An Introduction to Learn MyBB

Learn MyBB is my MyBB tutorials forum, created to teach people all they need to know to get started with MyBB. I started this forum because during my time in the support forums, I noticed how many people had the same problems. People didn’t know how to install, how to upload plugins and themes, how to add new toplinks, everything like that. So, I thought I would try and give people a place to go where they could get all of the information they needed to get going. So, in September 2008, Learn MyBB was born.

When I started this, I did receive comments that what I was doing was nothing new; some people argued that everything that I was going to do was already in the forums, or in the MyBB Wiki. However, although the Wiki does have a lot of information, everything anyone should need, not everybody can follow it. Some people have absolutely no idea where to start, how to upload the files, how to install it, how to set up a database. All of the tutorials I created are completely original, and I pack in as many prinscreens as possible. The installation tutorial, for example, has over 50 printsceens, showing you exactly what to do at every step, to ensure you don’t miss anything, and everything you need is covered. There are also other, more simple tutorials such as how to reset a password via PHPMyAdmin, and how to restore lost admin permissions. There are tutorials on how to upload and install plugins and themes, and also how to add a CSS newsbar to the index page. Currently, i don’t think even half of what I want to do, has been done.

All of the forums are laid out in a clear way, in a logical order. First, forums for installing, upgrading, and merging. Next, forums for everything to do with settings your forum up, and how sections of the ACP work. Lastly, there’s forums for customising your forums, including plugins, themes, CSS, and template edits. All the tutorials are in their relevant forums to make it easy to navigate.

I added a Tutorials Page page, which is set out in the same order as the forums themselves. All of the tutorials that I have made are on here, under their relevant heading, so people can look here and find everything they need easily. Clicking the link will take them to the thread, and there is also a small description of what each tutorial is. This page is updated every time a new tutorial is created, so it is always as up-to-date as possible.

There’s also a Downloads Page page, which includes some important, you guessed it, downloads. Currently, there are 3 sections for downloads. In the MyBB Version Downloads category, there are the 5 current full MyBB 1.4.x packages. Whenever an update is released, it is added here within 24 hours. In the General MyBB Downloads category, there’s the MyBB 1.4 default theme .xml file, a sample ./inc/config.php file if someone deletes theirs (the one in the download package is blank as the installer writes to it, so if someone deletes their copy, they can use this and just edit their database information back in), and there’s also the full Famfamfam Silk Icon Set, consisting of over 700 16×16 icons that are used in MyBB 1.4 and that can be used anywhere within your forum. In the Other Downloads category, there is a copy of the WAMP windows server which includes Apache 2.2.8, PHP 5.2.6 + PECL, SQLitemanager, MySQL 5.0.51b, and PHPMyAdmin, ideal for hosting a localhost test MyBB forum on your computer. Also in this download category is Notepad++ 5.0.3, an advanced text editor which should be used over normal Notepad or Wordpad, and shows code tags etc in colour to make thinsg easier to find and work with. All of the downloads here are there to help people using MyBB and should be everything anybody will need to run a MyBB forum.

When I first had the idea for Learn MyBB, I never expected it to go very far. But I thought I’d give it a go, and see what happens… and overall, I’m very happy with the result. In almost 3 months, there’s nearly 100 members, over 400 posts, and over 100 threads. Bearing in mind I haven’t been working flat out on this, and I still have at least double what I have now still to go, I don’t think those statistics are too bad. In fact I think they’re quite good. Soon I’ll be able to spend a bit more time on it, and I’ll be pushing out more tutorials, more often.

So, that’s Learn MyBB - if you have any comments or suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them.