BBCode is an abbreviation for Bulletin Board Code, the markup language used to format posts in many modern message boards. The available tags are usually indicated by rectangular brackets surrounding a keyword, and they are parsed by the message board system before being translated into a markup language the web browsers understands, usually HTML or XHTML.
BBCode was devised and put to use in order to provide a safer, easier and more limited way of allowing users to format their messages. Previously, many message boards allowed the users to include HTML, which could be used to break/imitate parts of the layout, or run JavaScript. Some implementations of BBCode have suffered problems related to the way they translate the BBCode into HTML, which could negate the security that was intended to be given by BBCode.
Although the basic tags of BBCode are similar in most internet forum software, there are many variants. Some variants require tags to be in the correct case whilst others are not case-sensitive. Some variants have tags which highlight HTML, PHP, SQL and other markup languages and programming languages.
BBCode tags
The following are most of the BBCode tags available to most modern message boards:
[b] and [/b] are used to produce bold text.
[i] and [/i] are used to produce italic text.
[u] and [/u] are used to generate underlined text.
[img] and [/img] are used to show image.
[url] and [/url] or [url=<insert url>]URL description[/url]are used to produce [[hyperlink|hyperlinked text.
[quote] or [quote="<insert name>"] and [/quote] are used to produce quoted text (usually from a previous post).
[code] and [/code] are used to produce monospaced text.
Many message boards include a FAQ with information on how to use their own variants of BBCode.
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