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PunBB Forums → PunBB 1.2 modifications, plugins and integrations → How to export contents into HTML?
Sorry for a possibly redundant question, but is there any means how to export the instant forum contents into a set of HTML documents (thus eliminating the need of PHP and MySQL servers)? In other words, could I generate something like a static image of the forum, suitable for e.g. publishing on a CD, etc.?
Well, it's certainly possible. You can just copy the outputted source into an empty HTML file. If you include the CSS in the correct folder, it should work fine.
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Well, it's certainly possible. You can just copy the outputted source into an empty HTML file. If you include the CSS in the correct folder, it should work fine.
That will work fine. In fact its a good way of playing with the css on your own machine if you don't want to install a server. Only problem is if you want a complete copy e.g. all topics rather than just examples of each page it could get rather tedious.
... You can just copy the outputted source into an empty HTML file...
Thanks for your fast reply. However, I'm not sure whether I get it correctly. Do you mean I should essentially save individual pages (using a web browser) as HTML documents? If so, this perhaps wouldn't be overly tedious in my case (just tens rather than hundreds of topics), but how could I treat the links from those pages? (They would still have a form requiring the PHP, such as file:///D:/www/viewtopic.php?id=118, while I would need a tool that would save the target as, say, viewtopic118.html and transform the links to it accordingly.)
would be very useful,
if there would be a tool, which could save all threads as static html files (one thread = one html)
Someone knows, if there exists something like this?
kinda too much work, if you'd have to do it manually.
No, it wouldn't be very useful.
The HTML would have to be rewritten any time anything changed on the site. If I make a post, there might be a new pagination link, there's a new post added, my post count goes up (which affects every topic I've posted in), etc.
It is useful in a couple very specific cases (eg: if you're taking a copy of a mostly static forum to put on a CD). But then again, I've actually never seen anyone explain why they would want to do that. 
i (personally) need it for archiving the content.
so i get all the posts/thread without setting up a database + forum
you can open html everywhere, no need for (local) server. with no effort. for every system, for every user.
you can open html in 50 years, too.
you can archive only one or a few topics, not the whole forum.
you can give the archive to other ppl, and you don't have to clear the database (passwords, e-mail-adresses, privates messages, etc), because the html files only contain the public content!
i (personally) need it for archiving the content.
so i get all the posts/thread.....
there is a way. its basicly a web server on a memory stick. You intall the software into the directory. then run the exe and you have php, (phpmyadmin) mysql apache and even punbb preinstalled.
install webserver directly from any media (even CDs) without any knowledge
anyway http://www.chsoftware.net/en/useware/wos/wos.htm
If this did work, all you qould have to do is import the mysql database each time.
pevone wrote:i (personally) need it for archiving the content.
so i get all the posts/thread.....there is a way. its basicly a web server on a memory stick. You intall the software into the directory. then run the exe and you have php, (phpmyadmin) mysql apache and even punbb preinstalled.
That's totally different to what he requires. 
It's regarding wanting a flatfile version of selected forum topics, rather than db versions.
Does the news generator plugin not work in this export to file fashion?
... I've actually never seen anyone explain why they would want to do that. ...
Well, I think I've done so right at the beginning of this thread. Let me give you a practical example: To my surprise, one of my programs has been in use for 15 years without any change, while all substantial user questions were answered after some 5 years or earlier. To make its forum accessible even in an almost static state would now require (1) running the MySQL server 10 years longer, and (2) the internet connectivity for every potential forum reader. In this particular case, both seem slightly superfluous and expensive -- a CD would do as well.
At the moment I would wish to terminate my active support of the program, transforming the forum contents into a set of HTML documents would certainly be an ideal solution.
what about using a website downloader ? there is this one for example : http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/ … wnload.htm
Sounds reasonable, but does this one transform the PHP links into valid HTML document names, too?
I apologize for asking; of course I could install it and check it out myself, but I thought you perhaps know that. (Its Czech documentation doesn't mention that.)
I just tried it. The answer is yes it does convert the urls to standard .htm files and all the links seem to work. Took about 20 seconds for a small forum. I think you need to set it to go 4 levels deep from the index page (or maybe 3 levels) and then just export it to a folder which you can burn to cd. The software even seems to have a burn to autorun cd option.
The urls are in the form "search.php@action=show_user&user_id=3.htm"
The only drawback of course is that searching doesn't work. I think if you just want an archive of posts to use as a knowledgebase then I would delete all the forms and other irrelevant stuff together with related menu items.
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