<img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1770056/51494323-414e8980-1d86-11e9-933c-e647b5ea49f4.png" alt="Vanilla Repo Logo" width=500/>

[![](https://img.shields.io/github/license/vanilla/vanilla.svg)](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/blob/master/LICENSE)
[![CircleCI](https://circleci.com/gh/vanilla/vanilla/tree/master.svg?style=svg)](https://circleci.com/gh/vanilla/vanilla/tree/master)
![](https://img.shields.io/github/commits-since/vanilla/vanilla/Vanilla_3.3.svg)

## Howdy, Stranger!

Vanilla was born out of the desire to create flexible, customizable, and downright entertaining
community solutions. Vanilla has been used to power tens of thousands of community forums around the world
and we couldn't be happier if you've decided to use Vanilla to grow yours.

| Forum                                                                                                         | Rich Editor                                                                                                   | Dashboard                                                                                                     |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1770056/51584623-2a9e5480-1ea4-11e9-9650-b37b0d6da609.png) | ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1770056/51584966-8fa67a00-1ea5-11e9-8fe2-1b110035a025.png) | ![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1770056/51422470-00cfef80-1b7d-11e9-9d3f-25ada61cecea.png) |

Every community is unique. Vanilla is a finely-crafted platform on which designers and developers
can build a custom-tailored environment that meets your community's particular needs.

## 5 reasons Vanilla is the sweetest forum

1. We've reimagined traditional forums for mass-appeal.
1. Our theming flexibility is second-to-none.
1. Impossibly good integration options with single sign-ons and embedding.
1. The best tools available for community management.
1. Curated features with great plugin options, not the kitchen sink.

## Installation

-   [Local Installation](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla-docker)
-   [Our Cloud Hosting Solution](https://vanillaforums.com/en/plans/)
-   [The Basics of Self Hosting ](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/installation/self-hosting/)

_Upgrading from an earlier version of Vanilla? See [our upgrade notes](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/installation/self-hosting/#upgrading)._

## Contributing

-   Local Development - [Environment](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla-docker), [Configuration & Debugging](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/tools/environment/) & [Build Tools](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/tools/building-frontend/).
-   [Running Unit tests](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/blob/master/tests/README.md).
-   Coding Standard - [PHP](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/contributing/coding-standard-php/), [Typescript](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/contributing/coding-standard-typescript/), [Database Naming](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/contributing/database-naming-standards/)
-   [Writing Pull Requests](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/contributing/pull-requests/)
-   [Contributing Guidelines](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)
-   [Contributing to Translations](https://github.com/vanilla/locales/blob/master/README.md)

## Getting Help

-   [Troubleshooting upgrades & installs](http://docs.vanillaforums.com/developers/troubleshooting/)
-   [Official documentation](http://docs.vanillaforums.com)
-   [Vanilla community forums](https://open.vanillaforums.com/discussions)
-   [Official cloud hosting with professional support & migration services](https://vanillaforums.com/plans)
-   [File a detailed bug report](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/issues/new?template=bug_report.md)
-   [Plan out a new feature](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/issues/new?template=new_feature.md)

## Reporting Security Issues

Please disclose security issues responsibly by emailing support@vanillaforums.com with a full description or join our [bug bounty program](https://hackerone.com/vanilla). We cannot award bounties outside that program.

We'll work on releasing an updated version as quickly as possible.
Please do not email non-security issues; use the [issue tracker](https://github.com/vanilla/vanilla/issues) instead.

## Releases & Branches

The `master` branch is considered a stable branch capable of being released at any time. Reviewed, stable changes land against `master` via pull-request.

Our open source release branches are named by version number, e.g. `release/3.3`. All open source releases (included pre-releases) are tagged.

The `release/VERSION+BUILD` branches are production-ready branches for our cloud product but are not yet vetted for open source release (alternate platforms & configurations).

|                     | Active Release |
| ------------------- | -------------- |
| **Version**         | `3.3`          |
| **Initial Release** | 28 October 2019 |
| **Last Updated**    | 28 October 2019 |
| **EOL**             | Next release   |

Refer to the [OSS changelog](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/developer/changelog/) and the [Vanilla Cloud changelog](https://docs.vanillaforums.com/help/releases/) to track active changes between releases.

## Building Releases

Vanilla releases are built using [Phing](https://www.phing.info/) to create a pre-built deploy-ready copies of Vanilla. To build these run the following in the root of the repository.

```
./bin/release
```

The following dependenies are all required for building a release.

-   `node`
-   `yarn`
-   `php`
-   `composer`

## License & Legal Stuff

Vanilla is free, open source software distributed under the license `gpl-2.0-only`.
We accept and encourage contributions from our community and sometimes give hugs in return.

Copyright © 2009-2019 Vanilla Forums Inc.

> Vanilla Forums is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
> as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
>
> Vanilla Forums is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
> without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
>
> See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
> along with Vanilla Forums.
>
> If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
> Contact Vanilla Forums Inc. at support [at] vanillaforums [dot] com

## Bonk!

Just kidding, everything's awesome. ![dance](http://images.v-cdn.net/dance.gif)
