First Take On phpBB 3.0 "Olympus"

Safin

Admin Control Panel 3 :

Another cool feature added in phpbb is the template caching system and better handling of themes. Plus the all important module support which holds great things as far as hacking community goes.

Styles

what refreshing change finally.

first and major thing is that there is support for template caching.. yay..now knowing vbulletin this is an awesome feature and removes the compile time performance impact. (apart from caching queries btw that support also has been added)

The template editing seems to be a breeze. quite a few options exist to integrate the code.
I am not going into much detail here cos if i do i guess thats the only thing i will write about. you can check more about the template engine from the official support site

Maintenance and system options

Some very good controls have been added in this section. Notably backup has been streamlined and search index spider tracking. Read More below.

Maintenance Options

logging options -> extensive logging options are shown on one click and i love them. there are separate options to show logs for users, admins, mods and an error log.

Backup and restore -> options to run a gzipped backup from within admincp and restore it exists. the interface is nice and easy(like everything

)options to store and download, store only or download only. (I am just impressed by the attention to detail here. There are somethings you realize once you use a software, phpbb has it from the start which is quite grt.

search index options exist to to build your backend index.

System options

First thing you notice..there are options to track search spiders. shows the last visit time plus it has settings to what to show to what spider. extremely good control options.

Then there is mass email option(per usergroup or per persons. I haven't been able to test it but i reckon html is not supported? (or is it?)
report manager exists for pre defining report post templates. a very nice feature this.

And finally the biggie,,, the module support. Making it easier to write modules and extend the features of phpbb. I see module approach being followed by almost all products coming out and is really grt to see it here also. Again i ahven't really tested it enough to comment anymore on it. It just looks good that its there.

My Take : Rating for these sections -> 8/10

bottle · #1 (**permalink**) By bottle on 22 Jun 06, 02:03 PM

interesting review.. its been ages since i last saw a forum on phpbb, they should jazz up the interface a bit though

Darthcoder · #2 (**permalink**) By Darthcoder on 22 Jun 06, 02:06 PM

Very detailed review safin..the save as draft feature for PMs is very good and so is the rerouting/holding option for PM inboxes which are full.

dipdude · #3 (**permalink**) By dipdude on 22 Jun 06, 07:22 PM

Comprehensive review SN, tough for newbies like me to follow

Looks like would be a boon to all looking for a free alternative to build there forums. Going by your first take they would not miss much from paid bulletin boards and as you said "Olympus" is only bound to get better.

Josh · #4 (**permalink**) By Josh on 22 Jun 06, 07:34 PM

Great Review Safin... I hope they have good smily packs... The one used on TE are free ?? or they come with VB license ??

Safin · #5 (**permalink**) By Safin on 22 Jun 06, 07:55 PM

no.. they have been taken from number of free sources

Josh · #6 (**permalink**) By Josh on 22 Jun 06, 08:17 PM

^^ care to elablorate on the free sources ?? I have seen lots of smily packs and most of the free ones are fugly... Hope telling the source does not compromise TE policy...

Safin · #7 (**permalink**) By Safin on 22 Jun 06, 08:36 PM

haha.. now its like 2 years back. i think i have forgotten the sources now. google is your friend.. search

Apex · #8 (**permalink**) By Apex on 22 Jun 06, 11:59 PM

nice preview safin..

phpbb3 is a lot improved frm its earlier version. infact, its like comparing day and night. phpbb3 is huge and has a lot of features. i have noticed a number of new security features which even vbulletin and ipb doesn't provide. for a free product its great.

i agree it won't ever be able to match vb or ipb in terms of features or regular development and we know why. those are paid products, they have paid employees while phpbb is coded by enthusiasts just for the sake of community. they get nothing in return except for appreciation. we'll have to give it to them for coming up with such a gem.

its rocks in every sense of the word and it will only improve from now on i hope. will always keep an eye on its development.

Justin™ · #9 (**permalink**) By Justin™ on 26 Jun 06, 07:40 PM

Nice review big bro...

Reps follow...

Quad Master · #10 (**permalink**) By Quad Master on 27 Jun 06, 01:17 AM

Gr8 Review there Safin

Repped ya and thread rated

phpbb has improved a lot and have used it for our college forums project with some mods and a variety of styles.

I still remember that i had to figure out how to add the attachment facility to the phpbb forums and now its integrated by default.

Would like to say a Big Thanks to all the guys working so hard on PHPBB.

These are gr8 set of features.

1. Attachment support
2. Caching support
3. Many new features in private messages and ability to save drafts of messages and posts
4. Huge management permissions to manage usergroups to users.
5. Report and warn system
6. Unlimited sub forums and custom profile fields. IM integration with jabber network
7. Mail print topics.

shirish · #11 (**permalink**) By shirish on 27 Jun 06, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh

^^ care to elablorate on the free sources ?? I have seen lots of smily packs and most of the free ones are fugly... Hope telling the source does not compromise TE policy...

Josh also use Google Image Search in your search thread.

@safin just one thing, have some bigger screenshots either in imageshack or somewhere else. I wasn't able to see lot of things clearly. Higher resolution & some scaling. There are some interesting things happening there. Cool man. repped u

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First Take On phpBB 3.0 "Olympus" Discussion under Reviews and Previews, part of the Work in Progress category on TechEnclave; Admin Control Panel 3 : Another cool feature added in phpbb is the template caching system and better handling of ...