SharePoint Forum and SharePoint Forum Web Part

12 Aug 2008

UPDATE:
Please read the latest news about the Discussion Forum Web Part here:
https://zimmergren.net/tozit-sharepoint-discussion-forum-solution-for-wss-3-0-and-moss-2007-released-today/

A lot of people have been asking me about the Discussion Forum WebPart I’ve created for SharePoint (WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 alike, of course). Therefore, I decided to give you some update as to what’s going on.

Sneak peek

Following here, are some screenshots of the current layout of the Forum Web Part which people have been longing for.

Note (nice-to-have):

The Web Part is 100% compatible with any theme you choose. If you alter or change the current theme, the Web Part will play along nicely with those changes – as seen in the last screenshot!

Note: The following screenshot is using the built-in "Petal" theme, with no further modifications to the Web part

Features

Everything is based on generic SharePoint lists! No databases needed!
Also, the authentication for the forum relies on the authentication-method you’re using for your SharePoint installation. Hence you don’t need any additional configuration of the Forum Web Part. Just add it to your site and you’re done.

Forum, Thread and Post sections - Any number of forums can be created
Each forum can contain any number of threads
Each thread can contain any number of posts
Optimized for performance - Since a few upgrades in the underlying code, the Web Part now spins like a cat and have been tested for up to 120 000 posts in 10 forums and a huge amount of threads – no problem!
Breadcrumbs - [Home] – [Forum] – [Thread] – [Post]
Exist in the header and the footer
Stastistics - The footer on each page contains stats on the forums including - Total number of posts
Total number of threads
Total number of forums
Latest activity - Author
Date and Time
Thread (title with link)
Forum Management - Create, Edit and Manage existing forums, threads and posts as Administrator
Management-permissions can of course be given to anyone, using your default SharePoint Groups
Theming - The Web Part supports all built-in themes
The Web Part supports most custom-built themes, as long as you’re using the default css-classes