Flatboard

Flatboard is a simple, lightweight, modern and fast flat-file forum, using JSON and Markdown or BBcode.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

PHP
Domains

License

Flatboard is released under the MIT License.

Prerequisites

We’re using PHP in the stable version 8.2:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace tools version use php 8.2
Selected PHP version 8.2
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Your blog domain needs to be setup:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation

cd to your document root, then download and configure Flatboard.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ wget http://flatboard.free.fr/uploads/plugins/flatboard_latest.zip
[...]
Saving to: ‘flatboard_latest.zip’
2019-03-03 16:47:53 (19.0 MB/s) - ‘flatboard_latest.zip’ saved [1280825/1280825]
[isabell@stardust html]$

Unzip the archive and then delete it.

[isabell@stardust html]$ unzip flatboard_latest.zip
Archive:  flatboard_latest.zip
 inflating: flatboard.zip
 inflating: index.php
[isabell@stardust html]$ rm flatboard_latest.zip
[isabell@stardust html]$

Finishing installation

Now point your Browser to your installation URL https://isabell.uber.space/index.php. Complete the form and follow the installation instructions.

You will need to enter the following information:

language: the language you prefer (English, French, Russian).

Then push the Unzip-Button.

title: title of your forum

description: what is your forum about

E-Mail: your admin e-mail address

administrator: set up your admin password

language: the language you prefer (English, French, German, Russian, Italian) « Yes, the question is double.

Updates

Note

Check the update feed or twitter regularly to stay informed about the newest version.

First make a backup from /data folder and move it to your /home folder.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ tar cfvz flatforum-data_backup.tar.gz *
data/
[...]
data/key.php
[isabell@stardust html]$ mv flatforum-data_backup.tar.gz $HOME
[isabell@stardust html]$

Download the latest version from Flatboard.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust html]$ wget https://flatboard.org/download.php?file=flatboard_latest.zip
[...]
Saving to: ‘flatboard_latest.zip’

100%[============================================================================================>] 1,280,825   --.-K/s   in 0.06s

2019-03-03 16:47:53 (19.0 MB/s) - ‘flatboard_latest.zip’ saved [1280825/1280825]
[isabell@stardust html]$

Extract the zip file.

Unzip the archive, copy new files and folders and then delete it.

[isabell@stardust html]$ unzip flatboard_latest.zip -d UPDATE
Archive:  flatboard_latest.zip
 inflating: flatboard.zip
 inflating: index.php
[isabell@stardust html]$ cd UPDATE
[isabell@stardust UPDATE]$ rm flatboard_latest.zip
[isabell@stardust UPDATE]$ unzip flatboard.zip
Archive:  flatboard.zip
  creating: flatboard/
 inflating: flatboard/README.md
 [...]
 inflating: flatboard/view.php
[isabell@stardust UPDATE]$ cd flatboard
[isabell@stardust UPDATE]$ cp -r * /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/
[isabell@stardust UPDATE]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html
[isabell@stardust html]$ rm -rf UPDATE
[isabell@stardust html]$ rm install.php
[isabell@stardust html]$

Clear plugin and theme cache.

Delete all files stocked in data/plugin folder and go to your plugins page to activate your plugins again.

[isabell@stardust html]$ cd data/plugin
[isabell@stardust plugin]$ rm -rf *
[isabell@stardust plugin]$ cd /var/www/virtual/$USER/html/

Delete the theme/YourTheme/cache/ folder. In this example bootstrap theme is used.

[isabell@stardust html]$ cd theme/bootstrap/
[isabell@stardust bootstrap]$ rm -rf cache
[isabell@stardust bootstrap]$

Log into the admin area and check your settings.

Tested with Flatboard 3.1, Uberspace 7.15.6

Written by: Christian Kantelberg <uberlab@mailbox.org>