Customizing SMF > Portals, Bridges, and Integrations

Some Questions about Mambo

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Springer:
I know that some have managed integration, and others still working on it.  (link)  So I figured to look it over because I want things that work well with SMF.



I'm working on a map review site with a friend and we only need a couple of features.  I know mambo has polls, news, links, and can get download feature from what I've read.  Though I think you have to install the download feature.  I should be able to managed this.  I've looked some on their forums but can't seem to find exactly what I want.  I would ask on their forums but they don't seem as friendly.



The only other things we need would be a way to organize reviews.  I assume that the news can be used in some way or maybe there is another feature like it that can be used.  The map reviews would be organized in regards to the size of teams that can play them. 

And I would need something to display an image the main page for map of the week.  Such as many pages have image of the day, week, etc...   Preferably on one of the sides since that is where most of the polls I have seen are located.  Being able to keep track of them is important so not something that I simply update weekly but add a new one and the old ones can still be searched.

I can find these things once I know what to look for so I would appreciate any advice.

Metho:
You can do everything you want from within SMF and using SSI features.

If all you need is polls, news, links, a download feature, and a "map of the week" type thing...you just need SMF, really. Adding a portal would just be giving you a lot of bloat (plus time trying to make SMF and portal work together) You should look at ssi a bit more though, the download feature isn't in SMF, but I think one's being written (or one will, a lot of people want it), and as for organizing things, well, there's creative things you can do with queries to pull things.

And image of the day/week/month is nothing, coding wise.

- Methonis

Springer:
The ssi functions are great, I'm constantly amazed just how powerfull SMF is.  Unfortunately I lack the ability to make what I would consider a good looking site.  (not from lack of effort I must admitt)

And my code'n isn't that great.  I can generally edit what little needs I have, with help from here and there, but that's my extent. 



I went ahead and plug'd through mambo and managed almost everything I needed with a days effort.  I was shocked at how easy it was.  About the only thing that remains is a staff page (Not sure what I want there) and some work on get'n the template we picked tweaked.  It has a block that needs to be removed, some reason disable the content didn't do it.  And adding a border to the news.

Radianation:
I was just sitting here thinking to myself after reading all of the portal pages - why do I need a portal at all? All of these features are already in SMF (well, I'm integrating coppermine and a flash chat, but that's not really portal functionality). I am opting not to bother with a portal at this point because it doesn't look like any of the solutions are fully integrated or offer anything that SSI doesn't. Plus, portals are UGLY. I have never seen a good looking portal. They are cluttered and difficult to read/navigate for almost anybody that visits with the exception of the developer and the top users of the site. I hate those busy websites.

Can you post a link to yours so I can see if you've done something different with yours?

Springer:
www.gamingmaps.us

It won't be complete for probably another couple of weeks.  Right now its only a shell of what we are considering.  No reviews have been published yet so navigation through that part won't work till they are. 

The theme we plan to tweak more.  Remove the upper menu, maybe do something more graphic for the middle section, and see what else we can manage for the background.  As for the code part the web links has an error, and downloads needs to be added.

Our goal was something easy to keep current.  Could easily navigate through reviews and search them.  And something we would not have to design ourselves, but simply tweak to our needs. 

The same is true for the clan page that I've worked on except it used phpnuke.  I wanted to design with the SMF addon portal that is in works but while waiting I created this one.  To me the best feature, even though slow is the battles page.  And the weakest would be the roster.  But it was the closest to what I wanted.

www.getdisgruntled.com  Current Page
www.rebeltradition.com/BD/ Test Page we are considering


Once more themes, and extra's, are made for SMF I would happily redo the sites.   Especially the clan site. 

A way to do the rosters, keep up match results in a clean presentable manner, and it would be really nice to have forms (like join and challenge) that would post directly to a private section of the forum.  Find a way to do all this easily with SMF and clans will be flocking here.  Already the ability for news, search, and calendar exists.  I think it was RougeSquadrin that made a roster page based on SMF member groups that I liked. 

If I had the code'n ability I'd like to try and set it up so that you have an extra option/page in your SMF profile for roster.  Then fill that out as you want and it will be used on the main site.  Allowing people to edit that one page, not mess with the existing forum profile, to fit their clans roster style.

These same features could again be used on the Gaming Maps above but towards different uses.

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