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Forum plugin

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 1:46 pm
by terrym
Hi everyone

I have a very popular blog using Serendipity (obviously!) with the Bulletproof template. And so, a few months ago, I thought it would be a good idea to install the Discussion forum / phpBB comment mirroring (forum). But I could never get it to work.

So today I decided to have one last stab at getting it to show itself.

In the admin section, on the left amongst the other links is one called "Discussion forum / phpBB comment mirroring". When I click on this link, it says "No boards defined". So I click on the "Add new board" link. I then fill in the Board Name and Description fields and click on "Submit".

I'm then taken straight back to the "No boards defined" page.

I expect I've either not completed a vital step, done something wrong, or maybe it hasn't been installed properly? Is there someone out there who can help me get this Forum working?

Thanks in advance
Terry

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 3:25 pm
by Timbalu
Hi Terry

I personally do not know this Serendipity plugin very deep, but its 2cd part title assumes to me that you have to have an already installed phpBB forum on your site or somewhere else. (Edit: deleted the last sentence which was wrong!)

:?: Is that the case?
In the other case you want the very simple build-in variant, I assume, which should normally work, since we have fixed some issues with it a year ago.
As a starting point read this: http://board.s9y.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14638&start=0
or other forum related posts by yourself: http://board.s9y.org/search.php?author_ ... 6&sr=posts
Do you have at least the 'example board' shown, when clicking that backends sidebar forum link?
(If not, and you haven't changed anything essential in the forums plugin config, follow to my last remark in this post!)

By the way:
I remember we have talked some time ago about other problems...
eg. http://board.s9y.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19774

If I visit your blog, the media library seems still unused. Its ok doing so, but you definitely miss some advantages of this excellent Blog engine.

:!: More to care about are your massive spam comments. It seems you do nothing about them, and it also seems you think, these all are valid visitors, while being a popular blog. Without digging to deep into, I would frankly say, most of them look like spammers to me, using your blog as a link spreader to various sites via the comments homepage field.

You once asked a question about spammer here: http://board.s9y.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19055 answered by yellowled. (The last comment in this thread by MalcolmFitzgerald is an example, of what I think is a spammer, saying something nice and looking like a real follow-up post, as not being off-topic, but linking to some site which has nothing to do with that topic or blog software. I think we just missed or were not sure about to delete this comment, like we normally do very fast. :) )

The only addition from my site, according to yellowleds answer, would be to change the order, to 1. Bee, 2. Spamblock, 3. Spamblock-Bayes. There will for sure be some more finetuning needs to do later on, to keep away all the ugly spammers!

And one last remark. Remember me asking this?
Btw, is your blog a Serendipity 'one click install' by hoster or a package manually downloaded from here? In the latter case you should try to upgrade.

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:08 pm
by terrym
Hi Timbalu

Thanks for that info. In 2003 Garvin Hicking wrote "http://yourblog/index.php?serendipity[subpage]=forum". So I put in my own details and it almost worked, I think?

So in "serendipity[subpage]", what actually goes in place of subpage?

Thanks
Terry

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:27 pm
by Timbalu
In the plugins config (not that sidebar link!), the 3rd field is "Static URL". This is the access name of the forum. If you have left it to be the default value "forum", the access url to your blogs forum is http://terrymold.co.uk/serendipity/inde ... ]=[b]forum[/b].
If you change it to "board" for example, and submit the config, the url to access your forum is http://terrymold.co.uk/serendipity/inde ... ]=[b]board[/b]. Got it? ;-)

You don't need to do anything else and you don't need to replace "serendipity[subpage]". (On sites which don't use 'mod_rewrite' on serverside, to turn urls like this into nice urls, the way to go is always "index.php?something" to reach almost any place of your blog, see "http://terrymold.co.uk/serendipity/index.php?/archive" as example.)

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 5:02 pm
by terrym
At last! Finally something to look at onscreen! Although it doesn't look much like a forum?

In the header, I get the Forum title and description. The normal blog sidebar on the right, and the title and description repeated in the main body. And below them, the standard message "No boards defined" Even though they appear to be links in the body, clicking on them doesn't do anything?

Does that mean it's still not working properly?
When it is working OK, will there be options for it in the admin section?

If I were to install and setup phpbb (and by the way, my host one.com in Denmark, doesn't yet have anything much in 1 Click installs, so I just install everything manually!), and put some proper details in the Configure Plugins section to point to wherever I put phpbb, would that be the best option?

Thanks again
Terry

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 5:49 pm
by Timbalu
terrym wrote:Does that mean it's still not working properly?
yes
terrym wrote:When it is working OK, will there be options for it in the admin section?
yes
terrym wrote:... point to wherever I put phpbb, would that be the best option?
I assume not. The forum software phpBB is a monster. You have to be (quite) experienced to use tools like this.
the forum plugins config - with example paths!
the forum plugins config - with example paths!
forumconfig.png (23.43 KiB) Viewed 12744 times
the backends sidebar forum link content
the backends sidebar forum link content
forumexample.png (7.33 KiB) Viewed 12744 times
the example forum in the frontend (looks different with other theme)
the example forum in the frontend (looks different with other theme)
exampleforumfrontend.png (13.9 KiB) Viewed 12743 times
I hope you will find your answer in this.

After all, if you have to install all things manually, and while you are using an outdated version of Serendipity, please make a backup copy of your blog and its database and try to upgrade!
Manually or by:
. . .
How to use the Serendipity Autoupdate to update to new version 1.7.8:
  • install the Spartacus event plugin, if not already have
  • install the Dashboard event plugin,
  • install the Serendipity Autoupdate event plugin,
  • update all plugins, if any, via plugin management upper (slight rose) button links,
  • and point yourself to the backends startpage to start the automatic upgrade.
  • let it run, after end, you will be redirected to the upgrader/installer page
  • at last, you will have to start the database updates or update functions via button (auto recommended) or just take the link to the blog
If anything errors, come back to get help! :wink:

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 12:51 am
by terrym
Hi Timbalu

Thank you very much for all that info. I'm not used to working with automated scripts like Serendipity, I would much rather fiddle with raw PHP, JavaScript, CSS and HTML.

Anyway, I installed Spartacus OK.
Then Dashboard OK.
And lastly, Serendipity Autoupdate also OK.
I then clicked on the two slight rose links , but nothing spectacular happened. If it did, I might have dosed off for a bit?
But I tried for the best part of 30 minutes trying to point myself to the "backends startpage", but I'm afraid I couldn't find it.

Could it be that I didn't leave the update all plugins for long enough?

Thanks agan
Terry

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:51 am
by Timbalu
terrym wrote:I then clicked on the two slight rose links , but nothing spectacular happened. If it did, I might have dosed off for a bit?
Thats ok, if after click the page changed and noted something to you. It usually means there are no updates for any installed plugins available. I expect that is why you have never installed a plugin.
Hm, wait...
terrym wrote:Could it be that I didn't leave the update all plugins for long enough?
Well, yes, it usually takes a little time (up to ~a minute) to get connection and check for updates on first use! So if you click and nothing happens, the process is still running. (Normally your mouse sign should show this by turning around, or something.)
terrym wrote:But I tried for the best part of 30 minutes trying to point myself to the "backends startpage", but I'm afraid I couldn't find it.
Backends "startpage" is either plain "/serendipity/serendipity_admin.php" url, or the click on the sidebars first "Frontpage" button, which leads to there.

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:40 am
by terrym
Thanks to some really good forum tuition, I've finally reached the stage where I can click on the update button and get myself the latest version of Serendipity.

But I'm a little worried that I might lose access to the database, or something similar.

Is anything like this likely to happen?
Is there anything else that I need to do before pushing the update button?
And is there anything after the update that I will need to do?

Thanks
Terry

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 11:40 am
by Timbalu
Losing access to the database isn't a problem, normally, same for losing the database or parts. normally!

But you are using Serendipity in an unusual way and, pardon me, seem to be not very experienced.

So please make a backup copy of your blog and its database, just to make sure, nothing is lost and can get easily restored.
terrym wrote:Is there anything else that I need to do before pushing the update button?
And is there anything after the update that I will need to do?
Yes, follow the already given instructions by order, update all plugins via Spartacus before and for the procedure after updating Serendipity we will have to wait and see. Normally its all done at this state and your blog resumes as normal.

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:03 pm
by terrym
Hi

Just as a matter of interest, why do you say "I'm using Serendipity in an unusual way"?

Thanks
Terry

Re: Forum plugin

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2014 3:17 pm
by Timbalu
terrym wrote:Just as a matter of interest, why do you say "I'm using Serendipity in an unusual way"?
:) That was just a friendly way to say, that you either do this willingly or by not knowing (yet), since no use of media library, no use of antispam measurements, no use of body + extended body text parts for long entries and maybe even more I don't know.