FlaskBB is a lightweight forum software that allows users to create topics and discuss them together using posts and private messages. FlaskBB is written in Python using the micro web development framework Flask. It uses SQLAlchemy as it’s ORM.
FlaskBB has a lot of features out-of-the-box to ensure proper forum functionality. These features include:
- Private messages. Communication among users is easier due to allowed privacy.
- Minimalist Bulletin Board. It is fast, light and similar to FluxBB or DjangoBB.
- BBCode support. This markup allows to format text, insert links, create tables and add emoticons to improve the users experience.
- Topic tracker ensures that users can receive an update on the latest posts in their favourite topics.
- Unread/read tracker provides a visual distinction between read topics and unread topics.
- Permissions system allows to restrict or grant access to specific groups or topics.
- Clean and simple admin interface is easy to use even for newcomers.
- Basic moderation tools are easily accessible and understandable.
- Full Text Search is available to simplify the search process.
In order to extend FlaskBB functionality you can use additional plugins. They don’t change the core of FlaskBB, but can be activated and deactivated at any time. Developer documentation is available here: http://flaskbb.readthedocs.org/en/latest/plugins.html. Also FlaskBB supports theming and you can write your own theme.
As for the FlaskBB models, they are divided into three modules: Management module, User module, and Forum module. The latter is composed of models related to forums: the Report model stores the reports, the TopicsRead and ForumsRead models provide read status of a forum. The software uses the hierarchy: Category -> Forum -> Topic -> Post.
If you are searching for simple and fast forum software with basic functionality, then FlaskBB is for you. It gathered all the best features from Python and Flask for rich and fast forums. To get more information visit flaskbb.org.