Running multiple forums on one install?

[ghulst]

I am currently running four forums. They are evenly spread with two on phpBB and two on SMF. However, updating always is a hassle. I would like to have one core system that then runs all four forums with the same extensions etc.
This is the situation:
- I have four completely separate forums
- The forums have separate URL's
- I can host them on a fifth URL
- I would need some sort of redirects to make sure everything stays findable

Those are my first thoughts.

Would this be possible? And how would you go about it?

[danieltj]

This is currently not possible with phpBB as the core doesn't support multiple installs. You've near enough explained how WordPress can achieve this with its built-in multisite feature, however that is not something that exists for phpBB.

You could always suggest this as an idea in the ideas section to see if other users would also want this in phpBB core but right now, you'd need to be looking at paying someone to develop this project for you specifically. Bear in mind it's an ambitious task to say the least.

[ssl]

I am not convinced that the WP multi-site is made for anything other than a WP CMS, the OP is talking about phpBB and SMF boards, two of each. So there is already an implementation problem. Even if phpBB becomes multi-site capable, in the near future, I don't think it will be able to handle anything other than phpBB.
No, phpBB updates are not complicated if you follow the good instructions.

[danieltj]

I am not convinced that the WP multi-site is made for anything other than a WP CMS, the OP is talking about phpBB and SMF boards, two of each. So there is already an implementation problem. Even if phpBB becomes multi-site capable, in the near future, I don't think it will be able to handle anything other than phpBB.
No, phpBB updates are not complicated if you follow the good instructions.

You’ve misunderstood what I have written. I wrote that WordPress has a multisite feature where you can have multi WordPress sites using one file system. I’m not suggesting you somehow use WordPress to create a phpBB multi forum system at all.

I meant that phpBB would need to implement similar architecture to that of WordPress to get it to have a multi site function. For example: be able to switch between multiple databases and have some kind of link between each of the different forums and so on.

[ssl]

Yes I understood but that's not what the OP is asking, reread...

[Gumboots]

I am currently running four forums. They are evenly spread with two on phpBB and two on SMF. However, updating always is a hassle.

*snipped superfluous quote text*

Would this be possible? And how would you go about it?

Short answer: yes, it would be possible, and there's no harm in putting in a request - but - getting it working smoothly in practice would be a gnarly job. If anyone capable of doing it was wanting to make a decent hourly rate on the job I would expect a price somewhere north of $1,000.

My 2c: I have had years of experience administrating both of those apps, and updating SMF is a total piece of cake. It only takes a couple of clicks and a couple of minutes. It is vastly simpler and much faster than updating phpBB, so I'm honestly not sure what the issue is there.

With phpBB: sure, it's tedious and yes, they often frig around with things that do not need to be frigged around with. I'm thinking here of things like randomly changing a couple of lines of a template to Twig syntax, just because someone felt like it, thus forcing everyone to deal with that in their custom styles even though there was no need for it.

However, the phpBB update process is not actually difficult, and does not need to be done all that often. If your forum is running well and nobody is complaining, and if the latest update does not contain any critical security patch, then you can skip it and keep running your current version. This is the easiest and cheapest way to save yourself some work.

Ditto for extensions. If you don't actually need to update them for some specific reason, you don't necessarily have to.

[ghulst]

Neither forum is particularly hard to update. Well, in general. I now need to update SMF from 2.0.19 to 2.1.4 and that means all the packages will need to be reinstalled etc. I just did a phpBB update and there I had one extension throw a fit and that had me puzzled for an hour.
So, is that hard? Technically? No. But it is a hassle. I am willing to convert to a system that would take that hassle away from me. But they are a labor of love, so $1,000 to get someone to sort that is not on the cards, unfortunately. I wish it was, because that would mean I would actually get some money out of it, instead of just pouring it in.

And no, I did not want to transfer to WP, even though that is multisite. A couple of years ago we built a multisite thing based on Drupal and the update process was great. An easy update of the core and every one of the 120 sites was immediately up to date. A man can dream, right?

[danieltj]

And no, I did not want to transfer to WP, even though that is multisite.

I'm confused. I never once suggested that you should switch to WordPress.

What I said in my earlier post was that what you're describing; having multiple sites run from one codebase but use different URLs is something that you can do in WordPress and I'm saying that through paid development support, you could achieve something similar in phpBB. The architecture would be similar. You'd need to store your tables for each forum in a single database and then include functionality for switching to a specific forum based on the given URL.

It's a lot of work. Probably possible through an extension but may need a little bit of custom edits to the phpBB core but ultimately should be possible. However as Gumboots suggested regarding the price... it would cost a lot. I myself would charge four figures at a minimum.

[Mick]

The problem is where does it all end? Your particular case is 2 x phpbb + 2 x SMF, somebody else may have 1 x MyBB + 1 x Invision or 2 x ProBoards, 1 x YaBB + 4 x vBulletin a FluxBB and a Phorum or any combination of the 1000 or so different bulletin board systems available at the moment. How would you see all that different technology coming together in one widget?

I’ll move this to extension requests.

[ghulst]

I'm confused. I never once suggested that you should switch to WordPress.

Sorry for confusing you. That was more in response to ssl's remark.

It's a lot of work. Probably possible through an extension but may need a little bit of custom edits to the phpBB core but ultimately should be possible. However as Gumboots suggested regarding the price... it would cost a lot. I myself would charge four figures at a minimum.

Interestingly there used to be a site called messageboard.nl that hosted over 50 topical forums. I guess they built some kind of addition to manage that. I 'saved' one of their topical forums and it turned out to be run on phpBB. But I more or less had to 'hijack' the content as I approached the owner to buy the whole thing and he never responded. However the club that used the forum wanted to keep the knowledge on there, so I made backups and tried to recreate it as well as possible.

The problem is where does it all end? Your particular case is 2 x phpbb + 2 x SMF, somebody else may have 1 x MyBB + 1 x Invision or 2 x ProBoards, 1 x YaBB + 4 x vBulletin a FluxBB and a Phorum or any combination of the 1000 or so different bulletin board systems available at the moment. How would you see all that different technology coming together in one widget?

I’ll move this to extension requests.

For me, the start would be to move all the forums to one system. That is also why I am asking the question now before I start that process. If I have to convert them anyway, I might want to convert them to a system that allows multisite in some way.

[Mannix_]

I'm confused. Isn't this where permission and groups come in to play? You set which group can see which category/forum f.e a member in group A has access/visibility only to Category/Forum A and member in group B has access/visibility only to Category/Forum B

[KevC]

But then what do you do with new members who all go in to the registered users group and instantly see all 4 sets of boards at the same time before they get allocated in the right one? Or see none and then have to make some sort of post to ask which one to go in without even realising the other 3 exist.

Best bet would be to just have the same set up for all of the sites in terms of files. When updates come (which isn't so often to be inconvenient), you just upload the whole set of files to update, do that 4 times, run the 4 DB updates and you're done. 30 mins tops.

[Mannix_]

I would make introduction post with instruction on how to join a group etc. I think there is an extension to force user to see a post upon first login

[KevC]

That sounds a bit confusing for the users cos they're not aware of the other boards existing and think they're joining the one they signed only to have to make a post saying which one they've joined. And it adds a lot of work for the admins.

[danieltj]

I would make introduction post with instruction on how to join a group etc. I think there is an extension to force user to see a post upon first login

Generally you’re right. Groups and permissions would work perfectly well but this request / use case is for when you run a gaming forum but also have a music forum, sports forum and car forum. You could merge the four but that then makes the forum a general discussion forum and tries to merge four different target audiences together.

Having a multi forum setup of four very distinct topics means you can keep the system updated easily whilst running multiple setups. There is a valid use case but of course not many people need it.