Welcome to the 8th release of OvBB, the open source bulletin board system that aims to mimic vBulletin 2.x.x in both look and behavior. In this version we've added Polling, improved several key components, and corrected several bugs throughout the system. Check out changelog.html for an incomplete list of the differences from V0.07a.
After V0.10a is released, I plan to redesign the entire forum system from the ground up. A public hiatus is to be expected but when the project is back and rolling, it will be a whole lot better. I'm just giving everyone a heads up now.
You need these two things to install OvBB:
Additionally, if you want to use the Image Verification feature in the registration of new users, you'll need to have the GD Graphics Library and the FreeType Library installed and configured on your server.
First off, if you don't have (access to) a database on a MySQL server already, you need to get one. I'll wait while you do that... Ready? Great, let's move on.
You should now be able to view your forums by simply typing in the public address of the location to which you uploaded OvBB. From there, you can register, post, edit, etc.
There is no Moderator Control Panel or Administrator Control Panel yet, but the system does utilize usergroups and permissions. You might want to change the contents of the usergroup
field for your member
record to that of the Administrator usergroup (3 by default; see the usergroups.inc.php file).
First, upload the contents of the entire /upload directory (and sub-directories) to the location of your OvBB installation, overwriting files as needed. Remember to backup any files in your /includes directory before overwriting them with the new versions, and don't forget to replace the dummy connection values in the new db.inc.php file with your actual database connection information.
Next, execute the following SQL commands on your OvBB database:
ALTER TABLE member ADD lastrequest mediumtext; ALTER TABLE session ADD lastrequest mediumtext; ALTER TABLE thread ADD poll tinyint(1) unsigned default NULL; ALTER TABLE pm DROP COLUMN datetime; ALTER TABLE pm ADD datetime int(10) default NULL; CREATE TABLE poll ( id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', datetime int(10) default NULL, question varchar(255) default NULL, answers text, multiplechoices tinyint(1) unsigned default NULL, timeout smallint(5) unsigned default NULL, PRIMARY KEY (id) ); CREATE TABLE pollvote ( id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, parent int(10) unsigned default NULL, owner int(10) unsigned default NULL, vote int(10) unsigned default NULL, votedate int(10) unsigned default NULL, PRIMARY KEY (id) );
After you've done that, your forums should be successfully upgraded to V0.08a.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, you can e-mail me at jon@ovbb.org or check out the OvBB forums at http://www.ovbb.org/forums/.