Let's improve PunBB mod installation/building!

A mod installer would work for a couple of mods, but when the mods are starting to change each others lines there will be problem, trust me, I've written one for PunBB for a long time ago.

Well, the same excuse could have been said for Windows, after all, if an application overwrites a file or registry entry, or replaces a DLL with a newer version then there would be problems. But Windows has guidelines for creating programs, including using a separate folder for program files and naming conventions for software registry entries, plus improved DLL handling in Windows XP, so it gives freedom to use "installation" programs, instead of manual x-copy.

So we could create module guidelines that explain where and when to modify PunBB and include standardized conventions for naming and location. Then we can create installation PHP scripts for every modification and perhaps use another utility to automatically check for interoperatibility between modifications, with the modifications listed in another section.

Or we could go the Firefox/Mozilla route and support "Extensions" in PunBB, with an integrated method for installing PunBB extensions and more programmable access to PunBB, like being able to add your own code to various parts of PunBB without needed to edit the PunBB files themselves. Like calling the following to add a "Signatures" link to the admin page.

$PunBBex->AddToAdminMenu("Signatures","/extensions/signatures/signatures.php?section=admin");

Either way, it would be nice to extend PunBB with more support for Extensions. The difference between the two is that with the first, most of it is dependant on the mod's installation script and in the second, it's more dependant on the PunBB software. But the good parts with both is that suddenly, Firefox-like, PunBB can be fast and extensible for any user. Combined with a full CSS-based layout and I would say we've easily the best forum software out there, perfect for a version 2.0 ;)

Yes, that makes sense. In some ways what I mentioned about creating PunBB extension support would allow PunBB to include the modification's files, then let the modification change PunBB dynamically.

Please don't ignore the questions in my original post ... I am quite interested in how people create their modifications ? do they start from a newly extracted PunBB and open the files they need in Dreamweaver (or notepad, ultraedit)? Do they work on the HTML first, creating the look they want, then adding the functionality afterward? Do they write out the requirements, create planning documents? That's just part of the first question, please continue with the rest of the questions, if you feel like it.

Answering these questions may help us build the prefect PunBB modding solution that will benefit everyone, plus help encourage PHP newbies delve into the source code and perhaps make the entire mod creation process easier and faster for everyone.

For example the tool I mentioned in my first post. With these answers, I could try to design the tool's "workflows", the way I intend it to be used, with the way people actually create mods. There's no point in making something that people don't like using. Same with PunBB. Why standardize the readme.txt if people don't like using it? Or can we make it easier to produce them? In which case, how? This is a larger topic than you'd think at first glance ;)

Any chance of vertical navigation. The current horizontal menu could get rather messy with say a dozen items on it.

Good. I would rather see a simple portal system build around PunBB with modules being developed for the portal. They would essentially be standalone scripts which simply utilised PunBB's membership and other database tables and, where appropriate, included PunBB files. I am not at all convinced that such things as file uploading, image galleries and even private messaging need to be embedded in a bbs sytems, they simply need to work with it. One thing I would like to see though is an idiot proof (and I speak as an highly trained idiot) way of utilising PunBB's membership system outside of PunBB.

My own view, for what its worth, is that I would like to see Rickards efforts directed to making PunBB as perfect as it possibly can be within the original design parameters. There is also the question of reputation to consider. If PunBB carries on as it is now with each new version being a refinement of the previous version then eventually it will become the automatic first choice for anybody looking for a fast, light, reliable and easily customized board. If it keeps chopping and changing it will never establish itself. Thats not to say that nothing new should be added but the additions should be improvements and enhancements to the existing functionaility and not new features. As usual I have slipped slightly off topic, but maybe thats because I have yet to see a mod which I actually had any use for.

I understand feeping creaturism and the second-system syndrome, but this isn't bloatware, but something that could strengthen PunBB's extensibility and make it more versitile. (It's not bells and whistles either, since PunBB was designed to be elegant, yet also to have modifications to improve it's functionality.)

Perhaps I'll try forking 1.1.2 and attempt to integrate both CSS/XHTML and some kind of mod system to see what the result could be. ;)

Well.. Installing a mod from a ReadMe file isn't difficult at all. And with this tool it's even more easy. So why waste energy of doing it any easier and make rooms for hundreds of bugs and an unstable system that don't work in several cases?

My opinion is that we make a tool that generates a readme file from comparing the scripts with the original. That will make more people willing to release their mods.

Exactly, we should make it easier to understand. Because as they look now, not everybody would understand by the first look, and it also needs a graphical webbrowser. But the current readme format is so simple that everybody understands.

Or just go the InvisionBoard route and create a PunBB SDK. This way, PunBB will remain the way it is. Just make the SDK (which will pretty much contain functions that act as API interfaces to PunBB).

In short, don't modify PunBB. Instead, create a SDK that enables people to interface with PunBB with ease. PunBB will achieve its goal of being fast and lightweight, and yet via the SDK be easily customizable.

http://www.boardmod.org

BoardMod installs mods on YaBB. Surely someone could do something similar for a simpler forum like PunBB.