Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

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MGadAllah
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Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by MGadAllah »

Hi,

I hope that I am posting in the correct and the right forum :).

There is something I can not make up my mind for it and I thought to post here asking for an advise from people around here as I do believe that we have many experienced and talented guy around phpBB forum.

I have a website that I need to include many thing within and therefor I need a good CMS plus a forum and a blog and maybe a gallery (this is for the time being).

I've goggled a lot for the best or suitable CMS I can depend on and after a lot of reading I've found that Drupal is better (while some and they are too many goes towards Joomla, but Drupal is far better especially for the long run) and this is why I've picked Drupal at the end and dropped Joomla (as I've choose Joomla at the 1st place).

This was a brief background about what I want to have. Now regarding the thing I want to make up my mind for, it is that I am a fan of phpBB and really want to use it for the website but the problem I have is the integration with the CMS Drupal as the existing bridges are not good at all and keep broking all the times when any updates take place for Drupal or phpBB.

So I am a bit confused about what shall I do, shall I:
  • Using phpBB in a separate database and drop the integration with the CMS so this way users will have two log ins, one for the CMS and another one for the forum
  • Using the core forum module for Drupal with some other modules to add more features for the forum as it is just simple, clean forum.
So please advise for what shall I do, I understand that some may say that it is my problem and should not post something like this, but it is just I am newbie with websites world and may not realize something and other experienced guys know about it.

One last thing I've realized that there is a stable bridge for Joomla and phpBB, so while I know that Drupal is better then Joomla but I am still thinking about using Joomla instead to be able to use phpBB.

Also does users or visitors for any website(s) care about which tools you are using or it is all about contents and looking or appearance of the website?

Thanks for your time reading my post and I hope to know what do you think?
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by drathbun »

MGadAllah wrote:Also does users or visitors for any website(s) care about which tools you are using or it is all about contents and looking or appearance of the website?
They're less likely to care about the tools, and in my opinion more likely to care about having to log in twice (as one of your suggestions brought up).
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MGadAllah
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by MGadAllah »

Thanks a lot for your reply,
drathbun wrote:in my opinion more likely to care about having to log in twice .
hum ... so you think I should go for Drupal in my situation because the existing bridges does not work stable or smoothly at all.
I am really like to use phpBB but also I am thinking about the best solution for my situation for the long run for the website.
Also I am really newbie to websites world, and I do not know what could be the right decision to take, so is it possible to ask for what shall I do which is really much appreciated.

Thanks
narqelion
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by narqelion »

If you've picked Drupal then why not go with the forum solution provided by them? Why try to shoehorn phpBB into the setup at all? Seems like they have a sufficient forum system as is with additional "features" set up as modules that you can add as necessary, which is fantastic. ;)

http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/forum
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by MGadAllah »

narqelion wrote:Why try to shoehorn phpBB into the setup at all?
It is just I do trust the opinion of the team and advanced and experienced guys around here in phpBB. So your words makes sense but because I am a newbie I am in a need for an experienced opinion to advise for what could be the best solution for my situation.
Also I am not in comparing phpBB and Drupal's forum module as this is not the point.
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by irsmart »

Without saying, phpBB is obviously much more powerful and has many more features than the Drupal forum module. Why do you need people to log in to drupal? Most of what drupal does is manage content, not build a community (though you can do that also). Unless you really need people to log in to drupal, I would suggest setting up your site like joomla set up theirs--put the forum in a different directory and only have users log in to the forum. Every website that I've used that requires two logins for a forum and a site are really annoying and make me want to have nothing to do with them (it's just one more thing to remember).

Unless your site is a technical site, I wouldn't recommend using the default drupal forum module because it tends to get confusing and does not have very many features.

Just as a side note, as you say, there is a working joomla-phpbb bridge that works. Bridges, though, just get annoying because they almost always break when the software is updated (as you mentioned). I was very pleased to find out about Fireboard a few years ago. Fireboard is a farily advanced, stable forum component for joomla.
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MGadAllah
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by MGadAllah »

irsmart wrote: phpBB is obviously much more powerful and has many more features than the Drupal forum module.
Yes for sure and the whole world knows this default fact :D.
irsmart wrote: Why do you need people to log in to drupal?
I will have some kind of a big project that is looks like a social networking which will include participating from members to different places on the whole website. For example I will need a comment in different areas, a blog, a gallery, a forum ...etc and so on. Also posted contents at different areas will require comments from different members, let's say the news section for the website will have a comment feature and same for gallery and same for other section, which mean that forum is not the main mandatory thing for the website but it is a very important as well in the same time to help the website grow as possible.
irsmart wrote: Most of what drupal does is manage content, not build a community (though you can do that also). Unless you really need people to log in to drupal.
Yes I will require and will need people to log in.
irsmart wrote: I would suggest setting up your site like joomla set up theirs--put the forum in a different directory and only have users log in to the forum. Every website that I've used that requires two logins for a forum and a site are really annoying and make me want to have nothing to do with them (it's just one more thing to remember).
I've to agree that people will go away when they find 2 log-ins.
irsmart wrote: Unless your site is a technical site, I wouldn't recommend using the default drupal forum module because it tends to get confusing and does not have very many features.
I was thinking in such a way till I find these links about these modules that could be added to Drupal's core forum: Advanced forum; Complete forum package; plus there are few more.
irsmart wrote: Just as a side note, as you say, there is a working joomla-phpbb bridge that works. Bridges, though, just get annoying because they almost always break when the software is updated (as you mentioned). I was very pleased to find out about Fireboard a few years ago. Fireboard is a farily advanced, stable forum component for joomla.
Yes I used to use Joomla and the reason I've picked Joomla from the 1st place was the phpBB as it was the bridge that were integrating Joomla and phpBB awesomely from rocket themes and you can check it [urlhttp://www.itoverdose.com/board]here[/url] and I've got a membership at rocket themes for Joomla and phpBB, but later on I've found Joomla could not do the same things as Drupal can does, and this why I've moved to Drupal. Then I've tried to integrate it with phpBB using the existing bridges but as you know they are got broke every time. So I've thought about using Drupal for the whole thing.

But honestly I do still like and love to use phpBB (really professional software and better then IPB & VB - at least for me).

So I've thought to share everything I do have in my mind and ask for advise for what could be the right decision for my situation as I am not a good with website and may not have the big picture view in my mind, and across different places I used to visit I've found phpBB team really good guys and know what they are doing. So I am here asking for what shall I do.

I hope that you got my point and I hope that I've expressed it correctly.

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narqelion
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by narqelion »

If you take a step back I think you will find you have answered your own question. You said yourself the forum is just one piece of your whole website and not the most important so why let a non-key factor dictate your choice? <- rhetorical
MGadAllah wrote:I was thinking in such a way till I find these links about these modules that could be added to Drupal's core forum: Advanced forum; Complete forum package; plus there are few more.
Exactly. ;)
MGadAllah wrote:But honestly I do still like and love to use phpBB
No matter how much you may love your square peg, it doesn't ever really justify trying to force it into a round hole. :P
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by MGadAllah »

narqelion wrote:No matter how much you may love your square peg, it doesn't ever really justify trying to force it into a round hole. :P
So, you think I should stick to Drupal and close the case and focus on learning Drupal and do more work with it, right!?

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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by irsmart »

Because you have to have the drupal login integration, you have to have something that does not have two log-ins per person. Those advanced drupal forum modules that you mentioned looked great. You really don't need all the power of phpbb (because a lot of its functionality is repeated in drupal such as user management). The reason I don't like the default drupal forum module is because it handles the first post in a thread as a new node and each post that comes after it as a comment. The different terminology gets confusing, but those forum modules you mentioned look great.

Any way you do it, you will have to give some type of funcitonality up, so I think you've found the best way with drupal and no phpbb.
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by narqelion »

MGadAllah wrote:So, you think I should stick to Drupal and close the case and focus on learning Drupal and do more work with it, right!?
Correct. ;)
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by MGadAllah »

Thanks a lot guys for your time and your effort, really much appreciated.

I will use Drupal for my website and will stick to it.

But please may I ask for one more thing to know if my information is correct or not?
Did the comparison between Drupal and Joomla go towards Drupal as I've mentioned above or it was right?

Thanks
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by tandem »

Hi MGadAllah,

I am very much in the same situation as you and I have decided to go with Drupal.

You may be interested in Eeelke's solution / opinion regarding the combination of phpBB and Drupal in this thread.

Good luck.
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by MGadAllah »

tandem wrote:Hi MGadAllah,

I am very much in the same situation as you and I have decided to go with Drupal.

You may be interested in Eeelke's solution / opinion regarding the combination of phpBB and Drupal in this thread.

Good luck.
It seems that nothing avilable about it so far and it seem that it does require a lot of work?

I am afraid that he is just starting to ask about a way to co-operate between phpBB and Drupal developers which may or may or may not come true.

Me myself would love to have a way to integrate both of phpBB and Drupal but nothing available so far.

If any one find a way then I am in.
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Re: Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

Post by demon327 »

MGadAllah wrote:
Me myself would love to have a way to integrate both of phpBB and Drupal but nothing available so far.

If any one find a way then I am in.
again, the phpbbforum module works great once installed, and with the instruction that i wrote it can't be that hard ;)
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