ExBB - PHP File Forum
ExBB (Exclusive Bulletin Board) is a forum engine written in the PHP programming language. Unlike most PHP forums, it does not require MySQL hosting, since it stores all the data in plain text files. This engine is perfect for use on free or low-cost paid hosting, supporting PHP, but not providing access to the MySQL database.
The default language in this forum is Russian. There are also Ukrainian and English localization.
It is important that the ExBB engine is completely free. It is distributed under the GNU GPL.
The history of the ExBB forum began in the summer of 2003. Its first version was released on August 10th. Starting from version 1.9.1, which was released in May 2004, the author stopped work on the forum. The ExBB development team took over the TvoyWeb website team .
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In July 2007, ExBB FM 1.0 Beta was released. It was distinguished from previous versions by the application of the concept of object-oriented programming. Over time, the engine made significant changes to make ExBB faster and safer.
Over time, TvoyWeb stopped developing new versions. Therefore, in February 2009, a new official project site was opened - ExBB.org. On February 10, a year and a half after the release of the beta version, the release of ExBB FM 1.0 RC1 took place.
March 29, 2011 ExBB FM 1.0 RC1.01 was released. It is a release of ExBB FM 1.0 RC1, to which all critical updates were added, as well as several mods.
In 2012, the site changed its address to ExBB.info . On May 1, ExBB FM 1.0 Final was released. It requires PHP version 5.3.
To date, the latest version of the forum is ExBB 1.1. The release took place on July 27, 2016. This version was created based on the assembly of ExBB FM 1.0 Final. Its main feature - support for new versions of PHP, ranging from 5.4 to 7.0. If PHP version 5.3 and below, the forum will not install.
On August 4, 2016, a preliminary release of ExBB 2.0.0 took place. This forum requires a PHP interpreter of version 5.5 or higher. The main differences of this version are the UTF-8 encoding, the new forum data structure, and the new installer.
For the review, ExBB FM 1.0 RC1.01 was chosen as the most stable and time-tested.
Installation of the forum is done using a step-by-step installer, like most modern engines. During the installation, such parameters as the name and description of the forum are set, an administrator account is created.
After installation, you can start creating categories and forums. In each forum, you can create subforums. For forums and sub-forums, you can assign moderators.
Externally, the forum is almost indistinguishable from Invision Power Board 1.3. Is that the icons of the forums without the inscription "IPB". This is the basic forum style called InvisionExBB. In addition to it, on the ExBB website you can download more than 2 dozen skins from different authors.
ExBB has all the standard features inherent in popular tabular forums: the ability to create topics and polls, attach files, view the list of "Who is on-line?", There is a personal messaging system. Editing a profile, users can choose from the list of standard avatars or upload their own.
It is worth noting a large selection of smiles, divided into categories: "Joy", "Anger, indignation", "Holidays", "Badges and tablets", "I am so!", Etc. In total, the standard installation of the forum includes about 200 kolobkov emoticons in the style of IPB.
It is also possible to search the forum. The search engine is based on the RiSearch PHP engine.
The forum provides ample opportunities for moderation. So, in addition to the standard editing functions and delete messages there is the possibility of attaching messages to the topic. Such messages, regardless of their date of writing, will be at the top of the topic.
The moderator can divide the topic into parts or transfer messages from one topic to another. However, the first message of a topic cannot be moved, therefore a full union of topics is impossible.
The forum is managed through the central administration. Outwardly, it resembles the administrative panel of phpBB.
The panel allows you to create and edit categories, forums and sub-forums, edit various settings, add and edit emoticons, manage user accounts.
To ensure that users follow the order, there are functions on the forum such as automatic replacement of obscene words, blocking participants by IP address.
It is possible to somewhat extend the functionality of the forum, using modifications presented on the ExBB website . For example, you can add a chat, make a tag to insert spoilers into messages, etc.
As already mentioned, the forum stores all data in text files. But these files are not quite normal. The method of writing to files is fundamentally different from the traditional one, using delimiters (this is how most of the forum engines like UBB, YaBB, Ikonboard store data). ExBB turns arrays into a string using the standard PHP function serialize () and writes it to a file. To convert a serialized string back to a PHP value, use the unserialize () function.
Due to its simplicity, this method is convenient from the point of view of the engine developer. However, the decision of the ExBB creator to store data in the form of a serialized string is less convenient for the forum administrator, since it does not allow editing the saved data in a text editor. More precisely, it allows, but to make it an order of magnitude more difficult and requires greater qualifications from the administrator.
One of the advantages of the forum is that it does not require hosting support for configuring the web server using .htaccess files . At the same time, for security of data storage, the .php extension is used, and at the beginning of each file, before the serialized string, the code <? Die;?> Is written, which interrupts the output of content to the browser.
For each forum, a separate folder of the form forum1 , forum2 , etc. is created. The folder contains all the topics contained in this forum: 1-thd.php , 2-thd.php , etc. In addition, an additional file is created for each survey: for example, 3-poll.php will be created for the 3-thd.php theme . If this topic contains attachments, then information about them will be recorded in the file attaches-3.php , the attachments themselves are stored in the uploads folder. The list of topics in the forum is in the list.php file. The number of views of topics is recorded in a separate file views.php .
User accounts are stored in the members folder. For each participant, files such as 1.php , 2.php , etc. are created, in which the data of his profile is recorded. It is worth noting that the user's password is stored encrypted using the md5 () function. Thanks to this, even the administrator can not find out what passwords users use on his forum.
A serious disadvantage of ExBB is that different versions of forums only support strictly defined versions of PHP. For example, ExBB FM 1.0 Final requires PHP version 5.3 to be installed on hosting, ExBB 1.1 - from 5.4 to 7.0, and ExBB 2.0.0 - not less than 5.5. The lack of support of old versions of PHP in new versions of the forum creates inconveniences for virtual hosting clients who do not have the opportunity to install the necessary version of PHP and, thus, have to use old versions of ExBB on their websites.
We have to admit that ExBB cannot boast of great popularity. Thus, according to the “Rating of the Runet, Uanet and Bynett forums” , it is not used by any Russian-language forum with the number of messages more than 1 million messages, Ukrainian-speaking with the number of messages more than 50 thousand or Belarusian-language with the number of messages more than 2 thousand.
The largest ExBB-based forums to date are:
The functionality of this engine, of course, is incomparable with the leading forum software - paid Invision, vBulletin, XenForo, and even free phpBB and SMF. But do not forget that these engines require MySQL hosting, and ExBB only needs PHP support.
There is still a fairly functional forum on files, for which the development of new versions is also continuing - this is YaBB (Yet another Bulletin Board). But unlike ExBB, it is not written in PHP, but in Perl.
Among the PHP forums on files at ExBB, perhaps, there are no competitors. And this is his trick.
The default language in this forum is Russian. There are also Ukrainian and English localization.
It is important that the ExBB engine is completely free. It is distributed under the GNU GPL.
Story
The history of the ExBB forum began in the summer of 2003. Its first version was released on August 10th. Starting from version 1.9.1, which was released in May 2004, the author stopped work on the forum. The ExBB development team took over the TvoyWeb website team .
')
In July 2007, ExBB FM 1.0 Beta was released. It was distinguished from previous versions by the application of the concept of object-oriented programming. Over time, the engine made significant changes to make ExBB faster and safer.
Over time, TvoyWeb stopped developing new versions. Therefore, in February 2009, a new official project site was opened - ExBB.org. On February 10, a year and a half after the release of the beta version, the release of ExBB FM 1.0 RC1 took place.
March 29, 2011 ExBB FM 1.0 RC1.01 was released. It is a release of ExBB FM 1.0 RC1, to which all critical updates were added, as well as several mods.
In 2012, the site changed its address to ExBB.info . On May 1, ExBB FM 1.0 Final was released. It requires PHP version 5.3.
To date, the latest version of the forum is ExBB 1.1. The release took place on July 27, 2016. This version was created based on the assembly of ExBB FM 1.0 Final. Its main feature - support for new versions of PHP, ranging from 5.4 to 7.0. If PHP version 5.3 and below, the forum will not install.
On August 4, 2016, a preliminary release of ExBB 2.0.0 took place. This forum requires a PHP interpreter of version 5.5 or higher. The main differences of this version are the UTF-8 encoding, the new forum data structure, and the new installer.
Forum Overview
For the review, ExBB FM 1.0 RC1.01 was chosen as the most stable and time-tested.
Installation of the forum is done using a step-by-step installer, like most modern engines. During the installation, such parameters as the name and description of the forum are set, an administrator account is created.
After installation, you can start creating categories and forums. In each forum, you can create subforums. For forums and sub-forums, you can assign moderators.
Externally, the forum is almost indistinguishable from Invision Power Board 1.3. Is that the icons of the forums without the inscription "IPB". This is the basic forum style called InvisionExBB. In addition to it, on the ExBB website you can download more than 2 dozen skins from different authors.
ExBB has all the standard features inherent in popular tabular forums: the ability to create topics and polls, attach files, view the list of "Who is on-line?", There is a personal messaging system. Editing a profile, users can choose from the list of standard avatars or upload their own.
It is worth noting a large selection of smiles, divided into categories: "Joy", "Anger, indignation", "Holidays", "Badges and tablets", "I am so!", Etc. In total, the standard installation of the forum includes about 200 kolobkov emoticons in the style of IPB.
It is also possible to search the forum. The search engine is based on the RiSearch PHP engine.
The forum provides ample opportunities for moderation. So, in addition to the standard editing functions and delete messages there is the possibility of attaching messages to the topic. Such messages, regardless of their date of writing, will be at the top of the topic.
The moderator can divide the topic into parts or transfer messages from one topic to another. However, the first message of a topic cannot be moved, therefore a full union of topics is impossible.
The forum is managed through the central administration. Outwardly, it resembles the administrative panel of phpBB.
The panel allows you to create and edit categories, forums and sub-forums, edit various settings, add and edit emoticons, manage user accounts.
To ensure that users follow the order, there are functions on the forum such as automatic replacement of obscene words, blocking participants by IP address.
It is possible to somewhat extend the functionality of the forum, using modifications presented on the ExBB website . For example, you can add a chat, make a tag to insert spoilers into messages, etc.
Technical features
As already mentioned, the forum stores all data in text files. But these files are not quite normal. The method of writing to files is fundamentally different from the traditional one, using delimiters (this is how most of the forum engines like UBB, YaBB, Ikonboard store data). ExBB turns arrays into a string using the standard PHP function serialize () and writes it to a file. To convert a serialized string back to a PHP value, use the unserialize () function.
Due to its simplicity, this method is convenient from the point of view of the engine developer. However, the decision of the ExBB creator to store data in the form of a serialized string is less convenient for the forum administrator, since it does not allow editing the saved data in a text editor. More precisely, it allows, but to make it an order of magnitude more difficult and requires greater qualifications from the administrator.
One of the advantages of the forum is that it does not require hosting support for configuring the web server using .htaccess files . At the same time, for security of data storage, the .php extension is used, and at the beginning of each file, before the serialized string, the code <? Die;?> Is written, which interrupts the output of content to the browser.
For each forum, a separate folder of the form forum1 , forum2 , etc. is created. The folder contains all the topics contained in this forum: 1-thd.php , 2-thd.php , etc. In addition, an additional file is created for each survey: for example, 3-poll.php will be created for the 3-thd.php theme . If this topic contains attachments, then information about them will be recorded in the file attaches-3.php , the attachments themselves are stored in the uploads folder. The list of topics in the forum is in the list.php file. The number of views of topics is recorded in a separate file views.php .
User accounts are stored in the members folder. For each participant, files such as 1.php , 2.php , etc. are created, in which the data of his profile is recorded. It is worth noting that the user's password is stored encrypted using the md5 () function. Thanks to this, even the administrator can not find out what passwords users use on his forum.
A serious disadvantage of ExBB is that different versions of forums only support strictly defined versions of PHP. For example, ExBB FM 1.0 Final requires PHP version 5.3 to be installed on hosting, ExBB 1.1 - from 5.4 to 7.0, and ExBB 2.0.0 - not less than 5.5. The lack of support of old versions of PHP in new versions of the forum creates inconveniences for virtual hosting clients who do not have the opportunity to install the necessary version of PHP and, thus, have to use old versions of ExBB on their websites.
Prevalence
We have to admit that ExBB cannot boast of great popularity. Thus, according to the “Rating of the Runet, Uanet and Bynett forums” , it is not used by any Russian-language forum with the number of messages more than 1 million messages, Ukrainian-speaking with the number of messages more than 50 thousand or Belarusian-language with the number of messages more than 2 thousand.
The largest ExBB-based forums to date are:
- Military history forum (368 thousand messages);
- Forums of PHP.SU portal (278 thousand messages);
- YourWeb (59 thousand messages);
- Jeep Garage.ru Forum (56 thousand messages);
- Murmansk Forum Arktiksiti (41 thousand messages);
- ExBB Community (31 thousand messages).
Conclusion
The functionality of this engine, of course, is incomparable with the leading forum software - paid Invision, vBulletin, XenForo, and even free phpBB and SMF. But do not forget that these engines require MySQL hosting, and ExBB only needs PHP support.
There is still a fairly functional forum on files, for which the development of new versions is also continuing - this is YaBB (Yet another Bulletin Board). But unlike ExBB, it is not written in PHP, but in Perl.
Among the PHP forums on files at ExBB, perhaps, there are no competitors. And this is his trick.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/319836/
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