Greetings,
I am looking at forum tools for an upcoming project and though the server platform is Windows I am inclined to reccomend that we use a PHP solution because we would have source level control to aid us in integrating the forums with the rest of the site. Can anyone provide me with some arguments in favor of using the forums offered by the communityserver tool?
Thank You,Wade McDaniel
There are a ton of variables as to why you should choose one over the other.
First off, you can download the Community Server SDK if you want source level control (full source code is provided and you can modify it to your heart's content if you'd like). If your existing application is written in .Net then CS would be a no-brainer, or if your development team is more skilled in .Net then same thing.
I'm assuming by PHP you probably mean vBulletin, which last I checked doesn't have a free version and I'm not sure if you can "try before you buy." It's a nice peice of software, but again I would recommend CS as it includes a lot more out of the box experience so down the line if you needed some of the extra functionality it would be there. There is quite an active CS development community as well.
If you have any other questions feel free to post them.
Snag yourself a CS Tidbit!
windows-based?
that's TRASH!
ANYTHING related to microshit is trash!
As someone moving from the PHP world to CS, I would suggest if your emphasis is primarily on Forums and your scale is not enormous, you would be better off without CS. CS Forums do not compare to vBulletin in functionality, and the limitations are architectural; because they build for enormous scale sites like MySpace, there is a big emphasis on cacheing, which means per-user customization is impossible. So, users cannot construct their own forum views, post-reading is tracked by thread not by post, etc. etc.
cnsanford:users cannot construct their own forum views
Can I just make a correction on the above statement. CS does allow users to remove forums and groups shown on the main page, however that functionality is not implemented in the Hawaii theme. If you look at the calypso or leanandgreen themes, and goto forums, you'll see a personalize option at the top of the page. Click on this and you can say whether you want individual forums to be displayed or not.
Community Server Documentation
Nintendo Wiikly
afscrome: cnsanford:users cannot construct their own forum views Can I just make a correction on the above statement. CS does allow users to remove forums and groups shown on the main page, however that functionality is not implemented in the Hawaii theme. If you look at the calypso or leanandgreen themes, and goto forums, you'll see a personalize option at the top of the page. Click on this and you can say whether you want individual forums to be displayed or not.
Interesting! My understanding is unfortunately that calypso, leanandgreen, and any other non-Hawaii theme is no longer supported in the CS2008SP1 release. Can you suggest anywhere to see them actually in operation?
-Curt
They are supported in CS2008 SP1, but will be discontinued in CS2008.1.
However, whilst the themes themselves may be discontinued, the controls the themes used will not be discontinued, so you'll be able to use similar markup on the Hawaii forums homepage - like I've done on my website. (for the forum homepage, the page to modify is ~/themes/YOURTHEME/Forums/grouplist.aspx)
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