SMF

Overview

SMF is a free PHP-based forum.

Dependencies

SMF requires PHP installed in your web server. Apache has mod_php, NGINX requires php-fpm. More details can be found in the SMF requirements page.

Prepare Your Settings

In your auth project’s settings file, do the following:

• Add 'allianceauth.services.modules.smf', to your INSTALLED_APPS list

• Append the following to the bottom of the settings file:

# SMF Configuration
SMF_URL = ''
DATABASES['smf'] = {
    'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
    'NAME': 'alliance_smf',
    'USER': 'allianceserver-smf',
    'PASSWORD': 'password',
    'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
    'PORT': '3306',
}

Setup

Download SMF

Using your browser, you can download the latest version of SMF to your desktop computer. All SMF downloads can be found at SMF Downloads. The latest recommended version will always be available at http://www.simplemachines.org/download/index.php/latest/install/. Retrieve the file location from the hyperlinked box icon for the zip full install, depending on your browser, you may have a Copy Link or similar option in your right click menu.

Download using wget, replacing the URL with the URL for the package you just retrieved

wget https://download.simplemachines.org/index.php?thanks;filename=smf_2-1-2_install.tar.gz

This needs to be unpackaged. Unzip it, replacing the file name with that of the file you just downloaded

unzip smf_2-1-2_install.zip

Now we need to move this to our web directory. Usually /var/www/forums.

mv smf /var/www/forums

The web server needs read/write permissions to this folder

Apache: chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/forums Nginx: chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/forums

Tip

Nginx: Some distributions use the www-data:www-data user:group instead of nginx:nginx. If you run into problems with permissions, try it instead.

Database Preparation

SMF needs a database. Create one:

mysql -u root -p

create database alliance_smf;
grant all privileges on alliance_smf . * to 'allianceserver'@'localhost';
exit;

Enter the database information into the DATABASES['smf'] section of your auth project’s settings file.

Web Server Configuration

Your web server needs to be configured to serve SMF.

A minimal Apache config might look like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName forums.example.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/forums
    <Directory "/var/www/forums">
        DirectoryIndex index.php
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

A minimal Nginx config might look like:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name  forums.example.com;
    root   /var/www/forums;
    index  index.php;
    access_log  /var/logs/forums.access.log;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        fastcgi_pass   unix:/tmp/php.socket;
        fastcgi_index  index.php;
        fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }
}

Enter the web address to your forums into the SMF_URL setting in your auth project’s settings file.

Web Install

Navigate to your forum address where you will be presented with an installer.

Click on the Install tab.

All the requirements should be met. Press Start Install.

Under Database Settings, set the following:

• Database Type is MySQL

• Database Server Hostname is 127.0.0.1

• Database Server Port is left blank

• Database Name is alliance_smf

• Database Username is your auth MySQL user, usually allianceserver

• Database Password is this user’s password

If you use a table prefix other than the standard smf_ you need to add an additional setting to your auth project’s settings file, SMF_TABLE_PREFIX = '', and enter the prefix.

Follow the directions in the installer.

Preparing Auth

Once settings are entered, apply migrations and restart Gunicorn and Celery.

Permissions

To use this service, users will require some of the following.

Permission	Admin Site	Auth Site
smf.access_smf	None	Can Access the SMF Service