Flarum - next-generation forum

[marcusquinn]

Just revisited Flarum - really is a nice forum to use, with some interesting extensions:

• https://flarum.org/scenario/flarum-as-helpdesk
• https://flarum.org/scenario/flarum-as-influencer-community
• https://flarum.org/scenario/flarum-as-web3-community
• https://flarum.org/extensions?tableSortColumn=downloads&tableSortDirection=desc

[marcusquinn]

Could be easier to manage, being php, too.

[humpty]

@marcusquinn I bet having the forum, ticketing, and knowledgebase all under one roof would streamline things for the staff. Asking folks to email support@ and then following up on the resolution is a time waster for everyone.

[marcusquinn]

@humptydumpty Perhaps. I don't know that anyone would want to go through migrating the Cloudron forum, as it works well enough, but I can see for new setups Flarum looks like a mature and considered platform, and likely will attract more Cloudron subscribers for having it.

[LoudLemur]

@marcusquinn said in Flarum - next-generation forum:

Perhaps. I don't know that anyone would want to go through migrating the Cloudron forum, as it works well enough, but I can see for new setups Flarum looks like a mature and considered platform, and likely will attract more Cloudron subscribers for having it.

[marcusquinn]

@LoudLemur From what I've seen, I think NodeBB, Discourse, and Flarum are all brilliant for their own reasons — so we live in amazing times to have all these options.

I think it always comes down to what features are important to the Admins.

Thankfully NodeBB is still super simple, and created a thriving Cloudron community there.

Flarum I think is also amazing, very aesthetically pleasing, and I'll always have a soft-spot for php-based apps.

TBH, if I were choosing for my own use, I think it would be difficult to beat Discourse for features and maturity, but Flarum certainly has a few things the other's don't, especially some of the nice looking plugins for things like Subscriptions and Private forum areas, which I haven't seen in NodeBB.

[TheMeerkat]

I would definitely like to advocate for Flarum's inclusion as well. For me, it fits a use case I don't think anything else included on Cloudron does.

[timconsidine]

@TheMeerkat did you upvote ?

[TheMeerkat]

@timconsidine I did, yes.

[gog122]

So will Flarum be added ?

[TheMeerkat]

@gog122 said in Flarum - next-generation forum:

So will Flarum be added ?

All you can do is upvote, express your interest, and pray to the Cloudron gods.

[robi]

@TheMeerkat You can do much more than that!

From sponsoring the packaging, having someone else package it, to getting it started by packaging it yourself.. there is a wide spectrum of options to moving the ball forward.

[simong]

@TheMeerkat @gog122 Flarum works on Cloudron with the LAMP App out of the box:

https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/13446/template-flarum-modern-fast-free-community-software

[jdaviescoates]

@simong said in Flarum - next-generation forum:

@gog122 Flarum works on Cloudron with the LAMP App out of the box.

1. Install LAMP
2. open the Terminal and enter this command:

composer create-project --no-interaction flarum/flarum:^1.8.0 /app/data/flarum && sed -i 's|/app/data/public|/app/data/flarum/public|g' /app/data/apache/app.conf && cd /app/data/flarum && composer require flarum/extension-manager:"*" && (read -p "Admin-User: " username && read -p "Admin-Password: " password && read -p "Admin-Email: " email && read -p "Forum-Name: " forum_title && php -r "file_put_contents('flarum-config.json', json_encode(['debug' => false, 'baseUrl' => 'https://' . getenv('CLOUDRON_APP_DOMAIN'), 'databaseConfiguration' => ['driver' => 'mysql', 'host' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_HOST'), 'port' => 3306, 'database' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_DATABASE'), 'username' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_USERNAME'), 'password' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_PASSWORD'), 'prefix' => ''], 'adminUser' => ['username' => '$username', 'password' => '$password', 'email' => '$email'], 'settings' => ['forum_title' => '$forum_title', 'mail_driver' => 'smtp', 'mail_host' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_SERVER'), 'mail_port' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_PORT'), 'mail_encryption' => '', 'mail_username' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_USERNAME'), 'mail_password' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD'), 'mail_from' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MAIL_FROM')]], JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));" && php flarum install --file=flarum-config.json && sed -i -e "s/'host' => '.*'/'host' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_HOST')/g" -e "s/'database' => '.*'/'database' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_DATABASE')/g" -e "s/'username' => '.*'/'username' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_USERNAME')/g" -e "s/'password' => '.*'/'password' => getenv('CLOUDRON_MYSQL_PASSWORD')/g" -e "s/'url' => '.*'/'url' => 'https:\/\/'.getenv('CLOUDRON_APP_DOMAIN')/g" config.php && rm flarum-config.json)

3. restart the app and open the website

Updates can be done via the Extension Manager in the Admin UI.

Nice, thanks!

Just for fun I thought I'd give that a try. It prompted me to set-up Admin user/ pw/ email and forum name, then I restarted and... it worked!

https://flarum.uniteddiversity.coop

I was able to register as a new user and login and start a discussion:

I'll delete this soon, but good to know it's that easy if I ever/ want or need one!

[robi]

@jdaviescoates is there a dark mode?

[jdaviescoates]

@robi doesn't look like it. Perhaps via extensions.

[robi]

@jdaviescoates It seems it does, it's just not obvious in Settings.

It's in the > Administration > Appearance menu

or

/admin#/appearance

[jdaviescoates]

@robi ah, I didn't even look in admin, assumed it'd be a user level setting

[joseph]

There's a write up on how to install it using the LAMP app here - https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/13446/template-flarum-modern-fast-free-community-software

[robi]

@joseph we know: https://forum.cloudron.io/post/103375