PHP BB - PHP based Forum Management Software

   PHP BB is one of the leading PHP based software used to power several leading forums on the web. Though it can run on several databases, it is most commonly used on a LAMP platform i.e. Linux, Apache web server, MySQL database and PHP. The look and feel of the forum can be changed via "Styles". The detailed control panels enable us to configure and customise a wide array of settings.

Administration Control Panel of PHPBB

   As soon as we log in into the Administration Control Panel we can view a large array of settings. the main tabs are General Forum, Posting, Users and Groups, Permissions, Styles, Maintenance, System.
   Under the general tab besides some of the shortcuts provided to the important settings on the other tabs we have the board configuration. The settings here include file attachment settings, the board settings as shown in the screenshot below which allow us to set the time zone and date format, the board features where you can enable or disable several board features which include Private messaging, subscribing to topics, subscribing to forums, use of attachments in public and private messages BBCode, smilies and signatures usage. We can also enable or disable the automatic word censoring of posts and private messages.

   The Avatar settings, Private message settings, Post settings, Signature settings, and User registration settings are also available on this tab.

Forum Administration in PHPBB

   In PHPBB there are no categories. There are only forums and subforums. Each forum can consist of an unlimited number of sub-forums. Here you can manage all the forums, create new forums and subforums, set user and group permissions as well as assign moderators to each Forum. You can also block some or all users from posting to particular forums or subforums.

Posting, Users and Groups

   Under posting you can manage BBCodes which is a special implementation of HTML that determines how something is displayed. You can enter custom BB codes in this section.
   Topic icons and Smilies option enabe you to add and edit the existing smilies and icons. The Word censoring features enables us to specify the words that are to be censored as well as their replacement. Other important settings here are the Private message settings and the Attachment settings.
   Under Users and groups we can specify the permissions of existing groups and users as well as create new groups. You can edit and delete existing groups. You can also add or remove users from existing groups.

Permissions and Styles

   Under permissions we can set the permissions for various users and groups on a global and forum basis. We can also assign the moderators for the various forums.
   Under styles you can alter the look and feel of your PHPBB based forum.