perlBB project

[serious_steven]

Hello everyone. I'm working on an open source forum system called perlBB that I started about 14 weeks ago. The system is slightly unusual in that it is designed to be very scaleable but also self contained (i.e. no separate database application needed). An XML based database system is embedded in the core scripts. I am seeking to attract other developers who might like to work on the project with me, once I have a stable core system. If you are interested you can find the project home page on sourceforge.net by searching for perlBB.

At the moment I have an alpha version with most core features working. The current team consists of me (UK based) and a guy from New York who's designing the logo. Thanks for reading.

Steven.

[davidrw]

for the lazy :) http://sourceforge.net/projects/perlbb/
(to OP: the Project->WebSite link of http://perlbb.sourceforge.net/ doesn't work)

If the only requirement is "no separate database application needed", why not SQLite or BerkeleyDB or something indexable? How will you provide the desired scalability with just XML files?

You may want to strongly consider supporting multiple databases .. if use DBI (DBD::AnyData supports XML), and don't do anything db-specific in your SQL, it will simply be a matter of letting the user specifiy a different DSN in the config -- it might appeal to users to be able to use their existing postgres/oracle/mySQL/SQLServer/whatever database.

Going DBI (as opposed to creating your own stuff that wraps a XML parser/writer module) will also let you, if you choose, leverage an abstract layer like Class::DBI or DBIx::Class or others.

[barbie]

What benefits are there over Yet another Bulletin Board?

I've been using YaBB for The Scooter Do forums and it's been easy to install, set up and change the CSS and templates. It's written in Perl and doesn't require a DB backend either.

[DrHyde]

You've obviously never taken a good look at the source for YaBB! I have, and I'd rather catch syphilis than use it again. I have muttered about it at greater length elsewhere.

[jZed]

I don't know anything about YaBB, but I find your rant against it less than convincing. There are a number of modules (mine among them) which have horrible ugly, stupid, repetitive code in them. That doesn't *necessarily* mean that they don't mostly function as they should. Your rant was published almost 3 years ago and YaBB has aparently been a live project in that time ... I dunno if they improved the code you complained about, but they well might have. I also find your argument about using a usenetish approach rather than a web approach to be an example of "coder thinking about a non-coder issue". Yes, sure usenet can do anything web can do better ... technically. But that doesn't mean it's the same experience from the user's viewpoint. Anyway, nothing personal, your rant on your pet peeves just provoked this rant on my pet peeves. :-)

[serious_steven]

>>What benefits are there over Yet another Bulletin Board?

Well, I'm glad you mentioned that. I'd assumed YaBB was yet another PHP / MySQL system. I'll check it out and see what it has to offer. By the way, I don't have anything against SQL databases. I thought it would be a more interesting challenge to make the system self contained.

Steven.

[jZed]

As davidrw pointed out above the two things "using a db" and "make the system self contained" are not mutually exclusive. SQLite is self-contained in DBD::SQLite and doesn't require any extra installs though it does need to be compiled for the platform of choice. DBD::AnyData and its prereqs are pure-perl so don't require either compliation or installation of a separate db server. Both of those would allow you to distribute a self-contained, working package but also allow the user to opt to connect it to a separate standalone db server if desired.

[diotalevi]

What's to recommend it over phpBB?

[Anonymous Monk]

You mean YaBB?