Choosing a forum
Forum Options for OpenHatch
Requirements:
Email list integration
Login integration with main OH site
Jack has experience with other sites and doing this.
Options:
Vanilla Forums
Written in PHP. (could buildout still get it as a dependency for the site?)
http://vanillaforums.org/docs/singlesignon
They currently have a password/cookies based plugin that will allow single site sign in.
It appears they are working on OAuth based single sign on.
Decently sized community behind it.
You can have a hosted version that integrates with your site easily, but it’s a pay to play.
Has a mobile layout. http://vanillaforums.org/features/mobile It can send email, but I didn’t see anything specifically for mailing list.
Tutorial videos. http://www.screenr.com/user/vanilla
Install results:
- Dead simple to install.
- Uses mysql.
- Has an embedded theme/mode/plugin that allows integration with current site with one line of code.
- It can send email, but I couldn't find an option to post to the forum from an email.
- Lots of cool plugins.
- Very active community.
- There is a login integration plugin which uses cookies. Not sure how well it would work with OH.
GroupServer
Written in Python, specifically using the Zope framework. http://groupserver.org/groupserver/architecture/
If we had to write our own integration, would this make things easier?
Has a hosted option. http://onlinegroups.net/
At first glance, user manuals don’t really look all that clear or helpful. Definitely has mailing list features. It actually looks quite full featured.
http://groupserver.org/groupserver/features/
Install results:
- Requires postgresql
- Runs on zope, with it's own dependencies.
- Requires running postfix for email integration.
- Tried for about 2 hours to get it installed and couldn't get past a buildout error with egenix-mx-base.
Phorum
Written in PHP. External authentication plugin, which only supports certain apps.
We would have to write our own code for making it work with Django.
http://www.phorum.org/phorum5/read.php?62,134494,134494#msg-134494
Mailing list plugin. http://www.phorum.org/phorum5/read.php?62,129244,129244#msg-129244
Install results:
- Dead simple to install.
- Requires mysql.
- Can send emails.
- Mailing list plugin appears to be send only.
- Lots of plugins.
- Active community.
Django Modules. Login integration would be automatic (I am assuming).
A nice comparison of options exists: https://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/ForumAppsComparison & http://djangopackages.com/grids/g/forums/
AskBot (UPDATE: it looks like http://www.osqa.net/ may be better. It was a fork of the original project.)
http://askbot.org/en/questions/
Based on the Q&A style of StackOverflow. Non-traditional look, but very popular right now.
Login integration details: http://askbot.org/doc/askbot-as-reusable-django-application.html
This seems to be quite an active project. Last commit was 2 days prior.
Several committers to the project and appears they have unit test written. Email list integration?
Install results:
- Post from Asheesh that he didn't feel this style of Q&A was proper for the intent of the forum addition. No install required.
DjangoBB
In the style of phpBB Personal opinion - this style forum looks dated and wouldn’t look great with OH’s more hip style. They refer to it as “classic style”.
Looks like there is only one author to this project (just a single committer, but maybe he has been accepting patches).
Last commit was 4 weeks prior.
Login integration: Requires: django-authopenid and django-registration, both of which are already in the buildout requriements for OH.
Not sure how easy integraton would be.
PyBB
http://packages.python.org/pybb/# https://bitbucket.org/lorien/pybb/wiki/Home
Login integration is automatic, as this was build as a reusable app.
Has email subscription to threads, like most, but nothing specific to email list integration.
Install results:
- Installation of the module was pretty simple.
- Has third party requirements of markdown and django-common
- requires setting up templates before anything works, which I did not explore.
- Little to no documentation. No clue how to start with setting up templates or administrating the forum.