UseBB Review - General Features & Requirements

Mon February 1, 2010 21:20 |
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Web Site: http://www.usebb.net
Download here: Download UseBB
Community Forum: Support
Released under: GPL License.
Current version: 1.0.10 (October 25, 2009).
Price: Free.

From UseBB website:

UseBB.net is the official website of UseBB, a light and Open Source PHP 4 and MySQL based forum package, distributed freely under the GPL license. Developed with simplicity and usability in mind, UseBB is ideal for small to medium sized websites which need a clear and efficient forum package.

Even if PHP 4 is the targetted platform, UseBB is also compatible with PHP 5.3, using an additional patch.

Review Updates

  • February 1st, 2010: Review updated with 1.0.10 version of UseBB.

Server & Clients Requirements

Server Requirements
Operating Systems
Systems supporting this software.
  • Linux
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows XP
  • Solaris
  • FreeBSD
  • OpenBSD
  • NetBSD
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Mac OS
Web Server Details
Web servers host the forum software.
  • Apache 1.3
  • Apache 2.0/2.2
  • Microsoft IIS
Languages Details
Development language.
  • PHP 4
Databases Details
Systems that store forum datas.
  • MySQL
Browsers & Clients Requirements
Compatible Browsers Details
List of compatible browsers.
  • Mozilla Firefox 3
  • Mozilla Firefox 2
  • Mozilla Firefox 1
  • Opera
  • Safari
  • Konqueror
  • Internet Explorer 7
  • Internet Explorer 6
  • Chrome
  • Mozilla SeaMonkey
Required Plugins/Technologies Details
What the user needs exactly to use this forum correctly.
  • HTML and Javascript
Localization Details
Languages supported by UseBB.
Yes Yes.
  • Dutch (supported by default)
  • English (supported by default)
  • French
  • Chinese
  • Swedish

Additional Translations are available in the UseBB Community Forum.

UseBB has been developed for PHP 4 language. However UseBB developers provide a patch and a modified file to fully support recent versions of PHP, like PHP 5.3

Forum Threads & Posts

Forum Threads
Forum Style
General appearance of the topics.
Flat
Social Networks
Users can share information from their social network account...
No.
Thread Icons
An icon that identifies the type of a topic.
No No
Forum Organization
Organize your forum with categories, sections,...
  • Forum Categories
Sticky Threads
Sticky threads stay at top of a section or a forum.
Yes Yes
Spell Checking
Posts and topics are spelled checked with a dictionary.
Unknown Unknown
Detect Duplicate Threads
Duplicate Threads are detected before creation.
No No
Shadow Topics
Some topics are only accessible to a limited list of users.
No No
Posts
Post Editing Form Details
Details about the manner to post messages.
  • Plain Text
  • Formatting Buttons
  • Preview Button
 Emoticons Details Yes Yes
Post Editing Format Details
Markup Language (HTML, Wiki, BBCode,...).
  • HTML
  • BBCode
 Attachments Details
Attach files (screenshot, archive,...) with a post.
No No
Post Quoting
Quoting a post helps readers understand who answers who.
Yes Yes Syntax Highlighting
Posted Source Code is formatted using colors.
No No
Post Rating
Users can rate the quality of other users posts.
No No

Key Features & Additional Tools

Key Features
Bundled Softwares
Softwares that are also available with the forum.
No. Users List Details
List of all user accounts, to helps users searching their friends.
Yes Yes
Private Messages Details
Users can communicate using an internal messaging system.
No No Online Users List
List of actually connected users, in the forum home page, a dedicated topic,...
Unknown Unknown
Instant Messaging Details
Communicate in the forum like in other IM (Yahoo Messenger, Live Messenger, Google Talk,...)
No No Quick Reply Box
Write a post directly from the topic page.
Yes Yes
Calendar Details No No Remote Control Details
Remote control from external softwares or websites.
No.
Poll Creation Details No No Friendly URLs
URLs are as short and simple as possible (for better copy/paste and share).
Yes Yes
RSS/Atom Syndication Details
New posts and threads available using aggregators Syndicate
RSS 2.0

Some features will only be available for the next version of UseBB 2.0. Examples are attachments, polls, private messages, subforums and user groups. This is a pity for some of them that are really mandatory for modern forum softwares.

Friendly URL are actually ending by the .html extension, that is a good start, but not really helpful for Search Engine Optimizations (SEO).

 
 
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