Private Forum/API Capabilities?

[marknortham12]

Hi -

We're looking for private forum software to set up private student forums for each of the courses we will be offering online. It would need to be integrated with our php-based course delivery system. vBulletin looks like a good fit, but will likely require some customization and we're trying to get a feeling for *how much* customization vBulletin will need to address our basic requirements:

* Private forums so students in a forum cannot jump to other forums

* Ability to login directly to their course forum once they're already logged into our php course delivery system without having to enter username/pw credentials again. Expect this means ability via API to create new user accounts on the forum when a student signs up for a course, and the ability to login directly to a particular forum via API or php code from within our system so it's seamless for the user.

* Ability to designate a user as admin for a particular forum (such as an instructor) so that admin can login to the forum and administer posts as necessary - pruning, editing, etc.

* Ability for super-admin to have overall admin access to all forums - login for this user does not have to be linked to a course since the super-admin will have overall admin privileges for all private course forums

* No public signup, no public access at all (including search engines) to forums or posts

Thanks in advance for any information!

Best,

Mark Northam
Film Music Magazine

[nexialys]

1- each forum can require a member to be member of usergroup X to have any access, so you do not see the forums you do not have access to... default to vB

2- possible to redirect a user group when registering, depending on source url, so if they click on their course to register, they may be redirected to their specific forum based on that course. but this require some tweaks.

3- to be seemless login/redirect, you need to share the cookies and login detail, that's all... simple, default to vB with 2 lines tweak

4- moderators are designated by forum, and you can also assign super-mod level, and block that usergroup from the forums they do not have right to moderate... default in vB

5- super admin is already possible, settable in config.php... default to vB

6- until YOU put your site to any search engine, nobody can find your site. it's also a setting to deactivate access to the guests. default to vB

so basically, you are set for 75% of your requests, the other details need a coder...

[marknortham12]

Thanks for the quick reply, Nexialys! Based on the great reviews from many sources, we went ahead and purchased vB today.

Now my next question: how/where do I find a good coder for this?

Thanks,

Mark

[Justine]

I suggest taking a look at the demo before you purchase.
http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

take a look at forum creation/permissions process and usergroup creation/permissions process

[nexialys]

too late Justine... :)

@Mark, you can post in the Requests For Paid Services (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/forumdisplay.php?f=30) forum... read the stickies before posting.

[marknortham12]

Thanks very much for the info - just posted the request over on the paid mods board

Best,

Mark