| Phorum
|
A Brief Description
What the developer says:
‘Phorum is a web based discussion software written in PHP. Unlike some popular web boards, Phorum utilizes a database to manage its messages. This frees up us the creators to concentrate on a great user interface and high quality administration functionality.’ What I say:
‘Phorum is an extremely powerful multi-forum management system. If offers all the features you’d expect such as admin. moderation of forum messages, remember user information facility and a powerful control panel for managing the look of your forums as well as the general use of them. Overview
Phorum has been around for a little while now, not as long as some of the larger more popular forum management scripts but it has still managed to maintain a crowd and stay standing. One major reason for this is probably the fact that Phorum is distributed as OpenSource meaning it’s free to all. Whereas other competitors have continued to charge for their scripts which are not necessarily that much better. Features
Whilst Phorum isn’t the most powerful forum management script around, it does offer an awful lot of great features which are very useful. The most obvious is probably the administration panel. This is a handy little feature which allows administrators to add and remove forums, adjust the general look, layout and usability of the forums as well as the obvious moderation of messages which sadly is very necessary for popular web sites. Phorum also offers all the standard features that you’d expect such as forum searching and message sorting. Due to the use of cookies, it also handily manages to remember who you are every time you go back, saving you the hassle of having to keep entering your name and email address etc. Modification
Phorum is definitely not the easiest script to modify if you don’t have a good knowledge of PHP though it is possible though rather time consuming. Whilst it takes a long time, in the long run it is definitely worth while because the coding can easily be modified to make an extremely powerful and useful program. Editing of the general look of Phorum however is quite easy due to the use of template files which make things in that department a lot easier. Support
Installation of Phorum isn’t incredibly easy for PHP novices, though it is possible. Some experience of mySQL will help though. For any advanced PHP users, the script is simple to install and you’ll have it running in a matter of minutes. However, when it comes to support it’s the usual case with any popular piece of CGI software. Online support via their forum is very good, email support is also reasonable but nothing amazing. Conclusion
If you’re experienced with PHP, Phorum is a very good script for you, but for anyone with little experience, you may struggle with this script. It’s a little tricky to install and modify though once that is done it’s extremely easy to use with a very easy administration interface. I’d recommend this script to anyone looking for a powerful forum script for a high traffic web site because it is a very good program under demand. Otherwise it is a good script, but maybe something a little easier to use would be better for the less experienced user.
|
| Homepage | http://www.phorum.org/ |
| CGI-Index.com Listing | http://www.CGI-Index.com/Detail/265.html |
| |
| Version Reviewed | 3.2.11 |
| Software Cost | Free |
| Software Author | Phorum Development Team |
| |
| Review Rating (by visitors) | 
Rating: 10.00 Votes: 1 |
| Rate It |
| |
| Review Author | Neil Skirrow |
|
| |
| All reviews listed on CGI-Index.com are written by individuals who are not associated with the script developer, they are an independent view of the software from one individual's point of view. If you disagree, please submit your own review. |
| |