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Filagora Forums Laravel Package
filagora/filagora-forums
Filagora Forums is a Laravel/PHP package for adding a complete discussion forum to your app. It includes categories, topics, replies, moderation, role-based permissions, configurable models, migrations, and a clean Blade UI, making forum setup and customization straightforward.
Filagora Forums is a Laravel package for adding a full-featured discussion forum to your application. It provides a clean, extensible foundation for categories, threads, and replies, with sensible defaults and Laravel-native conventions so you can integrate community discussions without building core forum mechanics from scratch.
- Category and thread management for organized discussions
- Post and reply workflows with pagination-ready models
- Authorization and moderation hooks using Laravel policies/gates
- Configurable views and routes for easy customization
- Eloquent-based architecture that fits existing Laravel apps
Frequently asked questions about Filagora Forums
- How do I install Filagora Forums in a Laravel application?
- Install it with Composer using composer require filagora/filagora-forums, then publish and run the package migrations and register the Filament plugin in your panel provider. Because v0.5.0 is pre-1.0, follow the README and pin the version you test. The package is designed to drop into an existing Laravel app.
- Does Filagora Forums require a separate search service?
- No. Search is an optional subsystem: the core forum package works without a search backend, and the database fallback ThreadDatabaseSearch answers search queries from the package's own tables. If you want a dedicated engine, add the companion package filagora/filagora-search. You can defer that dependency until you actually need indexed search.
- Which Laravel and Filament versions does Filagora Forums support?
- The evaluation notes do not pin specific Laravel or Filament version ranges, so check the package's composer.json and README before upgrading. Filagora Forums is a Laravel package delivered as a Filament plugin, and v0.5.0 is pre-1.0. Pin a tested version in composer.json and review changelogs because model names, config keys, and command signatures may change between releases.
- How do I configure the forum search index?
- Search configuration is published into your app and includes keys such as search.post_text_limit and search.fulltext. post_text_limit caps the approved post text copied into thread documents, while fulltext controls whether the database fallback uses FULLTEXT. Set these deliberately before the first backfill, because changing index schema after population is more expensive.
- How do I populate the search index for existing forum threads?
- Run the artisan command filagora:search:backfill, scoped by a filters group, after installing search and running the ThreadSearchIndex migration. It populates the index from existing threads and posts in one pass. Plan for the backfill cost at your largest forum's expected thread and post volume, and re-run it after major data changes if the index drifts.
- How does Filagora Forums keep search documents in sync with posts and forums?
- The package uses model observers, including SearchRelations and SyncForumThreadDocuments, to keep thread documents current as posts and forums change. Thread documents are denormalized and copy in the forum name plus approved post text capped by search.post_text_limit, so drift is possible. ForumSearch::threads() includes a stale-hit check, but verify what that check does in your version and test it against real updates.
- Are forum visibility and moderation rules applied to search results?
- Search results are meant to be filtered by the viewer's visibility as an engine-neutral filter, so a user should not see threads they could not see in the normal forum listing. That makes permission correctness a data-exposure concern, not just a UX concern. Add tests asserting that the search path and the non-search listing path return the same authorized threads for the same user and roles, and verify moderation states such as unapproved posts.
- Does the database search fallback support MySQL as well as MariaDB?
- The database fallback uses FULLTEXT on MariaDB unless search.fulltext is disabled, so MariaDB services can adopt it with no new infrastructure. The notes do not confirm MySQL InnoDB parity, so if you run MySQL, explicitly test the FULLTEXT path before assuming it behaves the same. If you already have a search cluster, use filagora/filagora-search instead of the fallback and avoid running two search stories.
- Should I use filagora/filagora-search if I already run Meilisearch or Elasticsearch?
- Yes, use the companion search package rather than the database fallback if you already operate Meilisearch or Elasticsearch. The architecture keeps search optional and lets services solve search differently, but you should not run both the engine integration and the fallback as competing search paths. Confirm driver support and the permission filter behavior before wiring it into an existing cluster.
- What production risks should I consider before adopting v0.5.0?
- The main risks are pre-1.0 volatility, denormalized index staleness, and permission correctness in filtered search results. Model names, config keys, and command signatures may change between releases, and a populated search index schema is expensive to churn. Pin versions, test authorization equivalence between search and non-search listings, and verify backfill cost at your largest forum volume before production adoption.
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