Topic: SimplePortal vs TinyPortal - Which do you PREFER?

[forumside]

Oh I understand the difference alright. You're talking to someone who rewrote half of TP for a custom installation. Most people don't do that though. For most people any of the popular portals will be fine, and they can just select the one they prefer.

There is many people which installed more then 3-4 mods on their forums. And after they need to update version - just simple update - will cause them too many problems!
And as more changes are done in SMF source code - there will be more chances for more problems!

[Antechinus]

Ok, what I suggest you do then is to search the web for people who are using the wrong portal, and tell them they are doing it wrong.

[forumside]

personally, I like EZPortal and find that one the easiest to use.

EZPortal is really close for TinyPortal on number of changes in source code - 16 in EZ vs 10 in TP. But TP is still better from this point of view.

Other portals even bad, for example MXPrtal have 46 changes and SimplePortal have 49 changes....

[Antechinus]

[Kindred]

Gotta say PortaMx is an awesome piece of kit too. I've used that before and liked it a lot. It's like TP on steroids, if you want that sort of thing.

Portamx is interesting...   It is, however, IMO, extremely and overly complicated
I tried it a few times, and got myself confused.

[Antechinus]

Like I said, if you want that sort of thing. If you don't want the extra functionality, and a lot of people don't, then go ahead and use wotcha like.

[Gluz]

Well, as far a I see them from the inside (because I needed some Portal that allow me to use some of their function in a easy way), some of the main differences are that SP do that many edits in files because it doesn't use hooks as TP. Also from the install files I see that TP have all the Menu, Buttons, Settings and Permissions in it's own file, and SP edit the source files to let SMF handle it as if was part of the core and not from other file.

SP is what I use at the end because the simple way to handle from code and from SMF itself, it's a bit more SMFish than TP, and my MOD is coded that way too, the same as SP is done.

The one that I can't understand is ADKPortal, neither the Admin Panel for it or the code integration that I need to do to work with it.

[Nomada_Firefox]

Well, I have a site now with ADK portal. http://firefoxccmods.com/ It is down now but it will be re-activated soon. Before ADK, I had a TinyPortal. I replaced it because there was not a version for the last SMF. But looking now perhaps I return to TinyPortal. But I have been looking the EzPortal and it looks good. However, the main problem is load it with a old database and with some very important mods.

[Eliana Tamerin]

Well, as far a I see them from the inside (because I needed some Portal that allow me to use some of their function in a easy way), some of the main differences are that SP do that many edits in files because it doesn't use hooks as TP. Also from the install files I see that TP have all the Menu, Buttons, Settings and Permissions in it's own file, and SP edit the source files to let SMF handle it as if was part of the core and not from other file.

Ahh, that's because TP's code has been rewritten lately, whereas SP's is still based on the pre-hooks days. It could use an update, but there's really no incentive to do so before 2.1 is further along in development.

[lurkalot]

Well, as far a I see them from the inside (because I needed some Portal that allow me to use some of their function in a easy way), some of the main differences are that SP do that many edits in files because it doesn't use hooks as TP. Also from the install files I see that TP have all the Menu, Buttons, Settings and Permissions in it's own file, and SP edit the source files to let SMF handle it as if was part of the core and not from other file.

Ahh, that's because TP's code has been rewritten lately, whereas SP's is still based on the pre-hooks days. It could use an update, but there's really no incentive to do so before 2.1 is further along in development.

Actually, I think we've been using hooks since April 2012 when TP1.0 came out. And before that if you include the RC versions

[Antes]

I'm curious anyone tried (at least in theory) to make SP or TP with hooks-only... I'm asking it because SD already edit-free.

[Arantor]

Eh, I did a 2.0 hook only portal a while ago. Not that hard depending how thorough you are.

But since I didn't write an admin area (as I don't need one), it was never suitable for being released, not that I wanted to deal with the support issues.

[aegersz]

for me, the choice is Simple.

yes, I chose SP and it's Shoutbox configured with all my BBC and YouTube integration are cool features.

also, the Simple Portal support guys are really helpful.

[wedealantiques]

I just installed TP and think it is a wonderful mod and exactly what I was looking for.

[shadymisa]

Simple Portal.

[landyvlad]

Here's my take on it. 

I had a look (via people's signature blocks) at forums using both.
I'm also a member of forums which use one or the other of these.

For me, TP looks as if it does what I will want it to do.  SP probably does as well but I find the styling of the TP forums to be better (to my eye) than SP.  That's it.
So I'll be going with TP. 

This sums it up nicely.

The bottom line is that both work, very well, for a lot of people on a lot of sites, and often with a lot of mods. It comes down to personal preference.

[Linkjay]

SimplePortal 👌👌

[landyvlad]

I'm using EZPortal now, the reason is unimportant but I was perfectly happy with TP as well.


The take away message here is that all three EZ, TP, SP are good and work perfectly well.
The key is getting to know the functions and usage of whatever portal it is you happen to have chosen.

[mythus]

I voted for TinyPortal.

I am in the middle of rebuilding my current website which is ran on Joomla using Kunena as its forums. While Joomla has served me well enough (it has it fair share of headaches) Kunena is a mess and terrible with system resources. Anyway, my needs required a robust article category system, a robust article management system, a download system, menus, and a community-friendly forum. The later easily answered by SMF, but what of the rest?

So like any serious person wanting to find the best for their needs, I set up SMF and started trying out a bunch of portals. I tried most of them, but I didn't try Dream Portal or PortalMX because by the time I got to TinyPortal I was already won over. The default TinyPortal 1.2 that they offer as the stable release is good, but I needed a responsive layout for my mobile users. So I decided to try out their open beta 1.2R. Despite being in beta, it has been extremely stable with everything I've thrown at it so I have no issues using it as my live site. It is also very responsive and accepts all of the theming changes I do to the SMF theme I'm using.

TinyPortal is more like a CMS than a portal if you ask me, while neatly being a part of and sharing many of SMF's features. I have greatly been enjoying building my site and moving over my 240 articles and various categories over using TinyPortal. In fact, I would say that TinyPortal has been far more of a joy to work with than Joomla. I remember TinyPortal when it was still new and it was impressive then but it has skyrocketed into something far more than I could even hope for from a portal. Best of all, it is easy to work with, no bridging needed, and any theme stuff I do to SMF is also accepted by TinyPortal because it uses SMF's theme! Article management in TinyPortal is extremely robust and flexible, categories are nice and flexible, and if I make a mistake it is so easy to fix and move things back to where I wanted them. Really for me TinyPortal is it. It is all I ever wanted from a full fledge CMS and it has the added bonus of being a part of the best forum software ever.

[Ken.]

Very nice work on your site mythus, especially the theme... I like it! 


BTW, your sig link needs to be changed from .com to .net.