Hi,

Does anyone know if it could be feasible to drop completely the data storage module of a forum,
and modify the forum's source code
to replace it
with a different database and a completely different database table layout?

The company where I work already has a database with lots of data and our own table structure, and we want to store the forum data (e.g. thread messages, forum and sub-forum hierarchies, and forum user data) in these tables. (Other parts of our system need access to the forum data, and we'd rather not change the manner in which data is stored in our database tables -- we'd rather, if possible, adapt the forum data storage module to our tables.)

(We could of course write a forum Web interface ourselves, to visualize forum data that we store in our tables (that is, write the whole forum ourelves). I thought however that perhaps it's easier instead to modify the backend of some existing forum, hence this post.)

Would you recommend any particular forum software for this?
I.e. is there any modular forum with a persistence module, which can "easily" be... well... rewritten from scratch?
Or is there perhaps some tools for constructing just the Web interface of a forum, that are intended for use in situations like this one?

(I thought that perhaps JForum could be suitable, keeping in mind the modular design of a J2EE server, with servlets, JSP-pages and beans for persistence.)

(As you realize, I am very new to forum software and forums in general.)

Thanks,
Magnus

You'd be best off converting the database to be used by the forum of your choice.

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