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Schema for phpBB Forums 3.3.x

Schema for phpBB is a free phpBB 3.3.x extension by ButtonPusher that adds Schema.org DiscussionForumPosting structured data to forum topic pages.

The extension is designed for Google forum structured data and uses Microdata connected directly to the content already visible on the page. Full post and reply text is not duplicated in a separate JSON-LD block.

Support and discussion on phpBB.com: Schema for phpBB extension topic.

Features

  • Schema.org DiscussionForumPosting markup for phpBB topic pages.
  • Replies on the current topic page are represented as Comment items when they contain supported text or images.
  • Topic headline and canonical topic URL.
  • Author name and author URL.
  • Public profile URLs for registered users.
  • Stable author-search URLs for guest or deleted-user posts where no profile exists.
  • Publication and modification dates.
  • Complete visible post text exposed through Microdata without duplicating it in the page source.
  • Reply count through commentCount.
  • Topic view count using InteractionCounter and ViewAction.
  • Parent forum information.
  • Inline post images included in the image property.
  • phpBB image attachments use the full image URL instead of the generated thumbnail URL.
  • phpBB smileys and content icons are excluded from the Schema.org image property.
  • Support for paginated topics.
  • Compatible with ButtonPusher Clean URLs when that extension is enabled.
  • No database tables or migrations.
  • No Administration Control Panel settings required.
  • No phpBB core file modifications.

How it works

Forum posts can contain a large amount of text. Copying the complete topic and every reply into a second JSON-LD block would unnecessarily duplicate content in the generated HTML.

Schema for phpBB instead marks the already-rendered phpBB message with the Schema.org text property and connects it to the corresponding DiscussionForumPosting or Comment item.

This keeps the structured data closely connected to the content users actually see while avoiding a second copy of every post in the page source.

Topics and replies

The first post is used as the main DiscussionForumPosting. Replies displayed on the current page are added as Comment items.

On paginated topics, the main posting continues to reference the first topic page, while replies use their permanent post URLs. When ButtonPusher Clean URLs is installed and enabled, Schema for phpBB automatically uses the corresponding clean topic, forum, profile and post URLs.

Images

The extension only adds real content images to the Schema.org image property.

Inline images and phpBB image attachments are detected automatically. For attachments, the full image URL is used instead of the smaller technical thumbnail generated by phpBB.

Smileys, icons and similar interface graphics are intentionally excluded because they are not representative images for the post.

For a text-only topic, Google Rich Results Test may display the warning Missing field "image" (optional). This is expected and does not make the structured data invalid.

Legacy video posts

Some older phpBB [video] integrations render only a player placeholder in the server-side HTML and do not expose enough information to create a valid Schema.org VideoObject.

A reply containing only such a legacy video widget is therefore not emitted as a standalone Comment unless it also contains supported text or images. The reply is still included in commentCount.

This avoids creating incomplete Comment markup with no valid text, image or video property.

Requirements

  • phpBB 3.3.0 or newer in the phpBB 3.x series.
  • PHP 7.2 or newer.

Included languages

The extension includes language packs for Czech, German, English, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Installation

  1. Download the extension archive.
  2. Extract it into your phpBB installation so that the extension files are located in:
    ext/buttonpusher/schema/
  3. Open the phpBB Administration Control Panel.
  4. Go to Customise → Manage extensions.
  5. Find ButtonPusher Schema for phpBB Forums and click Enable.
  6. Clear the phpBB cache.

No changes to phpBB core files, templates or the database are required.

Validation

After installation, open a public topic and test its URL with Google Rich Results Test or the Schema.org Markup Validator.

It is useful to test several types of topics: text-only posts, topics with multiple replies, image attachments, inline images and paginated discussions.

Version 1.0.0

  • Initial public release.
  • Added Schema.org DiscussionForumPosting Microdata for phpBB topic pages.
  • Added structured data for authors, dates, replies, view counts and parent forums.
  • Added inline image and image attachment detection.
  • Added support for paginated topics.
  • Added compatibility with ButtonPusher Clean URLs.
  • Excluded phpBB smileys from structured content images.
  • Improved handling of legacy video-only replies to avoid invalid Comment markup.
  • Added Czech, German, English, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Ukrainian language packs.

Download

Download Schema for phpBB 1.0.0

Current version: 1.0.0

License: GNU General Public License v2.0 only (GPL-2.0-only).

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