Jforum Tips

posted 9 years ago

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Supplementing the official manual, some members have been writing extra documentation and tips.

Initial considerations

What's up with the different JForum versions?

Which JDK and database implementation should I use for JForum ?

So JavaRanch is written in JForum? Yes, see JForumFaq

Two notes:

When running on OpenJDK, the JCaptcha.jar needs replacing, or CAPTCHA-based views and operations will fail. See the post on JCaptcha needs patching

Which database should I use? HSQLDB is provided for assessment (and, as an embedded database, needs no installation). A standalone DB is recommended for production, though - most databases with a JDBC driver will work; see the link above.

Using Eclipse

The following notes and links are for those interested in developing JForum code within the Eclipse IDE.

If some help or a reminder is needed, this external Apache/Tomcat tutorial is a good start.

Please note: for all installations of JForum on Eclipse, Manual configuration of JForum is recommended.

JForum can appear to work in Eclipse without any setup, or after use of the installer, but this will cause problems later. For further Eclipse quirks, and the original post on database behaviour in Eclipse, see,

Tips for running Eclipse and Tomcat

Using JForum as intended

On both the original site, and the JForum2 bugfix site, JForum is supplied as a pre-compiled binary download. Like other advanced forum softwares, JForum is a specialised CMS, and can be configured and templated without touching source.

The two sites differ in their binary publishing - the original JForum supplies a .jar, the Google-based JForum2 supplies .wars. The following may be of interest to users of Eclipse and other IDEs also,

Using JForum in Eclipse via .jar binaries

Using JForum source in Eclipse

If the intention is to make internal changes, or contribute to a JForum codebase, source code will need to be imported into Eclipse. Here is a post based on the Google-based JForum2 recommended method (which uses a svn download),

Google-based JForum2 source code setup in Eclipse

If source is required for internal modifications, but not contributions, here is a clean, fast way to import source code into Eclipse,

Hacky, fast, way to import Google-based JForum2 source code into Eclipse

Working with JForum configuration

JForum has an extended, well-developed configuration system.The system listens to configuration files for changes, for example, so there is no need to recompile or reload servers. For a fuller list of features, see About the features of the JForum configuration system

The 'forum.link' property, scope and usage

Theming Howtos and notes

How to change the theme for the admin UI

Some notes on theming JForum

Placing a Favicon

Working with JForum structure

Persistence of the upload/ folder for attachments - and a Howto

Help and examples on setting up email

From the maintainer of Google JForum2,

Theming and SSO

Hacking JForum

For special features, source is easy to hack. Here are two features added by members,

Setting custom configuration variables