vbulletin論壇

With the looming Gold release of vBulletin 3.0, I was pleased recently to have the opportunity to interview Kier Darby, Lead Developer and Product Manager for vBulletin at Jelsoft, the famous UK-based firm that develops the well-known forum system.

隨著即將發布的vBulletin 3.0黃金版迫在眉睫，我很高興能有機會采訪Jelsoft(一家開發著名論壇系統的英國公司)的vBulletin首席開發人員兼產品經理Kier Darby。

Firstly, Kier, can you tell us a little about yourself, and your involvement with the vBulletin development team? What first got you into software development and what’s your programming background? How did you move into developing Web-based applications?

首先，基爾(Kier)，您能否簡單介紹一下您自己以及您與vBulletin開發團隊的關系？ 是什么首先讓您進入了軟件開發領域，您的編程背景是什么？ 您是如何著手開發基于Web的應用程序的？

Well, I’m 27 and I live in the UK. I’ve been working for Jelsoft as part of the vBulletin development team for several years now, and I became the lead developer and product manager (taking over from John Percival) in late 2002.

好吧，我27歲，我住在英國。 我作為vBulletin開發團隊的一員已經在Jelsoft工作了幾年，并于2002年下半年成為首席開發人員和產品經理(從John Percival接任)。

My programming background goes back to my time at university, when I was reading for a degree in Computer Visualisation and Animation, 50% of the content of which was software development (C and C++). At the time, I really despised programming as I far preferred the artistic side, and I wanted to produce animation using existing tools, rather than having to write the software to do it.

我的編程背景可以追溯到我上大學時的時間，當時我正在讀計算機可視化和動畫專業的學位，其中50％的內容是軟件開發(C和C ++)。 當時，我真的很鄙視編程，因為我更喜歡藝術性的一面，我想使用現有工具制作動畫，而不必編寫軟件來做。

After I left university, I set up a CGI animation company with two other friends who graduated at the same time I did. During my time with this company, we produced animation and imagery for several big clients, including AMD, Microsoft and FIFA.

大學畢業后，我和另外兩個朋友一起建立了一家CGI動畫公司。 在該公司任職期間，我們為包括AMD，微軟和FIFA在內的多個大客戶制作了動畫和圖像。

I started to get back into programming through Javascript while I was putting together various Websites. I soon grew frustrated with the limitations of Javascript (back then, the great IE4 vs NS4 battle was raging, and it took more time to make your Javascript cross-browser compatible than it did to write the program in the first place).

在整理各種網站時，我開始通過Javascript重新開始編程。 我很快就對Javascript的限制感到沮喪(那時候，IE4與NS4的偉大之戰還在進行，與最初編寫該程序相比，使Javascript跨瀏覽器兼容需要更多的時間)。

Eventually, I found myself building a site that needed a dynamic, database-driven back end. Everyone I spoke to recommended PHP and MySQL, so I started working with those two. At some point it was decided that the site needed a message board, and vBulletin fit the bill. vBulletin was still in version 1 at that point, and there was quite a bit of additional functionality I wanted to build into to the system, so I started writing modifications for vB 1 and the soon-to-be-released vB 2. After a few months of writing these modifications (known as ‘hacks’ in the vBulletin community), I was asked to join the development team officially.

最終，我發現自己建立了一個需要動態的，數據庫驅動的后端的網站。 與我交談的每個人都推薦PHP和MySQL，因此我開始使用這兩個。 在某個時候，決定該站點需要一個留言板，而vBulletin符合要求。 那時vBulletin仍處于版本1中，我想在系統中內置很多功能，因此我開始為vB 1和即將發布的vB 2編寫修改。在編寫這些修改的幾個月后(在vBulletin社區中被稱為“黑客”)，我被要求正式加入開發團隊。

How long has Jelsoft been running and what made you decide to start developing a forum system such as vBulletin? Did it just start off as a few people working on a small system? How do you manage such a large project now?

Jelsoft運行了多長時間了，是什么讓您決定開始開發諸如vBulletin的論壇系統？ 它是從幾個人在一個小型系統上工作開始的嗎？ 您現在如何管理如此大的項目？

vBulletin has been available to the public since early 2000. It came into being when one of the sites run by John Percival was finding it more and more difficult to sustain its message board, which was at that time running Infopop’s UBB. The forums were growing very large, and certain operations such as searching for messages would cripple the server, taking several minutes to complete. The very earliest (non-public) version of vBulletin was designed essentially to be UBB running with PHP and MySQL, rather than Perl and flat-file storage.

vBulletin于2000年初開始向公眾開放。當John Percival經營的一個網站發現維持其留言板越來越困難時，這種消息便應運而生。當時，留言板當時是Infopop的UBB的經營地。 論壇的規模越來越大，某些操作(例如搜索消息)會使服務器癱瘓，這需要幾分鐘才能完成。 vBulletin的最早(非公開)版本實質上旨在與PHP和MySQL一起運行的UBB，而不是Perl和平面文件存儲。

A lot of interest surrounded this new system, and it was decided to spruce up the code in order to produce a distinct product, and to release this code to the public as vBulletin. At that time, vBulletin was written and managed entirely by John Percival and James Limm. Since then, more developers were hired to work on vBulletin 2. The take-up of vBulletin 2 was enormous, so they decided to hire a dedicated support team.

這個新系統引起了很多興趣，因此決定整理代碼以生產獨特的產品，并將此代碼作為vBulletin公開發布。 當時，vBulletin完全由John Percival和James Limm編寫和管理。 從那時起，更多的開發人員被雇用從事vBulletin 2的開發。由于vBulletin 2的使用量巨大，因此他們決定雇用專門的支持團隊。

The most recent version of vBulletin has grown into an enormously powerful system, equally capable of running a medium-sized forum or a monstrous, multi-million-post board. Managing a product of this size is a challenge in itself, and constant communication between the individual developers and the various departments of Jelsoft is the only way to prevent the complexity of the product from overtaking the knowledge of individual team members. We have regular meetings in a private IRC room, or (for those who have the technology) using video conferencing.

vBulletin的最新版本已發展成為功能非常強大的系統，同樣能夠運行中型論壇或數百萬個巨大帖子的公告板。 管理如此規模的產品本身就是一個挑戰，并且各個開發人員與Jelsoft各個部門之間的持續溝通是防止產品復雜性超過各個團隊成員知識的唯一方法。 我們在IRC私人會議室中召開例行會議，或者(對于擁有此項技術的人)使用視頻會議。

When did you first come across PHP, and what made you select it, over other technologies such as ASP and JSP or even Perl/CGI, for the development of vBulletin? What is it that you like so much about PHP?

您是什么時候第一次接觸PHP的，是什么使您選擇ASP，JSP甚至Perl / CGI等其他技術來開發vBulletin的？ 您對PHP這么喜歡什么？

PHP was introduced to me by a friend from university back in 1999. As for why I like it so much, that’s simple — no other language allows you to develop so rapidly, while at the same time providing you the depth of functionality and power to push the envelope.

PHP是1999年由大學的一位朋友介紹給我的。關于我為什么這么喜歡它的原因很簡單-沒有其他語言可以讓您如此Swift地發展，同時又為您提供了功能和功能的深度挑戰極限。

Secondly, PHP is free and relatively simple for people to install. This means that an ever-increasing number of servers are going online PHP-enabled. Unlike ASP, which requires that you commit to a Microsoft software base, or Perl, which comes with the ‘chmod this file to x and that file to y etc…’ nightmare for inexperienced users, PHP represents a system that is easy for users to work, requiring no more skill than does the upload of HTML scripts in the manner with which users are already accustomed.

其次，PHP是免費的，并且相對容易安裝。 這意味著越來越多的服務器正在啟用PHP。 與ASP(要求您使用Microsoft軟件)或Perl(將“ chmod將該文件轉換為x，將該文件轉換為y等等”)不同，PHP代表了一個系統，該系統易于用戶使用。的工作方式，與以用戶已經習慣的方式上傳HTML腳本相比，所需要的技能更高。

How do you prefer to work when you’re developing: long hours broken up by long breaks, steady daily progress, or otherwise? Can you offer any tips to PHP developers who feel that "24 hours a day just isn’t enough"?

在開發過程中，您更喜歡工作：長時間休息，長時間穩定工作或其他原因導致的長時間工作？ 您可以向認為“每天24小時還不夠”PHP開發人員提供任何提示嗎？

I go through fits and starts. When the pressure is on I’ve been known to do 72-hour coding sessions, but as a general rule I prefer to keep regular ‘office hours’, although those hours often slip around the clock so that I end up starting work at midday and working through to the early hours of the morning. Generally speaking, though, I find that I get the most done when I am working through the daylight hours.

我經歷了艱難的開始。 當壓力很大時，我就知道要進行72小時的編碼會議，但是一般而言，我寧愿保持固定的“辦公時間”，盡管這些時間經常不停地工作，所以我最終在中午開始工作一直工作到凌晨。 但是，總的來說，我發現在白天工作時我會做得最多。

…and 24 hours in a day isn’t enough!

……一天24小時還不夠！

Is vBulletin/Jelsoft a full time job? When you’re not coding or managing the project, how do you like to spend your time?

vBulletin / Jelsoft是全職工作嗎？ 當您不編碼或管理項目時，您想如何花費時間？

For the past 18 months or so, vBulletin has been my full time job. When I’m not working, it’s usually because I’m asleep, but in those rare occasions when I’m not in front of my keyboard I’m a keen photographer and try to get out onto the trails as much as possible on my mountain bike.

在過去的18個月左右的時間里，vBulletin一直是我的全職工作。 當我不工作時，通常是因為我睡著了，但在極少數情況下，當我不在鍵盤前時，我是一位敏銳的攝影師，并嘗試盡可能多地走在我的足跡上越野自行車。

So, what your secret weapons — your favorite development tools? What operating system do you use most and why?

那么，您最喜歡的秘密武器-您最喜歡的開發工具是什么？ 您最使用什么操作系統，為什么？

My ‘essential’ software arsenal consists of Macromedia/Allaire Homesite for writing HTML and PHP, with a bit of Textpad thrown in for its block-selection mode and advanced regular expression search facilities.

我的“基本”軟件庫由Macromedia / Allaire Homesite組成，用于編寫HTML和PHP，并為它的塊選擇模式和高級正則表達式搜索功能添加了一些Textpad。

I have tried a lot of the PHP-dedicated IDE solutions out there, such as the Zend Studio, but at the moment they feel rather immature and while some of the functionality is very nice (function/variable name completion etc.) the lack of customisability and flexibility keeps sending me back to Homesite. Homesite has a raft of functionality built in, and I can add my own by writing ‘ActionScripts’ in Javascript etc.

我已經嘗試了很多PHP專用的IDE解決方案，例如Zend Studio，但是目前它們感覺還很不成熟，盡管其中一些功能非常不錯(功能/變量名稱完成等)，但缺少可定制性和靈活性使我不斷回到首頁。 Homesite具有許多內置功能，我可以通過用Javascript等編寫“ ActionScripts”來添加自己的功能。

I also couldn’t be without Adobe Photoshop for image creation and manipulation, Tortoise CVS for source control, and Microsoft OneNote for all those essential jottings and scribbles you inevitably have when working on lots of areas at the same time.

我也不能沒有Adobe Photoshop來進行圖像創建和處理，沒有Tortoise CVS來進行源代碼控制，而Microsoft OneNote則是您在同時處理多個區域時不可避免地遇到的所有重要筆跡和涂鴉。

As far as operating systems are concerned, any machine I expect to sit down in front of and work runs Windows 2000 or XP, whereas all my servers run various flavours of Linux. I feel that, with this setup, you have the best of both worlds, and while I wouldn’t consider connecting a Windows machine directly to the Internet as a server, I would be equally opposed to sitting in front of a Linux machine to run my various desktop applications. Maybe that’s just a matter of taste, but I feel that is where the respective systems’ strengths lie.

就操作系統而言，我希望坐在前面的任何機器都可以運行Windows 2000或XP，而我所有的服務器都可以運行各種Linux。 我覺得，通過這種設置，您可以兩全其美，盡管我不會考慮將Windows計算機直接作為服務器連接到Internet，但我同樣也反對坐在Linux計算機前運行我的各種桌面應用程序。 也許這只是一個品味問題，但是我覺得這就是各個系統的優勢所在。

vBulletin could be considered the professional’s choice — it’s used on many huge Websites such as SitePoint, Lycos and Winamp.com. What advantages and features does it have over the other systems currently available? Why do you think vBulletin is the best choice of forum software?

vBulletin可以被認為是專業人士的選擇-它已在許多大型網站(例如SitePoint，Lycos和Winamp.com)上使用。 與當前可用的其他系統相比，它具有哪些優勢和功能？ 您為什么認為vBulletin是論壇軟件的最佳選擇？

vBulletin was written from the outset to be able to deal with a heavy load. vBulletin 3, in particular, has been further optimised for large boards. However, that optimisation has not been made at the expense of sites expecting to run a smaller scale operation.

vBulletin從一開始就被編寫為能夠應對沉重的負擔。 尤其是vBulletin 3，已針對大型板進行了進一步優化。 但是，尚未以希望運行較小規模操作的站點為代價進行優化。

Part of the beauty of vBulletin is its scalability, and the ability it gives to the admin to tune his or her installation to precisely suit a particular site’s needs. Over and above the essential components of forum/thread/post/user etc., almost every feature can be adjusted, or even turned off completely, in order to provide a fast and responsive experience for visitors to the site.

vBulletin的優點之一就是它的可擴展性，以及賦予管理員調整其安裝以完全適合特定站點需求的能力。 除了論壇/主題/帖子/用戶等基本組件之外，幾乎所有功能都可以調整，甚至完全關閉，以為網站訪問者提供快速響應的體驗。

The vBulletin Admin Control Panel is extremely comprehensive in the ability it gives to the administrator to control his own site; from the obligatory switch to turn the entire system on and off, right through to the ability to change the appearance of *every* element of the user interface without ever leaving the control panel.

vBulletin Admin控制面板在功能上非常全面，它使管理員可以控制自己的站點。 從強制性開關到打開和關閉整個系統，一直到無需離開控制面板即可更改用戶界面*每個*元素外觀的功能。

Unlike many of the other major forum software packages (phpBB or Invision Board for example), users have to pay for vBulletin. What made you decide to charge for the software? Why should people use vBulletin rather than one of the free alternatives?

與許多其他主要論壇軟件(例如phpBB或Invision Board)不同，用戶必須支付vBulletin的費用。 是什么讓您決定對該軟件收費？ 人們為什么應該使用vBulletin而不是免費的替代品之一？

While phpBB is Open Source software and Invision Power Services offer what they call an unlimited free trial but charge for support services, it was decided at an early stage that vBulletin would use a commercial licensing system, charging customers for their license, but offering priority support services as part of a vBulletin license holder’s entitlement.

雖然phpBB是開源軟件，而Invision Power Services提供了所謂的無限制免費試用版，但收取了支持服務的費用，但在早期階段，vBulletin決定使用商業許可系統，向客戶收取許可費用，但提供優先支持服務是vBulletin許可證持有人應享權利的一部分。

Charging customers for a vBulletin license means that Jelsoft can afford to pay a very reasonable rate to both the development team and the support team. It adds greatly to the stability of a product or a company if its employees have a degree of loyalty to it, and if those employees have been working with the company and its products for an extended period of time. A level of expertise and speciality is achieved that is difficult to attain when there are either no permanent staff members, or when staff turnover is much higher. This benefit impacts directly on our customers.

向客戶收取vBulletin許可證的費用意味著Jelsoft可以支付非常合理的價格給開發團隊和支持團隊。 如果員工對產品或公司有一定程度的忠誠度，并且這些員工已經與公司及其產品長期合作，則可以大大提高產品或公司的穩定性。 如果沒有長期工作人員，或者人員流動率高得多，則很難達到一定的專業水平。 此好處直接影響我們的客戶。

When a customer purchases a vBulletin license, they are automatically entitled to priority support services (in addition to the community support offered at the vBulletin Community Forums). This means that anyone with a vBulletin license can contact our support staff at any time without having reservations over how much it might cost them. We have also found that customers who are regular posters at the vBulletin Community Forums tend to use the priority support system for questions they feel may be embarrassingly obvious, or might make them appear foolish in front of their peers. The availability of the priority support system, where your issue is confidential, and is assigned to a single person who will do their utmost to assist, helps alleviate this problem.

客戶購買vBulletin許可證時，將自動獲得優先支持服務(除了vBulletin社區論壇提供的社區支持外)。 這意味著擁有vBulletin許可證的任何人都可以隨時與我們的支持人員聯系，而無需保留他們可能要花多少錢。 我們還發現，經常在vBulletin社區論壇上發帖的客戶傾向于使用優先支持系統來解決他們感到尷尬的顯而易見的問題，或者使他們在同行面前顯得愚蠢的問題。 如果您的問題是機密的，并且分配給將竭盡全力提供幫助的一個人，則優先支持系統的可用性將有助于緩解此問題。

With paid support staff dotted all around the world, some of whom now work on a full-time basis, we have around-the-clock coverage for every major time zone, and we pride ourselves on the average time of response and resolution for issues in the support system.

遍布全球的付費支持人員遍布其中，其中一些現已全職工作，我們在每個主要時區提供全天候服務，我們以平均的響應時間和解決問題的能力為榮在支持系統中。

vBulletin 3.0 is near gold release at time of writing. What aims did you have for the project when you first set out from version 1? Did you have any inspiration for the system?

在撰寫本文時，vBulletin 3.0即將發布。 從版本1開始時，您對該項目有什么目標？ 您對系統有什么啟發嗎？

Although I wasn’t personally involved in the development of vBulletin 1.x, I believe I can speak for John in saying that the goals of the project then were to produce a bulletin board system that was easy to install and easy to use, with the power of a database back-end providing a quantum leap forward in terms of the time it would take to search the board for keywords or find all posts by a certain user etc.

盡管我并不是親自參與vBulletin 1.x的開發，但我相信我可以代表John發言，他說該項目的目標是生產一種易于安裝且易于使用的公告板系統。數據庫后端的功能在搜索委員會中的關鍵字或查找某個用戶的所有帖子所需的時間方面提供了巨大的飛躍。

After that was achieved, the pre-eminent goal of vBulletin development has been to respond to customer suggestions for tools and procedures that will make their job as administrators easier, and to provide an ever-richer environment for the visitors to their sites to experience and interact with. vBulletin 3 continues this tradition.

在此之后，vBulletin開發的首要目標就是響應客戶對工具和程序的建議，這將使他們作為管理員的工作變得更加容易，并為站點的訪問者提供更加豐富的體驗和體驗環境。與。。。相互作用。 vBulletin 3延續了這一傳統。

What part of vBulletin do you like working on most?

您最喜歡vBulletin的哪一部分工作？

The first thing that attracted me to vBulletin was the template system, and it’s still the area I most enjoy working with, making it ever easier for administrators to create rich customized environments for their visitors. I’m particularly pleased with the new style system for vB3, which allows administrators to create infinitely nested styles, each inheriting customisations made in their parent styles.

吸引我進入vBulletin的第一件事是模板系統，它仍然是我最喜歡的領域，使管理員可以更輕松地為訪客創建豐富的自定義環境。 我對vB3的新樣式系統感到特別滿意，該系統允許管理員創建無限嵌套的樣式，每種樣式都繼承以其父樣式進行的自定義。

Do you think that a forum is an essential part of a big Website? What benefits do you think that having a forum can give Website owners?

您是否認為論壇是大型網站的重要組成部分？ 您認為擁有一個論壇可以為網站所有者帶來什么好處？

On a site where interaction with the public and or customers is valued and will be attended to, a message board system such as vBulletin can certainly be of enormous benefit in keeping a company or organisation in touch with the people who visit their site. A message board has the distinct advantage that questions asked by one visitor can be referred to again and again by anyone, cutting down time spent endlessly repeating the answer to those queries that seem to crop up again and again.

在重視并與公眾和/或客戶互動的網站上，諸如vBulletin之類的留言板系統無疑可以在保持公司或組織與訪問其網站的人保持聯系方面具有巨大的優勢。 留言板的顯著優勢是，任何人都可以一次又一次地提及一個訪客提出的問題，從而減少了無休止地重復回答那些似乎又一次出現的問題所花費的時間。

However, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that a message board is an essential part of every big site. Handled badly, a forum can be a very bad thing. One example that springs to mind is a company specialising in computer hardware. The staff opened up a set of forums, entitled ‘Support Forums’. Unfortunately, the relevant people in that company rarely, if ever, answered questions from people posting on the forums. That company has since developed a very bad reputation with the Internet community for having apparently non-existent technical support services.

但是，我不會說留言板是每個大型站點的重要組成部分。 如果處理不當，論壇可能是一件非常糟糕的事情。 一個想到的例子是一家專門從事計算機硬件的公司。 工作人員開設了一系列名為“支持論壇”的論壇。 不幸的是，該公司的相關人員很少(甚至從來沒有)回答過在論壇上發帖的人的問題。 自那以后，該公司因沒有明顯的技術支持服務而在Internet社區中建立了非常差的聲譽。

When people visit a site with active and thriving forums they tend to hang around there, meeting like-minded people and discussing things that interest them. From a commercial point of view, the potential for targeting advertising etc. to a specific demographic cannot be underestimated.

當人們訪問帶有活躍和蓬勃發展論壇的站點時，他們傾向于在附近閑逛，結識志趣相投的人并討論他們感興趣的事物。 從商業角度來看，不能低估將廣告等針對特定人群的潛力。

What are your plans for the future in regards to vBulletin? And how will it develop after the initial release? Do you plan on developing new features or branching out into a new product area?

您對vBulletin的未來有什么計劃？ 最初發行后它將如何發展？ 您打算開發新功能還是擴展到新產品領域？

I can’t give away any specific details, but our future plans include several new products, all of which will tie into vBulletin using the extremely flexible base code developed for vBulletin 3. Among the first of these products to be released will be the as-yet-unnamed Content Management System. Apart from that, I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait and see!

我無法透露任何具體細節，但是我們未來的計劃包括一些新產品，所有這些產品都將使用為vBulletin 3開發的極其靈活的基本代碼與vBulletin綁定。尚未命名的內容管理系統。 除此之外，恐怕您只需要拭目以待！

SitePoint thanks Kier for his time.

SitePoint感謝Kier的寶貴時間。

翻譯自: https://www.sitepoint.com/interview-kier-darby-vbulletin/

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