UPDATED 7/27/06: Future forum addon for sNews
I'm currently embarking on developing a forum addon for sNews (V1.4). My plan is a simple forum that will add a new function named forum into the existing snews.php file. It will also add a few other lines throughout the snews.php file. Forum settings will be set up in the s() function so far you can set the form name, description and link name. There is also a setting to turn it on or off. If "Yes", the forum link will appear in snews categories, if "No" the link will not appear & attempts to enter the forum by direct URL will be redirected to the home page.
So far adding this on will be a snap, just about 5 separate areas to add code. The forum function being quite large (edit: forum functions will now be contained in a separate forum.php file instead of in the snews.php file).
Right now, I have the database tables set up, though I'm sure that I'll need to tweek them a bit as I go. I've also set up the login/logout so that if you are the snews admin, you only need to log in once to have access to the snews admin menu and access to the forum. And if you log out, you're logged out of both the snews admin and the forum.
This is a work in progess. I'm doing this mainly just to do it. I've thought about doing this on a project discussed with some other members of the OWD forum (Ray and Stan). If you're interested in this forum and would like to help out: PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS. Though I'm doing this in my spare time (which isn't much), so I don't have time for coordination with others. Give me your ideas, thoughts....etc, but I can't make promises on what I will and will not do. Not trying to be a jerk. Just going at my own pace. When I'm ready to release this, I'll post about it at the solucija.com forum and have the kind folks there poke at it. They know this product better than anyone.
If you would like to log in the forum and take a look at the progress (not much to see right now). Feel free to click the "forum" link in the top menu and log in with the username/password: test.
UPDATE: 7/26/06
I've added the function to add a new topic today. Upon doing this, I realized that my code is a little messed up for displaying the latest post in the individual forums. I'll get that fixed soon. [fixed] I'll also be adding individual posting soon as well.[done] So far, I'm quite happy with how this is developing. Right now I'm just trying to get it working. Then I'll go back through my code & try to get rid of what I can.
UPDATE: 7/27/06
User registration is now up and running! The registration is set up to make sure all fields are filled out, verifies that the username has not been taken, makes sure that that password/conf pwd match, makes sure that the e-mail address is valid. Also verifies that the username or pwd are a min 6 4 characters. The minimum amount of characters can be customized.
Next up: User functions (editing posts[done], changing user info[done])
Back 
Jul 20, 2006
yeah, i think he is just trying to get it working right now then maybe it can be seperated 
go bob, go!!!
yugnats 
7/21/2006
Funny you say that....I actually moved all the content within my main forum() function to a file called forum.php
So my forum() function within the snews.php file looks like this:
function forum(){
include( 'forum.php' );
}
So the bulk of this code will be separated from the main snews engine. There will, however, be about 5 sections of code to add into the snew.php file. These are: (1)forum settings, (2)code to log you into the forum when you log in as snews admin, (3)code to add a forum link to categories, (4)a new case in the switch statement for the center() function and (5)the forum function above.
Bob 7/21/2006
It's looking good so far bob - don't mean to bug you and don't need a response - just a note of encouragement!
keyrocks 7/27/2006
Not bugging me at all and thanks for the encouragement. I guess I should rephrase the "PLEASE DO NOT ASK ABOUT IT AT THIS TIME". If people want to comment about the forum & give ideas, that's great. I encourage it. But I can't guarantee that I'll be acting on their wishes.
Again, thanks for the kind words. Please keep checking on the forum progress & let me know what you think.
Bob 7/27/2006
This looks good, it will be very useful to have a forum module specifically built for sNews.
Gomisan 7/27/2006
Good job ! I tested it and it looks very nice ! How will templating system be done ? simple css ?
iatbm 7/27/2006
Templating will be done with CSS. So you can make it look however you want. I'll fine tune that part of it a bit more after I'm finshed with getting the forum working correctly.
Bob 7/27/2006
you did a great job so far, bob
when you find some spare time, i would like to see those new forum sections for snews.php - there are some changes in 1.5 and i would like to check/avoid potential compatibility issues
mika 7/28/2006
Just to let you know that I'm following the progress here and I'm glad to help if you need it
Luka 8/15/2006
Thanks mika and Luka I'll be getting to you two soon with the code in snews.php.
guess I should update this entry with the latest....been almost a month.
edit: made a new entry here
Bob 8/21/2006
It might be wise to put your forum function(s) in a separate .php file - say forum.php - and use a php includes statement to merge it with the snews engine. I suggest this because it is wise to keep the snews core as un-modded as possible. As a separate file (module), we would then refer to it as an add-on feature. Just my thoughts on the approach before you get too deep into it.