Customization & which package to purchase?

[Nod]

Hi,
I am trying to determine whether the forum component of vBulletin will fit my needs, and have some general questions about the suitbility of the forum for customization.

I am looking for discussion forum software I can customize for use in my PhD studies in education.

I am collecting data on argumentation in online education and need a customizable forum software (trying to avoid writing my own or packages that would require extensive hacking - i.e. I need an API or at least well documented system ) that will allow me to structure discussion activities for students. What I need specifically:

1. Hierarchically threaded discussion forum. (looks like vBulletin forum satisfies this...)

2. ability to restrict replies. To impose an argumentation structure on a threaded forum, I need to be able to create types of replies to an initial posting. In turn some types of replies may be replied to and some may not. Essentially I want to create place holders for a tree like structure of a thread, with each node in the tree representing a reply type. Some nodes allow futher replies, and some do not. (the tree structure is could be kept in a metadata structure attached to each the thread, and reply types could be effected CSS class designations or some other mechanism. The reply button would be enabled or disabled based on the metadata and some included logic)

3. #2 needs to be configurable - that is, I anticipate coding a instructor control panel to set up the business logic of reply types and links between reply types for a given thread (or on a per forum basis?)

4. Students need to access the forum activities I create so that it looks like they are within my university's LMS (Sakai) and I don't want them to have to log into a separate system (though I could live with that). Ideally authentication would be integrated somehow.

5. Some way of easily getting text exports of discussion forum activity for analysis.

All of this was doable in Google Wave and I was gearing up to do it, but suddenly Google is pulling the plug. So I am left looking for other options.

Will vBulletin be able to accommodate my customization needs reasonably (has a documented API), or will I need to do extensive hacking of the underlying system? (If I have to do extensive rewrites without documentation, I might as well go some of the other free forum software and hack and slash my way through...vBulletin is expensive for my budget as a grad student, so I need to know up front if it provides advantages for my purposes)

If vBulletin is suitable, which product to I need to purchase? (again, all I need is the forum software)

Thank you for any help or insights on what I would be up against if I go with vBulletin, and generally how difficult this might be (I have extensive programming / web design experience).

Gordon

[Marco van Herwaarden]

1. vBulletin by default also allows for a threaded mode.

2/3. This would need a modification. You might be able to use vBulletin Project Tools Open Source as a starting point.

4. Not really sure what you want to implement, but it is possible to use the vBulletin authentication/permission system on external php-pages. Although less common it is also possible to use an external authentication for vBulletin, but that would also require custom coding.

5. All data is stored in a MySQL database and can be used in queries.

vBulletin comes with a plugin system which makes it easier to extend/modify default features/behaviour without the need to edit source files of the core product. See also Plugin System

You would probably have no need for a CMS, so the forum only product should be the ebst license type for you.

[Nod]

thank you so much, Marco, for the link. Does that documentation also apply to the forum, or is it mostly about the CMS?

I was under the impression that plugins where all about the CMS...

I've been scoping out a strategy my idea's design, and one thing I will need to do is slip my own CSS class names into the DIVs that contain each post/reply. Is it easy to discern where in the code I will need to make these types of changes?

How detailed is the documentation about the DB structures for the forum? (I'm not sure where to start looking in the link you posted...)

[Marco van Herwaarden]

The plugin system was developed long before the CMS was created and it will work in the forum product.

About your CSS class that should be doable, but i am not a designer and others might be able to better answer that question.

The database structure is not really well documented, but mostly self-explaining.