• Registered: 2008-04-15
  • Posts: 15

Topic: PunBB as Joomla component

A colleague of mine have taken it upon ourselves to revive the defunct Kookaburra component that was based off of PunBB. Our offering to the Joomla community has been reborn as Agora and can be found at Joomla Me!. This is NOT a verion of PunBB in a wrapper. It is a FULLY INTEGRATED component that maintains ALL of PunBBs functionality and SPEED.

We are by no means PROS when it comes to programming (more like glorified code hackers) so we are anxiously seeking contributions/assistance of any kind in order to help our venture thrive. We've made some progress but we're quickly reaching the limits of our limited skills. We believe there is a NEED for a FAST, STABLE and highyly CUSTOMIZABLE forum component for the Joomla (and possibly Mambo) CMS. If you are able in ANY way to assist us please stop by and lend a hand.

Thanks.

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Well, very nice smile
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

However, I do have one request to make: it seems like the people who developed Kookaburra unintentionally violated the GPL by removing the original copyrights in the code (moving it to COPYRIGHT.php is not equivalent, unfortunately). For copyright reasons those do need to remain intact if you're going to be distributing copies of the source. You can obviously add your own stuff to it, as you already do, but the original PunBB copyright needs to stay intact.

  • Registered: 2008-04-15
  • Posts: 15

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Thanks! No problems at all with that. We're trying to leave ALL credits intact and where they should be. I'll pass it on.

The biggest problem we seem to be stumbling on is the total user integration with The Joomla user tables. I'll have my partner post here exactly what issues he's running into.

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Well, 1.3 will certainly be better in that regard: I wrote an example extension (it's in the 1.3 Beta talk forum if you want to take a look at it) to demonstrate how it would be done from the PunBB side. The code is somewhat applicable to 1.2 in that someone could take it, make it work with 1.2, and put it in similar places in login.php.

  • Registered: 2008-04-15
  • Posts: 15

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

I had my partner look over the example extension and he agrees that it would be much better and probably solve most, if not ALL of our problems. MY concern is that it appears to be another bridging mechanism. The biggest draw for our offering is that it installs AS a component and NOT as a separate entity..

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Well, how do you define a component? I would define it based on how close the integration is (eg: does one login work throughout the site, is their one profile, etc) as opposed to if there happens to be duplicate database information.

  • Registered: 2008-04-15
  • Posts: 15

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

I mean component as in it can be installed via the Joomla installer. People are pretty adamant about NOT having to bridge their forum solutions like they have had to do in the past (read: SMF) and maintain the CMS and forum as a separate entity regardless of how tight he integration seems to be. It sounds like I'm splitting hairs but that is the reason why FireBoard has done so well even though there are TONS of bugs in it. I don't think the userbase will go for "It's part of Joomla but it really isnt.".

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

I'm not familiar with Joomla, but I don't see why you can't write your own version of install.php for the "Joomla installer" and install it that way. I know nothing about developing Joomla plugins, so ignore me if I'm not making any sense/that isn't the issue. tongue

  • Registered: 2008-04-15
  • Posts: 15

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

We've taken care of the copyright issue.

We've also narrowed down our LAST remaining problems down to the Kookaburra profile.php. I think that's about all that's keeping this from becoming a truly stable release.

The next hurdle will be to update the component when P1.3 is released.

We're still looking for any contributions anyone can make. Whether they know Joomla or not.

Thanks for giving us a look over.

  • From: Austria
  • Registered: 2007-10-04
  • Posts: 4

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

great news!

I already tried to fix Kookaburra, but it was too buggy...now I use FireBoard, due to the better userintegration (+ CommunityBuilder).

11 Reply by editor14 (edited by editor14 2008-08-26 03:06)

  • Registered: 2008-04-09
  • Posts: 5

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Firstly I am a Joomla user and have had many headaches with choosing the correct forum. The only forum which intergrates without hassles (include design) is Fireboard. Fireboard is abit of a toy, buggy. phpBB work ok with Jfusions bridge but what abit overkill for small to medium forums and is a hassle to skin.

punbb in my mind is by far the best forum & look forward to a true punBB/Joomla option. I would rather see a plugin written for Jfusion.

  • Registered: 2008-04-15
  • Posts: 15

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Just to update. We have had this component working successfully on the Joomla 1.0.xx platform for a few months now and are about to release it for Joomla 1.5.x in full native mode.

13 Reply by cbrain

  • cbrain
  • Junior Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-10-10
  • Posts: 2

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Looking forward to the release! smile

  • Registered: 2008-04-15
  • Posts: 15

Re: PunBB as Joomla component

Been released for a while now. Working on a new faster version as we speak.