Drupal - phpBB ... Just asking for an advise

[MGadAllah]

Hi,

 

I hope that I am posting in the correct and the right forum .

 

There is something I can not make up my mind for it and I thought to post here asking for an advise from people around here as I do believe that we have many experienced and talented guy around the forum.

 

I have a website that I need to include many thing within and therefor I need a good CMS plus a forum and a blog and maybe a gallery (this is for the time being).

 

I've goggled a lot for the best or suitable CMS I can depend on and after a lot of reading I've found that Drupal is better (while some and they are too many goes towards Joomla, but Drupal is far better especially for the long run) and this is why I've picked Drupal at the end and dropped Joomla (as I've choose Joomla at the 1st place).

 

This was a brief background about what I want to have. Now regarding the thing I want to make up my mind for, it is that I am a fan of phpBB and really want to use it for the website but the problem I have is the integration with the CMS Drupal as the existing bridges are not good at all and keep broking all the times when any updates take place for Drupal or phpBB.

 

So I am a bit confused about what shall I do, shall I:

 

• Using phpBB in a separate database and drop the integration with the CMS so this way users will have two log ins, one for the CMS and another one for the forum
   
  
• Using the core forum module for Drupal with some other modules to add more features for the forum as it is just simple, clean forum.

 

So please advise for what shall I do, I understand that some may say that it is my problem and should not post something like this, but it is just I am newbie with websites world and may not realize something and other experienced guys know about it.

 

One last thing I've realized that there is a stable bridge for Joomla and phpBB, so while I know that Drupal is better then Joomla but I am still thinking about using Joomla instead to be able to use phpBB.

 

Also does users or visitors for any website(s) care about which tools you are using or it is all about contents and looking or appearance of the website?

 

One last option which is to go back and use Joomla and phpBB and rocketwerx (rockettheme) bridge.

 

All my concern is the good of the website, and the long run healthy for the website. I do not mind to start studying any one of them (I mean Joomla & Drupal). So I just want to know which one considered the best time investing CMS.

 

I hope that I was able to express my points correctly.

 

Thanks for your time reading my post and I hope to know what do you think?

[haku]

I've been running the exact setup you describe - a Drupal - Phpbb forum for the last year. I dislike it - the phpbb/drupal bridge is no good at all. I've finally decided to drop the phpbb altogether, and just go with a pure Drupal solution, using some forum enhancement modules to make the forum better. I'm currently done with the development, and just have the testing to remain.

 

As for having separate logins for your forum and for your site, I would advise against it - it will be a pain in the ass for most users, and you will find they won't use the other side of the site. So it will basically be like having two separate sites.

 

For a good example of a pure Drupal setup, using a forum that works quite well, check out this forum:

 

www.thebeijinger.com

 

I found it a while back, and was quite impressed. It was the final thing that made me decide to go with a pure Drupal solution, as I was impressed their forum.

[MGadAllah]

It seems that you faced a lot of troubles, this is really some how nice as I've thought that I was the only one who is facing this.

 

Please let me ask, does Drupal is really the way to go? the reason I am asking is because I am not familiar with Drupal or Joomla but just will study the one I will choose, so I want to pick the right one to invest the time into it, but really afraid to pick a wrong choice and build a site and end up with deleting everything or starting all over again due to some limitations.

 

I hope that I do express what I want to say correctly and that you got my point.

 

I am not with Joomla and not with Drupal but just looking for the long run and want something that is really good.

 

So was it a good choice to pick Drupal and drop Joomla? or it does not matter any one of them?

 

Just a side note: the bridge for Joomla and phpBB is stable now and will always be so because rocket theme is now the manager of the project and it is one of the main extensions for Joomla amongst those they are offering.

 

Thanks a lot for your time.

 

M,

[haku]

If you are a coder, Drupal is an excellent program. If you are not - it's still an excellent program. Joomla is bloated. It also tries to do everything for you - Drupal is a lot more flexible.

 

I don't just use it for my one site, I pretty much use it for everything. I think it's the best CMS out there, though I haven't tried all of them by any means.

 

As for a CMS/Forum bridge (any of them), I've decided that I don't like the idea. You can never get full integration, because it's only a bridge. That's why I'm switching to a full Drupal system - there will be full integration between the site and the forum, which I think makes the whole thing better.

[MGadAllah]

Thanks for replying

 

While I am not a coder but I do feel that Drupal is more powerfull more then Joomla

 

I've got a lot of eBooks and a lot of Video tutorials for Drupal 6 which tell you everything I may ever want to know.

 

I will study Drupal step by step and I hope to do what I am looking for with it.

 

Thanks a lot

[dekeb55]

Hi MGadAllah,

  I am wanting to use Drupal but I keep getting:

Requirements problem

The following error must be resolved before you can continue the installation process:

The Drupal installer requires that you create a settings file as part of the installation process.

Copy the ./sites/default/default.settings.php file to ./sites/default/settings.php.

Change file permissions so that it is writable by the web server. If you are unsure how to grant file permissions, please consult the on-line handbook.

More details about installing Drupal are available in INSTALL.txt.

Please check the error messages and try again.

and I don't know what to do. Can you help me?

 

Thanks

dekeb55

[MGadAllah]

Hello my friend,

 

This is pretty simple, Just do as it says:

 

1 - Browse your host to the place where you have installed your Drupal and then go to /sites/default/default.settings.php.

 

2- Download the file default.settings.php to your computer then rename it to settings.php.

 

3 - Upload the new renamed file settings.php to /sites/default/settings.php.

 

4 - This way you will have a 2 files under /sites/default/:

a- default.settings.php

b- settings.php

 

5- Using your FTP client or your cpanel to make the permissions for the file writable ... this meaning to make the read, write, excute set to 777.

 

6- Then run the setup again.

 

7 - Done.

 

Good luck

Mohamed