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sfSimpleForumplugin - Bulletin Board / Forum for symfony

Overview

This plugin allows you to embed a forum within your symfony application with the following features:

Topics are grouped into forums, forums are grouped into categories
Topics are flat (= not threaded)
Breadcrumb navigation
Pagination
Lists of latest messages are available for all forums, one forum, one user
RSS feeds (requires sfFeed2Plugin)
Identified users can participate in any topic and submit new messages
User management is controlled through sfGuardPlugin
Basic moderation (delete, stick or lok a topic)
View count for topics and forums
New messages since last visit shown as such
Uses output escaping to prevent XSS attacks
i18n ready

It is not aimed at replacing full-featured forum packages, but offers a lightweight alternative for when you build a website that has to contain a forum section. It is voluntarily simple, and contains many optimizations so that is remains fast even with a lot of messages and concurrent users. It is very easy to configure and adapt, so it should fulfill most basic forum requirements.

Please note that this plugin is in active development. If you want to help and improve it, please contact François Zaninotto.

Screenshots

Requirements

The prerequisites for using the sfSimpleForum plugin are:

As the plugin doesn't contain a user management module, the project where you install it must have a table managing authors, or users (whatever the name), and the related Propel class must have a __toString() method. Both these conditions are satisfied by the sfGuardPlugin, so installing this plugin is a good choice.
If you want to use RSS feeds, you must install the sfFeed2Plugin.

Installation

To install the plugin for a symfony project, the usual process is to use the symfony command line:

$ php symfony plugin-install http://plugins.symfony-project.com/sfSimpleForumPlugin

Alternatively, if you don't have PEAR installed, you can download the latest package attached to this plugin's wiki page and extract it under your project's plugins/ directory. You will also have to copy the contents of the myproject/plugins/sfSimpleForumPlugin/web/ directory into a myproject/web/sfSimpleForumPlugin/ directory.

Rebuild the model, generate the SQL code for the new tables and insert it into your database:

$ php symfony propel-build-all

Clear the cache to enable the autoloading to find the new classes:

$ php symfony cc

You can load the included fixtures to start using the forum with test data.

$ php symfony propel-load-data frontend plugins\sfSimpleForumPlugin\data\fixtures

Enable the new sfSimpleForum module in your application, via the settings.yml file.

// in myproject/apps/frontend/config/settings.yml
all:
  .settings:
    enabled_modules:        [default, sfSimpleForum]

Start using the plugin by browsing to the frontend module's default page:

http://myproject/frontend_dev.php/sfSimpleForum

If you want to enable the plugin administration interface, you have to enable two more modules. You can do so in your main application or in a backend application. the following example is for a 'backend' application:

// in myproject/apps/backend/config/settings.yml
all:
  .settings:
    enabled_modules:        [default, sfSimpleForumCategoryAdmin, sfSimpleForumForumAdmin]

Configure the plugin categories and forums by browsing to the administration modules default page:

http://myproject/backend_dev.php/sfSimpleForumCategoryAdmin
http://myproject/backend_dev.php/sfSimpleForumForumAdmin

Slots

The templates of the sfSimpleForum module define some slots that you cna use inside your layout:

auto_discovery_link_tag: For the auto discovery links, to be placed in the <head> section
forum_navigation: For the forum breadcrumb and actions

An example layout for a standard display is given below.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>

<?php include_http_metas() ?>
<?php include_metas() ?>

<?php include_title() ?>
<?php include_slot('auto_discovery_link_tag') ?>

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" />

</head>
<body>

<div class="sfSimpleForum">
  <?php include_slot('forum_navigation') ?>
</div>

<?php echo $sf_data->getRaw('sf_content') ?>

</body>
</html>

Configuration

Schema customization

If you install the sfPropelAlternativeSchemaPlugin, you can customize this plugin's schema by creating a sfSimpleForumPlugin_schema.custom.yml file under your project's config/ directory. This allows you to customize the connection name, table names, and even foreign class associations. Refer to the README file for more information.

You can choose to use another user management system than sfGuard. In that case, you need to change the foreign key associations for every user_id column with a custom schema. You also need to change the user_class parameter in your app.yml (see below).

app.yml

Some of the features of the plugin can be altered by configuration. To do so, add some of the following lines to your application's app.yml:

all:
  sfSimpleForumPlugin:
    forum_name:              My symfony forum
    display_categories:      true
    use_feeds:               true  # requires sfFeed2Plugin
    count_views:             true  # count each time a topic is viewed. Turn off to increase performance
    max_per_block:           10    # maximum number of links displayed in a block
    include_breadcrumb:      true  # include breadcrumb slot content. Turn off if you don't use the breadcrumb.
    breadcrumb_separator:    ' » ' # separator for breadcrumb trail
    max_per_page:            10    # maximum threads or messages per page
    pages_displayed:         5     # maximum pages displayed by the pager navigation
    feed_max:                10    # maximum messages served by feed
    show_author_details:     false # display number of messages of post authors
    allow_new_topic_outside_forum: true
    user_class:              sfGuardUser         # name of the class used to manage users
    retrieve_by_name_method: retrieveByUsername  # name of the static method used to retrieve a user by its username

Routing rules

The plugin doesn't come with any routing rule. However, you can add some of your own to make the URLs look nicer. An example of set of rules could be as follows:

forum_home: 
  url:   /forum
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: forumList }

forum_latest_messages: 
  url:   /forum/latest/:page
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: latestPosts, page: 1 }
  requirements: { page: \d+ }

forum_latest_messages_feed: 
  url:   /forum/latest/feed
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: latestPostsFeed }
  
forum_forum: 
  url:   /forum/:forum_name/:page
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: forum, page: 1 }
  requirements: { page: \d+ }

forum_latest_messages_for_forum: 
  url:   /forum/:forum_name/latest/:page
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: latestForumPosts, page: 1 }
  requirements: { page: \d+ }

forum_latest_messages_for_forum_feed: 
  url:   /forum/:forum_name/latest/feed
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: latestForumPostsFeed }

forum_topic: 
  url:   /forum/topic/:id/:stripped_title/:page
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: topic, page: 1 }
  requirements: { page: \d+ }

forum_topic_feed:
  url:   /forum/topic/:id/:stripped_title/feed
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: topicFeed }

forum_new_topic:
  url:   /forum/new_topic/:forum_name
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: createTopic }

forum_latest_messages_by_user: 
  url:   /forum/user/:username/:page
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: latestUserPosts, page: 1 }
  requirements: { page: \d+ }

forum_latest_messages_by_user_feed: 
  url:   /forum/user/:username/rss
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: latestUserPostsFeed }
  
forum_post: 
  url:   /forum_message/:id
  param: { module: sfSimpleForum, action: post }

Look and Feel

The sfSimpleForum module comes with a default stylesheet. You can choose to use your own stylesheet instead of the default one. To do so, you must create an empty sfSimpleForum module inside your application with just one config/view.yml file in it, with the followin content:

all:
  stylesheets: [-/sfSimpleForumPlugin/css/default.css, myCustomStylesheet]

I18N

You can write own translations for this plugin by providing an sfSimpleForum.XX.xml file, whereas xx is the locale. If you are upgrading from version 0.6.5 or earlier and created a messages.xx.xml file for your translation, you need to rename it.

TODO

Authors can edit a message during its first minutes
Moderators can edit a message
Moderators can move a topic to another forum and a message to another topic
Add images to make the default style less ugly
Subscribe to a topic by email

Active tickets

#2655: implement an inline whisper system
#3149: bad name for retrieve_by_name_method in lib/sfSimpleForumTools.class.php
#3156: sfSimpleForum does not preserve line breaks

Changelog

2008-03-13 | Trunk

francois: Changed counts types to integer

2008-02-28 | 0.6.6 Beta

francois: Fixed broken link to feed (#2599)
francois: Packaged with other plugins into an application (cf. http://www.motilee.com)
Pascal.Borreli : Fixed incorrect use of a block element inside a inline element (#2628)
nicolas: Slightly refactored pagination helper
nicolas: Removed dependency on sfGuardUser

2007-11-08 | 0.6.5 Beta

francois: Added two modules for backend administration
francois: Removed schema configuration file (use sfPropelAlternativeSchemaPlugin if you must customize the schema)
francois: Added a supplementary customization layer to the model classes

2007-10-10 | 0.6.4 Beta

francois: Fixed missing files in package definition (#2336)
francois: Fixed empty forums do not appear in the forum list (#2330)
francois: Added a new partial to allow third-party profile enhancements
francois: Further optimized queries

2007-10-03 | 0.6.3 Beta

francois: Extended the cache coverage
francois: Partialized templates for easier customization
francois: Refactored Forum and Topic counts (now working with save and delete)
francois: Made the schema customizable
francois: Added link to last page for multi-pages topics
francois: Refactored actions class for easier custom templating
francois: Fixed topic feed
francois: Added a topic list (for all forums, for one user) and related feeds

2007-09-25 | 0.6.2 Beta

francois: Improved security and credentials handling
francois: [Break BC] Added a new topic table
francois: [Break BC] Refactored most of the code to be more extensible, performant and readable
francois: Added "New message to read" indicator in topics (distinct from topic views, because anonymous users must still increase the topic views)
francois: Better handling of post titles
francois: Refactored the way a forum knows about its last post
francois: Simplified the interface (removed buttons, lessened clicks)
francois: Added latest posts component
francois: Fixed page displayed after adding a message doesn't use pagination
francois: Added a new getMessage() action
francois: Switched icon set to famfamfam as I couldn't find where the sticky one came from
francois: Added locked topic feature
francois: Added unit tests for forum and topic calculated fields
francois: Fixed forum and topic calculated fields

2007-09-07 | 0.6.1 Beta

francois: Optimized calculated fields in model
beleneglorion: Added sticky topic feature
francois: Added View count on topics
francois: Renamed sfBBPlugin to sfSimpleForumPlugin
francois: Fixed output escaping
superhaggis: Fixed typo in schema.yml

0.6.0 Alpha

francois: Major refactoring (breaks BC) but now the plugin is functional
francois: Removed the unimplemented parts

0.0.4 (not released))

* [3678] by superhaggis

Updated CHANGELOG.
Added new file entries to package.xml.

* [3958] by superhaggis

Swapped more tables for divs.
Added CSS class for table.
Renamed extendable action class and moved logic into correct class.
Modified occurances of changed class name.

* [3959] by superhaggis

Refactored CSS path computation.

* [3983] by superhaggis

Fixed autoload issue; see #1245.

* [3984] by superhaggis

Updated CHANGELOG; added TRUNK section and included dev name beside each list item.
Tweaked package.xml slightly to include CHANGELOG and renamed action lib.

* [3985] by superhaggis

Added category check; error message is presented if no live categories found.
Added initial docblocks.

* [4006] by superhaggis

Added initial viewThread and viewPost logic.

* [4014] by superhaggis

Added additional CSS classes for viewForum.

* [4015] by superhaggis

Added method to retrieve a thread's replies.
Created initial HTML template for viewThread.

* [4016] by superhaggis

Added shortcut method to access post's creator.
Refactored getReplies() to implement shortcut.
Replaced method calls in viewThread template.

* [4020] by superhaggis

Reformatted and updated CHANGELOG.

0.0.3

* [3677] by superhaggis

Changed sfBB_lastpost() to use format_datetime().
Added additional sf_guard_user_profile fixture.
Dropped divs in favour of tables for the time being.
Rewrote default.css to accomodate new tabled layout.
Added getter methods to sfBBPost and sfBBForum model classes.
Added stripped_title column to sf_bb_post table.
Added additional rule for @sf_bb_viewforum route.
Created initial viewForumSuccess template.
Created basic executeViewForum action.

0.0.2

* [3668] by superhaggis

Added CHANGELOG.
Added sfGuardPlugin dependancy to package.xml.

* [3670] by superhaggis

Removed broken PEAR dependency.
Added prepended routing rules to plugin config.

* [3671] by superhaggis

Updated CHANGELOG.
Updated package.xml.
Edited routing section in README.

* [3672] by superhaggis

Removed TO-DO section from README.
Fixed incorrect pathing in package.xml.

0.0.1

* [3667] by superhaggis

Initial public release/check-in.

Attachments

sfSimpleForumPlugin-0.6.0.tgz (18.0 kB) - added by francois on 07/03/07 14:18:17.
sfSimpleForumPlugin-0.6.1.tgz (19.6 kB) - added by francois on 09/07/07 16:55:47.
sfSimpleForumPlugin-0.6.2.tgz (23.9 kB) - added by francois on 09/25/07 16:56:10.
sfSimpleForumPlugin-0.6.3.tgz (25.8 kB) - added by francois on 10/03/07 23:22:12.
sfSimpleForum_1.gif (21.0 kB) - added by francois on 10/08/07 18:31:46.
sfSimpleForum_2.gif (15.1 kB) - added by francois on 10/08/07 18:32:25.
sfSimpleForum_3.gif (14.3 kB) - added by francois on 10/08/07 19:45:34.
sfSimpleForumPlugin-0.6.4.tgz (27.1 kB) - added by francois on 10/10/07 15:54:40.
sfSimpleForumPlugin-0.6.5.tgz (27.6 kB) - added by francois on 11/08/07 14:21:12.
sfSimpleForumPlugin-0.6.6.tgz (29.5 kB) - added by francois on 02/28/08 09:02:18.

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