[Sommaire] [Imprimer]

   1  Phorum 5 FAQ
   2  ============
   3  
   4  Table of contents:
   5  
   6  1. Why did you switch from number of replies to number of posts in the list?
   7  2. Does Phorum have avatars or user rankings like (insert UBB clone)?
   8  3. How do I install a module?
   9  4. Why don't non-registered users have new indicators or any options?
  10  5. Why doesn't the default template use {insert latest greatest W3C concept}?
  11  6. You should do (insert your idea here) in the default template.
  12  7. Can I install Phorum once and deploy it on multiple domains?
  13  8. I need to embed Phorum in my page/application.
  14  9. Why do you not use the 'global' keyword in your functions?
  15  10. What are Sticky and Announcement posts?
  16  11. Why do I always end up at the top of a page when using the back button?
  17  
  18  
  19  1. Why did you switch from number of replies to number of posts in the list?
  20  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  21      In short, the people writing the code liked it better.  You can modify
  22      your template by putting this line inside your list.tpl file.
  23      
  24           <?php $PHORUM['TMP']['ROWS']['thread_count']--; ?>
  25           
  26      Just put that right after the line that says:
  27          
  28          {LOOP ROWS}
  29  
  30          
  31  2. Does Phorum have avatars or user rankings like (insert UBB clone)?
  32  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  33  
  34      Not by default. There are modules available to add this functionality.
  35  
  36  
  37  3. How do I install a module?
  38  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  39  
  40      That depends on your environment and how the module is packaged.
  41      The basic requirement is that the module be inside a directory
  42      which is inside /mods (in the phorum directory). So you could have 
  43      something like /phorum5/mods/mymod
  44  
  45      Most mods come packaged in some form. For a .tar.gz file, in a Unix
  46      (Linux, etc) environment, you can simply download the file into your
  47      /phorum5/mods directory, and then use this command:
  48  
  49      tar -zxf downloaded_module.tar.gz
  50  
  51      In Windows, you can extract them using a program like Winzip. Make
  52      sure that the folders are also extracted (this is an optional feature
  53      in Winzip that should be on).
  54  
  55      You can also extract the file on your home computer and upoad them to the
  56      server using FTP. In that case you should just upload the entire module
  57      directory into /phorum5/mods
  58  
  59  
  60  4. Why don't non-registered users have new indicators or any options?
  61  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  62  
  63      Because of many cookie problems that plagued Phorum 3, we have decided
  64      to store all user settings in the database for Phorum 5.  The down side
  65      of this is that users must be registered to use these features.  The up
  66      side is that the new indicator really works like it should in Phorum 5.
  67  
  68  
  69  5. Why doesn't the default template use {insert latest greatest W3C concept}?
  70  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  71  
  72      While we do try and use standards, things like XHTML and CSS are not
  73      always compatible with old browsers.  Phorum strives to work with
  74      browsers that are commonly used.  We do not ignore new things. However,
  75      we try and be aware of the affect of things we do on all user's machines.
  76      Phorum will remain usable and decent on as many different platforms and
  77      browsers as we can make it out of the box.
  78  
  79      You might want to check the other templates available and see if there
  80      is a more futurisitic one there.  If not, perhaps you would like to
  81      contribute one for everyone.
  82  
  83  
  84  6. You should do (insert your idea here) in the default template.
  85  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  86  
  87      The only answer we will give you on this is that you can make your own
  88      template.  We have a reason for everything we do.  Does this mean we are
  89      not open to suggestion?  No.  It means there is a chance your suggestion
  90      has been made already and if we did not do it, there is a good reason.
  91  
  92      Second, if your idea has anything to do with the size of the HTML or
  93      bandwidth, don't even post unless you are using output compression.
  94      Output compression will decrease your bandwidth by leaps and bounds.
  95      Search the net for mod_gzip or look at the PHP manual for
  96      zlib.output_compression.  If you don't have that level of access to your
  97      server, you can use ob_start with obgzhandler to do the job.  Look in the
  98      PHP manual for the ob_start docs.
  99  
 100      Some suggestions we have turned down include:
 101  
 102      Why don't you have the CSS external - browsers do a bad job of caching
 103      CSS and compression utilities like zlib.output_compression can compress
 104      the CSS if it is in the PHP output itself.
 105  
 106      Your CSS names are way too long.  You could use short abreviations like
 107      PLTR - What the crap does PLTR mean?  You will see it in the code and
 108      have no idea what part of the output that is referencing.  Yes, we could
 109      put comments in the CSS with a long name, but that would not make the
 110      HTML clear.  Also, output compression will remove the multiple instances
 111      of the class name.  Perhaps most importantly, by having 'Phorum' in all
 112      our class names, we won't step on another applications classes.
 113  
 114  
 115  7. Can I install Phorum once and deploy it on multiple domains?
 116  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 117  
 118      Yes!  Once you install the Phorum code somewhere, you can copy the
 119      contents of the portable directory to another location.  Edit
 120      phorum_settings.php in the new location and point your browser to that
 121      copy of phorum_admin.php.  You will be taken through the install process.
 122      Be sure to choose unique values for table_prefix or choose different
 123      database names for each installation of the portable code.  A wrapped
 124      forum is a little slower because of the function overhead.
 125  
 126  
 127  8. I need to embed Phorum in my page/application.
 128  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 129  
 130      Well, using the portable code mentioned above, one can safely run Phorum
 131      inside other applications.  This is because the portable code runs Phorum
 132      inside a function, protecting the namespace of your variables and
 133      Phorum's variables.  Depending on your particular application, you may
 134      need to edit the function phorum_custom_get_url in include/wrapper.php to
 135      have the urls of your site be created by Phorum correctly.  Also, you
 136      will need to create a var called $PHORUM_CUSTOM_QUERY_STRING for Phorum
 137      to parse instead of the server's query string.  It will need to be
 138      formatted in the same way that the standard phorum_get_url would do it.
 139  
 140  
 141  9. Why do you not use the 'global' keyword in your functions?
 142  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 143  
 144      Declaring something as global in PHP is the same as making a reference
 145      to the $GLOBALS array.  References are not as fast as making a value copy
 146      according to the PHP developers.  It is only used in common.php to create
 147      the global existence of the $PHORUM variable.
 148  
 149      See: <http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=php-dev&m=100955714924477&w=2>
 150  
 151      This applys to PHP4 only.  We may reconsider once PHP5 is widespread.
 152  
 153  
 154  10. What are Sticky and Announcement posts?
 155  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 156  
 157      Sticky posts stay at the top of the forum they are posted in and do not
 158      get bumped down as new topics are posted.
 159  
 160      Announcement posts appear at the top of all forums in the system.
 161  
 162  
 163  11. Why do I always end up at the top of a page when using the back button?
 164  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 165  
 166      Your PHP setup is probably sending headers along with the reply, telling
 167      the browser to not cache the page. Therefore, when going to the previous
 168      page, it will be reloaded as if it were a new page. You can tweak the
 169      PHP settings to not have PHP sending these headers. Edit the php.ini and
 170      set the "session.cache_limiter" directive to have no value at all. So
 171      the line in php.ini would end up like this:
 172  
 173      session.cache_limiter =
 174  
 175      After editing the php.ini, restart the webserver. From then on, using
 176      the back button should work like expected.
 177  
 178