I’ve learned the basics of OOP and though I should attempt to make something simple, (just to learn and because I’m bored). The problem is I’m having trouble deciding what classes I’m going to need. Database abstraction and (user input) validation pretty much sort themselves out. It’ll be in PHP, but I think all forums designed in OOP share a common set of classes.
The forum will be very simple, register, login, view, post and reply.
I was thinking something along the lines of the list below:
- Registration class
- User class: class to manage users
- User_Post class: class to manage user posts
- Posts class: manage posts
- Validation class (PHP filters?)
To me Hierarchical threading seems incredibly complex to program for a noob like me.
A really simple forum I like is the BBCs 606 forum.
Maybe openID for validation?
Thats all I got so far.
If you “think all forums designed in OOP share a common set of classes”, why not do some surgery on existing software? (There is a load of open source forum-software out there.)
That way you’ll learn about the common set of classes, how they work, interact and the overall process of building a larger piece of software.
My guess is that equipped with that knowledge you’ll be far better of building your own forum than with any answer (or rather: opinion) about what classes you should use or need.