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Integration or portal?

Started by Chris Grable, August 04, 2014, 12:16:39 AM

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Chris Grable

I am taking over a site that has an old version of SMF and a front end made with FrontPage.   Will be upgrading SMF tomorrow but am struggling to figure out what to do with the front end.  Most of my experience is WordPress related and that would be my preference.  I have researched a wp integration and it sounds way beyond my capabilities.  Unless someone can point me to an easy solution I am guessing that a portal is the right decision.

the question is... which one?  My basic requirements are:

ability to add quite a few pages and a main menu
easily adjustable page width
two AND three column design alternatives
readily adjustable column widths
ad management
photo gallery
no downstream impediments or complications in upgrading SMF

I am such an SMF newb that I don't reallyknow which of this, if any, is included in basic SMF so forgive my ignorance.

I have been looking around for a showcase of portal sites... does one exist?

I think that's enough for now....

thanks!
chris


Mstcool

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;type=17

Simple Portal is really popular and is the one I use and I like it.

You can add pages easily in any of the portals I believe. Other than that, everything else on your list will require other mods I believe.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=gallery - photo gallery

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=255 - ad management

There might be other mods but I found these quickly. :p


Also, A portal might be the best option because everything is in the forum so you don't have to worry about two things at once because everything is inside the forum, not like front ends where you have to take care of two different things. :p

Kindred

the portals all support three column designs... but you could make it two column by not populating the third column and playing with the widths...

do note, I don't think that you can have different widths on different pages within the forum -- the column width is determined site-wide. Although I do know that you CAN display blocks by page... (which, then determines whether the column is present of hidden)


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Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

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Chris Grable

Quote from: Mstcool on August 04, 2014, 01:13:50 PM
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;type=17

Simple Portal is really popular and is the one I use and I like it.

You can add pages easily in any of the portals I believe. Other than that, everything else on your list will require other mods I believe.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=gallery - photo gallery

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=255 - ad management

There might be other mods but I found these quickly. :p


Also, A portal might be the best option because everything is in the forum so you don't have to worry about two things at once because everything is inside the forum, not like front ends where you have to take care of two different things. :p

Thanks so much!!  Very helpful.

chris

Chris Grable

Quote from: Kindred on August 04, 2014, 03:54:41 PM
the portals all support three column designs... but you could make it two column by not populating the third column and playing with the widths...

do note, I don't think that you can have different widths on different pages within the forum -- the column width is determined site-wide. Although I do know that you CAN display blocks by page... (which, then determines whether the column is present of hidden)

Thanks for all your help, Kindred.

Mstcool

Quote from: Chris Grable on August 04, 2014, 08:54:49 PM
Quote from: Mstcool on August 04, 2014, 01:13:50 PM
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;type=17

Simple Portal is really popular and is the one I use and I like it.

You can add pages easily in any of the portals I believe. Other than that, everything else on your list will require other mods I believe.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=gallery - photo gallery

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=255 - ad management

There might be other mods but I found these quickly. :p


Also, A portal might be the best option because everything is in the forum so you don't have to worry about two things at once because everything is inside the forum, not like front ends where you have to take care of two different things. :p

Thanks so much!!  Very helpful.

chris

Anytime. :)

Bigguy

I take it this is solved now. ??

Chris Grable

LOL.... Yes... the question has been answered.  I have not moved very far with my plans though as I had a knee replaced and the recovery has slowed me down.

Cheers,
chris

Bigguy

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope all went well.

Chris Grable

Oh... no, don't be sorry.  This has been coming for a while and I will be like a new person once its healed.  Will be a lot easier to play with the grand kids.... and there is just about not thing better than that ; )

It's just that between getting ready for the surgery and now going through the recovery and therapy process I have not had a lot of time for new tasks... at least none that require any additional thought <grin>

I will be back at this in a week or two.

Thanks for asking!!

chris

Burke ♞ Knight

Chris, with SimplePortal's pages, you can set the page to not have title bar and even not have background.
That makes it easy to set blocks up for the pages, and style the blocks how you want them to look.

Bigguy

That's great to hear. I hope recovery goes good. :)

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