phpbb

align=center colspan=2\|*phpBB*
align=center colspan=2\|
style=width:80px\|Developer:	The phpBB Group
atest Release:	2.0.13 / February 27, 2005
elease Date:	December 16, 2000
latform:	PHP
a href="/encyclopedia/Software-genre" title="Software genre">Genre:	Discussion forum
a href="/encyclopedia/Software-license" title="Software license">License:	GPL

phpBB is a popular free and open source forum system using the PHP scripting language and a variety of database management systems including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Microsoft Access and, with modification, Oracle http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=556608. Besides the database support, some of phpBB's greatest advantages are:

A templating system designed with ease of use and rapid customisation in mind
Internationalisation support with 54 translations available at the time of writing. Supporters of phpBB may claim that phpBB has the most translations available of any web-based forum software.
Large community of users providing free support and modifications

Latest releases

1.4.x (obsolete) - 1.4.4: November 6, 2001
2.0.x (stable) - 2.0.13: February 27, 2005
3.0.x "Olympus" (development) (formerly 2.2.x http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=256072) - 2.1.2: August 27, 2003

See also: Software Development

History

phpBB was started by James Atkinson as a simple UBB-like forum for his own website on June 17, 2000. Nathan Codding and John Abela (both now former team members) joined the development team after phpBB went into SourceForge CVS, and work on 1.0.0 began. A fully-functional, pre-release version of phpBB was ready by July 1, 2000 http://forums.devshed.com/showthread.php?threadid=4914. phpBB 1.0.0 was released on December 16, 2000, with subsequent improvements to the 1.x codebase coming in two more major installments. (phpBB 1.2.0 was released on February 16, 2001 and 1.4.0 on April 25, 2001.) The final release in the 1.x line was phpBB 1.4.4, released on November 6, 2001. During the lifetime of the 1.x series, Bart van Bragt, Paul S. Owen (now co-project manager), Johnathan Haase (now a former team member) and Frank Feingold joined the team. phpBB 2.0.x was begun on February 17, 2001. It was developed entirely from scratch; the developer's ambitions for phpBB had outgrown the original codebase. Doug Kelly (now a former team member) joined the team shortly afterwards. After a year of development and extensive testing, phpBB 2.0.0, the "Super Furry" version, was released on April 4, 2002 (three days later than intended). The latest release in the 2.0.x line was 2.0.13 ("Beware of the furries" edition), on February 27, 2005. http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=265423 Releases in the 2.0.x line are now restricted to bug and security fixes, and 2.0.x is the only line for which support is currently given. See also: phpBB History (2000-2002)

Future

With the new 2.0.x codebase in a stable state, the development team, now including Ludovic Arnaud and Meik Sievertsen (now lead developer), have begun building upon and altering the codebase to produce "Olympus"; when it reaches production quality, it will be released as 3.0.0. The improvements in "Olympus" to date are comparable with the improvements between 1.4.x and 2.0.x. It was originally planned to be released as 2.2.0, however, in keeping with the Linux Kernel numbering scheme, because 2.1.x eliminated virtually all compatibility with the 2.0.x line, the version number for release was changed to 3.0.0.

Improvements due in 3.0.0

The "Olympus" codebase is now feature frozen, but the developers are prone to keep some features up their sleeves. However, an incomplete list of additional (over 2.0.x) features expected for the 3.0.0 release follows.