it released.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Made some progress
Finally managed to replace all text links with buttons:
http://www.opentravelinfo.com/node/342
Now I just have to make the rest of the forum look good and I am a happy camper.
Andre
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http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
We want new Forum!
We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum! We want new Forum!...
Sorry.
I think this guy from spain
I think this guy from spain only learned 4 words in english so far ;)
lol... Visit GameBGS.com for
lol...
Visit GameBGS.com for all your gaming needs.
Well... you are wrong. I
Well... you are wrong. I speak english every single day with my wife... btw, how is your spanish? You can also look for "gilipollas" in the dicctionary.
I still think drupal needs a better forum.
the default sadforum.module
Yeah, all of the users on my site deserted the Drupal forums and went to use our new phpBB ones. Most of the action on our site happens on our phpBB forums for that very reason. One thing we truly need on Drupal is PMs; that would improve a lot.
_____________________________
My site:
http://www.artistsforumworkshop.org
Hey man. It was a joke.
Hey man. It was a joke. Notice the ;) at the end. I completely agree that drupal needs a better forum. I'll be learning my spanish next spring when I'm in Sevilla for 6 months. btw, dictionary has 1 c.
artistsf: check out the private message module for PMs.
Great looking forums! Hard
Great looking forums! Hard to beleive it is all Drupal, good work.
www.it-hq.org
Slayerment, just wondering
Slayerment, just wondering if you ever planning releasing your customization for your forums. It's great and I'd love to use it as a template for my site .. Would you be open to this?
Thanks,
Cameron
--------------------------------------------------------------
www.gnosticweb.com
Good info
There is some good information on customizing Drupal's forums here, in case you haven't seen this:
http://drupalart.org/phpbb
Cool, I'll take a look :)
Cool, I'll take a look :) !
www.it-hq.org
that seems to only work with
that seems to only work with 4.6.x unless you guys have figured out a way to make it work with 4.7 and if thats the case, I would love to hear your solution.
It's kind of frustrating to look at all the examples of good looking drupal forums, yet there is basically zero documentation available on how to achieve those results.
I've been frustrated by this
I've been frustrated by this also. There are several really good-looking forums made with Drupal's built-in forum module, but I've also been unable to find anyone willing to share how they did it. No wonder so many people are looking for alternatives to the built-in forum.
Sorry I am back now
Sorry to everyone for not responding to your questions and emails.
I have been dealt a bad blow recently. I was trying to save my good buddy Tigger. Unfortunately it has not happened:
http://www.aguntherphotography.com/node/1652
Either way I made some progress on the theming of the forum:
http://www.opentravelinfo.com/node/342
The code below shows the part of my node-forum.tpl.php that is responsible for replacing all text links with buttons. Everything else (colors ...) is just css. Unfortunately I was not finished yet and I hadn't planned to post something half done, but I am simply not capable of doing much at the moment. I am not a programmer either. If you can improve the code, please let us know. The outer loop should be replaced. It makes sure the buttons don't show while someone replies, to avoid confusion. I do this by detecting a part of the url. Anyways, I am sure it can be done better, but at the moment I just want to bury my head under my pillow.
<?php if (!ereg("comment/reply",$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])) : ?>
<?php if ($comment->cid) : ?>
<?php if (user_access('administer comments') && user_access('access administration pages')) :?>
<a href="admin/comment/delete/<?php print $comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/delete.gif"></a>
<a href="admin/comment/edit/<?php print $comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/edit.gif"></a>
<a href="comment/reply/<?php print $comment->nid.'/'.$comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/reply.gif"></a>
<?php elseif (user_access('post comments')) :?>
<?php if (comment_access('edit', $comment)) :?>
<a href="comment/edit/<?php print $comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/edit.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<a href="comment/reply/<?php print $comment->nid.'/'.$comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/reply.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<?php if ($user->uid):?>
<p>you can't post comments</p>
<?php else :?>
<?php if (variable_get('user_register', 1)):?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a> <a href="user/register"><img src="files/buttons/register.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if ($node->nid) : ?>
<?php if (user_access('post comments')) :?>
<a href="comment/reply/<?php print $node->nid ?>#comment"><img src="files/buttons/reply.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<?php if ($user->uid):?>
<p>you can't post comments</p>
<?php else :?>
<?php if (variable_get('user_register', 1)):?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a> <a href="user/register"><img src="files/buttons/register.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<a href="user/<?php print $userid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/profile.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Forgot
Forgot to mention.
This goes where:
<?php print $links ?>stands in the default template.
If you like the buttons on my site, feel free to copy them and use them. I have no objections.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
I hate to ask so much, but
I hate to ask so much, but would you mind posting your template.php and your entire node-forum.tpl.php and also what version of drupal you are using. I saw your posts on drupalart.org and am curious if you are using their template as a starting point.
Hm
Its the 4.6 branch. I simply looked at comments.module how the links were created in the first place and repeated that in the template. You should have no trouble doing that on 4.7.
I am not sure why the template.php is needed for this.
My complete node-forum.tpl.php looks like this (its a bit messy):
<tr class="forum <?php print $row_class ?>">
<td class="poster" style="width:92px;vertical-align:top" rowspan="3">
<div class="poster_name"><?php print $name ?><br><?php print $picture ?><br></div>
<?php if ($joined): ?>
<div style="font-size:9px">
Joined: <?php print $joined ?><br>
Posts: <?php print $posts ?>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
</td>
<td class="forum_node_title">
<?php print $title ?>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="forum <?php print $row_class ?>">
<td class="forum_cell">
<div class="content"><?php print $content ?></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr class="forum <?php print $row_class ?>">
<td class="forum_cell_bottom">
<div style="float:left;">
<?php if (!ereg("comment/reply",$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'])) : ?>
<?php if ($comment->cid) : ?>
<?php if (user_access('administer comments') && user_access('access administration pages')) :?>
<a href="admin/comment/delete/<?php print $comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/delete.gif"></a>
<a href="admin/comment/edit/<?php print $comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/edit.gif"></a>
<a href="comment/reply/<?php print $comment->nid.'/'.$comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/reply.gif"></a>
<?php elseif (user_access('post comments')) :?>
<?php if (comment_access('edit', $comment)) :?>
<a href="comment/edit/<?php print $comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/edit.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<a href="comment/reply/<?php print $comment->nid.'/'.$comment->cid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/reply.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<?php if ($user->uid):?>
<p>you can't post comments</p>
<?php else :?>
<?php if (variable_get('user_register', 1)):?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a> <a href="user/register"><img src="files/buttons/register.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php if ($node->nid) : ?>
<?php if (user_access('post comments')) :?>
<a href="comment/reply/<?php print $node->nid ?>#comment"><img src="files/buttons/reply.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<?php if ($user->uid):?>
<p>you can't post comments</p>
<?php else :?>
<?php if (variable_get('user_register', 1)):?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a> <a href="user/register"><img src="files/buttons/register.gif"></a>
<?php else :?>
<a href="user/login"><img src="files/buttons/login.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>
<a href="user/<?php print $userid ?>"><img src="files/buttons/profile.gif"></a>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
Finally
I am now at a point where I am starting to be quite happy with the design and the features of the forum:
http://www.opentravelinfo.com/node/412
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com
I've gotta say...
I'm not sure what you're looking for in a forum after seeing you say yours is starting to look nice to you. I won't say that my forums are the most beautiful out there, but I can't say that I really like the look of yours too much. I guess it's just the grey blockiness of the whole thing.
I'm really quite happy with the way mine turned out and all I used was flatforum and user badges.
Thanks,
David
http://www.floridapets.org
Forum with unfolded threads
at diabetes-world.net. The rationale for showing the threads was to give a better overview of who has answered what. We had to modify some of forum.module to get the unfolded threads in. Actually, the site contains several fora:
Olav -- contAire
Nice
Looks good. (and i wanted to watch this thread)
--Ryan
annoying drupal forum things...
ok, not sure if this is the best place to post this...
but one really very annoying thing in the drupal forums...
is that icon that is in front of a topic... i gather it is to show new/unread, read, hot topic etc...
why on earth is it not a clickable icon? what i mean is because it is an icon, and because the default icons are so darn big, i actually went to click on the icon instead of the actual topc and of course it does absoloutly nothing...
please please is there any way that the icon can inherit the link of the actual topic that it is in front of?
do you know what i mean?
i guess the other factor could be that i am a dork and that the non-linking of these icons is normal?
http://notetoselfdontdie.com/members/forum/
...
Hey everyone, I am also building a forum centric website as well, and most of the sites in the foreseeable futute will be forum centred, so I'll be taking an active interest in the building of any forum modules. Currently, I'll use the best forum module available that is integrated into drupal, and that seems to be UIE forum or flatforums module, after that, I'll be looking to improve on what is available with my own input. Anyway, I hope that eventually, we'll all have our vB, phpBB killer.
------------------------------
Naruto - narutomonkey.net - Naruto Forums
Seriously Customized forums
http://www.chattermoms.com
Enjoy!
that looks really good, is
that looks really good, is that made with Drupal 5? I have been trying to make a forum look similar to an actual vB or phpBB type forum with the Zen theme but it never looks right, it always look sad looking.
profile settings
take a look at http://globalheroics.com/on-the-mac-vs-pc-topic
takes profile properties and puts it under the users name
my forum on www.muse.com.pl
My forum integrated with website content and categories.
http://www.muse.com.pl
Cheers :)
so whats the verdict guys
i found that the forums in 5.1 have some disadvantages..posting by email is not happening...big negative..i wish we have a module for that...and certainly the looks....
can someone post a module which can give some beauty to the forums...and more features maybe...
i saw some of u have nice forums...why not share? if u cld put it up and release officialy as a module..wld be too good..i wld certainly thank u :)
Verdict
There is a module that will let you post nodes by email. I can't remember the name and have no idea if it's for 5 as we were back on 4.7 or maybe even 4.6, so you'll have to search.
A module isn't going to "give beauty to the forums". That's going to be controlled by your theme.
For features, there's a link to a ton of modules and initiatives to simplify things at http://groups.drupal.org/drubb .
Michelle
--------------------------------------
My site: http://shellmultimedia.com
Gujjuweb Forums
We have used flatforum on http://www.gujjuweb.com/forum
We have also done Drupal + vBulletin integration ( with single sign-on either way) - a demo is avaible (for a limited time only) on http://lileffer.gloscon.com/vbulletin
I know someone is considering building a vBulletin type of forum in Drupal. We do not want to duplicate the effort but we were certainly considering to build something like that as close as possible as a custom module. This is still a possibility
--
Roshan Shah
http://www.bpocanada.com
T : 604-630-4292
Vancouver, Canada
Skype/GoogleTalk/Yahoo : bpocanada
Drupal Forums
Well, I love the possibility of using Pathauto on the Forum which is truly an excellent feature of Drupal. For Vbulletin you would have to buy VBSEO which again costs quite a bit of money. In that respect I am all for enhancing the features of the Drupal Forum but keeping it within Drupal. You will never get the same kind of integration from another software. Keeping up to date on too many things is a nightmare too.
A.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.opentravelinfo.com
http://www.aguntherphotography.com