Advanced Electron Forum Review

(January 20, 2009 13:09)
Last Version 1.0.9 (May 17, 2011). Released under Custom License.
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What is Advanced Electron Forum?

Advanced Electron Forum, also called AEF is a free PHP forum software, very nice to use and configure. Most of the classical forum software features are available in this package, that proves that you do not need to be a clone of phpBB to success.

Advanced Electron Forum is recommended for Medium Community.

(and supports smaller communities perfectly as well.)

Server & Client Requirements

Server Requirements
Programming Language
Required Architecture and Versions.
  • PHP 4
  • PHP 5
Web Servers
How the forum is delivered to users.
  • Apache 1.3
  • Apache 2.0/2.2
  • Microsoft IIS
Databases
How Forum Data are Stored.
  • MySQL
  • Postgresql
Operating Systems
Systems Supporting this Software.
  • GNU/LinuxGNU/Linux
  • BSD UnixBSD Unix
  • Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Browser & Client Requirements
Compatible Browsers
List of Compatible Browsers.
Mozilla FirefoxMozilla FirefoxInternet ExplorerInternet Explorer
Google ChromeGoogle ChromeOperaOpera
Apple SafariApple SafariKonquerorKonqueror
Mozilla SeaMonkeyMozilla SeaMonkey
Required Plugins/Technologies
Additional or Basic Requirements from Client Side.
AJAX.
Localization
Languages supported by Advanced Electron Forum.
Yes.
Supported Languages:
Spanish English (British)
English (American)
Compatibility with Smartphones
Compatible SmartPhones
Compatible Cellphone Brands and Manufacturers.
No.
Application Distribution / Type
How it is distributed / App Store Availability
No.

Forum Threads & Posts

Forum Threads / Topics
Forum Style Flat/Threaded Forum Organization
  • Forum Categories
Thread Icons Yes Topic Tags -
Hot Topics - Unread Topics Yes
Hidden Topics No Sticky Threads No
Related Threads - Detect Duplicate Threads No
Announcements -
Posting Messages / Answers
Message Editing Form
How to Post Messages.
  • WYSIWYG Editor
Post Editing Format
Supported Markup Language (HTML, Wiki, BBCode,...).
  • Plain
  • HTML
  • BBCode
Spell Checker
Checks typos on posts and topics.
-
Image Attachment
How Images can be Attached and Displayed in Message Posts.
No.
Embedded Videos
Videos and Media Websites Supported in Message Posts.
No.
Posting Features
Quick Reply Box No Smileys Yes
Attachments Yes Syntax Highlighting -
Message Rating
No Message Quoting Yes

Additional & Technical Features

Additional Forum Features
Poll Creation Yes
Private Messages
Users Can Communicate using an Internal Messaging System.
Yes
Instant Messaging
Discuss with Visitors and Members in a Chat Window.
No
Calendar
Topic, Member Birthdays, Events are available from the perspective of a calendar.
Yes
Online Users List
Connected User List (Often Found in the Forum Footer).
Yes
Members List
Search and Consult the List of Members.
Yes
Technical Features
Bundled Software
Additional Software Available with the Forum.
No.
RSS/Atom Syndication
Posts and Threads Exported to Feeds Aggregators Syndicate.
No.
Friendly URLs
URLs are clear and contain information about the topic (title, message,...). Highly recommended for SEO purposes.
No
Post by Email
Post Directly From your Email Box.
-
Remote Control
Remote Control from External Software/Websites.
No.
Cache System
Cache pages to optimize bandwidth and load times.
-
Template Engine
It is easier to theme a forum using a known template engine (more docs & examples,...).
No.

User Profiles & Options

Some details about Advanced Electron Forum features regarding members.
Member Options & Features
Bookmark Threads
User Profiles Keep a List of Followed Posts and Topics.
Yes
Email Notifications
Receive Emails When New Messages are Posted in Followed Threads.
Yes
Export private messages
Private Messages can be Downloaded by Users.
No
Payment Subscriptions
Paying Membership Subscription.
-
User Profiles
User Profile
User Information and Settings.
Yes
Avatars
Pictures of Members, Useful to Easily Identify their Posts.
Yes
Signature
Signatures Added at the Bottom of Each Message.
Yes
Ranks
Tags and Labels Identifying the Members, based on specific criteria (Total Posts Count, Credits, Moderation Level...)
Yes

Moderation & Users Management

Moderation & Threads Management
Moderation No.
Moderator per section No
Global Moderator No
Move Threads
Move Threads from Topics
Yes
Shadow Topics
When a thread is moved, the previous position is kept in order to inform users of this modification.
No
Close/Lock Threads
Close/Lock Problematic Threads
Yes
Users Management
User Groups
Organize and define groups of users, and apply different actions and settings on them.
Common Groups: Guests, Members, Moderators, Administrators,...
No
User Registration No.
Limit Features For New Users
Features are limited if a user has created a small number of posts.
-
Guest Posting Yes
Multiple Administrators Yes
Send Warnings to Users
Inform users by email or PM that they infringe the board rules, and could be excluded for such behavior.
No
Forum/Section Restricted Access
ACL could be use to determine if a user or a group of users can access (in read only, post message) to some sections and topics.
Yes
User Banishment Yes

Administration & Support

Database Management
Backup Database
Backup forum datas that you could store somewhere else.
No
Prune Database
Remove old and unused datas from your forum.
Yes
Restore Database
Restore a backup of your database if the previous install crashed.
No
Administration Tools
Statistics
Statistics about posts count, users, traffic...
No Error/Notice Log Viewer
Forum Logs could be consulted.
-
Tasks Scheduler
Maintenance tasks are regularly launched and could be scheduled.
- Mass Mailing
Send an email (newsletters, advertisements, information,...) to all users.
Yes
Installation & Upgrading
Installation Method
How this forum software could be installed.
Installation Wizard
Upgrading Method
How this forum software could be upgraded.
Manual Upgrading
Updates Notifications
The Admin Panel informs you when a new version is released.
Yes
Forum Migration
Convert an existing forum to Advanced Electron Forum.
-.

Security & Spam Protection

Security & Spam Protection
CAPTCHA
Captcha protects your forum against spam bots.
e.g., Syndicate
Yes
Abnormal Behavior Detection
Detect users or request strange behaviors, and try to process proactive actions.
-
Words Filtering
Offensing Words are automatically replaced.
No
User Blacklist
Prevent specific user accounts to register (based on email address, name,...) and disable potentially harmful members.
Yes
IP Blocking
Prevent access to spam robots and other scripts that could attempt DDOS or Brute Force attacks on your forum.
Yes

Vulnerabilities Advisories Criticality

Secunia Criticality

Secunia Advisories severity affecting Advanced Electron Forum.

Vulnerabilities Impact

Secunia Impact

Secunia Advisories impact affecting Advanced Electron Forum.

Customization & Social Networks

Customization
Plugins
Add new features to your forum installation.
Yes.
Themes
Modify the style of your forum easily.
Yes.
Custom BBCodes No Smiley Packs Yes
Custom
Thread Icons
Yes Additional User Profile Fields
Ask more about your members with custom fields.
No
Integration with Applications, Social Networks, Intranet...
Social Networks
Users can share information from their social network account...
No.
CMS / Blog Bridges
Integration with existing Web publishing tools.
No.
User Accounts Integration
Do users be able to log in with their corporate, Google, Facebook,... accounts?
No.
Content Aggregation
Forum allows to integrate news and content from other website, using an aggregation protocol (RSS, RDF, Atom,...).
No.

W3C Norms & Accessibility

Norms & Accessibility
HTML / XHTML Markup
XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
XHTML 1.0 Transitional
Click to see if it respects HTML norms.
CSS Stylesheets
CSS 2.
CSS 2
Click to see if it respects CSS norms.
Accessibility (WAI)
Web Accessibility ensures that the forum is usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
Conformance to A level.
A
UTF-8 Support
Default encoding used to support all locales and countries.
Yes
Conformance to W3C Norms
Does Advanced Electron Forum correctly follow (X)HTML and CSS norms?
Yes.

Final Words


Good.

AEF is a really good forum software, and particularly if you already know well what a forum software does and what could be configured. Because this is the point where AEF is really powerful : configurability.

Community manager will be happy to discover many features that are not available in all forum softwares, even if this could over bloat a little bit the Administration Panel, that could get to big for beginners.

Additional Resources:

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Comments (22)

– The Bad * Maybe to

– The Bad

* Maybe to powerful (Admin configuration panel size)

i couldn't understand this point while you say

Community manager will be happy to discover many features that are not available in all forum softwares, even if this could overbloat a little bit the Administration Panel, that could get to big for beginners.

Anyway
its been now 2 years since last update
is this project out ?

Best Regards
Sadaoui "SAFAD" Abderrahim - Lead Developer AEF Group

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lastnico's picture

Yes, but some projects are

Yes, but some projects are really aware of organizing correctly features, and their administration panel are better organized than this one.

The AEF community seems to be really dynamic, and that's the most important.

FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.

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Margarita01Dungalo's picture

This Bulletin board or forum

This Bulletin board or forum software has all the general features that a forum software should have. It also includes features such as :
- UTF-8 Supported
- Search Engine Optimization Tools
- IP Ban
- W3C Validated
- News System with articles
- ShoutBox
- Threaded Mode for topics
- JS DOCK for easy navigation(A first from AEF)
- WYSIWYG Editors
- Customizable Themes
- Multiple Languages supported
- Time Zone Adjustment
- Automatic Updates
- Export Files and Database
- Suggest Framework for usernames while writing PM's
- Domdrag for reordering Categories, Forums, emoticons (A new feature included for the first time ever in a forum software.)

Its awesome!!

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Advanced Electron Forum 1.0.9

Advanced Electron Forum 1.0.9 is coming these days
we are lookin forward 1.1 to blast the competition as a major release

Best Regards
Sadaoui "SAFAD" Abderrahim - Lead Developer AEF Group

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AEF 1.0.9 has been released

AEF 1.0.9 has been released weeks ago including 2 MAJOR exploit fix,yet you haven't updated your demo
please do so ASAP !

Best Regards
Sadaoui "SAFAD" Abderrahim - Lead Developer AEF Group

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lastnico's picture

Hi, Yes, I'm doing as much as

Hi,

Yes, I'm doing as much as I can, and definitely, I am LATE Wink

Thanks for the info anyway.

FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.

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Hey Lastnico, i forgot to say

Hey Lastnico,
i forgot to say that this review is outdated too !
we have introduced many new features and you should review it again before we release our next major version !
Best Regards

Best Regards
Sadaoui "SAFAD" Abderrahim - Lead Developer AEF Group

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lastnico's picture

I note that. As you notice,

I note that. As you notice, the new version of FSR is finally out, so I should have time to review software now, including AEF!

FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.

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NeerjaSoftwares's picture

Now, this is what I was

Now, this is what I was looking for........but check for more update and review it at the earliest.

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Is this forum software

Is this forum software available in German language?

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The phpBB forum software can

The phpBB forum software can be installed as soon as you download it. You will need some knowledge to perform the initial install that is, unless you are lucky enough to have a website host that has Fantastico installed on its server already. It takes only a few seconds for Fantastico to automatically install phpBB. After that, just a bit of configuration is needed before you can activate your forum.

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AEF is a really good forum

AEF is a really good forum software, and particularly if you already know well what a forum software does and what could be configured. Because this is the point where AEF is really powerful : configurability.

Community manager will be happy to discover many features that are not available in all forum softwares, even if this could over bloat a little bit the Administration Panel, that could get to big for beginners.
birthday wishes

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Aysu Nacar's picture

I will say go for bulletin

I will say go for bulletin board for forum software. The most USP of VB is that it includes with itself the API's of forum spam and that is very much the need of an hour now.
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Hi i am new in this forum and

Hi i am new in this forum and Aecsys provides all IT Support by Team of Dedicated Professional Engineers in London. IT Support London Rapid Response Team. Our Experts always ready to assist you remotely or on Site! Flexible Contract or Fixed Cost.

IT Support

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AEF is good to use for small

AEF is good to use for small community I think. I am just wondering if it is now well-developed especially on administration panel. Does it have an adiministration panel 2? Just for another security level for the forums.

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1.0.9 is out so long ago by

1.0.9 is out so long ago by new developer - SAFAD Smile.
But... it's prety death.

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lastnico's picture

Thanks, it's updated!

Thanks, it's updated!

FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.

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Thank u for update...

Thank u for update...
Laughing out loud

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hitechito's picture

PhpBB forum software can be

PhpBB forum software can be installed as soon as you download. You will need to know to perform the initial configuration, which, if you're not lucky enough to have a Fantastico host the website on the server already. It only takes a few seconds to install automatically Fantastico phpBB. After that, it just takes a little configuration before activating the forum.

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Can anyone suggest a

Can anyone suggest a freelancer I could hire to work with AEF for me?

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AEF 1.0.9 has been released

AEF 1.0.9 has been released weeks ago including 2 MAJOR exploit fix,yet you haven't updated your demo
please do so ASAP for our outsourcing software development company needs it! Thank you

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Is it new update 2014?

Is it new update 2014? Puzzled

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