[Onkel Neal]

LAMP vs ?

I really don't know if we need any custom widgets (I don't even know what a custom widget it!), but I am interested in learning more about the php stuff that the vBulletin forum uses. As the MySQL and PHP versions get too old to use, I need to be able to adapt to a new forum software package. Hopefully I can find something that provides the basic functions of the system we have here...and as you can guess, over the years, I have added a few mods and plugins to this vB system to get all the stuff it does now. And some custom anti-spam tools, which should be possible to recreate with a new forum system.

I also want to explore using php generated web pages for the whole site, using a few skins or templates, so that the layout is based on one skin and the content within the layout is created from a db. Now, saying that, I know what a huge undertaking it will be for me to get all the Subsim content into a db...but I am considering doing it. It feels like digging the Panama Canal with a shovel.

I could have done that with my current CMS years ago but I was very skeptical of the need to do it. Now that responsive web design is so important for mobile users, I'm feeling pressure to conform. My current CMS has been sunset and abandoned many years ago. So, there's that, I will need to use a new CMS system and WP seems to be the most robust and popular, which should mean best supported.

So, to move to a dynamically generated site with skins that are responsive, I either need to learn how to update the vBulletin and CMS system to new versions of LAMP, or get new versions of forum and CMS software.