Choosing a forum

Requirements:
Email list integration Login integration with main OH site Jack has experience with other sites and doing this.

Options:
Vanilla Forums

http://vanillaforums.org/

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
 * TODO*** Intall local version to see how easy it is. PHP sites tend to be dead simple to install.

GroupServer

http://groupserver.org

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/


 * TODO*** Intall local version to see how easy it is.

Phorum

http://www.phorum.org

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

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. Severak committers to the project and appears they have unit test written. Email list integration?


 * TODO*** Intall local version to see how easy it is. Try this as an addon to OH install.

DjangoBB

http://djangobb.org/

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.