coming soon: Discussion Forums for Mura
So forums ... a much, much requested plugin for the Mura CMS. As you might guess from the title, they will be arriving shortly.
Code named "Cormorant" (please don't ask why, as we'll have to make something up on the spot), our forums application will be a fully integrated Mura Plugin . That means permissions, groups, users and all other related functionality will be tied to core Mura services. In other words, a Cormorant user will also be a Mura user, with all the same assignable rights and privileges any other Mura user might have. This gives site administrators the great advantage of leveraging the Email Broadcaster, site permissions and any other plugins available the ability to work with Forum-created users. It should also make working with the Forums plugin much friendlier, as the layout and administration will already be familiar to users.
features
There will be two versions initially: Discussion Forums followed soon after by the enhanced Support Forums version. The former will behave like traditional forums, with conferences, forums, threads etc. We are initially focusing upon control and administration, giving site managers the ability to assign a wide range of configuration options on a per-conference or even per-forum level. These "configuration" packages can be shared by multiple conferences/forums, and will add a great deal of flexibility to how users can view, post to and use a particular forum.
Support Forums will be designed to help software developers manage support issues. While we haven't finalized the entire feature set for this version, suffice it to say we have been working closely with Sean, Matt and the rest of the Blue River team to create a useful, well-rounded system.
discussion forums
Discussion forums will be launching with the following features:
- Unlimited Conferences with unlimited Forums
- Configuration files which contain settings like permissions, avatars, attachments, and notifications
- Configuration files can be applied to Conferences or Forums (by default, Forums inherit from Conferences, which in turn inherit from the default Configuration
- Subscriptions
- Badges or "Ranks" for tracking and rewarding users
- Full administrative control down to editing/locking posts
- Moderators
- Stickies
- General reporting and dashboards
- Site-based permissions, so super administrators can lock down features like attachments or avatars on a per-site basis.
support forums
As the date for release of Support Forums nears, we will post a list of available functionality.
release date
Soon. When it is ready, and not a day before. I will say that the time frame can be measured in weeks rather than months, but that is as close as you're going to get.
pricing
Ah yes, pricing. This is something we haven't quite finalized yet, but I can promise it will be very reasonable. What I can announce is that there won't be an "Enterprise" version that locks down features unnecessarily, and that it will be licensed on a per-install basis (Mura CMS allows a single install to host multiple websites). Support Forums will be priced higher than the Discussion Forums version, but upon release we will will offer a straight-across credit for people who wish to upgrade.
questions
As this is an in-development product, we won't be fielding any questions at this time as to "will it do this/that", since this will only slow our release date. Upon release we will be making a forums area available where people can request specific functionality in future versions.
