5 Replies Latest reply on Feb 12, 2007 1:23 PM by unibrew

    JBoss Forums vs JForum

    jimisola

      Hi!

      I'm trying to decide what Javabased phpBB clone I should go with - JBoss Forums or JForums? Wished that there was only one and so that efforts were joined...

      Anyway, if you are familiar with JForum and phpBB then I'd like to know of any major differences:

      - What of the original phpBB are not implemented (read that the new beta has some new features)?

      - What features does JBoss Forums that JForum doesn't and vice versa?

      JBoss Forums does not seem the have support for PM (private messages). It's not mentioned in the feature list, but there is an icon in the forum which, however, links to jboss.com.

      The feature list also lists "Fine grained security". Does that mean that non-privileged users won't even be able to see topics and "Last Post" information. Looks as the same requirements that a user mentioned is this thread:
      http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&t=98930


      As JBoss Forums is a JBoss Portal project I assume that JBoss Forums depends on the portal or can it run stand-alone?

      Regards,
      Jimisola

        • 1. Re: JBoss Forums vs JForum
          unibrew

          Hi

          The main difference is the aim of those implementations. JBoss Forums aim to be a portlet with optional possibility to run as standalone (at this point it misses some of the features because it is not a priority in development) and JForums aim is to be a standalone app with no support of running as a portlet. Additionally, JForums is a quite mature project because it lives much longer and because of that it has some more features like karma, search(in JBoss Forums it will be in 1.1.0), emoticons, RSS and other less important. From the implementation standpoint JBoss Forums uses more common and stabilized technologies like Hibernate and JSF/Facelets when JForums uses own implementation of DAO pattern and FreeMarker for the view.

          Yes, JBoss Forums doesn't have PM yet and BTW forums on jboss.com are not JBoss Forums. They will be replaced soon.

          Yes, it is possible to make a forum, with its topics, not visible for specified user/role.

          Yes, JBoss Forums at this stage of development requires deployment together with JBoss Portal.

          Regards
          ----------------------
          Ryszard Kozmik
          JBoss Forums Lead
          JBoss Labs Team

          • 2. Re: JBoss Forums vs JForum
            jimisola

            Ryszard,

            Thank you for the quick and very informative reply.
            I haven't been able to find an ETA for 1.0.0 - is there one or is it "when it's done"?

            Do you think that you'll add PM? It's a requirement/demand from our community users.

            What is the general feature aim for JBoss Forums? Are there features (in phpBB) that you know that you will not add?

            Any idea when in time JBoss Forums will 1) be able to run in Portlet container other than JBoss portal and 2) when it will be standalone. We are thinking of using JBoss AS + JBoss Portal, but would prefer not to look ourselves into that solution.

            Regards
            Jimisola

            ps. I believe that JForum 3 will be a complete rewrite to use different technologies. I've followed some of the discussion and I'm not sure that they're using the right ones (they're not using common technologies). ds.

            • 3. Re: JBoss Forums vs JForum
              unibrew

              Jimisola,

              There is no ETA because a decision whether 1.0.0 should contain new Look&Feel is not taken yet. If not it is just a matter of e.g. 2 weeks. Mainly, I stopped development of this version, no more new code. Beta contains everything and I'm just waiting now if someone will find any bug.

              I"ll definetly add PM but not in this release and not in 1.1.0. I'm on very big pressure with releasing most needed features in a very efficient and stable version to replace jboss.com forums. PM should be in 1.2.0, it is quite easy to implement and a feature which I find needed too.

              At this moment I don't know about any feature that I would not like to add. I'm open for requests from community.

              1) Sorry, I'm not able to give you time schedule for this. I'm planing to do such a separation and new code is written to make it possible but this is not priority for me.
              2) It can be run as a standalone even know but it misses login and bbcode parsing as far as I remember. It will be fully featured and available together with full portal separation because those two things are very connected. Still, I cannot say when it will be exactly.

              I don't think locking is an issue in aspect of using JBoss Forums. My database is quite similar to phpBB. Tables do not match but it is very straightforward to write migration scripts. So if you decide that JBoss Forums sucks and you no longer want to use it, you can migrate all the data and use any other implementation. It's open source :-).

              Regards
              ----------------------
              Ryszard Kozmik
              JBoss Forums Lead
              JBoss Labs Team

              • 4. Re: JBoss Forums vs JForum
                jimisola

                Ryszard,

                Sounds very promising.

                Especially, when you take your time to answer questions like these. It is very much appreciated! I think people within open source projects forget this at time to time; it's not only about the features - people (at least myself) wants to find confidence in the project (which you have given!). Open source is more and more about choosing the right project/product/library, i.e. that won't be a dead-end.

                Keep up the good work!

                Kind Regards,
                Jimisola

                • 5. Re: JBoss Forums vs JForum
                  unibrew

                  Jimisola,

                  Thanks for a very good word. It's the best motivation to work. Community around an OS project such as JBoss Forums is very important for me because I get much input in testing and innovation ideas. That's why I'm trying to be responsive on this forum as I think it's a game where both of us win :-).

                  Kind regards
                  ----------------------
                  Ryszard Kozmik
                  JBoss Forums Lead
                  JBoss Labs Team