Forum as a graduation project

[wojoxet]

Hi,
I do hope that I am posting in the right forum.
It is my last year and I have a graduation project to develop or produce a forum.
There are 4 members, but for some reasons and circumstances, it is almost me who will do the project unless something changes (wish me luck).
We submitted our interest that we will develop a forum as a graduation project.
I've googled a lot to see how things are done and checked several forum software but found that PHPBB is the oldest and most used free forum software since several years ago.
I do not want to cheat and copy and paste from chat GPT.
I've downloaded the software and tried to do an anatomy of it, but it is huge for my ability.
So my question is that I want to understand the logic of how the forum (not phpbb in particular but I mean in general as an example) works.
if you are developing the forum all over once again, what is the right starting point?
is it the admin control panel?
the front-end interface?
the user's profiles?
the pages of the thread?
....etc
Another thing is that I've read that many PHP frameworks could facilitate the job, so if I want to learn things the right way, shall I use such frameworks like Drupal Symfony Laravel, or Jumla?
Another issue aside from that, is I do not know why almost all people recommend using WordPress (I never used it before, but when I googled it I found it a blog software and not a forum software).
I have a student license for JetBrains IDEs.
Please advise so I can invest time in myself the right way.

[KevC]

Before you choose the software you need to decide what the purpose is.

A forum is for multiple people to discuss specific subjects and anyone can initiate those topics. Wordpress is more that you post an article and people comment on it.

As a basic format, forum software allows you (the admin) to create forums where the users (including you) post topics and replies about whatever subjects the forums are about.

[wojoxet]

That was fast, thanks a lot for your interest in helping me.

Before you choose the software you need to decide what the purpose is.

We agreed that it would be about how to organize notes during studies and different formats and software.

A forum is for multiple people to discuss specific subjects and anyone can initiate those topics.

Yes, this is exactly what we want to do, so anyone can start a thread in the right forums.

WordPress is more that you post an article and people comment on it.

No, we do not want to make it like that.

As a basic format, forum software allows you (the admin) to create forums where the users (including you) post topics and replies about whatever subjects the forums are about.

This is exactly what we want to do.

Note: We all (I mean the 4 members, do not like the social media format like posts or groups as it is a real mess, and this was the main reason to consider developing software and adding it to GitHub and applying the software development life cycle and make the forum is the project for that, and we are doing it for seriously.

[KevC]

You can download 'server software' like XAMP and MAMP and try out phpBB for yourself on your own computer before you roll it out in a more public place. All of that is free.

[wojoxet]

You can download 'server software' like XAMP and MAMP and try out phpBB for yourself on your computer before you roll it out in a more public place. All of that is free.

Yes, I did download and use the XAMPP but my question was about the right way to do the software anatomy.
I started to explore files one by one and when I found any variable or constant I used the software EveryThing Search to find it in the other folders of the software.
I mean when I navigate it to know how things work, where to start? Which parts to start with?
I do not know if I am asking the right question or not.
Please forgive my foolishness.
The main reason that I want to take it seriously is to make it a portfolio for us (I mean the forum software I will develop) so we can find a job or a freelance after graduation.
Also to show that we can implement software development life cycle and use git and GitHub for that purposes.
Again, I am sorry if I am asking the wrong question.
In other words, if you are about to restart developing the software all over once again what would you do?
As they say, I am asking about the mindset.

[KevC]

You don't need to do anything with the files. You install the board and the admin panel allows you to create everything you need.

[wojoxet]

You don't need to do anything with the files. You install the board and the admin panel allows you to create everything you need.

I do not mean to build a forum as an admin.
I mean to develop a forum software from scratch using PHP.
I take PHPBB as an example, so this is why I asked.
I am sorry if it is a dummy question.

[GanstaZ]

You and your group/team are the only ones who know what you all want from the end product.
Make a blueprint of that vision and start implementing what is needed/wanted.
If you want to use a framework, then pick one (symfony or laravel).

[wojoxet]

Make a blueprint of that vision and start implementing what is needed/wanted.

You mean there is a default guide for building various forum software? did I get it correctly?
I mean it vary from one software to another?

If you want to use a framework, then pick one (symfony or laravel).

I do not know if I should use it or not, Are there any recommendations from the practical point of view?

[GanstaZ]

You mean there is a default guide for building various forum software? did I get it correctly?

No.. Blueprint is a good helpful tool for any project.
You yourself will create a blueprint that will have all the the needed info for the project.
We don't know what you all want to implement (modules/functionality) and how (framework or not).
Sometimes the best helper would be uncle google.

In short.. What I mean is write down that vision (make a blueprint that has all the notes aka info), divide the tasks between members and start working.

[wojoxet]

I thought building and creating a forum software has pre-specific or pre-determined steps or guides that anyone must follow.
I also thought that different forum software is different from each other according to the look or the themes or styles.
If I understand you correctly, what you are saying is that there are no guides and no specific steps and that anyone can do whatever he/she wants with the developing software for the forum, and this blueprint (first time to ever know about it) is like a mind map for what should be done.
Did I get it correctly?

[Kailey]

Just to jump in here, I took you off the NRU group so you don't have to keep having your posts approved for a very legit topic.

[GanstaZ]

blueprint (first time to ever know about it) is like a mind map for what should be done.
Did I get it correctly?

Yes.. That is correct.

If you look around the web you will see 2 types of forums (topic style = phpBB and thread style = for example reddit).
Only thing that forums have in common is an ability to have discussions.

If we look at it from a coding side, then yes.. there are some coding guidelines (style) practices.
And yes.. Everyone can do whatever they want. Want to reinvent the wheel? You can do it.

[Mick]

May I ask, how long do you have for this?

[danieltj]

Building a forum is easy, and I don't mean that in a condescending way. I mean the actual architecture of a forum is very simple. It can actually be condensed down into the form of a blog like WordPress for example.

What I mean by this is that in the context of a blog, you have posts and the equivalent of that in the context of a forum is a topic (or thread as it's sometimes called). Blog posts then might have comments on it and the equivalent of that in the context of forums are posts (or replies etc).

I'm not suggesting you use WordPress by the way. I'm just drawing on the similarities between blogs and forums.

The first thing to do is to create a project and work on setting up users so you can log in. Once you've down that, you'll want to setup an admin area (like the Admin Control Panel in phpBB) that lets you create and delete forums.

Then you'll need to work on functionality for letting users create topics and later on create posts inside of topics. I wouldn't worry about permissions until further on down the line because that will complicate things during the most important part (creating content).

As I said already, it's not hard; it'll just take a while to do. Perhaps trying looking at frameworks like Symfony (which phpBB uses) or you can supercharge your process and use Laravel (which also uses Symfony) but is a complete development kit with loads of helpful utilities to speed up your workflow.