Native Forum

Native Forum for ProcessWire

A complete, self-contained community forum for ProcessWire CMS/CMF: groups, categories, topics, replies, private messages, following, moderation, anti-spam, SEO/GEO and ready-made designs. It runs inside your existing site layout, so your header, menus, footer and scripts keep working.

• Module class: NativeForum (installs the admin module ProcessNativeForum automatically)
• Version: 1.0.0
• Requires: ProcessWire 3.0.200+, PHP 7.4+ (PHP 8.x recommended)
• Optional PHP extensions: zip (Export / Import), openssl (encrypted password transfer)
• License: MIT

Features

Forum

• Groups → categories → topics → replies, with pinned, locked, hidden and VIP (restricted) categories and topics
• Rich editor (CKEditor) with image upload, drag-to-resize images, file attachments with progress, quotes and "reply to"
• Permanent post links (#1, #2 …), share dialog, likes / votes, topic following with "new replies" counters
• Member profiles, members directory, ranks (automatic or manual), avatars, signatures
• Private messages with unread notices (title-bar pill, account box, popup)
• Search with highlighting, mobile-first layout, login and register as modal dialogs

Integration

• Site layout mode: the forum renders inside your own _init.php / _main.php (Markup Regions or delayed output)
• Standalone mode: the forum renders its own complete HTML5 document
• All forum CSS is scoped to .sf-wrap; forum JavaScript reacts only to forum markup
• Two themes (Simple, Bootstrap 5) and six design presets (Obsidian, Light, Dark, Auto, Monochrome, Custom)
• Design Studio: colours, typography, spacing, buttons, badges, forms and per-template overrides without writing CSS
• ProCache friendly: guest pages carry no session data; new posts clear the affected cached pages

Admin (Native Forum in the admin menu)

• Dashboard with key numbers, open reports, latest posts and newest members
• Reports (moderation queue), groups & categories with drag-and-drop, full topic editor, messages, members, settings
• Export / Import of the complete forum (settings, content, members' forum profiles, files) as one .zip
• Optional demo content, removable with one click

Security & anti-spam

• CSRF on every form, honeypot, signed time check, JavaScript check, flood control
• Throw-away e-mail blocklist, MX check, registrations per IP, banned words (also /regex/), link limits for new members
• Blocked IPs / CIDR ranges and e-mail domains, optional Cloudflare Turnstile and StopForumSpam check
• E-mail confirmation for registrations; blocked attempts are logged (Setup → Logs → nativeforum-spam)

SEO & GEO

• <title>, meta description, canonical, rel prev/next, robots, Open Graph and Twitter cards
• JSON-LD: DiscussionForumPosting, BreadcrumbList, CollectionPage, ProfilePage, WebSite + SearchAction
• /forum/sitemap.xml, /forum/feed.xml (RSS, also per category), /llms.txt, every topic as Markdown (?format=md)

Installation

1. Copy the module to /site/modules/NativeForum/ (the folder must be named NativeForum).
   • From GitHub: download the ZIP and rename the extracted folder from NativeForum-main to NativeForum.
   • Or in the admin: Modules → New → Add Module from URL and paste the ZIP URL, or Add Module from Directory with the class name NativeForum.
2. Modules → Refresh, then install Native Forum. Native Forum Admin is installed automatically.
3. Open /forum/. On the Native Forum dashboard you can add demo content or start with an empty forum.

On install the module creates its fields, templates, the pages /forum/, /messages/, /forum-profile/, /forum-user/, /forum-members/, /forum-login/, /forum-register/, the roles forum-member and forum-admin (moderators), the permission native-forum, and copies the frontend template files into /site/templates/.

Permissions

• native-forum gives access to the admin. Assign it to the roles that should manage the forum (superusers always have it).
• forum-admin users are moderators on the frontend (lock, pin, move, hide, edit).
• New registrations get the forum-member role; privileged roles are never assigned from the frontend.

Customising templates

The frontend templates are copied to /site/templates/forum-*.php. Updates refresh them automatically, except files that contain the text NativeForum Custom — add that marker as a comment to keep your own copy. Settings → Advanced → Tools can re-sync the templates manually.

Sitemap

Add the forum sitemap to your robots.txt:

Sitemap: https://example.com/forum/sitemap.xml

Moving a forum to another site

Native Forum → Export / Import downloads one .zip with settings, all content (groups, categories, topics, replies, private messages, reports), members' forum profiles and all uploaded files. On the other site install Native Forum, open Export / Import and upload the file — either add to the existing forum or replace it. Members are matched by user name or e-mail; missing ones can be created.

Optional encrypted passwords: only password hashes are exported, encrypted with AES-256-GCM (PBKDF2-SHA256 key from a transfer password you choose). At a member's first login on the new site the password is verified once and re-saved with the new site's own hashing.

Upgrading from SimpleForum

Native Forum is the successor of SimpleForum. Copy NativeForum next to the old SimpleForum folder, Modules → Refresh and install Native Forum. It takes over settings, pages, posts, fields, the admin page, the permission and pending sign-ups. The old folder is moved to /site/modules/.SimpleForum-replaced-by-NativeForum/ and can be deleted afterwards.

Uninstall

Uninstalling removes everything the forum created: forum pages and their files, templates, fields (also the forum fields on users), roles, reports, settings, caches, logs and the forum template files in /site/templates/. Site user accounts are kept. Use Export / Import first if you want to keep the content.

Development

Design presets are generated from assets/presets/src/ (*.tokens.css + _skin.css, built with build.py). The container CSS is built with assets/css/src/build_container.py.

Support

• Support thread: Native Forum on the ProcessWire forum
• Bugs and feature requests: GitHub issues of this repository

Author

Gregor Rojko — Pyxios, Maribor, Slovenia

License

MIT — see LICENSE.