christinloehner/apboard

By christinloehner

•Updated 2 months ago

Self-hosted forum software. PHP 8.5 · Apache · MariaDB · Open source · GPL-3.0

Image

Web servers

Content management system

Databases & storage

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christinloehner/apboard repository overview

⁠APBoard

Self-hosted forum software. PHP 8.5 · Apache · MariaDB · GPL-3.0

APBoard is an open-source discussion forum system originally created in 1998. This image is the Next Generation rewrite: a modern PHP 8.5 application with Apache, Twig templates, Composer-managed dependencies, and a built-in web installer. No PHP knowledge required to run it.

Website⁠ · Source⁠ · Live demo⁠

⁠Quick start

Create a .env file:

APBOARD_URL=https://forum.example.com
APBOARD_DOMAIN=forum.example.com

APBOARD_DB_HOST=db
APBOARD_DB_NAME=apboard
APBOARD_DB_USER=apboard
APBOARD_DB_PASSWORD=change-this
APBOARD_DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=change-this-too
APBOARD_DB_PREFIX=apb_

[email protected]
APBOARD_FIRST_ADMIN_PASSWORD=change-this

Download the docker-compose.hub.yml⁠ from the repository and start the stack:

docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml --env-file .env up -d

APBoard is ready when the app container is healthy. Open https://forum.example.com/ in your browser.

The stack includes:

app — APBoard (PHP 8.5 + Apache)
db — MariaDB 10.6
db-init — one-shot container that seeds the database schema on first start

The example above uses Traefik⁠ for HTTPS. If you do not have Traefik, see the Docker installation guide⁠ for a standalone setup.

⁠Environment variables

⁠Required

Variable	Description
`APBOARD_URL`	Public forum URL, e.g. `https://forum.example.com` — no trailing slash
`APBOARD_DOMAIN`	Domain name only, e.g. `forum.example.com` — used by Traefik
`APBOARD_DB_HOST`	Database host — use `db` when running with the provided compose file
`APBOARD_DB_NAME`	Database name
`APBOARD_DB_USER`	Database user
`APBOARD_DB_PASSWORD`	Database password
`APBOARD_DB_ROOT_PASSWORD`	MariaDB root password
`APBOARD_DB_PREFIX`	Table prefix, default `apb_`
`APBOARD_FIRST_ADMIN_EMAIL`	Email address for the first admin account
`APBOARD_FIRST_ADMIN_PASSWORD`	Password for the first admin account

⁠Optional — SMTP

Variable	Description
`APBOARD_SMTP_HOST`	SMTP server hostname
`APBOARD_SMTP_PORT`	SMTP port, e.g. `587` or `465`
`APBOARD_SMTP_AUTH`	`true` or `false`
`APBOARD_SMTP_SECURE`	`starttls` (port 587) or `smtps` (port 465)
`APBOARD_SMTP_USER`	SMTP username
`APBOARD_SMTP_PASS`	SMTP password
`APBOARD_SMTP_FROM_EMAIL`	Sender address
`APBOARD_SMTP_FROM_NAME`	Sender name shown in emails

SMTP is optional. If omitted, registration emails and password reset emails will not work until SMTP is configured.

⁠Volumes

Mount point	Contents
`/var/www/html/public/shared/uploads`	User-uploaded files — must be persisted

Everything else is baked into the image. Only uploads need a persistent volume.

⁠Tags

Tag	Meaning
`latest`	Latest stable release
`v3`	Latest 3.x release
`v3.0`	Latest 3.0.x release
`v3.0.1`	Specific release

⁠Updating

Pull the new image and recreate the container. APBoard runs database migrations automatically on startup — no manual migration step needed.

docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml --env-file .env pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.hub.yml --env-file .env up -d

Back up the database before every update.

⁠Source and license

Source: https://gitlab.apboard.de/app/apboard3⁠

APBoard is free software under the GNU General Public License v3⁠.

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275.3 MB

Last updated

2 months ago

docker pull christinloehner/apboard