[lemonoman]

The way the forums works...I assume it's a database, with some sort of software attached to it so that it's searchable, printable, all that kind of stuff.

I'm wondering if Mitch bought the software/database program, or whether he designed his own scripts, or both...

Mostly because I'd like to set something like this up for a private group of mine, a planning committee for an event and it's tough for us all to keep in contact.  The thing that sets this forum apart from others, in that respect, are the "Show unread posts since last visit" and "Show new replies to your posts" features.  I took them for granted when they appeared on the forum...and not a lot of other forums have them!

[Donaldson Tan]

the forum uses SMF (Simple Machine Forum). It is an open-source program.

you can download it at http://www.simplemachines.org/

SMF is based on MySQL and PHP.

There are many add-ons available for SMF.

To make SMF into full pledge portal program, install the tiny portal add-on from http://www.tinyportal.net

The tiny portal site is also its demo site.

if you just want a good internet content management software for internet publishing, mambo is a good choice. It is also open source. http://demo.mamboserver.com/ is the demonstration site, and mambo can be downloaded at http://www.mamboserver.com

[lemonoman]

Cool!

Thanks for the info!

[lemonoman]

One last question then....like I said, the feature that sets this apart from almost any other forum (and in my opinion, the best technical feature of the entire forum)...is the "Show unread posts since last visit" and "Show new replies since last visit".

Are those little goodies part of the Simple Machine Forum, the tinyportal thing, or are those add-ons that someone here designed?  I ask because they appeared fairly recently, not just since the start of the forum...

[Mitch]

SMF goodies

[Donaldson Tan]

SMF goodies

LOL. We use the latest versioin of SMF

[lemonoman]

Yup yup

Thanks

I just bought a laptop, and I'm wanting to reformat my desktop anyways.  I'm considering installing Apache, and of course this SMF thing that you guys use, and use my desktop computer as a small server...just to try out, and maybe, in the end, use for the private message board I talked about earlier.

I'll let you know how it goes when I get it all set up...but that could be a week from now, as I'm going to be presenting at a conference on Mass Spectrometry (obviously not a massive one, or undergrads wouldn't be presenting lol)...just a small thing to show off your research.

[Donaldson Tan]

Apache works on Windows XP.

The installation guide for windows is available here: http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-apache-windows.html

[lemonoman]

Good news!

Thanks to everyone who gave information; Mitch, and especially Geodome...

Tonight, on a Saturday night of all nights (friends were out of town), I installed Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Simple Machines Forum all on top of Windows XP.  And it works fabulously.

I'll have to beef up security, because Windows Sucks for that...or maybe even abandon windows and install Linux...hard to say

Thanks again, this has been an educational and thrilling adventure lol

Cheers 

[david]

Heyyyyy! I run on XP Pro. Dont' be dissin XP   

[Mitch]

Now if you install Enigma 2.0 (RC1) you'll have this exact portal.