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I need some help with features for a forum.


scottstambaugh

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You make it sound like you're looking to install a whole forum, not just some extension or "package". Really, quoting other people is one of the most basic features of a forum so not already having that is unusual.

 

If you want an extension/addon/package then it depends on what forum you have. If you want a forum then you have to evaluate what's out there and decide which one provides what you want.

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well we have an innovative forum that's basically a blogosphere where all the blogs feed into the forum.  It's pretty nice, very different, but lacking the basics.  You can post links and images but you have to know html.  So since a lot of the forums out there are php, I asked our IT guy if php could be used in the programming and he said yes, I thought there might be some basic forum features package out there so he doesn't have to do all the code himself.

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It looks from the basis of your questions that you are not a programmer yourself. Sometimes people seem to get the idea that programming is like a giant erector set, where you can go down to the store and get an "Image integration dohickey" and plug it into socket somehow, and suddenly the software has image support.

 

Things don't work that way. Your forum is written in some language. Whether or not your server supports PHP (and really as in the case of just about every computer language, all languages can work on all computer systems) doesn't mean that the forum is written in PHP. If it is written in PHP then there are component libraries available these days which can provide tremendous productivity gains and shorten development time, often with better overall quality if the component is well documented and covered by extensive and complete unit tests.

 

However, until you are sure that your forum (sounds like it's custom) was written in PHP any further discussion is a waste of time. If it is for example written in Ruby or Python, php components are of no value to you.

 

Let's assume that your forum was written in PHP, but it was developed as a customization to wordpress or drupal (doesn't sound like it, as those CMS/Blog platforms have all the things you are describing built in) but in that case, those platforms have certain ways of doing things, and may be incompatible with modern component libraries.

 

Again, first step is really getting an understanding of your codebase and the language it was developed in.

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I'm not sure where the idea came from that you could use php with an asp app. Maybe by "php elements" he means that you could script up an independent url that is served from a php script, but I wouldn't advise that, nor do I see here how that would accomplish adding functionality to your existing forum.

 

Stick with the platform you have, which is asp. You need an asp developer to add those features. There are some polyglots here who work with ASP from time to time, but I don't happen to be one of them. There's a slight chance someone will weigh in on this, but overall my advice is to find a dev forum focused on asp development.

 

Just to reiterate, there's nothing special about asp either in regards to adding functionality to your site. Someone is going to have to code it. You indicate you have a programmer already, so my advice would be to simply provide the requirements to your programmer in some form, and have them go to it.

 

If that person really doesn't know ASP, and/or doesn't know how to proceed with this, then you need to find a different programmer.

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