WBB Things that are great about WBB

[Mark.B]

I hear people saying how great Woltlab Burning Board is....but rarely does anyone elucidate about what these great things are.
I've only used it as an end user over on Gary's Site, so what are the 'great things' about WBB?

Off the top of my head, the ability to select and quote is good....it's the easiest way to quote anything in a forum really.

[Paul]

I've been spoiled by the way plugins/packages are installed with WBB. Everything is done from the ACP and it couldn't be easier.

[Mark.B]

I've been spoiled by the way plugins/packages are installed with WBB. Everything is done from the ACP and it couldn't be easier.

How is that actually done? Is it just plugins, or a sort of 'self install' thing, or does the admincp connect to some kind of repository?

I've not seen it documented what the system actually is.

[GTB]

I hear people saying how great Woltlab Burning Board is....but rarely does anyone elucidate about what these great things are.
I've only used it as an end user over on Gary's Site, so what are the 'great things' about WBB?

Off the top of my head, the ability to select and quote is good....it's the easiest way to quote anything in a forum really.

The quote select text tool is a godsend. It makes replying to others only quoting the text you want to reply on, an absolute breeze.

All forum software should use it now. I seldom even use any other method of quoting even there are more ways to use them in WBB. There's just no need really 99% of the time, text select tool deals with it all mostly.

PS: My spell checker in FireFox doesn't seem to work with this editor used here?

[Mark.B]

The quote select text tool is a godsend. It makes replying to others only quoting the text you want to reply on, an absolute breeze.

All forum software should use it now. I seldom even use any other method of quoting even there are more ways to use them in WBB. There's just no need really 99% of the time, text select tool deals with it all mostly.

PS: My spell checker in FireFox doesn't seem to work with this editor used here?

That's a CKEditor bug.

Good news is that the next version of vBulletin (5.2.1) included a newer version of CKEditor, which will hopefully fix this problem, along with some others (eg Edge browser compatibility).

[Paul]

How is that axtually done? Is it just plugins, or a sort of 'self install' thing, or does the admincpo connect to some kind of repository?

I've not seen it documented what the system actually is.

You can either download the plugin from any source and then upload it from your ACP, or you can do a search (I assume from Woltlab's repository) and install whichever search result you want. You can also do updates through the ACP, there is no need to upload files to your server.

[Mark.B]

You can either download the plugin from any source and then upload it from your ACP, or you can do a search (I assume from Woltlab's repository) and install whichever search result you want. You can also do updates through the ACP, there is no need to upload files to your server.

I guess this is similar then to plugin system used in vB3 / vB4. There are add ons that are simply XML files that are uploaded via the AdminCP, and no server files are required.

How does it work then if some additional php files ARE required? Surely there must be cases where additional files are needed.

[GTB]

How does it work then if some additional php files ARE required? Surely there must be cases where additional files are needed.

Mods are compressed as GZIP archive that contains everything in it, php files and everything else. If you have something like WinRAR installed (which I do have), you can extract the GZIP and take a look at what's in the archive, even edit some files and then recreate same GZIP again. You simply use Admin CP to import the GZIP archive and everything is extracted and installed. You don't upload anything via FTP for mods with WBB, there's no need for it and I don't even have an FTP program installed any more nowadays.

Even when you first install WBB as forum software, you upload a GZIP archive with one install.php file included. You run the install.php file and everything is extracted from the GZIP. All that can be done easy now uploading via cPanel File Manager without an FTP program now.

[Mark.B]

Mods are compressed as GZIP archive that contains everything in it, php files and everything else. If you have something like WinRAR installed (which I do have), you can extract the GZIP and take a look at what's in the archive, even edit some files and then recreate same GZIP again. You simply use Admin CP to import the GZIP archive and everything is extracted and installed. You don't upload anything via FTP for mods with WBB, there's no need for it and I don't even have an FTP program installed any more nowadays.

Even when you first install WBB as forum software, you upload a GZIP archive with one install.php file included. You run the install.php file and everything is extracted from the GZIP. All that can be done easy now uploading via cPanel File Manager without an FTP program now.

It certainly sounds a good way to do it.

Mind you, those of us who cut our teeth doing manual files edits for everything in early versions of vBulletin (up to and including 3.0), find anything above that to be the lap of luxury.....

[GTB]

Mind you, those of us who cut our teeth doing manual files edits for everything in early versions of vBulletin (up to and including 3.0), find anything above that to be the lap of luxury

Good times and learned a lot about changing vBulletin from making template edits, e.t.c. But them days are gone when things was far more simple to do, now with new frameworks being used... it isn't so easy to learn doing changes anymore, far more complicated even trying.

[Mark.B]

Good times and learned a lot about changing vBulletin from making template edits, e.t.c. But them days are gone when things was far more simple to do, now with new frameworks being used... it isn't so easy to learn doing changes anymore, far more complicated even trying.

I would not want to learn the code for any new software...vB4 is complex enough for me quite frankly. vB5 baffles me in terms of writing modifications. I never know where to even start.

[GTB]

Yes, they've become too complicated to mod yourself now. You need be a coder nowadays to do it

[Seddor]

The ease of plugins installation is one of the best things about it for me as well.

[milano]

I think WBB is very easy and that's the most important thing