• Kate
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  • Registered: 2008-09-06
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Topic: How much Programming skills are needed?

Hello all,
This is my first post here at fluxBB and I must congratulate you guys for providing us with an awesome forum building tools, out of your own interest.

I have been planning to create a art-based forum community for long, and I think now I will have few weeks to seriously put efforts into this mini-project. I know a little of C++, and Java but I would not call myself a professional programmer per se.

Now that I am at a stage to begin work right from scratch with nothing already built with me except few ideas, I need to know how much programming knowledge is necessary to develop a fully functional forum website? I do plan to include all the popular mods for my forum.

Also, the most important question here is how to stay clear from hackers? Does fluxBB comes equipped with some sort of default safety measures or do I have to learn some ethical hacking tricks myself and employ those to my forums in order to shoo-off the ever-interested hackers.

Any help is welcome to a no0b. smile

- Kate

Last edited by Kate (2008-09-06 10:51:14)

So many of our DREAMS at first seem Impossible, then they seem Improbable, and then when we Summon the Will, they soon become Inevitable. - Christopher Reeve
  • Registered: 2008-05-09
  • Posts: 151

Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

We have a dilemma here with all the new people coming to fluxbb, as we are ( or should be) close to having a new release, 1.3 However we arnt ready to release it yet so it all depends on what you want to do:

You can use the latest SVN ( the source of the work) and start to learn how fluxbb 1.3 works, and it does things and look at the code.

Use the 1.2.20 and then think about upgrading when 1.3 comes out


I personally would use 1.3 SVN and learn it.

Edit: With 1.3 when it is finaly released then it will still be a while before extensions are made and are stable..

Punbb is 99.9% hacker safe, same with any forum software, you cannot guarantee someone in a few years time wont make a hack to get in, but for now, there arnt any, the only thing you will have to install is some sort of spam filter to stop people signing up and posting a lot of rubbish.

Last edited by Utchin (2008-09-06 10:53:24)

  • elbekko
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  • Registered: 2008-04-30
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Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

We try to make it as secure as possible, so if you do get hacked, it'd most likely be due to a bad server configuration.

As for programming knowledge: in 1.3, you won't require any. Extensions can be installed without even looking at the source code. Downside of this is that there aren't that much extensions available, especially not for the latest SVN revision (which differs quite a bit from beta 2). In 1.2 on the other hand, you'll be asked to follow a readme which outlines steps to integrate the new code.
By itself, that isn't very hard. But once you get alot of modifications (or even some big ones, say polls + attachments), you'll have to have atleast some programming knowledge in order to do it properly.

Ben
SVN repository for my extensions - The thread
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  • Kate
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Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

Okay, lets assume that I decide to go ahead customizing my forum with 1.2.20 and by the time 1.3 gets released, I would have made quite a lot of desired customizations. How much re-work are we talking about when upgrading from 1.2.20 to 1.3?

I did not quite understand SVN, what should I expect to learn from it? Is it like a technical specification document for fluxBB?

You mentioned punBB is 99% hacker safe, does fluxBB holds the same honors too?

- Kate

So many of our DREAMS at first seem Impossible, then they seem Improbable, and then when we Summon the Will, they soon become Inevitable. - Christopher Reeve
  • Registered: 2008-05-09
  • Posts: 151

Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

Yes, When the split happens, the developers took the punbb code and its now used as fluxbb code and now punbb uses fluxbb.

SVN is the most up to date version of fluxbb, its all the work the developers are doing on the forum. As soon as they feel that can upload what work they have done, they upload it to SVN and we can all see it.

If you used 1.3 then once all the mods have been created then its a simple case of uploading them to your ftp, and going to the admin panel and clicking install wink
However the mods must be completely re made for 1.3. You cant use 1.2.* mods on 1.3

I would imagine this is difficult for you to grasp, there is allot to take in.

Last edited by Utchin (2008-09-06 11:05:59)

  • Kate
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Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

bad server configuration. hmm. Reminds me of another important question. Is it okay for initial months to host my forum on my personal desktop only? I believe, a forum does not get popular the very next morning and it takes time to spread awareness about it. Or do I have to buy a separate server for hosting purposes?

From the looks of it, there's every reason that I should wait for 1.3 so that my no0b programming skills are not required to code at this time. I read somewhere that polls come as a plug-n-play. Is that true?

So many of our DREAMS at first seem Impossible, then they seem Improbable, and then when we Summon the Will, they soon become Inevitable. - Christopher Reeve
  • Registered: 2008-05-09
  • Posts: 151

Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

Yup, all the mods (called extensions) Are a simple case of uploading to your ftp and pressing Install. Where as 1.2.* you have to open up the file and change the code yourself.

You could host the site from your desktop, however if you use programs like WAMP, then it isn't recommended. They are designed for local websites Only and not intended for world wide use. Though you could get away with it, But with hosts being as cheep as a few pounds a month and with the features you get, there is no reason not to.

  • Kate
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Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

Fine, I will wait for 1.3 to be released and in the meantime I'll have a look at subversion 1.2.20, to make myself familiar to the interface.

If 1.3 provides me a hacker free, feature rich, and above all a no-coding required forum, I am ready to wait the wait. smile

September has just started, do we expect to have some news by mid-way in October about 1.3 release dates? If not, I will have to look for another alternative as it's quite a long time to wait.

- Kate

So many of our DREAMS at first seem Impossible, then they seem Improbable, and then when we Summon the Will, they soon become Inevitable. - Christopher Reeve
  • elbekko
  • FluxBB.org Developer
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  • Registered: 2008-04-30
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Re: How much Programming skills are needed?

1.2 isn't being actively developed anymore, so checking out from SVN there is fairly useless.

As for the release date, it'll be done when it's done. Issues can always pop up, and I'm sure Paul has a fair few things to finish.

Ben
SVN repository for my extensions - The thread
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