Thread

I’m curious to know whether EE is compatible with other message board software (such as phpBB, IPB, or vBulletin), or if it’s restricted to the software you provide.

Well, you can run one of those in addition to EE (side-by-side) but no, they wouldn’t be integrated in any way. They would have their own membership modules and require separate logins.
Some have messed around with aMember to get one login across both EE and other scripts.

aMember does work.  But don’t expect tight integration like you get with the EE Forum Module.  Truthfully my clients have very rarely had a need for any features that are in the other forum software.  And with phpBB’s security record I simply don’t care to use it.  😊  In fact I have two clients who have gone from vBulletin/phpBB for the advantages of tighter membership integration and due to the fact that they found their users weren’t using any of the more advanced forum features they thought people were going to want.

Jamie

I ask because we already have a fully customized IPB, but no website. We’re debating whether to use HTML or software such as this.  We were hoping to be able to use our current DB with this, if at all possible.

EE does play nice with other database tables.  For instance you can install EE on the same database as you have IPB.  The EE tables will all have exp_ in the beginning of them.  Then you could call IPB data using the EE query module.  But if you want some kind of membership sharing you would have to use aMember (doesn’t really provide a solution for you since you already have a full set of members I suspect) or else simply deal with the fact that you are going to have two sets of members, ones in EE and ones in IPB.

I’m not real sure how HTML provides you with a workable solution that EE can’t provide better with multiple sets of members so I’m a little bit confused as to what kind of integration you are expecting…  Static HTML certainly isn’t going to share member databases with IPB because it isn’t going to know a database even exists…

I do seem to remember that the IPB guys were working on a full blown CMS that will integrate with their software.  What that CMS was going to cost, when it will be done, and if it is or will be any good, are not answers I have.

Jamie

I once fully integrated a phpBB into a pMachine. Nothing I would do a second time 😉
I’d write an import-script to get the existing forum members and posts into EE / EE Forum or leave them completely seperated.
Just my 2 cents.