Hi,

I'm interested in designing an online message board where people can post and reply and have an interactive online network, much like gidforums. I've never done this before and have limited web design experience although am quite fluent in C/C++. I'm wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as to an online tutorial, or a book or something else so that I can learn the necessary steps to get started on this project. Thank you.

Paul

Is there a reason you want to code from scratch vs. using something pre-built, such as phpBB?

Also, C/C++ aren't the best languages to build web apps; it can be done but it's probably more pain than it's worth. Languages like Java, Ruby (on Rails), PHP, and Python (via Django or TurboGears) are probably a better pick.

Hey,

I've never used phpBB before, but I'd want to use this forum for part of a potential online business and don't want to worry about copyright protection related issues. I've been planning on learning ruby on rails and thus this could be an option for me.

Assuming I use ROR, from here is there an efficient way to create a forum?

phpBB is free and open-sourced so don't worry about copyright issues. You can also go to www.hotscripts.com and see if there is anything similar to what you're looking for.

That said, I haven't learned RoR yet (though I am interested in it) so I can't tell you how to create a forum. I'm sure you can find some tutorials or a Ruby mailgroup/forum that could help you out more. If the docs for Ruby are similar to Django, then part of the tutorial should talk about making a simple discussion page.

Basically you want to create a database that will store the message posts and create a frontend for the user (I know, pretty obvious).

If you're still intent on makin your own, it would probably be easier to look at the source code of a pre-done forum (like phpBB) and make a flow chart of how it operates. Even a simple should give you enough of an idea to start with.