taskforcedev/laravel-forum

A forum module for Laravel 5 websites.

Laravel Forum

A drop-in forum module for Laravel 5., _(*1)

Code Style: , _(*2)

Integration Testing:, _(*3)

Laravel 5.3: , _(*4)

Requirements

• Laravel 5.2+
• jQuery is currently required for forum moderation features (lock/sticky).

What this package provides

• Fully Functional Forum (/forum)

• Admin Interface (/admin/forums), _(*5)

• Database Tables, _(*6)

  • forums
  • forum_posts
  • forum_categories
  • forum_post_replies

Installation

Step 1: Add the following package to your composer.json require (if not already present).

Laravel 5.2:, _(*7)

require {
  "taskforcedev/laravel-forum": "1.0.2"
}

Laravel 5.3+:, _(*8)

require {
    "taskforcedev/laravel-forum": "dev-master"
}

In development (steps for 5.0-5.2 may work as long as you dont require a package requiring the newer laravel-support package)., _(*9)

Step 2: Run composer update

composer update

Step 3: Add the following service provider(s) to config/app.php (if not already present)

'providers' => [
    Taskforcedev\LaravelSupport\ServiceProvider::class,
    Taskforcedev\LaravelForum\ServiceProvider::class,
]

Step 4: Migrate

Run the migrations, _(*10)

php artisan migrate

Step 5: Publish Config.

If you haven't previously published the config from the LaravelSupport package please do this also with the following command:, _(*11)

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="taskforce-support"

Step 6: Edit config.

If you haven't previously edited the config/taskforce-support.php file please add your sites details into this., _(*12)

'layout' => 'layouts.master',
'sitename' => 'Your Site Name',

Usage

Once you have done the installation steps above in order to setup the forums for public use you must first create at least one category and a forum, you do this by visiting, _(*13)

/admin/forums

Once you have done this you can add the link to /forum into your sites navigation as you please., _(*14)

Administration / Moderation

In order to provide administrators access to add/edit/manage the forums we use laravel policies., _(*15)

The following must return true for a user to be able to visit the admin section:, _(*16)

$user->can('create', Forum::class);

We recommended you have a policy which proves a user has administration powers on your application:, _(*17)

see: https://laravel.com/docs/5.3/authorization#creating-policies, _(*18)

Then you can add the following to your app/Providers/AuthServiceProvider.php file, _(*19)

use Taskforcedev\LaravelForum\Models\Forum;
use Taskforcedev\LaravelForum\Models\ForumCategory;

Then apply your admin policy to each of the models [example:], _(*20)

protected $policies = [
    ...

    Forum::class => AdminPolicy::class,
    ForumCategory::class => AdminPolicy::class,
];

As it stands any authenticated user is able to post or reply in any forum., _(*21)

Events

The following events are fired within the package and can be listened for in your main application., _(*22)

• Taskforcedev\LaravelForum\Events\PostCreated
• Taskforcedev\LaravelForum\Events\PostReply

Contributing / Feedback

• We welcome any pull requests, please ensure code is to the PSR-2 Standard.
• We check github issues frequently so please feel free to raise any comments or feedback there.

Versioning

Version 1.* follows the semantic version numbering system., _(*23)

Future versions will use the laravel major and minor version numbers followed by release number., _(*24)