aardaakpinar/php-forum repository overview

⁠PHP Forum System

A lightweight, modern, and security-hardened discussion platform built with native PHP 8.1+ and MySQL / MariaDB.

⁠Overview

PHP Forum System was initially engineered during an internship to explore deep practical implementations of modern PHP architecture, database scalability, and web application security standards.

The project features a custom lightweight MVC framework written in vanilla PHP with zero bloated dependencies. It combines a modern, responsive dark UI with strict defensive programming practices to mitigate common web security vulnerabilities out of the box.

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⁠Key Features

⁠Community & Discussions

• Topic Categories: Categorized board discussions managed and sorted via admin controls.
• Rich Thread Management: Create discussions, post replies, and quote previous messages.
• Markdown Formatting: Interactive Markdown toolbar supporting lists, blockquotes, code blocks, and formatted text.
• Engagement Tools: Thread like/unlike system, view counts, and unread read-state tracking.
• Subscriptions & Notifications: Follow specific threads and receive real-time notification alerts.
• Smart Filters & Sorting: Filter threads by Latest, New, Top, Most Viewed, Following, My Threads, and Unanswered.
• Full-Text Search: Search thread titles and messages quickly from the header bar.

⁠User Profiles & Preferences

• Public profile pages with bio, join date, created threads, and user reply history.
• Self-service account settings (update bio, change password, account details).
• Uniform avatar badge generation with initials fallback.

⁠Administration & Moderation (/admin)

• Dashboard Metrics: Real-time statistics on total members, threads, replies, and categories.
• Category Control: Create, edit, reorder, or delete discussion categories.
• User Management: View member rosters, change roles, or assign administrative privileges.
• Custom Branding: Upload a header brand logo (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF) and, separately, a favicon (ICO, PNG, SVG, WebP, GIF) with strict MIME validation. The two are configured independently under Admin → Settings → General.
• Version info: The admin Overview shows the forum version (from the VERSION file or the FORUM_VERSION env var), schema version, PHP/database versions and upload-folder status.
• Access Control: Enable Maintenance Mode (admin-only access) or Private Mode (require authentication to read threads).
• Auto-Bootstrapping: The first registered account automatically becomes the Site Administrator.

⁠Design & Frontend

• Modern dark theme styled with the sleek Tailwind Zinc color palette.
• Self-hosted Inter font and embedded Lucide icons (no third-party CDN leaks).
• Fully responsive across desktop, tablet, and mobile layouts.
• Zero external JS framework dependencies; 100% CSP-safe without inline scripts.