PunBB Review

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Install: Negative (Hard) — Admin: PositivePositive (Easy)
Use: PositivePositive (Easy) — Themes: Yes Yes
Our Opinion : FullFullFullHalfNone — Users : FullFullFullNoneNone (Rate it)
— Fri, 2006-05-19 14:38 — lastnico

Quick Guide Help

Installation : Negative (Hard)
Administration : PositivePositive (Easy)
Forum Use : PositivePositive (Easy)
Themes : Yes Yes
Our Opinion : FullFullFullHalfNone
Users : FullFullFullNoneNone (Rate it)
Released under : GPL License
Current version : 1.2.12 (20/05/2006).
Demonstration : PunBB Demo
From PunBB website : PunBB is a fast and lightweight PHP-powered discussion board. It is released under the GNU General Public License. Its primary goals are to be faster, smaller and less graphically intensive as compared to other discussion boards. PunBB has fewer features than many other discussion boards, but is generally faster and outputs smaller, semantically correct XHTML-compliant pages.
Official web site : http://www.punbb.org
Download Link : Download this forum software here : PunBB.

Server Architecture

Features Details
Operating Systems Details
Systems supporting this software.
  • Linux
  • Windows Server 2003
Web Server Details
Web Servers control the communication between the forum and the users.
  • Apache 1.3
  • Apache 2.0/2.2
Languages Details
Main development language.
  • PHP 4
  • PHP 5
Databases Details
Applications which store forum datas.
  • MySQL
  • Postgresql
  • SQLite
It is adviced to install PunBB software on Linux box, with Apache web server and a open source database, like MySQL or PostgreSQL. One particular feature of PunBB is to support SQLite database, which does not need any database additional daemon. SQLite is a database API, which uses the SQL query language and that only use one file locally. These is particurlarly useful for PHP hosting that does not provide any database connection.

Technical Features

Technical Features Details
CMS / Blog softwares integration Details
Web publishing tools which can be integrated with this software.
None
User base integration Details
This feature is useful when you would like to integrate your forum with an existing solution.
None
Template Engine Details
With known template engines, it is generally easier to customize forum and create new themes.
None
Webservices / XML-RPC management Details
Generally allow remote control from other softwares than browsers (program, etc...)
No
As the PunBB author say, PunBB would like to be as simple as possible and implement the features a forum software needs, not more, not less. Indeed, it's not a surprise if PunBB cannot easily integrate to existing user database or existing CMS software. However, it is quite easy to integrate your PunBB website in a common PHP architecture (own web site, blog software,...) by using the include/common.php to any PHP scripts. See the PunBB documentation for more information. You should also consult the community forum of PunBB for any question about integration.