Website Software Status Discussion

[likwidtek]

So Tbone and I spoke about this offline and decided to create a thread about this to outline the problem, solution possibilities and to bring everyone in on it and talk about a possible game plan.

Problem:
The problem is first and foremost is security and updates, that is, our site is based on software called Postnuke(content management, login system) and PNphpBB2 (Forums); Both of which are sparsely supported and on their way to the graveyard.  Postnuke is now dead as of 2008 and is now forked over to a new piece of software called “Zikula”. We still however are running the old Postnuke version 0.764 which is no longer updated or supported.  The forum software is now called Zafenio and is also basically dead without updates.  Their website support forums haven’t had a post since May or something.   Needless to say it’s only a matter of time.

The reason why this is a problem is mostly because vulnerabilities and exploits are found all of the time.  Without a development team actively supporting the software it’s only a matter of time before we get hacked or taken over.  I’m not fear mongering, it’s just how it is.  Also as it is, we're unable to upgrade our forum software.  I feel we are way overdue for some up to date forum goodness.  With an upgrade we have have some nicer things like smartphone integration and better tracking of read and unread posts.  We've been fine for a while and chances are we’ll be fine for a while more.  Regardless, it’s not a matter of if we need to upgrade it’s a matter of when.  Which brings us to..

Solutions:
We have a few choices that I can think of.  Here are a few.  This is where we all can chip in though.  Post ideas or feedback to help this project along.

Code a content management and forum site from scratch.
Pros:  Can be anything we want it to be.  Infinite customization options.  Can fine tune the site to exactly what we want and need.
Cons:  A huge project.  Very difficult to do well.  No community support.  Few options for integrating other popular services. If only one person codes it we’re screwed without that person.  If we have a team of people working on it, very difficult to manage a team and not many people want to dedicate that much time on something like this.

Upgrade current site to Zikula
Pros:  Probably more support for specifically moving from postnuke to Zikula.  The behind the scenes stuff may be more comfortable for the web admins as it more than likely is very much like Postnuke.
Cons:  Not sure how much future support there will be for this product.  Not as popular and adopted as some other products out there.  Could run into this exact same problem soon.

Upgrade current site to (insert other CMS here)
Pros: Could future proof ourselves for a few years.  Will have more options for forum software ect.
Cons: Upgrade path may be more difficult.  Skinning the site might be more challenging.

Or.. we could wait it out and hope we’re good.

No matter the solution, I feel something should be done before launch of SWTOR.  Lithium of course is the webmaster and would more than likely be running this project.  I'm simply offering my assistance if need be.  I can take on as much or as little of this as needed.  No matter what, there should be at least a small team of people working on this.  People with web admin, html, php, css and graphics skills would be valuable.

[Tbone]

I would love to at least have an upgraded version of the site that has access to an evolving pool of mods and runs quicker. I like the format of Postnuke, as it is easy to add blocks of content.

Out of these options, I think we should maybe try to upgrade to the most recent version of Zikula and phpbb. This should allow us to keep most of our structure and layout, and I feel like there are steps on how to upgrade to it.

http://community.postnuke.com/index.php?module=Wiki&tag=UpgradingZikula764

and

http://code.zikula.org/core/wiki/downloads

I know we haven't done this before because Lithium was working on his own CMS but then got busy with school. Since that is no longer happening, we should at least look at upgrade options.

However, getting the recruitment challenge live is still our main focus for the moment!

[Tbone]

Oh, and I found an app called TouchBB that is supposed to work with phpbb2, but I can't get it to work with our forums at all, probably because of Postnuke getting in the way.

[Ghisteslwchlohm]

I use an app called 'Forums' for my itouch. It works well for everything in the forums. I don't know about other phone types however.

[Tbone]

Does that work for the FA forums? It's $3 and the reviews aren't very good.

[likwidtek]

If we could at least get it up to phpbb 3 it would work with tapatalk.  Tapatalk is hardcore amazing.

[Tbone]

Even if we updated the forums to phpbb3, I don't think it would be compatible with tapatalk since our forums uses the CMS login and permissions instead of phpbb.

[Adad]

since our forums uses the CMS login

Our forums use the CMS...

[Manic Velocity]

since our forums uses the CMS login

Our forums use the CMS... ;)

He's referring to the forums as a singular entity!

[Ghisteslwchlohm]

Yes, it does work with the FA forums, but i didn't pay anything for it. There must be a lite version of it. And works just like the website, but I don't know if that's what you want from an app.

[Tbone]

Downloaded Forums Lite. Doesn't work. Loads it exactly like Safari does rather than changing it to a more readable format. You sure it works for you, G? Or you just saying you can view the website using the app? If it works, it should look completely different than our website.

[Ghisteslwchlohm]

I guess it doesn't work then. I didn't know you wanted it to look different.

[likwidtek]

Bumping this for a more detailed discussion.  Any feedback?  So far Tbone's idea (the only contribution ) seems like a good one.

Are there people interested in assisting with this project?  What is Lithium's availability?  I can project manage this and assist Lithium if he needs any help.  If anyone else wants to project manage this that's fine too.  I'm simply offering my assistance if needed.  Tbone, any thoughts?

Best place to start, in my opinion, would be creating a snapshot mirror of the site in it's entirety, then applying to upgrades, documenting and testing.  If all goes well we could replicate the changes to the live site.  With this in mind should we host is somewhere else for testing?

With all upgrades, things change.  I can foresee a few issues:

-It's possible that customizations made to our postnuke site could break.
-Along with skins for the site and forums.

As far as I can tell we will more than likely need the aide of someone well versed in photoshop who understands our current visual identity in case we need to retool graphical elements, buttons etc.  We'd also need to assistance of someone well versed in CSS and PHP.  If one person can fill both shoes then great if not two seperate people will do.  The need for a CSS guru will help in tweaking or rewriting the themes for the CMS and forum and the PHP guru would be needed for modifying or fixing customizations to the CMS.  Neither of which would need to code anything from scratch, it would mostly be taking existing code and modifying it for our needs.

tl;dr:
Is Lithium available to spearhead this project?
How can likwidtek help?
Who is project managing?
Where to host the test site?
We need a Photoshop guru who is skilled enough with the FA graphical identity in case our theme breaks
We need a CSS guru to assist in tweaking the themes for phpbb and zikula
We need a PHP guru who can rework customizations if need be.  This may include some of our custom blocks.

[Tbone]

We're looking into Drupal, but if we go that direction, we'll lose any information we currently have n the forums.

[Manic Velocity]

We're looking into Drupal, but if we go that direction, we'll lose any information we currently have n the forums.

The 'randomness' thread is legendary and must not be lost.