Mailing list combined with PHP based forum

[Dave M G]

PHP Users,

I'm creating a PHP based forum, and what I'd like to do is have it work
so that people can view and read the information via email, just like a
mailing list.

Yahoo! Groups does this, so I know this sort of thing is possible in
principle.

But so far as I can tell, open source PHP based forums, like phpBB and
Simple Machines, don't commonly have this feature. Perhaps it's not
possible with PHP?

I would imagine this is accomplished with a Cron job that checks an
email account and passes the messages to the PHP system for parsing into
the forum.

Can anyone start me off with some tips as to how, and if, this might be
possible?

Thanks for any advice or informaiton.

--
Dave M G
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
Kernel 2.6.17.7
Pentium D Dual Core Processor
PHP 5, MySQL 5, Apache 2

[Larry Garfield]

The closest I know of to that would be to use Drupal[1] with the Organic
Groups[2] module and the og2list[3] module. You also need an MTA, of course.

Disclaimer: I've not actually set up such a system. I've just seen it
discussed as a reasonable facsimile. See the Drupal Groups[4] site for
Organic Groups in action.

[1] http://drupal.org/
[2] http://drupal.org/project/og
[3] http://drupal.org/project/og2list
[4] http://groups.drupal.org/

--
Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42
la...@garfieldtech.com ICQ: 6817012

"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of
exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea,
which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to
himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession
of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas
Jefferson

[Børge Holen]

On Tuesday 16 January 2007 03:27, Dave M G wrote:
> PHP Users,
>
> I'm creating a PHP based forum, and what I'd like to do is have it work
> so that people can view and read the information via email, just like a
> mailing list

The mailing part just need some kind of user list... with particulary an email
address as part of the information information. Thereafter you just need to
make php send mail to all the users on the list.... with an option to choose
not to send to ignorant users ;)

>
> Yahoo! Groups does this, so I know this sort of thing is possible in
> principle.
>

Somewhere down here I get confused .... do you, as you said with the top
statement, just want to read and view? OR do you want the whole package?

> But so far as I can tell, open source PHP based forums, like phpBB and
> Simple Machines, don't commonly have this feature. Perhaps it's not
> possible with PHP?

Anyway... here is what we did to get the commodities to let a mail be included
on a webpage:

It is very possible, me and a friend, built a plugin system for Second Life;

Send information to a webpage with mail, of people loggin in on the webpage or
the game... we never got around to do the chat part cuz jabber server did the
job for us, witch integrated both the web and game cross chatting.
We did get the mail messaging working and recognizing ppl from game to the
webpage, all information was written to a user database. We had no intentions
of building a forum since live chat for 3g mobile phones was our goal, but a
forum sounds quite easy in comparison, at a first glance that is...

>
> I would imagine this is accomplished with a Cron job that checks an
> email account and passes the messages to the PHP system for parsing into
> the forum.

Could be, rather I think some engine like the jabber server would be to
prefer... Check out the 2.x branch.

>
> Can anyone start me off with some tips as to how, and if, this might be
> possible?

A cron would maby be easier to both work and not so tought on the hardware; it
would't be instant thou...

>
> Thanks for any advice or informaiton.
>
> --
> Dave M G
> Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
> Kernel 2.6.17.7
> Pentium D Dual Core Processor
> PHP 5, MySQL 5, Apache 2

--
---
Børge
Kennel Arivene
http://www.arivene.net
---