How do I Add Second Forum / Index Page???

[msupport]

Hello all,

I have searched and have come up empty... which I am surprised... I would think this to be a common modification request???

Anyhow...

Is there an existing mod that you could point me to or does anyone know how this might be accomplished?

From the menu there would be link/button "Frm2" that takes users to second forum / board index page "_self"?

adding the link/button is easy enough it's just adding the second forum that I'm having a problem with...

I assume this would mostly be around an admin mod... being able to add a new page and then add new categories/boards to this new page different from that of the main index page...

Thank you for you help/support in this matter,

[MrPhil]

You want a completely separate forum? Just install it in its own subdirectory. Be careful to change the database prefix to smf2_ (at least, different from whatever you're using now), or you can create a separate database. Then there are various mods to add new buttons that would let you jump between forums. Note that you will probably lose your session and sign-on when you leave one forum to go into the other.

If you want to share any parts of the two forums, such as the membership lists, a common sign-on and session (so you can jump back and forth between the two), groups, etc., it becomes much more complicated (but should still be possible). I know such things have been discussed before, so do some searching on this forum. I haven't tried it myself, so I can't offer any help there.

If the whole point of this exercise is to make some material available to some members, and not to others, but keep within the same forum, you should be able to do that with member groups and permissions. You could exclude certain member groups from certain areas of the forum.

[msupport]

hi there Phil,

I took some of your suggestions and have it working pretty well thus far... except for one minor detail... and that would be getting both boards to see the same session... the main board keeps the session without problem, the second needs an auto login script using the current sessions, user name, & password... not sure how to do this one at all???

Ok, here's what I've done:

Mods Used:

• Page Management 1.4 --> used to Add Button & New Page
• Menu Editor Lite 1.0.5 --> used to Remove All Buttons on New Page

Syntax Added to New Page:[/font]

<iframe src="http://www.us4love.com/4orum2/index.php [nofollow]" target="_self" frameborder="0" width="1024" height="900" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" align="left" align="top" style="margin-left: -30px; margin-top: -180px;"></iframe>



I'm sure all I have to do is add to my syntax index.php?user=var&session=var or something like that... whatever the vars would be I am uncertain of... have any ideas???

I am currently sharing the same cache directory between the two... not sure why I thought that might be a good idea but it doesn't appear to be hurting anything... yet??? lol

Here is a link to my site if you wish to take a look: Www.us4love.coM [nofollow]

once there, it will be the [main menu] on the top, right... choose "Community" and then choose "Group" from the menu there to see the second forum...

P.S. Thank you for you help & support... it's very much appreciated!!! =)

BTW: I just love this program... I'm having a great time attempting to figure it all out... lol

[MrPhil]

So how did you end up implementing it? I suggested several different things, so I don't know what you ended up doing.

[msupport]

I'm sorry Phil,

I guess I did leave it pretty unclear as to what I have done... it almost sounds like I have done other things to get it this far... but the truth is, what I have written above is all that has been done so far... aside from some hacking to customize it for my liking and site integration... but those changes don't have any effect on this issue...

I installed the two different mods "Page Management & Menu Editor Lite" I then added the "<iframe syntax" to the Page Management Page that is accessed via the new menu item named "Groups".

*********************************************
Mods Used:

Page Management 1.4 --> used to Add Button & New Page
Menu Editor Lite 1.0.5 --> used to Remove All Buttons on New Page

Syntax Added to New Page:

<iframe src="hxxp:www.us4love.com/4orum2/index.php [nonactive]" target="_self" frameborder="0" width="1024" height="900" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" align="left" align="top" style="margin-left: -30px; margin-top: -180px;"></iframe>

**********************************************
I know my iframe looks quite horrific with major negative margins but it seems to be the only way I could find to get it to line up right and hide the iframe border which still remains even after you tell it to = "0"...

Thinking I'm going to attempt to figure out how to combine the two forums using both databases... I figure if I just use the first forums members and sessions table it might work??? this is much easier said than done though I do believe... but we will see... any thoughts/help or ideas you or anyone might have to aid in this process???

I have done a new testing 4rmz install and 4rmz/4rm2 install... gonna use the same database name 4rmz with prefix tables of 4rm1 & 4rm2... if I implement this into the 4rm2 settings file as such that it looks like this:

********************************************************************************
########## Forum Info ##########
$boardurl1 = 'http://www.us4love.com/4rmz'; [nofollow]
$boardurl = 'http://www.us4love.com/4rmz/4rm2'; [nofollow]
$cookiename = 'SMFCookie506';    # <-- This is the same in both settings files

########## Database Info ##########
$db_name = '4rmz';
$db_prefix1 = '4rm1_';
$db_prefix = '4rm2_';

########## Directories/Files ##########
# Note: These directories do not have to be changed unless you move things.
$boarddir1 = '/hosts/www.us4love.com/htdocs/4rmz';      
$boarddir = '/hosts/www.us4love.com/htdocs/4rmz/4rm2';      
$cachedir = '/hosts/www.us4love.com/htdocs/4rmz/cache';      

########## Error-Catching ##########
if (!file_exists($boarddir) && file_exists(dirname(__FILE__) . '/agreement.txt'))
   $boarddir = dirname(__FILE__);
if (!file_exists($sourcedir) && file_exists($boarddir . '/Sources'))
   $sourcedir = $boarddir . '/Sources';
if (!file_exists($cachedir) && file_exists($boarddir1 . '/cache'))
   $cachedir = $boarddir1 . '/cache';
********************************************************************************

notice I'm using the same cache directory here... I'm only guessing this is something I should be doing???

I really am NOT much of a programmer... I can make things work how I want them to but usually using unconventional / unorthodox methods... my skills rely much more on luck than any skill or true understanding of what I really doing... so any and all thoughts/ideas/suggestions would be welcomed and most appreciated... =)

I did come across this mod: "SharedForumsFor20_PATCH" I'm thinking this person had a great idea and somewhat is doing the same thing only taking a different approach... probably a better solution I don't know???