phpBB3 Webdesign

All web design discussion, including Ultimate Quiz MOD support.

Moderator: CricketMX Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
in2tech
Greenhorn
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:09 pm

After finding this link on the phpBB.com website and reading the post for several days I am looking for help in designing my website for The Hillbilly Critic similiar to CricketMX or something similiar but I am having some problems. After reading several post here I noticed that this community looked very friendly as I hope mine does in the future. First of all I can't decide whether I want to embed the forums into my website or go for the look and feel like the site here. What are the pros and cons of each? I am leaning towards the design similiar to here as it appears that data is constantly updating on the site.

Now where do I go from here and what kinds of questions should I ask for help?

I would consider my self a newbie in the phpBB community and design although I did upload the files to my hosting site myself which is a start. After thinking about it I think I would like to have the format as the same here but with more links possibly in the future.

P.S. I am also looking for a PHP/MySql database to add to my site also if anyone knows of one? I hope I am posting in the correct area of the forums!

Forgot to add I am also working on the site at http://www.thehillbillycritic.com through my hosting solutions built in website editor! But I don't like the fact that I have a link to the site so I want to embed it or redesign the forums to include all or most links!

Thank you so much for your help in advance,
in2tech
Home of the Toothpick Ratings System for Movies,Television,Books,Music, and more.
http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/index.php
User avatar
battye
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14391
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:26 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

in2tech wrote:After finding this link on the phpBB.com website and reading the post for several days I am looking for help in designing my website for The Hillbilly Critic similiar to CricketMX or something similiar but I am having some problems. After reading several post here I noticed that this community looked very friendly as I hope mine does in the future. First of all I can't decide whether I want to embed the forums into my website or go for the look and feel like the site here. What are the pros and cons of each? I am leaning towards the design similiar to here as it appears that data is constantly updating on the site.

Now where do I go from here and what kinds of questions should I ask for help?

I would consider my self a newbie in the phpBB community and design although I did upload the files to my hosting site myself which is a start. After thinking about it I think I would like to have the format as the same here but with more links possibly in the future.

P.S. I am also looking for a PHP/MySql database to add to my site also if anyone knows of one? I hope I am posting in the correct area of the forums!

Forgot to add I am also working on the site at http://www.thehillbillycritic.com through my hosting solutions built in website editor! But I don't like the fact that I have a link to the site so I want to embed it or redesign the forums to include all or most links!

Thank you so much for your help in advance,
Hi in2tech, I will go through bit by bit:
First of all I can't decide whether I want to embed the forums into my website or go for the look and feel like the site here. What are the pros and cons of each? I am leaning towards the design similar to here as it appears that data is constantly updating on the site.
By embed, do you mean by using something like an iFrame? The problem with something like this is that iFrames are quite an old technique - they are rarely used anymore. They do have some advantages, like being able to navigate the forum while never leaving the "look and feel" of your site completely behind. But in the frame, the forum will still have a different theme/template (colours) to the your main website. I hope that makes sense.

Disadvantages - Frames look "clunky", it's hard to implement one well. It is possible to have them come out alright (I think for a simple example, this page doesn't look too bad and that uses frames). But on the whole, with complex designs it might be tricky to have it look good - at the very least you might end up with horizontal and vertical scroll bars which is considered a bad thing.

If you want to make your website look like your forum, this isn't too difficult. Of the two, I think this is more advantageous. Advantages are; it's easy to do. Your whole site can have sessions (which means, no matter where you go on the site you stay logged in to the forum), and you can use forum content to power the homepage. I recently wrote an article about this at http://www.phpbb.com/blog/2009/01/09/ad ... tegration/ - you might have read it already, but if not it does outline the major benefits of making your website look like your forum (or as it is called, session integration).

One drawback is of course that you will lose the design of your website as it will look like part of the forum.

I can't comment on how it looks in other browsers (Mozilla, Internet Explorer, etc) but on Safari http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/ looks well done to me. Considering it was done with an online website editor I think you deserve a pat on the back, you have obviously put a lot of effort into the design.

There is a third option, probably this is the one I'd recommend unless you don't like your website design, and that is to "PHP-ise" your website. By that, I mean keeping your current design but adding just enough PHP in there so it is integrated with your forum and you get all the benefits of session integration (including logins, being able to display posts, etc).

So in summary, your options are:
  1. Embedding through frames
  2. Making your website look like your forum (like it is here at CricketMX.com)
  3. Giving your existing website extra functionality through session integration
Now where do I go from here and what kinds of questions should I ask for help?
I can walk you through any of those options once you decide which one you want to go with.
P.S. I am also looking for a PHP/MySql database to add to my site also if anyone knows of one? I hope I am posting in the correct area of the forums!
As you have already installed phpBB3, that means both PHP is installed on your website and also a database (presumably MySQL) is present. So in other words you don't have to worry about this, it's already there.


Hope this helps :)
CricketMX.com in 2022: Still the home of bat's, rat's and other farmyard animals!

"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
"the new forum looks awesome, it's getting bigger & better" - p2p-sharing-rules (11 Jan, 2008)
"Looks like CMX is not only getting bigger...but, also getting better!!" - moongirl (14 Dec, 2007)
User avatar
in2tech
Greenhorn
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:09 pm

By embed, do you mean by using something like an iFrame? The problem with something like this is that iFrames are quite an old technique - they are rarely used anymore. They do have some advantages, like being able to navigate the forum while never leaving the "look and feel" of your site completely behind. But in the frame, the forum will still have a different theme/template (colours) to the your main website. I hope that makes sense.
Yes I guess this is one option were the forums would be embedded in the entire site. So when you click on forums instead of just a link on that page you would actually see the forums so you wouldn't be taken away form the site so to speak by opening another window or lose the navigation of the site. You would basicly see the links all the time and maintain the look and feel of the site at all times.
Disadvantages - Frames look "clunky", it's hard to implement one well. It is possible to have them come out alright (I think for a simple example, this page doesn't look too bad and that uses frames). But on the whole, with complex designs it might be tricky to have it look good - at the very least you might end up with horizontal and vertical scroll bars which is considered a bad thing.
This might be an option.
If you want to make your website look like your forum, this isn't too difficult. Of the two, I think this is more advantageous. Advantages are; it's easy to do. Your whole site can have sessions (which means, no matter where you go on the site you stay logged in to the forum), and you can use forum content to power the homepage. I recently wrote an article about this at http://www.phpbb.com/blog/2009/01/09/ad ... tegration/ - you might have read it already, but if not it does outline the major benefits of making your website look like your forum (or as it is called, session integration).
So I just realized the article I was reading on the blog area of http://www.phpbb.com was written by you...go figure :) I think I like the http://www.cricketmx.com and the phpBB model the best at this time.

I tried it at this link but I am having issues, http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/aboutus.php at this time. For some reason I can't get the data to change on the file I uploaded when I changed the text and the item at the very top left hand corner won't go away. I am uploading the files via my hostings file transfer program as I am also having issues with SmartFTP which I originaly used to upload all the phpBB files to ge my forums started. As you can also see I don't have an About Us link either which at this time I can't figure out how to do :(
One drawback is of course that you will lose the design of your website as it will look like part of the forum.
Yes I am a little concerned about this but I am thinking about going the CricketMX way!
I can't comment on how it looks in other browsers (Mozilla, Internet Explorer, etc) but on Safari http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/ looks well done to me. Considering it was done with an online website editor I think you deserve a pat on the back, you have obviously put a lot of effort into the design.

There is a third option, probably this is the one I'd recommend unless you don't like your website design, and that is to "PHP-ise" your website. By that, I mean keeping your current design but adding just enough PHP in there so it is integrated with your forum and you get all the benefits of session integration (including logins, being able to display posts, etc).

So in summary, your options are:
  1. Embedding through frames
  2. Making your website look like your forum (like it is here at CricketMX.com)
  3. Giving your existing website extra functionality through session integration
I think I will go with option 2 for now and the look of your site. Can you have 2 phpBB boards on one hosting solution to have one to try things out on, and not bother the real one until you learn how to make changed and not lose everything?
Now where do I go from here and what kinds of questions should I ask for help?
I can walk you through any of those options once you decide which one you want to go with.
P.S. I am also looking for a PHP/MySql database to add to my site also if anyone knows of one? I hope I am posting in the correct area of the forums!
As you have already installed phpBB3, that means both PHP is installed on your website and also a database (presumably MySQL) is present. So in other words you don't have to worry about this, it's already there.
The database I am referring too I have found a few on sourcefourge.net and they allow users to enter in movie titles and it goes out to different databases like http://www.IMDB.com , and returns the movie information they entered. Sorry should have explained this better. And this brings me back to embed forums in site incase I get the movie database working, when I get it working :)


Hope this helps :)[/quote]


Thanks for your help. No matter what I have to start with the CricketMX and phpBB look for now. I am dieing to try this option out for now!

One last thing. I want my users to be able to use the hillbillycritic ratings system which is 1 - 5 toothpicks. How can I make it easy in a forum for them to use images say with 1 toothpick, 2, 3, etc... like a star rating system you normally see. Is this possible?


Thanks for all your help again. Let's get started with the teaching =D>
in2tech
Home of the Toothpick Ratings System for Movies,Television,Books,Music, and more.
http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/index.php
User avatar
battye
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14391
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:26 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

tried it at this link but I am having issues, http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/aboutus.php at this time. For some reason I can't get the data to change on the file I uploaded when I changed the text and the item at the very top left hand corner won't go away.
Yes, this is a strange part of phpBB3 that is quite annoying. You haven't done anything wrong, and your FTP client isn't broken. You have to log in as an admin and go to the Admin Panel, and click the "Purge Cache" button. Then the page will update.

The good thing is, you have obviously read up on phpBB coding guidelines or something similar (maybe one of the posts I linked to from the blog) as you have successfully created a page (aboutus.php). If you are able to get that far, then going further is not much harder. You have done the hardest part by yourself :)
Can you have 2 phpBB boards on one hosting solution to have one to try things out on, and not bother the real one until you learn how to make changed and not lose everything?
Yes, in SmartFTP just upload phpBB3 again to a different folder (so, call it phpBB3_testing before you upload it) so once it is there is will be at hillbillycritics.com/phpBB3_testing/ ... install this (using a different table prefix than the existing installation) and that can be your test board.
The database I am referring too I have found a few on sourcefourge.net and they allow users to enter in movie titles and it goes out to different databases like http://www.IMDB.com , and returns the movie information they entered.
I'm not sure what these programs are, but if they are written in PHP and/or use a database, then I see no reason why it won't work on your site. Who is your webhosting company, out of interest?
One last thing. I want my users to be able to use the hillbillycritic ratings system which is 1 - 5 toothpicks. How can I make it easy in a forum for them to use images say with 1 toothpick, 2, 3, etc... like a star rating system you normally see. Is this possible?
This will probably just require some simple changes to the poll system. It's definitely possible.
CricketMX.com in 2022: Still the home of bat's, rat's and other farmyard animals!

"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
"the new forum looks awesome, it's getting bigger & better" - p2p-sharing-rules (11 Jan, 2008)
"Looks like CMX is not only getting bigger...but, also getting better!!" - moongirl (14 Dec, 2007)
User avatar
in2tech
Greenhorn
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:09 pm

battye wrote:
tried it at this link but I am having issues, http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/aboutus.php at this time. For some reason I can't get the data to change on the file I uploaded when I changed the text and the item at the very top left hand corner won't go away.
Yes, this is a strange part of phpBB3 that is quite annoying. You haven't done anything wrong, and your FTP client isn't broken. You have to log in as an admin and go to the Admin Panel, and click the "Purge Cache" button. Then the page will update.
Thanks that's what is was. I hit Refresh so many times my hand almost fell off :) Not sure I would have figured that out on my own. I was purgeing the cache on my computer. I also updated the page with some more info. No try the link and see what you think, http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/aboutus.php. Now I need to figure out how to get rid of the words in the far uppper left corner and add links like phpBB has on their site. The also have breadcrumbs on their site!
The good thing is, you have obviously read up on phpBB coding guidelines or something similar (maybe one of the posts I linked to from the blog) as you have successfully created a page (aboutus.php). If you are able to get that far, then going further is not much harder. You have done the hardest part by yourself :)
Yes read your article and a few more and also went here http://startrekguide.com/community/index.php.
Can you have 2 phpBB boards on one hosting solution to have one to try things out on, and not bother the real one until you learn how to make changed and not lose everything?
Yes, in SmartFTP just upload phpBB3 again to a different folder (so, call it phpBB3_testing before you upload it) so once it is there is will be at hillbillycritics.com/phpBB3_testing/ ... install this (using a different table prefix than the existing installation) and that can be your test board.
Thanks I may do that in the future!
The database I am referring too I have found a few on sourcefourge.net and they allow users to enter in movie titles and it goes out to different databases like http://www.IMDB.com , and returns the movie information they entered.
I'm not sure what these programs are, but if they are written in PHP and/or use a database, then I see no reason why it won't work on your site. Who is your webhosting company, out of interest?
The web hosting company I am using is Network Solutions. The also have our e-commerce site that we have been running for about 6 years. They bought our original shopping cart hosting company.

Yeah they are in PHP and MySql, I guess it's just over my head right now but I do want to get one of the databases working on my site. The user will be able to input a movie and the info will be retrieved for them. Kinda cool. And I am hoping each person will be able to keep up with their movie collection on my site!
One last thing. I want my users to be able to use the hillbillycritic ratings system which is 1 - 5 toothpicks. How can I make it easy in a forum for them to use images say with 1 toothpick, 2, 3, etc... like a star rating system you normally see. Is this possible?
This will probably just require some simple changes to the poll system. It's definitely possible.

I really need to figure this out very soon to make the ratings experience easy for my users in the future!

Thanks again. I am having issues with the quoting stuff. Might have to make the post individual post :)
in2tech
Home of the Toothpick Ratings System for Movies,Television,Books,Music, and more.
http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/index.php
User avatar
battye
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14391
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:26 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Do you want to sort out the poll/ratings thing before any of the other tasks?
CricketMX.com in 2022: Still the home of bat's, rat's and other farmyard animals!

"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
"the new forum looks awesome, it's getting bigger & better" - p2p-sharing-rules (11 Jan, 2008)
"Looks like CMX is not only getting bigger...but, also getting better!!" - moongirl (14 Dec, 2007)
User avatar
in2tech
Greenhorn
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:09 pm

Well I figured out the adding custom pages and also the link, as I added an About Us page and also added the link for About Us on the board next to the Members, FAQ, etc... area. I was actually wanting the link next to the Board Index area. Check it out here http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/index.php.Is this possible to have the links next to the Board Index? Of course what I really want to do is like the phpBB and your site here, and have the links like the top of their page and the other links on the right like in the knowledge base area and so forth. Yes, is there a way to have a default Hillbilly Critic Poll that will have the ratings 1 through 5 toothpicks and they can choose to use this poll each time the post a movie, television show, book, or music to rate? So every person doesn't have to retype the words? You can see on my forums that we have been doing it manually for now. Go to the Ratings area on the board for any subject.

I am also needing a few moderator to help with testing permissions, moving topics, etc... that I don't know how to do or understand yet :) Are you interested and I know you are very busy, just to help me get going?

P.S. (Found the post in The Game) =D>

I really appreciate everyones help,
in2tech
Home of the Toothpick Ratings System for Movies,Television,Books,Music, and more.
http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/index.php
User avatar
battye
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14391
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:26 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

How important is it that the Hillbilly Critic Poll is part of the forum? Or can it be something on the other parts of the website?

Thanks for the offer about moderating. I'm involved in different capacities on quite a few forums which takes up most of time on the net, so unfortunately I will have to pass. Of course, if you have any questions about moderating or administrating I can definitely help you there :)

For testing permissions, if you go to any users profile and click the Test permissions link then you can see the board exactly how they would see it (ie. you are temporarily taking on their user permissions).

EDIT: I've found out how you can make toothpick polls without altering any files.

Go to: http://forums.cricketmx.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4556
All I did was use bbCode in the actual poll creation area. :)

The code I used was

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.ablekitchen.com/v/vspfiles/photos/LW-TDSH-0.jpg[/img]
That looks a bit complicated because of the line spacing, but essentially I put one image, then on the next line 2 images... etc, down to 5 images on the final line.
CricketMX.com in 2022: Still the home of bat's, rat's and other farmyard animals!

"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
"the new forum looks awesome, it's getting bigger & better" - p2p-sharing-rules (11 Jan, 2008)
"Looks like CMX is not only getting bigger...but, also getting better!!" - moongirl (14 Dec, 2007)
User avatar
in2tech
Greenhorn
Greenhorn
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:09 pm

Where do I put this code? Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate your help.
in2tech
Home of the Toothpick Ratings System for Movies,Television,Books,Music, and more.
http://www.thehillbillycritic.com/phpBB3/index.php
User avatar
battye
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 14391
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2004 8:26 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

When writing a post, under the post screen look for the Poll creation tab, then where it says:
Poll options:
Place each option on a new line. You may enter up to XX options. If you remove or add options all previous votes will be reset.
Enter the code.
CricketMX.com in 2022: Still the home of bat's, rat's and other farmyard animals!

"OK, life [as you chose to define it] repeats until there are no more lessons to be learned." - nrnoble (June 12, 2005)
"the new forum looks awesome, it's getting bigger & better" - p2p-sharing-rules (11 Jan, 2008)
"Looks like CMX is not only getting bigger...but, also getting better!!" - moongirl (14 Dec, 2007)
Post Reply