phpBB – User and Group Administration


In our previous post, i have explained how to setup phpBB forum on your environment. Here we are going to see how to add user and group to the forum.

Please log in with the administrator username and password that you have set during installation process.

Once you logged in, click on Administratin Control Panel (ACL) link at the bottom of the forum page.

You will be asked to re-login with the forum administrator details, then click “Proceed to the ACP” button.

Click “Board Settings” on left side of the ACP page, here you can set general settings of your forum ie., Site Name, Description, Timezone. Once you done with the changes please click “Submit” button on ACP page to reflect the changes.

It’s very important to set the forum users register. Click “User registration settings” (below to Board Settings), in that page set the below settings for effective way.

Account activation: By Admin
Set Newly Registered users group to default: No
Password Complexity: Must contains letters and number
Force password change: 90days
Allow username changes: No
Allow e-mail address re-use: No
Login attempts per username: 4
Enable COPPA: No

Click “Submit” button to save the changed settings.

By clicking “USERS AND GROUPS” tab on forum, we can have an options to create, edit and delete users and group to the forum.

Click “Manage groups” on left side of ACP page, there you can see some pre-defined groups.

Enter your new group name and click “Submit” button, in that new screen enter what kind of permission you needed for group or this can be done by simply giving existing group permissions.

Click “Group forum permissions”, select your newly created group and click “Submint” button. Now select a forum (Press Crtl button for 2 or more forums) and click on the submit button next to it. In Setting Permission page, click on Advanced Permission link, you can set permission to the forum. Once everything done, click “Apply all permissions” button.

Click “Manage users” on left side of ACP page, enter the username and click submit button. Here you can see user level details on General settings. If you want more settings, select the form from dropdown button (upper right side of ACP page) and click Go.

There you can make the essentials changes according to your needs and click Submit button to complete the settings.

That’s it. Now all your changes have been reflected on your forum.

phpBB – A Complete Opensource Forum


–From Wiki–
phpBB is an Internet forum package written in the PHP scripting language. The name “phpBB” is an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board. phpBB is free and open source software.

Features of phpBB include support for multiple database engines (PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server), flat message structure (as opposed to threaded), hierarchical subforums, topic split/merge/lock, user groups, multiple attachments per post, full-text search, plugins and various notification options (e-mail, Jabber instant messaging, ATOM feeds).

Requirements:

phpBB3 has a few requirements which must be met before you are able to install and use it.
•A webserver or web hosting account running on any major Operating System with support for PHP
•A SQL database system, one of: •MySQL 3.23 or above (MySQLi supported)
•PostgreSQL 7.3+
•SQLite 2.8.2+
•Firebird 2.1+
•MS SQL Server 2000 or above (directly or via ODBC)
•Oracle

•PHP 4.3.3+ (>=4.3.3, >4.4.x, >5.x.x, >6.0-dev (compatible)) with support for the database you intend to use.
•getimagesize() function need to be enabled.
•These optional presence of the following modules within PHP will provide access to additional features, but they are not required. •zlib Compression support
•Remote FTP support
•XML support
•Imagemagick support
•GD Support

If your server does not meet the requirements above, phpBB3 is not for you.

Step 1: Installation

[root@server ~]# yum install mysql mysql-server httpd php php-mysql php-gd php-imap php-ldap php-odbc php-pear php-xml php-xmlrpc phpmyadmin
[root@server ~]# wget https://www.phpbb.com/files/release/phpBB-3.1.3.tar.bz2
[root@server ~]# tar -xvjf phpBB-3.1.3.tar.bz2
[root@server ~]# mv phpBB3 /var/www/html/
[root@server ~]# cd /var/www/html/
[root@server html]# mv phpBB3 forum

Step 2: Start Apache and Mysql

[root@server ~]# /etc/init.d/httpd start
[root@server ~]# chkconfig --level 35 httpd on
[root@server ~]# /etc/init.d/mysqld start
[root@server ~]# chkconfig --level mysqld on
[root@server ~]# mysql -u -p

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> create database phpbbdb;

mysql> grant all on phpbbdb.* to 'phpbbuser'@'localhost' identified by 'welcome';

mysql> flush privileges;

mysql> exit;

Now open web browser and type “http://localhost/forum or http://ipaddress/forum“, enter the below details to complete installation.

Database Type: mySQL with mySQLi Extention
Username : phpbbuser
Password : welcome
Database : phpbbdb
Database port:
Server/Host :
DB Prefix : phpbb_

Click “Proceed to next step“, now you should get “Successful Completion” message. In next screen you will ask to enter the admin details (Please give valid information).

If you didn’t get any error then your installation is successful, you are ready to play with phpBB. Thanks!