phpBB3¶
Overview¶
phpBB is a free PHP-based forum.
Dependencies¶
phpBB3 requires PHP installed in your web server. Apache has mod_php
, NGINX requires php-fpm
. See the official guide for PHP package requirements.
Prepare Your Settings¶
In your auth project’s settings file, do the following:
- Add
'allianceauth.services.modules.phpbb3',
to yourINSTALLED_APPS
list - Append the following to the bottom of the settings file:
# PHPBB3 Configuration
PHPBB3_URL = ''
DATABASES['phpbb3'] = {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
'NAME': 'alliance_forum',
'USER': 'allianceserver-phpbb3',
'PASSWORD': 'password',
'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
'PORT': '3306',
}
Setup¶
Prepare the Database¶
Create a database to install phpBB3 in.
mysql -u root -p
create database alliance_forum;
grant all privileges on alliance_forum . * to 'allianceserver'@'localhost';
exit;
Edit your auth project’s settings file and fill out the DATABASES['phpbb3']
part.
Download phpBB3¶
phpBB3 is available as a zip from their website. Navigate to the website’s downloads section using your PC browser and copy the URL for the latest version zip.
In the console, navigate to your user’s home directory: cd ~
Now download using wget, replacing the URL with the URL for the package you just retrieved
wget https://www.phpbb.com/files/release/phpBB-3.2.2.zip
This needs to be unpackaged. Unzip it, replacing the file name with that of the file you just downloaded
unzip phpBB-3.2.2.zip
Now we need to move this to our web directory. Usually /var/www/forums
.
mv phpBB3 /var/www/forums
The web server needs read/write permission to this folder
Apache: chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/forums
Nginx: chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/forums
Tip
Nginx: Some distributions use the www-data:www-data
user:group instead of nginx:nginx
. If you run into problems with permissions try it instead.
Configuring Web Server¶
You will need to configure you web server to serve PHPBB3 before proceeding with installation.
A minimal Apache config file might look like:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName forums.example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/forums
<Directory /var/www/forums>
Require all granted
DirectoryIndex index.php
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
A minimal Nginx config file might look like:
server {
listen 80;
server_name forums.example.com;
root /var/www/forums;
index index.php;
access_log /var/logs/forums.access.log;
location ~ /(config\.php|common\.php|cache|files|images/avatars/upload|includes|store) {
deny all;
return 403;
}
location ~* \.(gif|jpe?g|png|css)$ {
expires 30d;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri =404;
fastcgi_pass unix:/tmp/php.socket;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
Enter your forum’s web address as the PHPBB3_URL
setting in your auth project’s settings file.
Web Install¶
Navigate to your forums web address where you will be presented with an installer.
Click on the Install
tab.
All the requirements should be met. Press Start Install
.
Under Database Settings, set the following:
- Database Type is
MySQL
- Database Server Hostname is
127.0.0.1
- Database Server Port is left blank
- Database Name is
alliance_forum
- Database Username is your auth MySQL user, usually
allianceserver
- Database Password is this user’s password
If you use a table prefix other than the standard phpbb_
you need to add an additional setting to your auth project’s settings file, PHPBB3_TABLE_PREFIX = ''
, and enter the prefix.
You should see Successful Connection
and proceed.
Enter administrator credentials on the next page.
Everything from here should be intuitive.
phpBB will then write its own config file.
Open the Forums¶
Before users can see the forums, we need to remove the install directory
rm -rf /var/www/forums/install
Enabling Avatars¶
AllianceAuth sets user avatars to their character portrait when the account is created or password reset. We need to allow external URLs for avatars for them to behave properly. Navigate to the admin control panel for phpbb3, and under the General
tab, along the left navigation bar beneath Board Configuration
, select Avatar Settings
. Set Enable Remote Avatars
to Yes
and then Submit
.
You can allow members to overwrite the portrait with a custom image if desired. Navigate to Users and Groups
, Group Permissions
, select the appropriate group (usually Member
if you want everyone to have this ability), expand Advanced Permissions
, under the Profile
tab, set Can Change Avatars
to Yes
, and press Apply Permissions
.
Setting the default theme¶
Users generated via Alliance Auth do not have a default theme set. You will need to set this on the phpbb_users table in SQL
mysql -u root -p
use alliance_forum;
alter table phpbb_users change user_style user_style int not null default 1
If you would like to use a theme that is NOT prosilver or theme “1”. You will need to deactivate prosilver, this will then fall over to the set forum wide default.
Prepare Auth¶
Once settings have been configured, run migrations and restart Gunicorn and Celery.