About The Threadbuddy

The Threadbuddy is a simple, full featured, single file threaded discussion tool that ideally uses wildcard DNS, so you can pick your own discussion URL. The thread is tied to the *.yourdomain.com URL that you choose, so there are endless open "channels" to use. The thread buddy is search engine friendly since it has an integrated plaintext and rss feed. Also, the thread buddy can easily be integrated into any site.

Demo

http://threadbuddy.com

Also, check it out in full screen mode: http://threadbuddy.com/?iframe=true&fullscreen=true

Requirements

PHP and a Web Server (That's it! No databases, no special PHP extensions.)

DNS Environment

The Threadbuddy works best if you setup a wildcard DNS name that is dedicated to your Threadbuddy script, such as:

*.threadbuddy.mydomain.com

Although it will work having a URL like http://mydomain.com/threadbuddy/, you won't be able to take advantage of the dynamically created chat room names, and will only have one threadbuddy instance.

To take advantage of the dynamic DNS features (see demo), put the threadbuddy code in the root of the web server directory/virtual host config for the wildcard domain.

Installation

1) Unpack the archive somewhere in your web directory

2) Create a directory somewhere outside your web directory to store the thread data

   mkdir /usr/local/www/threadbuddy-data/

3) Make the directory created in #2, owned by your web server

   chown www:www /usr/local/www/threadbuddy-data/

4) Edit the top of the threadbuddy.php file to reflect your thread directory and the root directory of the threadbuddy code.

   $tb_threaddir = "/usr/local/www/threadbuddy-data/";
   $tbrootdir = "/"; // Must have trailing slash, preferably just "/"