XMB Forum Software

XMB 2?

vanderaj - 9-18-2022 at 11:22 AM

Hi folks,

Long time no chat. I finally had to make my forum PHP 8.x compatible, and it seems that you solved many of the same issues I had to solve.

I was thinking about porting / re-writing in Laravel, or even going the whole hog and making it a Vue or Angular app with a Go back end.

The tabular nature of the forum needs to be changed to CSS components, so I'm leaning towards a complete re-write. However, this is way too much for me right now.

Any thoughts on where you wanted to take XMB 2?

lottos - 9-19-2022 at 03:54 AM

Not quite what you were after, but an xmb forum (bigfishgaming, now offline) made mods to mainly templates to have their forum utilise bootstrap, which really made it mobile friendly and gave it a whole new look.

See https://web.archive.org/web/20211220000703/https://bigfish-g...

u2u /dm/pm me if you would like some more info.

vanderaj - 9-19-2022 at 12:53 PM

It's not really about the look-n-feel, it's about the fact that the code is an awful mess and fairly unstructured and different from file to file. It barely hangs on during each and every major PHP release. I think it's time for a re-write. However, if there's limited time availability amongst say four or five of us, then it's not realistic to even contemplate. I wonder if working together with prior forks of XMB and forums with a similar nature to XMB, we might get enough devs together to make it possible. e.g. MyBB, OpenBB, FluxBB, punBB, phpBB, John's UltimaBB (which is where GaiaBB came from after John and I fell out due to my depression and lack of time).

I think if the back end was modular enough to cope with multiple needs, and the front end modular enough to allow differences, it might be possible to get more developers on board. Just thinking about how long it took the phpBB 3.x folks to get that out the door during a time when they had a lot more devs than we ever did gives me pause for concern.

To be clear, I'm not looking for a 1:1 conversion of all features. GaiaBB has too many features, and it would be nice to rethink them thoroughly, such as click to edit posts, just one version of each feature (i.e. just quick reply / quote), and so on.

vanderaj - 9-19-2022 at 01:25 PM

An architecture that I think might work for a while longer is:

Laravel - PHP based, so we can re-use some code, but accessed via web services. This would be the same for all front end implementations

Vue, React, or Angular front end ...

- Reference implementation for XMB with theming
- MyBB, etc could modify the reference implementation to make it more like what they have today

I'm not wedded to any particular front end framework, as I'm not a front end dev. I'd prefer we had consensus on it, but I think a key attribute must be e2e test-ability.

Thoughts welcome. Obviously, we would need to go around to other forums and ask if they are interested.

lottos - 9-20-2022 at 12:06 AM

Being realistic:

- the mainstay xmb developer and maintainer has already signaled no further main releases so I reckon he's out
- doubtful any other forked projects devs would come at it
- some recent forum admins have promised much, delivered nix
- given the time that would be required, even getting 3 people on board would surprise

AlwaysLosingPasswords - 2-8-2023 at 03:46 AM

I have a fully Bootstraperized version based on BFG, with about 8 months worth of updates and code changes.

Here is a current snapshot of the dev server's environment:

Windows x64
Server: localhost via TCP/IP
Server type: MySQL
Server version: 8.0.31 - MySQL Community Server - GPL
Server charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8mb4)
Web server
Database client version: libmysql - mysqlnd 8.1.11
PHP extension: mysqli Documentation curl Documentation mbstring Documentation
PHP version: 8.1.11

There are no major changes to the DB, beyond the charset, so I am fairly confident an upgrade script would work.

There are a few major issues:

1) Inline moderation system
2) Inline editing and replies
3) Lost password has been a rough obstacle. Everytime I start working on it, I end up leaving it and moving to another part of the code

lottos - 3-7-2023 at 11:39 PM

Quote: Originally posted by AlwaysLosingPasswords  
I have a fully Bootstraperized version based on BFG, with about 8 months worth of updates and code changes.

Here is a current snapshot of the dev server's environment:

Windows x64
Server: localhost via TCP/IP
Server type: MySQL
Server version: 8.0.31 - MySQL Community Server - GPL
Server charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8mb4)
Web server
Database client version: libmysql - mysqlnd 8.1.11
PHP extension: mysqli Documentation curl Documentation mbstring Documentation
PHP version: 8.1.11

There are no major changes to the DB, beyond the charset, so I am fairly confident an upgrade script would work.

There are a few major issues:

1) Inline moderation system
2) Inline editing and replies
3) Lost password has been a rough obstacle. Everytime I start working on it, I end up leaving it and moving to another part of the code


Is 3 an issue with existing functionality or is it due to adding rate limiting?

AlwaysLosingPasswords - 3-9-2023 at 04:32 PM

lottos, definitely rate limiting! I am having trouble devising a way to prevent the feature from being used as a vector for denial of service for an account. :)

AlwaysLosingPasswords - 3-9-2023 at 04:40 PM

Also have been trying to come up with alternative ways to interact with the data. Although the tried and true category/forum based architecture works (and works well), here is something I designed for members of Paranormal Quest (youtube: @ParanormalQuest):

MYPQ.png - 97kB

It is just another way to enable members to engage with the brand more effectively! In this case, members can subscribe to forums (within a specific category) and data from those forums are fused into the output shown above.

I will never understand why, but these days it seems most members are using mobile devices. So re-working everything with a mobile-first emphasis has been a huge PITA. To me, using a mobile device over a full featured computer is like wearing a blindfold and tying both arms behind your back. Getting beyond my own personal preference has been a tough one!

Everyone loves XMB 1.9.12, and it was selected by the site ownership for a variety of reasons:

-The function/form is cleaner than any other option available
-I intimately understand its codebase and can create better customizations
-They just liked it better

We also had a focus group from the Youtube channel assisting with initial selection of forum software. I didn't make my preference for XMB known, I didn't want to unduly influence them, yet XMB was the choice!

We evaluated XenForo, InVision, VBulletin and MyBB in addition to XMB.

I haven't been doing terribly bad on the UI design, but that is something I seriously lack skills/knowledge in. Without bootstrap, I would be up the creek without a paddle. :lol:

InVision was described as far too complex - especially at the Admin CP level.
VB was shot down because it was too "gimmicky" (in their words)
XenForo seemed generic and bland
MyBB was a close runner-up

miqrogroove - 7-15-2023 at 11:42 AM

Laravel is a weird thing. Last project that needed a framework, I decided to learn Symfony and was happy with that one so far.

Working on PHP 8.2 compatibility for XMB today. Need to upgrade the Mantis and MediaWiki sites here. Doing these things out of necessity, then I have to move on to other projects.

Mouser - 7-19-2023 at 10:53 PM

It has been a very long time for me ... Someone once started on an alpha/beta of a v2. But don't think that took off as wished.

When I started writing hacks in 2005 and the years after, I was in college. Now work takes up most of my time.

If you want to build something for yourself, and share it ... Go ahead. But I think as you've seen by the lack of response, probably it'd be a one man show.