title: RESTful interface to PHP forum software
body: <p>I'm looking to integrate a light-weight forum feature into an existing GWT website.  The front-end is written in GWT/SmartGWT and the backend is written in PHP.  The communication is through a RESTful API using JSON.  </p>
  
  <p>I have looked into the forums of some popular software (SMF, phpBB, etc.) but was unable to find any references to a RESTful web API to make integration into an existing non-PHP site easier.  The closest I came is to vBulletin's Mobile API - <a href="https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/content.php/334-mobile-api" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/content.php/334-mobile-api</a>.  Unfortunately, vBulletin isn't free.</p>
  
  <p>Some recent threads I have seen on some of the forums basically say that the user should write their own web services wrapper around the internal API.  However, that seem like a bad solution that can lead to all kinds of additional bugs.  </p>
  
  <p>So, my question is this - does anyone know of an existing, free forum software (PHP, Perl, Ruby OK, but NOT Java) that provides a RESTful web services interface?</p>
  
  <p>An ancillary question to this is: has anyone used Restler (<a href="http://luracast.com/products/restler/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://luracast.com/products/restler/</a>) to turn a forum software's published API into a RESTful interface?  I'm sure this method would be fraught with potential problems, but one can always hope.</p>
  
  <p>PS: I saw the following older questions on stackoverflow, but they don't seem to be that helpful and are now kind of old:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1069246/open-source-forum-with-api">Open-Source Forum with API</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1549232/php-forum-software-that-integrates-easily-with-existing-website">PHP forum software that integrates easily with existing website?</a> -- the OP's website is built in PHP, which makes integration a lot easier</li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2329246/forum-software-with-a-simple-restful-api-support">forum software with a simple RESTful API support</a> -- Elgg, while a great social networking framework, doesn't include a forum plugin!</li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3845933/a-forum-solution-with-an-qa-option-and-api">A forum solution with an Q&amp;A option and API</a> -- same issue as OP, Drupal is really heavy-weight and all I want is the forum functionality.</li>
  </ul>