Smf 2.0 Beta 4 - My review.

This is what I think of the new SMF 2.0 Beta 4.

SMF has always in my opinion the best free forum software and they continue to get better as time goes on and this time is no different. SMF 2.0 Beta 4 is a beta like it says but as far as I can tell it is stable and will be their last beta before going stable.

What is SMF?
SMF, or Simple Machines Forum, for those of you who don’t know is a free forum software. In my eyes it is one of the best forums there is. Here is a link to find out more:
http://simplemachines.org


What’s New?
There really isn’t a huge difference between 1.1.x and the new 2.0 besides a few new cool features and a slightly better admin panel. The admin panel is redone and some new stuff has been added. I also heard making modification is now easier to do. I don’t know how it could be easy other than maybe this means the codes is cleaner. I noticed a lot of new modification that are new and only for 2.0. To mention one YodaOfDarkness made a great reputation system that works great and I think should be made a built in feature.

What’s the Same?
The overall look of the forum and the things that a member sees is basically the same. I am kind of disappointed that they didn’t try to change the look. Yes I know you can use other themes but it takes work to make some themes work with some mods and I would have liked a better core /default theme. Overall this is the same forum that we all know and love with some tiny new things thrown in to make this a good update.

How does this compare to phpbb?
I think SMF was better that phpbb to begin with (but of course that is only my opinion, don’t want to start a war here) and now this update makes me believe this even more. I have been using both to see which one works the best with certain CMSs and I found that it took a lot of time and hacks/modification just to get some of the features that the SMF had.


Final Verdict?
This is a step forward for SMF. Although it doesn’t change much what it did change defiantly makes the forum better. If you have never owned a SMF forum before I suggest that once the final stable 2.0 release come out that you give it a try.

 

 

 

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You know, before this post I had never even heard of SMF. I had only heard of things like VBul, PhpBB, and one or two others.

What features does SMF have that are hard to get in phpBB?

I'm looking for a good forum base to use with Joomla, if there is one. So far everything I've researched in terms of getting phpbb3 to work in Joomla is trash. What about smf?

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There is a phpbb3 - Joomla1.5 Bridge
Read this : http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=21...0ffc96359be6765

 

 

 

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Yeah, I read about that but I think it's going to be another where the link in Joomla just opens up phpBB...What I'm looking for is like the internal phpBB2 that's in Php-nuke for example, where it will open on the right side of the screen, allowing you to still see the website's navigation bar and all on the left...

I guess it's easier to just show it.

www.test.takeover.trap17.com

If you go there and click on forums you'll see what I'm looking for. Sadly, that's just phpBB2, whereas I want 3.

Thanks again for your response.

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And what is Mourkain Temple ?

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Rpgsearcherz: from what I've heard about phpBB, there have been a lot of issues with security for quite a while. I'm not sure if the newest version has upped the security level (well, webapps can never really be all that secure, but still), so that can be debated. I have heard of smf, and I do believe it's better than phpBB (at least on the security level, but also in terms of code organization). However, I'm not sure the newest smf really merits a review (yet?) since it doesn't seem to be all that different than the old one.

And rpgsearcherz, to get that working, all you have to do is write your own skin for phpBB or whatever forum software you decide to use. Then just modify the code for phpBB slightly so that it inserts the menu on the left. Go look at the phpBB source code--it'll become a lot more obvious what to do then. Good luck!

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Never heard of SMF!! You should definatly give it a try. VBulliten is great but it costs more than it is better than SMF if that makes sence.

What feature does it have that SMF doesn't? It has better security from spam bots and such. I think it has a better admin panel and give more control to the admin where as phpbb in my opinion simplfies everything to make it easier for begining admins but at the same time gives the admin less options.

I am sorry to say that the bridge connecting Joomla and SMF has been dropped because of license issues. You can still use the Mambo bridge and SMF. Mambo in case you didn't know is basically the same thing as Joomal because they were made using the same code. If you go here: http://www.simplemachines.org/download/?bridges you can find the bridges that the people from SMF made. I think Mambo and SMF work well together.

Also if you deside just to use something a little simpler you could use SMF and TinyPortal. I am messing around with TinyPortal on my latest website and I'll tell you more about it later. So far it looks great because it is so simple yet with the right template/theme it looks great.



Does the brigde give you the opinion to wrap it? Make sure it is enable if so. Have you tried any of the JoomlaHacks.com bridges yet?

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I haven't tried using SMF yet, but I have downloaded it. PhpBB3 has a smoother feel and honestly, if there was the look of phpBB3 and all of the features and easy access SMF has, then that would be the perfect free forum. Hopefully SMF 2.0 is even better!

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