I have a phpbb forum with a very popular custom style (glacier). Id like to develop my site to be more then just a forum.

I was hopeing to make my main site standard content, then have either folders for a blog and a forum or subdomains for them.

I do have 2 small things that are a must for this...i want integrated login for the forum and blog, and i want the blog contained within the forum styling (much like how _body.htm files in phpbb are contained within the forum styles).

This has to be done using phpbb and the glacier style which is based on prosilver. I dont care what script the blog script is (along as its reliable and safe)

I have tried wordpress and wp-united but it apears that wp-united doesnt natively work with glacier (and i dont know how to make it work). Also wp-united seems to lack the support of its maker.

So is there another inegration tool i can use that will work with any blog script?

Any suggestions, help, recommendations would be greatly apreciated.

If you want the blog to be coded the same way as phpbb you'll need to look for a blog written specifically for phpbb. I have no idea if one exists. I would think if one does the info will be on the phpbb site. If not a search for something like 'phpbb blog' should be enough to find what you need.

Ok, I just did the exact search I mentioned and there's a blog mod for phpbb.

I know it's a foreign concept, but sometimes a search engine can be your best friend.

Yea ive literally been searching all last night and all day today, going 10-20 pages back and browseing through sites and stuff, trying many different phrases and keywords to find what i want.

Unfortunatly the mod you listed is not really a blog script, its kinda a faux forum, essentially allowing every user to blog and displaying what really is forum input in a blog layout. At least thats my understanding. I just want to have a standard blog where i write and user can comment. i want an integrated login system and for the forum to be contained in the forum styling.

So far nothing else ive tried has worked. To be honest im starting to feel like i made a mistake going with phpbb, as much as i like the look of it, the methods for modifying it are hard and the availability of mods and the support for them are lack luster. Worst of all installing even a different theme/layout can make a mod not work, despite the theme being popular and based on the default theme.

Ive learned alot trudging around in the code to make minor changes, but it makes accomplishing things take way longer to do if you get it done at all.

I'm guessing you don't want to switch to another forum software at this point. vBulletin is still the leader to me and does have good mods for blogging. We're using it here. It does cost a few hundred to get set up though. I'm pretty sure it can import your database from phpbb.

One free option that might interest you is WordPress. I'm sure the you know the blogging side of it, but Automatic who makes WordPress is also working on bbPress forum software. I've taken it for a spin and it's not quite mature yet, still on version 0.9.something, and it still could use more plugins to get some of the features you'll likely want. But I'd guess in a year or so it'll pass version 1.0 and many of the extensions you'd want will exist. There are some good ones out there already.

The advantage will be that it should be easy to work with and there's likely going to be an active developer community around it. Might not be the option for you now, but maybe down the line.

You could also install WordPress now for the blog and then customize a theme to match what you have. It's not that hard to customize if you know html/css. php knowledge helps, but isn't necessary. You won't be able to jump right in and customize a theme, but a week or so of reading about how is really enough.

Installing and customizing WordPress for the blog may end up being the easiest thing to do. You'd just need to add a link in the nav on the phpbb side and naturally link back to the forum from the blog.

Drupal has both forum and blog scripts written for it, which allow both to be managed by one system. I have no idea if it can be made to do what you are saying, however.

That's true and I should have mentioned it. I haven't really used it myself yet, but I know a lot of people who swear by Drupal. From what I've heard the learning curve is a little higher, but once you get through that curve there's a lot you can do with Drupal.

Yeah, I haven't used it much myself either, though I've worked on a few sites that are controlled by it. I too know several people that are really good with it and also swear by it. They say it is very developer friendly.

Actually i found Drupal before i checked here, just stumbled accross it.

Ive set it up on my test server and have started messing with it. The is a major learning curve, which seems daunting at first, but with a little effort, tial and error, and some reading it really makes alot of sense and works wonderfully.

Im pretty sure drupal will do everything i want and more, not to metion installing mods and themes is cake.

The major difference is that drupal is really dynamic. There is soo much control over the placement of objects and how things function and look that its really possible to make almost any type of site using drupal.

Im still learning alot about it but i have a really good feeling about it. thanks guys.

Glad we could help. Do check back in and let us know your experience with Drupal. It's something I've been meaning to play with for quite some time and I'll be interested to hear your thoughts after breaking through the learning curve.

By coincidence, I just got a new client (I work mostly as a third-party contractor for development and design companies), who makes all of their sites inside of Drupal. It looks like I may also be using it a bit more. It is funny, because I often recommend it to people, because of the great things I've heard, but I haven't actually used it that much.

Cool. Let me know what you think. I assume the process for getting to know Drupal is the same for every other app I've used. Install it, spend a few days getting to know the settings and my way around, and then dive in and start customizing it.

Well i found that the learning curve was enough that i wasnt "getting it" in a few days. I went to lynda.com because they just released a tutorial video for drupal. Im also gonna brush up on css, php and html.

The way i explained it to my friend whos a programmer is ...

In programming things are dynamic, and in web design things seem to be static. In html im used to line 2 happening before line 3 but in programming line 4 could happen before line 2. Drupal is like apply the programming aspects to webdesign. It allows for an incredibly modular and dynamic site....but it makes breaking down the gears more complicated.

The first thing i noticed about drupal is there is not a single HTML file to be seen, everything is php and css. This can be confusing at first, especially if you dont know php and css that well. The thing to keep in mind is that your site in drupal for all intents and purposes isnt static in drupal. So editing one line in 1 file has the potential to change the way everything is viewed.

Instead you have to realize that every page of drupal is brokedown into blocks and nodes, and these can exsist on multiple pages. Unfortunalty the file structure isnt easy to follow but with any php/css knowledge you can start to find your way around and make some changes.

Think of drupal as a farme for your site, if phpbb is a frame containing all of your files (including html) then drupals frame is one step back. So if phpbb contains layers of images, each layer being a type of file, then drupal just contains one less layer (html). So in phpbb html is your surface layer, in drupal its nodes and blocks, which let you input html at your whim, not as a file but as content.

Im learning alot and messing around, but i have a long way to go before i create anything that looks like a site.

In the future i was intending on offering web design/dev for family sites and such, simple affordable sites...but if i learn drupal i think i can drastically expand my abilities for web site creation.

For instance i was planning on hiring a web designer to create a site for my company, however if i learn drupal all the things i wanted on my site that i wasnt capable of before would be seemingly easy to impliment and integrate into the site.

The hardest part of understanding drupal i think, is its a abstract way of making a site. Its a new and different aproach, allowing novice's a tool to make simple sites with more integrated content, and allowing experts a powerful tool for making astounding sites with much more power behind it.

Pretty much everything you describe is going to be true of all CMSs. Most open source ones are coded in PHP, but they don't have to be.

The CMS stores your content in a database (usually MySQl) and then instead of having html pages you have php creating html and querying the database for the content.

It can seem a little abstract if you're not used to it, but it's that abstraction that makes the CMS so powerful and easy for the end user to build sites. Many people will never need to alter the basic code. They just want an easy way to add the content.

Originally Posted by vangogh

Pretty much everything you describe is going to be true of all CMSs. Most open source ones are coded in PHP, but they don't have to be.

The CMS stores your content in a database (usually MySQl) and then instead of having html pages you have php creating html and querying the database for the content.

It can seem a little abstract if you're not used to it, but it's that abstraction that makes the CMS so powerful and easy for the end user to build sites. Many people will never need to alter the basic code. They just want an easy way to add the content.

Well said, i guess what i was trying to illustrate was that despite the complexity and ambiguity of CMS's, especially Drupal...they allow you to create powerful and seamless sites.

My main area of concern is to customize it to look like a site and not like a filled in CMS. This is where knowing CSS and PHP would come in handy,as well as understanding the file structure for drupal (which keeps content and functionality in 2 disticnt areas).

So im gonna give myself crash courses in Drupal and boost my progression with css and php. My goal would be to get to the point that i can use drupal as a base and then use CSS and php skills to make the site look and feel unique.

In anycase i highly recommend it for anyone who has multiple integegrated needs, and isnt scared to put a lil time and effort into learning it.