IkonForums

Infobox Software
name = ikonForums



caption = A screen capture of the board in action.
author = ikonForums
developer = The IkonForums Team
latest_release_version = 1.0.1
latest_release_date = 16th May 2008
latest_preview_version =
latest_preview_date =
operating_system =
platform = Perl
genre = Discussion forum
license = ikonForums Public Licence
website = [http://www.ikonforums.com ikonForums.com]

IkonForums is a free online forum or Bulletin Board System developed in Perl for use on MySQL.

IkonForums History

IkonForums was conceived around April 2006 and is the concept of a group of volunteers formerly known as 'The Ikonboard Team'. After much discussion and for various reasons The Ikonboard Team decided to part company with Ikonboard and the Ikonboard project. [ [http://forums.ikonforums.com/index.cgi?act=ST;f=3;t=76 ikonForums background] ] . Out of respect for the Ikonboard Community, The Ikonboard Team presented a final update, publicly known as Ikonboard version 3.1.5, which consisted of a few bug fixes and security patch.

The IkonForums website went live on 10th September 2006. With close to a year in development, the first public Beta release occurred on 8th April 2007, [ [http://forums.ikonforums.com/index.cgi?act=ST;f=3;t=294 First beta release] ] followed by the first release candidate being made available on 8th September 2007. [IkonForums release candidate [http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40910 discussion topic] at TheAdminZone.com.] IkonForums 1.0.0 was release as stable on 1st January 2008.

On 8th January 2008 the (former) official German support site 'ikonboard.de - Reloaded' completed its transition in converting to IkonForums. Whilst still providing (German) Ikonboard support its main focuses is now with IkonForums. [ [http://www.ikonforums.de/cgi-bin/index.cgi?act=ST;f=7;t=1705;st=0#entry8946 IkonForums.de announcement] on its transition from 'Ikonboard.de - Reloaded' (post written in German).]

Version History

iF 1.0.0

IkonForums 1.0.0 was first released as a public beta on 8th April 2007. During early development it was originally referred to as 'Ikonboard 3.2' prior to the formal launch of ikonForums. The original plan was to release a public beta within a few weeks of the launch, however the forum software was developed further and major changes were made.

IkonForums 1.0.0 includes... [ [http://forums.ikonforums.com/index.cgi?act=ST;f=3;t=294 List of notable features] ]
* Serving XHTML 1.0 Strict DOCTYPE with CSS compliant web pages.including separate CSS for both Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7. tables are used for tabular data and not for styling purposes.
* ISIS (Intuitive Selective Interoperable Skins) - the IkonForums skin engine that allows for the creation of separate skin components and assigning selected components to form a new skin.
* Incorporation of a template system ensuring separation of HTML from Perl Source this allows for easier and more concise customization without the need to be a Perl master.
* AJAX implementation
** Quick Reply for instant posts while reducing server load.
** Quick View allows scanning the first post of Topics from Forum list.

* Supports mySQL databases (mySQL v:4.1 and up) using intelligent query methodology that ensures low server loads and quick response.
* Multi-lingual default language is English with the ability to translate into almost any language that utilizes the UTF-8 character set. Instead of textual image buttons for menus, all menus are raw text assigned though a language variable defined by the selected language package. For added visual clarity, small icons are used in conjunction with the text; these are optional and may be removed from source.
* Installation is quick and easy with the IkonForums intuitive Installer.

References

External links

* [http://www.ikonforums.com Official Website]
* [http://www.ikonforums.de Official German Support]
* [http://bugs.ikonforums.com Bug Tracker]