Java-based forums -- JAVA400-L

Hey folks!

 

I've been looking into software to create a supplementary area for this
list (it would also be used for my books and whatever other projects I
might dream up).  As an adjunct to JAVA400-L, I'd like to create an area
where we can upload and download files.  It would also be a place where
we can store things like test suites and allow people to download them
and then post the results.  Thus, there would be a special section
devoted just to the results of test suites.  I'd love to have a bunch of
semi-permanent threads where we take various business requirements and
have members of the community post their results, and so we could
compare different approaches.

 

I'll tell you what.  Despite the size of the Open Source community,
there isn't as much Java software out there as I thought.  In
particular, I was looking for some forum software to fire up a little
bulletin board as a supplement to this list (primarily to set up FAQs
and files upload/downloads and that sort of thing).  The most popular,
Jive, is no longer Open Source, and the "Lite" version costs $450, with
the other versions costing thousands or even tens of thousands of
dollars.  Back to the drawing board, and I did find a few Open Source
Java-based products:

 

mvnForums is from Viet Nam, and has possibilities.  I'm still having
trouble getting it to compile in WDSC, though.

 

jGossip took me all day to import into WDSC.  I got to learn all about
JDK1.3's JCE libraries.  This was a real joy.  And it still doesn't
load.  More fun for another day.

 

I got jCorporate's eForum working standalone, but that's just the
binaries under Tomcat, and since it doesn't support file uploads, it may
not work for the community.  I also got my first taste of installing a
Struts-based application.  I'm not particularly thrilled.  I haven't
even tried to run it in WDSC yet, but if I'm going to support file
uploads, I'm going to have to hack the code, and that means getting it
running under WDSC.

 

I just downloaded something called TeracBoard.  I'm not particularly
optimistic on this one, though, as the online community/support page is
in Chinese.

 

After that, the pickins get mighty slim.

 

I wanted to do Java so I could host it from my iSeries.  I wanted to
particularly to use WebSphere so that I could run the board inside of
WDSC to make changes and additions as necessary.  However, I don't seem
to be having much luck with that.  So now I'm asking the community for
their opinions:

 

Should I continue the search for a Java-based server I can run on the
iSeries?

Should I not worry about the iSeries so much, and get something that
runs with Tomcat just to get it running?

Should I can the Java thing entirely and go straight to PHP and run it
on either a Windows or Linux machine?

Should we as a community try to put our own application together?

 

Other thoughts or suggestions?

 

Joe