Building Online Communities with phpBB 2 [Paperback]

Stoyan Stefanov (Author), Jeremy Rogers (Author), Mike Lothar (Author), Patrick O'Keefe (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2005

This book gives you the power to use phpBB to set up and run your own online discussion forums with ease, and develop your own Internet community. It takes you through the whole process of setting up your phpBB site, and helps you create, customize and manage your own online community with phpBB. Written by experienced phpBB administrators and enthusiasts, the emphasis is on simple, and practical guidance for you to get the most from phpBB. This book is written by phpBB enthusiasts for new and intermediate users. It's ideal if you are just starting with online communities and want a powerful and free tool, or if you've already started with phpBB and want to take it further. Anyone with a basic knowledge of HTML and a willingness to learn about phpBB will benefit from this book.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This book will give you the skills to set up your own phpBB-powered discussion forum and conline community:

- install and configure phpBB - manage topics, postings, smilies and users - understand themes and styles - customize your site - master forum permissions - create a your own phpBB themes - extend phpBB by creating your own mods - package and make your mods available to the community - custom programming for phpBB

About the Author

Jeremy Rogers has been developing web-based applications in PHP and other languages for a little more than six years. Shortly after discovering phpBB in early 2002 and deploying it on a video-game website, he began tinkering with and learning about the internal workings of the software. Since then, he has authored dozens of expansions and tutorials related to phpBB. Jeremy currently serves the phpBB community as a phpBBHacks.com Support Team member, a capacity in which he has answered thousands of questions regarding the software, its applications, and related topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (May 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904811132
• ISBN-13: 978-1904811138
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book for beginers and experts., July 6, 2005

By 

geocator - See all my reviews

This review is from: Building Online Communities with phpBB 2 (Paperback)

So I went ahead and got this book, just because I am a phpBB fiend. To be honest I was not expecting much out of it. I figured there is not much about phpBB you can write about. However I was pleasantly surprised. This book is a great resource for both the beginner and more advanced users. I learned a couple cool tricks that I did not know before.

For the beginner, it is a great step by step instruction on getting up and running, even explaining how to install MODs and templates. Many of the questions asked in the support forum at phpbb.com are answered in the book, there would be far fewer support posts if people read this book first.

For the more advanced user it is a great reference book. It contains everything you need to know for making a new template. It has a lot of great reference charts like what files do what, and the database structure. It also has a pretty good chapter on custom programing complete with references to many of the variables and functions phpBB makes available.

The only complaint I have is the price. But I feel all computer books are overpriced.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable resource to those building on line communities, December 7, 2005

By 

Nik Kapsomenakis "Internet Strategist" (Athens, Greece) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Online Communities with phpBB 2 (Paperback)

"Building on line Communities with phpBB2" is one of the few technical books on its kind that keeps up with what it promises. That is to offer "practical guidance for someone to get the most from phpBB".

The book provides practical examples and hands on advice on issues like installation and configuration, administration, development of themes and styles, creation of MOD's and more.

Beginners with basic technical knowledge will benefit the most since they will be able to start deploying their on line community after the first couple of chapters.

As a teacher and consultant to several businesses and organizations i have found this book to be a valuable resource to anyone aiming to build and grow an on line community

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a beginners book, January 14, 2006

By 

LeoinSA (San Antonio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Building Online Communities with phpBB 2 (Paperback)

The authors assume the reader has a fairly sophisticated level of general computer knowledge. If you are not comfortable roaming around the directory structure of your computer then this isn't for you.

After that caveat, the authors want you to also download and configure other [free] software that is not directly related to phpbb, but aids in the installation and management of phpbb. If there are problems with this software it is left to you to solve them using any available resources - usually FAQ's and other help files from whence the free software came.

As for the ease of use - The authors needed a good technical author and editor. There are assumptions made that you should know some piece of information that is either left out or glossed over in this text. In my experience, good, complete step-by-step procedures are always spelled out in detail in a beginners book. Not so here.

The index seems to be woefully lacking in detail. Major topics are covered, but you still have to search through individual pages on those topics to find esoteric specifics.

The above criticism notwithstanding, within two hours of the book's delivery I was able to troubleshoot and repair a nagging problem on the board I am setting up.

So the technical information is there, just do not expect this to be a beginners text. It ain't "phpBB for Dummies!"