[FREE] Full CMS Mod

[Chair]

Hello,

I had an idea for a mod, that would really help out my website. Although; I do not have what it takes to fund such a mod, if any funding is needed at all. So take this request as more of a suggestion. I have, however, taken the liberty to create images that will give you a very basic idea of what I'm looking for.

The aim of this mod is to convert the SMF software package (Mainly v1.1.10) into a fully-featured Content Management System, except it uses a layout similar to that of a Portal instead of an actual CMS.

I understand there are plenty of Portals and Page mods out there that do this, and I have looked at them, but none are satisfactory.

Just an overview of what this mod will do, is convert the normal index page into a differently layouted page, with no visible linktree. On the new homepage, will be a navigation menu (which can be enabled/disabled in the mod config) as well as a content area with 4 content boxes. One content box being the largest, will be for recent, more important content, and beside it, will be the other 3 content blocks stacked underneath each other.  Inside each content box, will be an image, and an article. The article information is collected from the first post in any thread, defined in the configuration area of the mod. Once a thread has been selected, an image can then be uploaded and displayed alongside the article.

So, effectively, this...



...Will become this:



Another feature of this mod, will be that it will let you add custom pages, and HOPEFULLY in the configuration area for these pages, the content can be made using a drag'n'drop WYSIWYG html/php editor, so instead of positioning text using html css tags, one can just drag it where they want it to be. The pages must also have no visible linktree at the top. Here is an example of a blank page:

(notice that the link tree under the header is not visible)


Permissions:

Anyone can view the homepage, even guests.
Only the admin can define which topics to use as a basis for each article, as well as the article's accompanying image.

As for the pages,
The admin can select whether or not the page is viewable by everyone, or whether or not the member needs to be in a specific membergroup in order to see the page.


Features summary:

Changes homepage to cms page
adds pages feature

CMS page: navigational menu can be enabled/disabled
Possibly able to select how many article blocks to show (if anyone needs more than just the given 4)

NB: Make it compatible with other themes too! Mainly the "Noize" theme by Dzinerstudio. (View Demo)

and I saw there was a "loading page" tip/trick in that section, perhaps that could be incorporated into this mod to add a more professional look and feel? (as long as credits are given to that appropriate author, of course)

Thank you very much if you do decide to go forward with this

Please remember that this is more of a suggestion and not a request so if you do make this mod, full ownership of the mod goes to you!

Regards,
Impennetrate

[Ken.]

It's apparent that you've put a lot of time and thought into this suggestion for a CMS, but with all due respect I would suggest that you need to take a closer look at some of the portals that are already available.

My personal preference is TinyPortal because I think that it's the best one and it dose most all of those things you are asking for, but there are others that are good as well.
Take the time to really check thoroughly and you may find what you need is already available. 

[Chair]

I've had a look at those, every single one. None of them really provide the features I need. The images on the article being an example of this. And portals are also a little less professional to the eye ;-)

[Arantor]

You can actually make nearly all of that with SimplePortal and defining it as custom blocks though.

As for not professional, you can make very professional looking sites with it, because you can configure the different blocks available with it, meaning you never see the default 'unprofessional' blocks.

[Chair]

Thing is, I've got simpleportal installed, and it's VERY important that I have those images in the article blocks, as well as the link tree under the header being hidden. That link tree interferes with the whole layout

[Arantor]

Removing the link tree is easy. Find where it says theme_linktree() in your index.template.php and remove it.

As for the images in article blocks, you can create custom blocks that have whatever HTML or PHP you want in.

[Chair]

Thanks for that link tree thing, will have to see how it works out. And that means I'll have to position the images myself, right? how will the custom html grab the first post from the thread i specify? <.<

I dont see how simple portal can do all this

[MultiformeIngegno]

SimplePortal automatically "grabs" images in posts, but - unfortunately - they're not floated... so the result, I admit, is pretty... "ugly"..

[Arantor]

If you use custom PHP you can make it do ANYTHING you like. You might get better support asking on simpleportal.net though on exactly how best to make that work in one of their custom blocks.

[Liam.]

I'm currently developing a Portal for SMF, and will try to include some of these features, but it won't be releaded for a couple of months yet...

[Arantor]

Another portal? Big project. Still, the more, the merrier.

[Chair]

I know how to position the images...it's just gonna be seriously time-consuming coding that for each image <.<

Wouldnt remind moving the sp_page_index of simpleportal so that it doesn't display the "pages [1]" thing at the bottom cause I really only need one page... I've checked index.php but it's not there lol, well I'll carry on searching and post my result later

[Arantor]

Construction of page index isn't done in index.php, nor in index.template.php. You'll be looking for a function call to constructPageIndex that you will want to be overriding to empty instead.

You'd have the same problem positioning images in anything directly SMF based because there's no facility for positioning images in its bbcode.

[Chair]

When I inspect that page element, it shows up in the index.php :s weird. And yeah, I know, but I'm not going to be positioning every image on every page. Would be awesome to just

Select a thread
Specify an image to attach to the content block

And Viola, the content block is created on the frontpage containing the information in the specified thread. The image position, is predefined.

You could probably do a similar thing with the article feature of simpleportal, using a category image, but the article block creates a really ugly little feature on top which specifies the author and title of the article, in a separate block to the actual article block. if that could be removed somehow, that would be cool... but it just gives me more reason not to use simpleportal lol.

Anyway, I still say that this CMS mod should be given some thought

[Arantor]

You could in the interim ask SimplePortal how to change that, but I'm sure if you created it as a custom block it wouldn't have that.

A CMS is a good idea, but that most of it can be done in one or more of the existing portals without too much extra development does kind of limit the desire to develop it.

[Chair]

I've never made a mod before... So I could try make this myself... but I'm not that great with coding

Just a little off topic question here... if I had to make a mod like this, without funds, how long do you think it would take me (working on it alone)?

[Arantor]

Could take a little while; ultimately depends on your level of PHP/SMF knowledge.

If you're not familiar with either - weeks at best.

If you're familiar with PHP but not SMF's internals, probably a couple of weeks.

If you're pretty familiar with both it could probably be done in a few days to a week, motivation and time permitting.

[Chair]

I see... Well, I'll try

[Sorck]

I'm currently developing a Portal for SMF, and will try to include some of these features, but it won't be releaded for a couple of months yet...

I'm making a CMS system but I'm not sure wether I'll release it as a mod but It's not including blocks (just a fully customisable HTML/PHP index page )

I see... Well, I'll try

If you need any help then don't help to ask

SMF is both easy and hard to code into (depending upon how familiar you are with it and other PHP softwares) so you might need to do a bit of surfing on this site.

[Chair]

Thanks

EDIT: Considering you're making a CMS mod yourself, and you're offering help, why not join the projects? I'll learn along the way