nextBBS is an open-source Internet forum system written in PHP.

Features:

Easy Install
A unique 'bootstrap', per-board and extremely light configuration mechanism lets you setup a board in less than 1 minute. All complex settings can be entered using your Admin Control Panel.

Easy Skins Creation
Thanks to the ultra-fast Smarty template engine, you can create your own message board based on any HTML page you like. Your users, members and guests, can then select their favourite skins using the built-in skins selector.

Database-Neutral
You do not have to worry about your server's backend. The software relies on PHP's Pear:DB and AdoDb abstraction layers to work with any SQL database.

Portal & API
No other board software lets you so easily and naturally add a portal to your site. Note that this portal can be multi-pages and leverage a rich set of modules.

Unlimited Sub-Forums Levels
Areas can have children, grandchildren, etc. We have decided that differences between categories and forums are arbitrary and unnecessary. Therefore, we only offer one type of object: an area = a category = a forum. All you have to do is customize them to act the way you need them to.

Private Messaging
Exhange as many messages as you wish and store them in unlimited users-defined folders.

Security
As much as a quarter of our development time is spent toughening the software's security. A few examples:

• protection against SQL injection


• protection against session variables tampering


• your user's cookies contain significantly less information than is stored by any other bb software


• re-authentication keys generated on-the-fly


• detection of change of user's browsing environment

Flexible BB Code
The BB Code, used to add rich content to your posts, signatures, etc. can be extended very easily thanks to its database-based repository.

Powerful Search
Search for words, phrases, authors. Search results are displayed in a readable format and can be easily browsed. Note that search results are cached for maximum performance.

Rich Modules
Wikis, photo gallery integration, freehand drawing, pseudo file system... And there is more. A lot more. Be ready.

Modifications
You can write/use your own modifications to the board's source code. We offer an additional mechanism, allowing you to create your own callback methods in 'Hack.php'.

Performance
All SQL queries are manually tuned. Predictions and optimal execution paths are identified and used.

Smart Contextual Caching
Various pages portions that PHP has to constantly re-evaluate for all your users are cached on-the-fly using our exclusive contextual caching mechanism.

Flexible Control Panel
You can store as many configuration variables in the database as you wish, the software will automatically know how to edit them using the Admin Control Panel.

Errors & Debugging
Custom error handling and reporting as well as advanced debugging help you make sure that your board is never down.