Hi there. Complete and utter newbie here. I haven't even installed SMF yet. Plus I'm not sure where to post my question, so I post it here.
So what am I doing here? I found you while searching for a forum application over at http://www.forummatrix.org/index.php (http://www.forummatrix.org/index.php) and you looked like the most promising.
So I visited your website and got increasingly impressed the more I looked around. Your Core Values http://www.simplemachines.org/about/values.php (http://www.simplemachines.org/about/values.php) determined me -- this is just the kind of community I want to be a part of. Now I just hope this application fits my needs.
I have two questions.
1) I need a forum architecture for a movie website modeled along the lines of imdb.com (http://imdb.com) wherein each movie has its own forum in addition to a general forum for the website. Your child forums seemed promising to me for such a thing. Is this something SMF can do out of the box, or with some relatively straitforward coding?
2) My website is being developed using the django framework. When I saw all your external integration capabilities I got excited, but I didn't find any for django. Is this something that can be done (again, relatively straitforwardly)? I'm an experienced programmer/developer, but not with web technology.
Before I go to the trouble of installing and setting up SMF I thought I'd ask these questions.
And, just so you know, if I end up not using SMF, I have tremendous respect for what you're doing and the community you've got going here. You're a great model for how people should treat each other online.
Thank you,
Vada Malbro
To answer your first question, yes, SMF supports infinite child boards right out of the box. All you have to do is select "Child Of" instead of "Before" or "After" another board, and you're all set.
As for the second, I'm not much of an integration person, so I'm gonna let someone else answer that :)
QuoteTo answer your first question, yes, SMF supports infinite child boards right out of the box. All you have to do is select "Child Of" instead of "Before" or "After" another board, and you're all set.
So I would set up each movie as a "Child Of" some top node? By definition, doesn't "child of" imply a parent of some sort?
Yes... I used the term loosely, just in case you wanted to make a forum for each letter of the alphabet, and then a child forum(s) for each movie starting with that letter. You can also just make a forum (board, technically) for each movie and give it a few child forums for different stuff.
QuoteYou can also just make a forum (board, technically) for each movie and give it a few child forums for different stuff.
So, theoretically, each movie can be its own complete forum?! Wouldn't that mean each movie having its own sql database?
Also, assuming I got with child forums for each letter of the alphabet, could these parents be hidden? And I suppose each letter would itself be a child forum for a meta forum "alphabet"?
So it's basically like a tree/node structure, like an xml file?
(BTW, thanks for the quick response!)
Yes, it's a tree structure.
here's a diagram of what you could possibly do, although with only 3 movies since I can't type every movie up ;)
Forum Main Category
-- Site News
-- Site Discussion
Movies Category
-- Return of the Jedi
---- Plot
---- Characters
-- Forrest Gump
-- Terminator III
Ok, that makes intuitive sense.
QuoteMovies Category
-- Return of the Jedi
---- Plot
---- Characters
-- Forrest Gump
-- Terminator III
Now... would I be able to attach the three movie child forums (Return of the Jedi; Forrest Gump; Terminator III) each to their own independent page?
For instance, like imdb.com, if I have a page dedicated to, say, Terminator III, can I have a forum on that same page that's only about Terminator III?
The child/parent relationship in this case is implied, but not evident.
Everything you see can be viewed as its own board (except for the categories, which are like the "Getting Started with SMF" and "SMF Support" sections on the community home page here). You might want to set up a test forum so you can fool around with all of this stuff, it's very easy to do :)
Quote from: vada on April 24, 2009, 04:46:33 PM
2) My website is being developed using the django framework. When I saw all your external integration capabilities I got excited, but I didn't find any for django. Is this something that can be done (again, relatively straitforwardly)? I'm an experienced programmer/developer, but not with web technology.
Well, django is written in python, so not easily. You could integrate it but you'd probably need to write the integration code yourself. Depending on what you want to do that might not be so difficult. You would probably at the least want to write some log in/out functions and one to check the cookies in case they've already logged in through SMF.
QuoteEverything you see can be viewed as its own board...
Really?! That is very cool! Yes, I think I will give it a try...
QuoteWell, django is written in python, so not easily. You could integrate it but you'd probably need to write the integration code yourself. Depending on what you want to do that might not be so difficult. You would probably at the least want to write some log in/out functions and one to check the cookies in case they've already logged in through SMF.
Yes, depending on what I want to do... I might need to readjust my initial plans...
I think I'll play around.
Thank you both for your help!
Check out smf_api.php
It's probably simpler than SSI.php etc.
QuoteCheck out smf_api.php
It's probably simpler than SSI.php etc.
Nice to know smf has an api. Good advice -- thanks!