Hi,

Im considering starting at least one forum or board, my understanding is that PhP is the prevelant language for making these sites?

Do most forums, say this one for example, build the whole site from PhP...if so is it something that can be done easily...or fairly easily?

Thank you.

This form runs on PHP & MySQL I believe. They use vBulliten, but I prefer MyBB ( http://www.mybboard.net/ ) as the forum script.

Since im completely new to this you'll have to excuse my ignorance.

PhP kinda functions like HTML, it lays the site out telling the browser how to display stuff and handling some of the easier functions.

MySQL is database related? storing posts and profiles and such?

Also you mention vBulliten and MyBB. I have no idea what either is. I do however notice that many forums look so similar that they must be "sharing" code. So can this be attributed to vBulliten and MyBB. Are they basically templates for the framework of the forum?

VBulletin is the huge script that is the forum. Forums aren't coded by anyone, it is far too complex and not worth the effort. Hence, VBulletin is a software that is coded by a team of php developers.

VBulletin and phpBB are the two main names in forum software. VBulletin charges around $150 for a license whereas as phpBB is free. But I prefer VBulletin as there are a lot of templates/skins available and is able to do a lot more.

So to answer your question, forums do share the code. This is because everyone downloads the code so it is techically shared.

Originally Posted by yourmediaking

VBulletin is the huge script that is the forum. Forums aren't coded by anyone, it is far too complex and not worth the effort. Hence, VBulletin is a software that is coded by a team of php developers.

VBulletin and phpBB are the two main names in forum software. VBulletin charges around $150 for a license whereas as phpBB is free. But I prefer VBulletin as there are a lot of templates/skins available and is able to do a lot more.

So to answer your question, forums do share the code. This is because everyone downloads the code so it is techically shared.

Yea actually with a little digging i found out my current host actually has PhPBB pre-built into the site, all i have to do is click a button and it unloads it and lets me get to work, very convienent. This way i will be able to apply my domain and host it without transferring it from another site.

I was a bit disapointed bc i had selected intially to have a microsoft os host, but it was easy to switch it to linux...now i just have to wait for it to switch and im all set. Thanks guys

PHP is a scripting language that allows a site designer to perform various functions before the page is loaded. PHP is a server-side language. This means that the server takes all the load and processes each PHP script. Something like JavaScript on the other hand, is a client-side language. With JavaScript, the client's computer is used to process the code. If your looking for some beginner tutorials and such, www.3dbuzz.com has a nice set of PHP video tutorials.

Also, if you're going to use PHP you'll most likely want to use a database. I had trouble wrapping my head around databases when I began. Basically they just store information in some sort of categorized manner. MySQL is the most popular free database solution, and you shouldn't have any trouble finding resources online for it.

If you've ever dabbled in any sort of programming you'll be able to pick up PHP very easily. The syntax is simple, and all of the included functions are documented on the PHP.net site.