• Registered: 2004-12-07
  • Posts: 73

Topic: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

I've been using PunBB for almost a half year now, and am amazed at its capabilities for such a small, light forum. I've been thinking about a site redesign for some time, and with some awesome themes I found I figured why not just make the whole site run off the forum.

Now, the site itself really is all forum. That's what people come for. However, the font news page, as well as a few others, act as just static informational static pages.  I know I can use the forum to generate static pages if I just mess with the code a lil, but thein lies the problem... I don't know PHP from a dead cat.

Can someone give me a hand with this? I'm just too lost in the code.

-Tim

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

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

Take a look at the News Generator plugin (it can be found on the Downloads page)

  • Connorhd
  • Connorhd
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • From: Leeds, UK
  • Registered: 2004-06-13
  • Posts: 4,195

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

have a look at this http://punres.org/doku.php?id=tutorials … e_template just make a php file and put it in your forum folder

FluxBB.
Connorhd.co.uk.

Connorhd's Website

  • Registered: 2004-12-07
  • Posts: 73

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

Great link Connor, I'm working off that template right now. It's so much easier with HTML and CSS for me.

Thanks,

-Tim

  • Connorhd
  • Connorhd
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Leeds, UK
  • Registered: 2004-06-13
  • Posts: 4,195

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

np, you might be interested in the stuff above that as well, it has a live news page and a left menu bar addon instructions

FluxBB.
Connorhd.co.uk.

Connorhd's Website

  • Registered: 2004-12-07
  • Posts: 73

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

Okay, after a little playing around, this is what I came up with. The front page is based on the template with custom php includes for a few applets.

I'm happy with the way it came out, thanks for that link.

-Tim

7 Reply by The_Fiddler (edited by The_Fiddler 2005-06-14 03:20)

  • Registered: 2005-06-14
  • Posts: 31

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

I just used the wiki in the link to use Pun as a CMS for my domain. I noticed it had a couple of errors

// START SUBST - <pun_online>
$tpl_main = str_replace('<pun_online>','<div class="inbox">'."nttt". generate_whosonline()."ntt".'</div>', $tpl_main);
// END SUBST - <pun_online>

Should be

// START SUBST - <pun_online>
$tpl_main = str_replace('<pun_online>','<div class="inbox">'."\n\t\t\t". generate_whosonline()."\n\t\t\".'</div>', $tpl_main);
// END SUBST - <pun_online>

There are a few more, but I figured it didn't need them all posted as its just the  ntt bits need \ inserted.

  • Connorhd
  • Connorhd
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • From: Leeds, UK
  • Registered: 2004-06-13
  • Posts: 4,195

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

damnit, sorry the wiki strips slashes bleh, i need to update it the new version has a new parser, its probably fixed

FluxBB.
Connorhd.co.uk.

Connorhd's Website

9 Reply by mikepurvis (edited by mikepurvis 2008-01-17 18:03)

  • Registered: 2005-08-30
  • Posts: 19

Re: Writing a front-end based on forum engine?

I like what I've got going with a combination forum/wiki for content management.

Example: http://tron09.com/

The News is a series of first-posts from forum topics.
"Top Trons" is highest posters from the forum.
The quotes are randomly selected lines from this wikipage.
"About" is currently a static block, but will soon be a pull from a wiki page.
"Sweet Links" is a del.icio.us inbox feed. (I may later control the feed subscriptions using a wiki page)

(All the news is outdated because it's an older DB snapshot that I'm doing the design around. And the design isn't finished; I know it's not quite right on IE.)