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petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:10 pm

I need to have about 3000 different forum area's in my phpBB forum so I just want a simple list of letters on the home page which you can select the relevant letter, then it will only display forums starting with the selected letter.

For an example see this link:
http://www.graphicdisplayworld.com/en/directory

I'm not worried about the list of companies.

I just want the

0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

as clickable links.

Any idea's how I can do this?

Post by **stevemaury** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:43 pm

Have you actually created and used this 3000 forum board? Because unless you spend about $750/month for hosting, it will either not run at all or run like molasses. Navigation of it is, as you apparently realize, certainly an issue, but is really the least of your issues with that many forums (or are those just categories so there will be more than 3,000 forums?).

phpBB was not designed to perform with that many forums. Merely checking forum permissions would wake a lot of time and resources. And forget about loading jumpbox.html.

I think you need different software for whatever it is you are doing.

petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:13 pm

Thanks for your reply.

No I haven't created the 3000 forums yet.

I have been asked to create a chat forum which splits down into a forum for 3000 different companies.

If phpBB can't do it what do you suggest? Will it have to be a bespoke forum?

I have a dedicated server will phpBB struggle just because of the amount of data?

Post by **stevemaury** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:22 pm

The biggest issue is that before phpBB displays a forum to a user, it must check to see whether that user has, for example, permission to see a particular forum. If it has to do that 3000 times for every user at every page load - well, you get the idea. There are other aspects to it as well. It is not the amount of data or the amount of users (witness this board) but the manipulation of the display of the data in a system that not only has multiple forum-based permissions roles but also has the ability to create more and, even worse, the ability to use permission sets other than standard roles, which requires even more permissions checking.

By "chat" do you mean real-time chat? Because if you need a bulletin board for 3000 companies, each with their own set of forums, I do not think there is an existing solution on the planet.

petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:34 pm

Thanks again for the reply.

No it does not need to chat real time.

Okay so do you have any suggestions?

My client has requested this so do I just go back to my client and say this can not be done?

How many different forums can phpBB cope with?

If I created a bespoke streamlined version do you think it will work?

Post by **stevemaury** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:50 pm

Around 200 forums, you start to take a hit.

I do not know how you could make a streamlined version of phpBB. Obviously, unless you want all the companies to see each others' forums, you would have to use permissions, and those permissions would have to be checked, so I don't see a way around that. And, is that the way it works? Each company's users only see their own forums, or they can also see some or all of the other companies' forums? If I knew more about the goal, maybe I could be more helpful.

Look at the email storm you would get from PMs and Subscriptions, if you allowed them.

Lumpy Burgertushie · Post by **Lumpy Burgertushie** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:02 pm

If you could explain exactly what the end goal is instead of how you think it should be accomplished, then we might be able to help you figure out a way to reach that goal.

luck,
robert

petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 9:52 am

I basically need to create website that splits down into a 3000 separate forums for each company.

1) Can this be done or is it too much for phpBB to cope with?

Could it be done if there were extra modifications made to phpbb. Like removing the jump menu, etc.

If not can you suggest another solution?

Post by **stevemaury** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 10:57 am

It cannot be done with phpBB. As I said the jump menu is the least of your problems. The problem is permissions. Bur since you don't answer my questions I really cannot be of any more assistance.

petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 11:48 am

All users should be able see all forums so no need for separate permissions. Can it be done based on this?

Please let me know if there are any other questions I have not answered???

Oyabun1 · Post by **Oyabun1** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:30 pm

petewinter wrote:All users should be able see all forums so no need for separate permissions.

Who's going to act as moderators on this mega-board, will each of the 3000 forums have it's own moderator?
What about administrators? Will each company have someone with administrator permissions?
Who decides what styles will be available on the board? There are a few hundred styles, but not 3000.
Are all the users of the 3000 companies to be in the same user group? The companies won't want to do a mass email just to members of their forum (user group)?

I don't know of any BB program that would handle this sort of load well because it's not what they were designed for.

petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:43 pm

Oyabun1 - Thanks for your reply.

I will discuss these questions with my client further.

Post by **stevemaury** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:02 pm

Having no permissions means that anyone in the world can view and post to any of these forums - viagra, Asian XXX, etc. How would that work?

petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 6:22 pm

Okay. Thanks for all your advice. I will go back to my client and ask a few more questions.

petewinter · Post by **petewinter** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 8:42 am

I have had further conversations with my client.

Can you please let me know if this is possible...

30 forums and 3000 topics?

Many thanks for your help and advice.