Howdy Mein Peeps!

So, no joke here (although, if you provide useful information your humour WILL be a good thing. If, though, you provide the usual trash and blather coated in a thick syrupy slime of derision and deceit I shall have to SPANK YOU SOUNDLY!!)

I, for the first time, need to create a website for a client that will involve BLOG/FORUM capabilities. The site will be a very simple (since that is all I know how to build) HTML site, but I would like some A) easy for me to install B) easy for client to maintain "module" or "modules" that allow this to happen on the site.

I will, of course, do my due diligence GOOGLING my brains out - but I thought some of you may have slayed this dragon already and can give me some GUIDANCE.

Mucho Thanks in advance,
ReinMan

What's the server platform and scripting language? IIS/ASP-ASP.Net or Apache/PHP? Also need to know your database (SQL, MySQL, etc.).

Most likely you'll have a MySQL back-end. For blog you could go with WordPress and for the forums PHPBB.

Tempting.....

If you want to link to someplace external, http://www.network54.com has some free (or you can pay for them to get rid of ads and the like) forums. It is easy to set up....

You could put your own header on the page too, so you can have a nav. bar that brings you back to the original website pretty easily.

I used ebloggy in the past for my blogging, but again, that would be external.

Good luck!

i just installed a forum on my site, free, no ads, total control via moderator pannel,
as long as the host site has php/mysql installed o the server, and they all do now,
http://www.simplemachines.org/
shit load of free blog makers out there,
try bravenet.com

be carefull with the externaly hosted ones, the last one i tryed deleted all entrees after they was 3 month old

was that any help?

I think Rein succeeded in Googling his brains out.

Hi Guys/Gals,



Thanks for your help... that site you linked Splodge seems cool.

Tofu - most of the questions you asked just caused me to go find a dark corner and a bottle of Jack Daniels, I don't know SHITE about my SEQUELS etc.

Anyway - I've got another project on the go and I started this thread a day or so in advance of when I have to get to the actual work. PREPARING myself ahead of time. What a good BoySprout I am!

Keep the thoughts/ideas coming folks. And KEEP IT SIMPLE - just like ME!

(I do truly appreciate all your ideas )

SPLODGE YOU CREEP! I was gonna say SMF too.. Rein..clik on siggy and go to my site and check my forums--
running steady over a year--Simple machines is the best, and ya got me to answer questions for ya since I'm comfortable with them.
NOW! Listen to me on this..when you go to SMF they are "UNIX" so if yer on a windows server ya have to start searching elsewhere, but SMF is honestly the best there is BUT BUT Listen...when ya get to SMF go check out the template for "BLOGGY"...it's incredible, and it's the same forum, believe it or not, you'll see what I mean. Best of luck..trust SMF as the best option available.

I usually install PHPBB for my client's websites.
This I do for multiple reasons.

1. It's easy and fast to install for me
2. It's easy for the customer to understand and to modify/control
3. It's probably the most popular Bulletin-board based on pHp-SQL and therefor it has the most scripts/tools available.
Tools like: Autobanners, bot-protection, easy-delete options (in case you get stalked by commercial adds too much, etc...)

With a little search in the source-code of the documents, you can modify the _header and _footer of these boards which make you able to make your forum look identical to your website's design.

First time you install PHPBB it might look like a puzzle because you get to download a file with a big number of pages/images/scripts and so on, but if you follow the installation-notes, it'll be managable, even though you are new to this.

Just make sure your webhost is supporting SQL and PHP, the higher the version of SQL they are supporting, the better.

http://www.phpbb.com

Is it going to be just one person blogging, or multiple people with their own blogs?

For a single person, I would recommend wordpress for the blogging side of it. Also, there are forum plugins for wordpress that make integration painless.

However, you won't be able to have plain html pages. Even if you don't use wordpress, it will need to be php (most likely), and mysql (again, not necessarily, but that is the more common solution). You don't need to know any php etc, because it has a simple installation interface. Just talk to your client and ask him if his hosting account supports php and mysql.

If you need help with any of this, shoot me a PM, and I'll try to walk you through whatever the problem is.

scion you creep, Simple machines do a windows version or i would not be using it, unlike you crazy/paronoid americans, windows do not scare me

You guys / gals are great!

(even SPLODGE, at times )

I will be digging into this over the next couple days. I'll keep you all posted!

(And this is for a EveryBody Wants To Play kind of All-Access Blog/Forum thing, but the looks of it. It would be much easier if it was only for one client/one access).

I'll be BACH shortly (but Beethoven longer!)

HA! Great...I didn't think they did a windows version. Then I will be setting up that bloggy template for someone else.
I thought I was gonna have to use something else. Thanks

a little.....