Installation of forum.civicrm.org

[rguerra]

I like the new forum . great idea - thanks!

Would it be at all possible to document how you installed and/or configured the forum module. Others, like myself might want to implement something similar on our sites, and would be good to know how you did it..

[Michał Mach]

Hey Robert,

Thanks for your kind words about our new forum. 

Our forum is based on Simple Machines Forum (http://simplemachines.org/) - whole installation process was totally standard and easy, as described on this project's page. The only customisations made were the following:
- installing SMFForum Drupal Module on civicrm.org, which allows sharing the userbase between forum and Drupal instance - this process is also well documented on http://drupal.org/project/smfforum.
- installing custom theme for forum - Dilber MC (http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=80) and giving its templates tiny little tweaks

Most work was actually conceptually laying out thematic boards and agreeing on this structure.

Thx,
m

I like the new forum . great idea - thanks!

Would it be at all possible to document how you installed and/or configured the forum module. Others, like myself might want to implement something similar on our sites, and would be good to know how you did it..

[gracea]

This really is a great forum.  so much so, i couldn't resist downloading it myself.
But i can't see how you did it.

The installation of SMF went well and then i followed the instructions exactly as outlined in the link you refer to, but my log-in procedures were all screwed up and anytime i logged out, i could not log back in (as admin). Both through the drupal login and the smf log-in.
I have no problem logging in and out of the forum if i point my browser directly to the forum and no problems accessing it though the "most recent posts" block within drupal.

A few questions:

(1) i put the smf data tables in my drupal database.  Is that okay or is it better to put them in their own database? (or in civicrm?)
(2) in the smf settings, under "Select master registration system:" should i choose "Drupal master" or "SMF master"?
(3) how to set up the profile fields.  All the fields mentions configuring the fields "as it is configured in Drupal profile module).
But i am using the civicrm profile settings.  Can this be synched with them? Or do i have to create a new user profile in Drupal?
i have not been able to find any information on civicrm and smf syncronization.

Any advice would be most welcomed.

Thank you,
grace

[Michał Mach]

Grace,

Some of your questions are SMF/SMFforum specific and I'm just sharing my recent experience, but please do not treat it as definite support - I don't really know both of these too well, my only experience was installing both of them once.

There are both SMF and SMFForum Drupal module specific support forums, you might want to look for answers and/or post questions there:
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/ (SMF itself)
http://vgb.org.ru/forum/ (drupal module)

From my side, I can say I received really excellent and detailed support from smfforum Drupal module creator. Didn't have the need to ask for anything on SMF forums, there is plenty of posts there, it's easy to find solutions without asking.

The installation of SMF went well and then i followed the instructions exactly as outlined in the link you refer to, but my log-in procedures were all screwed up and anytime i logged out, i could not log back in (as admin). Both through the drupal login and the smf log-in.
I have no problem logging in and out of the forum if i point my browser directly to the forum and no problems accessing it though the "most recent posts" block within drupal.

This is probably caused by some cookie/domain naming issues - you need to check if you follow the right pattern of URLs for your Drupal and SMF installs. I don't exactly remember what it was, but one of the right layouts was having civicrm.org (drupal) and forum.civicrm.org (SMF) addresses, and this worked.

(1) i put the smf data tables in my drupal database.  Is that okay or is it better to put them in their own database? (or in civicrm?)

Putting SMF tables in Drupal database is not needed, I personally would actually avoid it - there is no database level integration between those two. There is also no integration with CiviCRM at this level.

One thing I know for sure: I wouldn't put SMF tables in CiviCRM database - both are pretty database intensive, so it's better to provide them with separate dbs running on separate connections.

(2) in the smf settings, under "Select master registration system:" should i choose "Drupal master" or "SMF master"?

We have Drupal as a master.

(3) how to set up the profile fields.  All the fields mentions configuring the fields "as it is configured in Drupal profile module).
But i am using the civicrm profile settings.  Can this be synched with them? Or do i have to create a new user profile in Drupal?
i have not been able to find any information on civicrm and smf syncronization.

"SMFForum" module provides the ability to integrate Drupal's "profile" module with SMF user profile, but not with CiviCRM profiles. The installation that we are using have both profile and civicrm modules turned on, but I really didn't do anything to check if fields other than user and password get synchronised in between Drupal and SMF. My goal for our installation was to provide authentication sync (single username and password for both SMF and Drupal), but nothing else.

However, I must say it could be really interesting to see if more advanced synchronisation between CiviCRM profiles and SMF could work. If you will be getting deeper into this, please keep everyone posted on the forum, it would be amazing to see this working.

Thx,
michau

[gracea]

Dear Michau,

Thanks so much for your reply.  I will try re-installing smf on a separate database and will check out the smf forums more deeply for other issues.  I just assumed that their forum was only for smf issues and not Drupal bridge issues, but i see now that there are also posts on this topic.

At this point, i will not be looking at advanced syncronization of smf and civicrm as i am not a coder and would not have a clue how to go about this.  However, if in the future i am able to find a volunteer coder  who is interested in exploring this, i will certainly post the findings. (At the moment am doing volunteer work in S. India on about $100/mo - no resources to hire a programmer).

cheers,
grace

[Michał Mach]

Hey Grace,

Reinstalling smf on separate database is a good idea, however I'm not sure it will help with your problems. My recommendation on approaching the problem would be to describe the issue on SMFForum module forums and I'm pretty sure you'll get swift response and support. I had some problems with configuration, and as I mentioned before, SMFForum module author came back to me immediately and didn't give up until the issue was solved.

When it comes to integrating SMF and CiviCRM - no need to hire someone, you might as well just convince somebody. :-) Perhaps the bridge module author would be interested? If so, as everyone willing to contribute interesting functionality to CiviCRM world, he'll get support and access to dev team knowledge - perhaps it's worth trying to convince him. :-)

And one last thing - if you are using CiviCRM in your volunteering in India, make sure you post at least a brief case study on CiviCRM Showcase board. :-)

All the best,
michau

[gracea]

Michau,

Thanx.  I did some posting on smf and did receive some help and it seemed all was working well, but today, can't access the site at all.  Perhaps a server issue.  Am waiting for more information.

In the meantime, i can acrossed the following article about SMF Forums not being free software and the dangers this could cause for users.  See here http://www.hiveminds.co.uk/node/597
Is anyone else concerned?  I am having second thoughts now about using this forum.

cheers,
grace

[Donald Lobo]

Wow, thats an interesting article. To be honest, I assume SMF was FOSS (since Joomla! was using it also) and did not check the license.

In general we like to use "good" tools for the job. Our wiki (confluence), issue tracker (jira) and svn viewer (fisheye) are all commercial with a  free license to  non-profit / open source groups. I suspect SMF falls in the same group now. We felt that SMF was better than the other potential candidate (Drupal Forum).  That said we did not do a major search / evaluation for FOSS forums

lobo

[gracea]

Are you concerned about this?  Or do you feel comfortable using it?

[Donald Lobo]

I'm comfortable using it for now. To be clear, I don't know enough about licensing and have not read their license carefully to make me uncomfortable.

lobo