OpenForum – new ASP.NET MVC based forum

There is new project in CodePlex called OpenForum. With source code you get also some samples you can run on your machine. OpenForum is pretty new and simple. There are no advanced forum features and currently it is suitable for smaller forums. You can change the look of OpenForum and write your own user repositories. Let’s see how OpenForum looks like.

As a first thing there is nice sample forum. It uses default ASP.NET MVC web application template. There is separate menu choice “Forum” on template. When you click there you can see forum postings.

OpenForum - postsOpenForum: Posts list opens when you click on Forums tab.
Click on image to enlarge.

When you click on posting title then thread view of posting and its replays will be show.

OpenForum - thread
OpenForum: Thread view – post and replies.
Click on image to enlarge.

And here is the example of writing new forum post. There is limited WYSIWYG editor and I think it works for most forums where image uploads and more complex post formatting is not needed.

OpenForum - new post
OpenForum: Writing new post.
Click on image to enlarge.

Setting forum up was pretty easy task to do. By default it uses same users database that ASP.NET offers so you have all features for users management available. Visitors can log in or register as users through site user interface.

I think OpenForum, like it is currently, works fine for smaller companies and support forums where only basic forum functionalities are needed. Of course, before putting it up for public use expects you to heavy security testing because current version is still beta.

Gunnar Peipman

Gunnar Peipman is ASP.NET, Azure and SharePoint fan, Estonian Microsoft user group leader, blogger, conference speaker, teacher, and tech maniac. Since 2008 he is Microsoft MVP specialized on ASP.NET.

    6 thoughts on “OpenForum – new ASP.NET MVC based forum

    • July 26, 2009 at 1:56 pm
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      I think the implementation is way too tied up in string building and that makes it a pain to customize.

    • July 26, 2009 at 4:21 pm
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      There are certainly more limitations I am sure because it is not stable release yet.

    • July 27, 2009 at 6:32 am
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      @Jeff – what do you mean by being “too tied up in string building”?

    • July 28, 2009 at 7:12 am
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      The next version of MVC have function with web Site Cluster.There are many servers composing a web site application.such as tomcat’ Site Cluster,weblogic site cluster.

    • October 13, 2010 at 10:13 am
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      Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

    • December 23, 2017 at 11:50 am
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      Hi,

      I have read your blog.It”s very attractive and impressive. I like it your blog…….

      Thank you
      priya

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