EZsite Forum – Developers Version

 

EZsite Forum – Developers Version has been redesigned for greater scalability and modification. It provides over 120 object methods that can be used in any asp file to build various types of forums and forum management systems. It’s basically a Forum Construction Kit that allows asp developers the flexibility and power to customize forums to their customer’s specifications. 

 

Since I receive many requests from customers for references to developers who can customize and implement EZsite Forum for them, I’m starting a Developer’s Reference List. If you would like to be listed as an EZsite Forum developer, please email me with your request.

 

To get a head start on becoming familiar with the new EZsite Forum – Developers Version design, this first version beta release is being provided to a subset of registered customers. You’ll need to register the two DLLs and establish an ODBC with the forum database. The next two sections (Components & Database) will describe how to do this. Once you have EZsite Forum – Developers Version ready to go, the StartExamples.asp file will allow you to select nine example forums and the forum management example.

 

You’ll find EZsite Forum – Developers Version to be very different from version 3. The forum processing has been placed within many low level methods, which can be called from any programming language supporting COM, like asp.

 

EZsite Forum methods don’t use any global variables, variables that hold state, the asp object, property procedures, Session variables, calls to other objects, or any other process that can affect scalability and speed. This move towards stateless components not only makes for speedier forums, but for the highest degree of flexibility - without writing the components yourself that is.

 

Because of the exposure of EZsite Forums 120+ methods, much of the forums visual control has moved to the asp page where the methods can be selected depending on how you want a forum to function and look. Example asp files have been pre-constructed. These example asp files can be modified or used as they are. Some of the examples simulate all of EZsite Forum version 3 features and can replace existing forums without visitors noticing the change. Others can have much of the asp code eliminated to create a specialized forum implementation with little complexity, picking and choosing just the features you want.

 

EZsite Forum does use it’s own transaction via ADO. ADO 2, or above, and the VB6 runtime files are the only support files you’ll need to have installed on your system to run EZsite Forum. If you receive an automation error message when calling a EZsite Forum method, your system probably lacks one of these support files. Most other errors are caused by not having the correct NT or IIS permissions on the component or database directories.

 

Components:

The Developers Version of EZsite Forum comes with two components, ForumManagement.dll and ForumDisplays.dll (, ForumManagementT.dll and ForumDisplaysT.dll for the trial versions). Although you may use both within the same asp page, you’ll find a general division between methods used for administrative management and the visitor forum interface.

 

Both components need to be registered on your system. You’ll need the VB6 runtime files on our system for the components to register and work. Here’s a short review on how to register these DLLs.

 

 

 

 

 

Then do the same for the ForumDisplays.dll component.

 

Database:

The EZsiteForumDE.mdb used with EZsite Forum – Developers Version is found in the Database directory. It retains the same tables as EZsite Forum 3 and adds many others. At this point in time no SQL Server script has been developed, but it’s high on my list.

 

Documentation:

You'll find documentation in the forum manager under the Properties and Method Docs selections.

 

Example Forums:

The most enlightening documentation is the asp forum example files. These files will show how to glue together many of the object methods to create various types of custom forums. You’ll find the asp forum example files in the Forums directory.