1 Reply by michaeld

(6 replies, posted in Feature requests)

MattF wrote:

What you class as a business necessity does not apply to all. A bulletin board is not intended to be a C.M.S or a bug/issue tracker. Why consider evolving the base into something that is for a certain niche requirement? The company themselves should design their own system around the core, or hire someone to do that work, unless an extension already exists to fulfil that need.

Also, saying that a bulletin board has minimal business use is just plain false.

Thanks for your comments.

My perception is that the market is flush with forum systems. Of course there are many sites which run pure forums, but many organizations and businesses already have some type of need to have user accounts. Integration can be provided by external authentication (which I have contributed -- see http://punbb.informer.com/forums/topic/20436/ )

But sites that have paying customers or members, typically have a major need for communicating with those people. Similarly, many projects, including Pun, need ways to track bugs. Existing bug trackers (including Trac) are very focused on the bug and the tracking, and are poor at discussion.

Thus, it is my suggestion that a strong long-term direction for Pun is to steer towards a hybrid that includes tracking. I think that opens a new market of users and customers for Pun.

As for myself, I don't care. I need a forum today, and have switched to bbPress. So you can take my comments with a grain of salt -- they are just some comments about what I think will make Pun remain relevant in the future.

Michael

Go to forum: Feature requests

2 Reply by michaeld

(6 replies, posted in Feature requests)

Thanks for your reply!
Certainly these could be a plugin, and simple issue tracking features are easily combines.

Forums are increasingly becoming a commodity, with many similar options. While many small and amateur sites will always want a pure forum system, a simple forum has minimal business use. Businesses need to track specific communications and problems with customers.  So as you plan future versions or plugins, you might consider directing PunBB into more of a social networking, CRM, or issue tracking direction.

I think there is strong business needs for issue tracking.

Michael

Go to forum: Feature requests

3 Topic by michaeld

(6 replies, posted in Feature requests)

This is a suggestion for the next major version of PunBB.
A major business need is: issue and bug tracking.

Organizations and business needs ways to track questions and problems from the community, and reply to customers. Many organizations set up issue tracking systems, but they all lack good social tools.

MERGING OF ISSUES & SOCIAL

There seems to be new work in the area of bridging customer support, social networking, and forums. In particular, I have seen http://getsatisfaction.com/ which provides "forums" for lack of a better word for various companies' to have virtual customer support. I have tested several issue trackers (mantis bt, traq, etc.). Many trackers downsides, or too much complexity for small/medium sized projects, and lack a good public UI or way for the public to collaborate/comment on bugs.

POSSIBLE DIRECTION FOR 1.4

I suggest that a great development direction for Pun 1.4 is to adapt PunBB to also be an issue/bug tracker. This is a good differentiation from other forum software.   Various features common to issue trackers could be added to the existing PunBB, e.g.:
   ~ Assigning priorities to threads
   ~ Assigning ownerships to threads
   ~ Assigning status to threads
   ~ Assigning due-dates to threads
   ~ Adding additional sorting and filtering views
   ~ Toggle of public vs. private threads
   ~ There are many other common issue/bug management features
The result of a few additions is that PunBB would provide a complete environment for guests, members, and staff to post issues.

What PunBB needs is some serious enterprise features, not just more social features.

Michael

Go to forum: Feature requests

4 Reply by michaeld

(1 replies, posted in PunBB 1.3 extensions)

To follow up, in 1.3dev, several fields are visible in the administration pages. They include:

  • Login URL

  • Register URL

  • Logout URL

  • Code to execute initially -- typically this will load key functions of your CRM

  • Code to execute to generate $username -- e.g., "$username = getYourCRMUserName();"

  • Admin override -- this is for debugging so you don't accidentally log yourself out

  • Remove username -- this is for omitting the username form the profile pages

  • Remove header -- since you may be generating your own

  • Code to execute as header -- e.g., "chdir(path/to/your/code); include (make/your/header.php)

  • Code to execute as footer

Go to forum: PunBB 1.3 extensions

5 Topic by michaeld

(1 replies, posted in PunBB 1.3 extensions)

Add single sign-on to your forum. This is useful if you have an existing user manager or CRM system.

I have contributed a pair of extensions to accomplish single-signon or external authentication. Earlier in the year, I designed this extension, and  hired a FluxBB developer (connor) to write this code, and I am contributing the code to PunBB. Although the extensions worked perfectly in FluxBB 1.3dev, they fail with the current version of PunBB.

Here is the new wiki page:
http://punbb.informer.com/wiki/punbb13/ … ernal_auth

Briefly, the extension allows the administrator to define a set of PHP code blocks to execute, allowing the $username variable to be set. Your code can also generate the headers and footers, and there are some debugging options. With single sign-on, you probably have existing login/logout/register pages, and the extension allows you to omit those.

I am not expert in the punBB environment, and can not revise the extension myself. But for someone familiar with the changes to the codebase over the last few months, I think updating the extensions is easy. If a PunBB developer chooses to update this extension, I will try to provide any help or comments I can.

Michael Douma  (idea.org)

Go to forum: PunBB 1.3 extensions