phpBB2 vs. SMF

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  • shalom_m
    Member
    • Mar 2004
    • 56

    phpBB2 vs. SMF

    I want to set up a small and simple BBS.
    So far, to me, SMF looks better than phpBB2 for that purpose.

    But when comparing the "Disk space required:"
    According to Fantastico; SMF seems to need 48.36 MB and phpBB2 only 16.64 MB - Is this true or a typo?
  • AndrewT
    Administrator
    • Mar 2004
    • 3653

    #2
    Based on phpBB's history of security problems alone, I would never consider using it. Though I'm sure there are other opinions...

    Comment

    • Frank Hagan
      Senior Member
      • Mar 2004
      • 724

      #3
      I would strongly encourage you to use SMF over phpBB. I have converted almost all of my customers over for one reason: they can perform an update by clicking a single link within the control panel. SMF retrieves the update and applies it in the background. The updates are done in a matter of a few minutes.

      phpBB took me about two hours for each minor update, mainly because of mods to the forums to incorporate things like picture posting (which is native to SMF). My customers would have to download a zip file, extract the contents, edit the files for their mods, and then upload them via FTP.

      All of the phpBB forums on my accounts have been hacked at one time or another, but never the SMF forum.

      As to size, my PoliteTalk.com forums, with 2,678 posts, take up 28.46 MB. That's probably about the minimum you would need for it. My messing-about.com site, with a ton of pics and 48,142 posts, is huge at 547.75 MB. But it was huge with phpBB also.

      Comment

      • jobe
        Member
        • Oct 2004
        • 50

        #4
        Totally agree with Frank. Have had similar experiences - SMF all the way.

        Comment

        • shalom_m
          Member
          • Mar 2004
          • 56

          #5
          Thank you

          Andrew, Frank, jobe,

          Thank you all for your input.
          I thought something was wrong with the Fantastico statement of 48.36 MB Disk space required.
          SMF http://www.simplemachines.org/download/requirements.php claim a minimum setup need of 2.5 MB

          Frank,
          I had a look at PoliteTalk.com and was impressed by both layout and content.

          Again,

          Thank you all

          Comment

          • shalom_m
            Member
            • Mar 2004
            • 56

            #6
            I finally figured it out!

            Installing SMF via Fantastico does take up 48.36 MB in Disk space initially. It installs all language files from Albanian to Vietnamese (39 language packs). This is what takes up about 40 MB. After deleting them manually and leaving only English and Hebrew I got the size down to 13 MB.

            For anyone else who may want to use the UTF-Hebrew version, there is another snag. The Hebrew comes up fine initially, but after saving text, the content returned is either gibberish or question marks.

            After loads of tests, re-installations, coffee and curses I finally stumbled onto the reason for the bug.

            For some unexplainable reason the SQL Collation files structure is originally defined as latin1_swedish_ci. All that has to be done is to redefine each field as hebrew_general_ci then it works.

            Comment

            • Pedja
              Senior Member
              • Mar 2004
              • 329

              #7
              My advice is to always use UTF8.

              Comment

              • ZYV
                Senior Member
                • Sep 2005
                • 315

                #8
                Yeah, I now use unicode_general_ci or utf8_general_ci and never ever had a problem since I took this wise decision.

                Comment

                • shalom_m
                  Member
                  • Mar 2004
                  • 56

                  #9
                  I tried unicode_general_ci at first but it looks like it does not like Hebrew!
                  Getting question marks instead of letters after saving.

                  So in the fashion of the engineers of old - "If it works - leave it alone!!!"

                  Comment

                  • Zalman
                    Junior Member
                    • Mar 2005
                    • 9

                    #10
                    Solving charset problems is not easy, but WELL, WELL worth it. Besides I never liked that saying if "it works, leave it". I rather understand things.

                    You can skype me at meni.taub and i'll be happy to offer some advice.

                    Comment

                    • cathode
                      Member
                      • Oct 2004
                      • 88

                      #11
                      I too have been looking into this.

                      Frank, how do you pull the Latest Forum Topics into your home page? Is that a custom bit of programming?

                      Regards,
                      -Ian

                      Comment

                      • Frank Hagan
                        Senior Member
                        • Mar 2004
                        • 724

                        #12
                        Originally posted by cathode
                        I too have been looking into this.

                        Frank, how do you pull the Latest Forum Topics into your home page? Is that a custom bit of programming?

                        Regards,
                        -Ian
                        SMF includes a PHP program called "ssi.php" that has quite a few functions. See http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=400 for documentation on it. Here's the code I use to get the 10 most recent posts on politetalk.com's home page:

                        Code:
                        <?php
                          $results = ssi_recentTopics(10, null, 'noecho'); flush();
                          foreach ($results as $post){
                                $trackdown = $post['poster'];
                        	$dateposted = $post['timestamp'];
                        	$dateposted = date("d/m/y");
                        	echo '<b><a href="', $post['href'], '" target="_blank">', $post['subject'].'</a></b>';
                            	echo '<br /><span class="mainmenu"><i>' . $post['preview'] . '</i></span>';
                        	echo ' <br />by ' . $trackdown['name'];
                        	echo ' in ' . '<a href="' . $post['board']['href'] . '" target="_blank">' .   $post['board']['name'] . '</a>';
                                echo '<br /><br />';
                          } 
                        ?>
                        Check the documentation linked above first; you do have to use a .php file (you can rename index.html to index.php) and also include this at the top of it (editing for your user and forums folder):

                        Code:
                        <?php require("/home/user/public_html/forums_folder/SSI.php"); ?>
                        Last edited by Frank Hagan; 01-07-2008, 09:16 AM.

                        Comment

                        • cathode
                          Member
                          • Oct 2004
                          • 88

                          #13
                          Frank, That's good info, much appreciated!

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