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What is the best portal for 2.0?

Started by oldrow, August 11, 2011, 02:54:31 PM

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oldrow

I am looking at ADK and TinyPortal... Which one uses less system resources and has the most features.  It needs to look very clean.

Suki

The best portal is the one who will feed all your needs/expectations   why don't you install both in local and decide after you had checked both?

AFAIK there is no benchmarks on any SMF portal system, of course this will depend on your server configurations among other things.
Disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal and does not represent any views or opinions held by Simple Machines.

feline

The one and only Portal for SMF 2.0 that have his own caching is PortaMx ...

live627

Quote from: feline on August 11, 2011, 06:10:04 PM
The one and only Portal for SMF 2.0 that have his own caching is PortaMx ...
Are you completely sure on that?

feline

Quote from: live627 on August 11, 2011, 06:19:31 PM
Are you completely sure on that?
You know a other Portal that have dynamic caching for any block with action trigger for cache refresh?

live627


Account Abandoned

So far the one from vbgamer is the best I have seen, it offer must better features than the other ones I have played with and it is simple and simple it good.

distante

Quote from: feline on August 12, 2011, 06:15:27 AM
Quote from: live627 on August 11, 2011, 06:19:31 PM
Are you completely sure on that?
You know a other Portal that have dynamic caching for any block with action trigger for cache refresh?

Ultimate portal! only that we call it "Reduce Site Overload" ;)

feline

Well .. you have a great profile here, but your link .. simple don't work. That is very fast...  :D  :D

Gargoyle


distante

Quote from: feline on August 14, 2011, 09:33:38 AM
Well .. you have a great profile here, but your link .. simple don't work. That is very fast...  :D  :D

hahaha, touché. I didn't realize that, now is fixed.

feline

Quote from: distante on August 14, 2011, 01:05:21 PM
hahaha, touché. I didn't realize that, now is fixed.
Well .. I can't find that portal on the SMF mod site .. it's approved by SMF?

Illori

Ultimate Portal was submitted and rejected.

4Kstore

If the mods take weeks to be reviewed not want to think how long it takes to approve a portal that has a lot more code
however the portal is not in the mod site does not mean they do not exist and consider

¡¡NEW MOD: Sparkles User Names!!!

Illori

the portal was denied in 2010, it is not a new mod that is still in queue or similar processes.

usually if a mod is denied to be part of the mod site that means they have some issues in coding or security that makes it so that is not good enough for the team to approve and they think others should not use it.

4Kstore

Quote from: Illori on August 15, 2011, 09:13:44 AM
the portal was denied in 2010, it is not a new mod that is still in queue or similar processes.

usually if a mod is denied to be part of the mod site that means they have some issues in coding or security that makes it so that is not good enough for the team to approve and they think others should not use it.

I belong to the staff of UP, the portal does not resent the reason I said above, the code is greatly improved and there were several new versions since that of 2010.
My reasons for this participation is not to fight for what is the best portal, just say you should not underestimate the work we not only because the site mod
Greetings!

¡¡NEW MOD: Sparkles User Names!!!

WillyP

Quote from: oldrow on August 11, 2011, 02:54:31 PM
I am looking at ADK and TinyPortal... Which one uses less system resources and has the most features.  It needs to look very clean.

Getting off topic and the original questions have not been addressed. Sorry to say, I cannot address the first two. Though as for features you should install each on local test installs, I use XAMPP to install on my Windows machine and it is very easy to do. As far as looking clean, I can't speak for ADK but I have used TinyPortal and it gives the option to turn off the headers and such on blocks, and a huge variety of options for displaying articles.

However, whether or not it looks clean is really up to the theme. TinyPortal uses standard themes, with no alterations needed. There are some really good clean themes available if you look for them.

feline

Quote from: WillyP on August 15, 2011, 09:39:23 AM
However, whether or not it looks clean is really up to the theme. TinyPortal uses standard themes, with no alterations needed.
That (I think) do all portals I know  ;)

Herman's Mixen

I've made a list awhile ago in the dutch boards here you can find all of them ;)
Portals for SMF 1.1x & SMF 2.0
Met vriendelijke groet, The Burglar!

 House Mixes | Mixcloud | Any Intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction. - Albert Einstein

Former Godfather of our dutch community ;)

feline

Here a List of approved Portals sorted by total downloads.
Note, that SimplePortal is currently not available for the lastest SMF release.
So any member can make his own meanings ...

SimplePortal
   Author: SimplePortal Team
   Submitted On: 20 February 2008, 10:36:24
   Last Updated: 05 November 2010, 18:52:05
   Total Downloads: 101394
   SMF Versions: 1.1.10, 1.1.11, 1.1.12, 2.0 RC1.2, 2.0 RC2, 2.0 RC3, 2.0 RC4

PortaMx
   Author: feline
   Submitted On: 22 September 2008, 10:58:14
   Last Updated: 31 July 2011, 08:12:34
   Total Downloads: 43345
   SMF Versions: 2.0

TinyPortal
   Author: IchBin™
   Submitted On: 10 February 2005, 12:54:12
   Last Updated: 13 June 2011, 18:40:42
   Total Downloads: 27975
   SMF Versions: 1.1.12, 1.1.13, 1.1.14, 2.0 RC4, 2.0 RC5, 2.0

ezPortal
   Author: vbgamer45
   Submitted On: 12 October 2008, 22:27:49
   Last Updated: 12 June 2011, 14:02:32
   Total Downloads: 26267
   SMF Versions: 1.1.6, 1.1.7, 1.1.8, 1.1.9, 1.1.10, 1.1.11, 1.1.12, 1.1.13, 1.1.14, 2.0 RC1, 2.0 RC1.2, 2.0 RC2, 2.0 RC3, 2.0 RC4, 2.0 RC5, 2.0

Adk Portal
   Author: Adk-Team
   Submitted On: 03 November 2009, 18:49:26
   Last Updated: 10 July 2011, 02:02:28
   Total Downloads: 13837
   SMF Versions: 1.1.12, 1.1.13, 1.1.14, 2.0 RC5, 2.0

Kindred

Do note that downloads is probably not the most accurate indicator.... Since I downloaded ez, simple, tiny and  mx and installed each to test before going with my choices.

No offense intended, feline, but I found portamx to be overly complicated for my needs. It was a great portal, but had a high learning curve, imo.
Слaва
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.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

andershz

It seems the SimplePortal people have forgotten to update the description, it works just fine with SMF 2.0 final.

feline

Quote from: Kindred on August 15, 2011, 07:03:09 PM
Do note that downloads is probably not the most accurate indicator.... Since I downloaded ez, simple, tiny and  mx and installed each to test before going with my choices.
If you download all, ALL have 1 count more  ;) So I think, this IS a small indicator ...

Quote from: Kindred
No offense intended, feline, but I found portamx to be overly complicated for my needs. It was a great portal, but had a high learning curve, imo.
Well .. you have the choice between portals the have many restrictives in the settings and portals like PortaMx they have less restrictions. This (of course) results in more various settings. But we added many short helps for all the settings, so any one they can read find his best choice. And a Administrator they is not willing to learn all the SMF / PortaMx options is not the best Admin... (my 2 cent)

billy2

Simple Portal 2.3.3 works great with SMF2.0
Cheers
Billy

Kindred

hey Feline...  I said "no offense intended"...

And actually, I agree... a good administrator needs to know how the system works. However, that does not change the fact that PortaMX has a higher learning curve and requires an administrator (even one as experienced as I am) to read a lot of the "help" and is not necessarily the most intuitive interface.   Now, mind you, this does not make it bad...   just complicated. (and, as I said, overly complicated for my needs - which is a subjective statement specific to three instances that I was looking for a portal to implement on my sites.)

Since I've started a more in depth review of my portal experience, I will continue with the opinions/experience with the others...

TinyPortal (the oldest one) is good, but is also somewhat complicated... and is still being tweaked by IchBin after he took over from Bloc. There are some issues, but they are quickly addressed, when pointed out to IchBin. It's good and has a lot of built in features, but does not have as in depth a "help/tips" setup as PortaMX.

EZPortal was probably the easiest to figure out and use, but has the fewest "built in features". It requires additional mods to be applied to bring it to the same level as PortaMX or TinyPortal (e.g. Articles are a separate mod). On the other hand, that also means that it is "lighter" and that I only have to add the features that I want.

I was not all that impressed with SimplePortal - it falls somewhere between the complicatedness of the two big ones and the simplicity of EZPortal and so has problems that apply to both while lacking the full strength of the more powerful ones and the simplicity of the other.

DreamPortal...   no offense to the DP team, but - based on what I have read about it and some of the issues - I wouldn't touch it.

ADKportal...  I have not tried this one. It seems to have a good base, but I am not sure it's a full competitor with the "big boys" yet.
Слaва
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.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

feline

Kindred .. I don't see you post as offense ...
It's the best choice, if anyone check all the portals to find one with the features he need.
And your post can help to this "find out" process because it's a neutral compare (I think)  ;)

honeywick

Nice all this over portals.. I am a regular user of smf not trying to push anything like feline loool sorry feline you sound like a drug pusher on the corner saying my stuff is better  ( no offense )

I have tried all the portals
I like ez portal the best as ease of use but went with simple portal for more options and was easy to change the forum over
tiny portal I found to be attractive but more complicated
portamx was real nice but id like to have my blocks and home page up and running fast and you really need to read up on that one

To the original poster

alot of time is put into portals I would make sure you try a test forum or two before going live with one


feline

Quote from: honeywick on August 23, 2011, 01:07:58 AM
sorry feline you sound like a drug pusher on the corner saying my stuff is better  ( no offense )
You know a other Portal system that have the same features as we have?
Article/Category system, access management, SEF engine, dynamic caching and much more?

bloc

Quote from: feline on August 23, 2011, 05:39:21 AM
Quote from: honeywick on August 23, 2011, 01:07:58 AM
sorry feline you sound like a drug pusher on the corner saying my stuff is better  ( no offense )
You know a other Portal system that have the same features as we have?
Article/Category system, access management, SEF engine, dynamic caching and much more?
Sometimes its not about how much you can have, but what you actually need. My site do just fine without any portal mods, just small(ish) coded extra pages(frontpage, gallery, blog, articles) - but I did write a relatively complex portal too, abovementioned Tinyportal. Everything has it place.

honeywick

ok loool
we all know you guys can code for smf but put aside your coding skills for a second.. the original poster asked a simple question

To me there are three blocks that are important a bbcode html and a php block

List in your opinion starting from an admin point of view (NOT A CODER or OWNER OF A SYSTEM)
Which is easier starting from a novice moderate or advanced admin

Novice admin _________ Portal System

Moderate admin _________ Portal System

Advanced admin __________ Portal System

Please fill in the blanks
and put this thread to rest



Suki

this topic end up the very same way all the "whats the best portal"  topics ends...   the OP didint even come back to make a reply...


Quote from: Miss All Sunday on August 11, 2011, 02:57:58 PM
The best portal is the one who will feed all your needs/expectations   why don't you install both in local and decide after you had checked both?

AFAIK there is no benchmarks on any SMF portal system, of course this will depend on your server configurations among other things.
Disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal and does not represent any views or opinions held by Simple Machines.

Kindred

Please see my analysis post, above...


All of the portals listed allow an html or php block...    Why would you ever use a bbcode block? ???
Слaва
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.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

bloc

This whole topic would be innocent enough if it wasn't for the constant "my portal is better than yours" attitude from Feline.

But I guess it can't be said enough times(and i also said something already but hey, people can't read so..) : TEST THEM OUT AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.

'nuff said. 

honeywick

Quote from: Kindred on August 23, 2011, 10:50:57 AM
Please see my analysis post, above...


All of the portals listed allow an html or php block...    Why would you ever use a bbcode block? ???

why
I take the post on the forum where is jazzzed up with glitter text or some other things
cut copy and paste that into a bbcode block and makes for a nice home page addition
The first four center blocks are bbcode blocks

www.toonunion.net

feline

Quote from: Bloc on August 23, 2011, 10:57:00 AM
This whole topic would be innocent enough if it wasn't for the constant "my portal is better than yours" attitude from Feline.
*lol* I never say that .. should be the envy?  :D

Quote from: BlocBut I guess it can't be said enough times(and i also said something already but hey, people can't read so..) : TEST THEM OUT AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.
Same as I have say ...

IchBin™

Quote from: Bloc on August 23, 2011, 10:57:00 AM
This whole topic would be innocent enough if it wasn't for the constant "my portal is better than yours" attitude from Feline.

But I guess it can't be said enough times(and i also said something already but hey, people can't read so..) : TEST THEM OUT AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.

'nuff said. 

Truer words have never been spoken. Even the part about Feline. :D Test em out if you wonder which is better people! Better is a very subjective word. And each person has specific wants and needs. No portal will fit every persons needs and wants.
IchBin™        TinyPortal

agridoc

There are even more choices, if you count bridging with a CMS software. The same applies with choosing a gallery, imagine a topic like "What is the best gallery for SMF 2.0?".

I am with TinyPortal since 2005, in my site since beginning of 2006, still running SMF 1.1x and TP 0.9.7 (not even 0.9.8 ). Even the creator of another portal has a site that runs SMF 1.1x and TP 0.9.7. Why? Because, at the moment, it does the job quite well.

Although I have my participation in SMF and TP, I am not a coder, I just want to make my site better. My site is not for computer interested people so I must make it as easy as possible.

A person without experience is difficult to evaluate a portal. He/she can however try and see how they work in a test site but time must be given to examine the features of each one and consider future plans of the site where it will be used. A very simple and easy portal in the beginning can be found restrictive in the future. Examine well the features that are needed, all portals have their bugs.

Try to look around for big sites that use the portal. Of course one can see an excellent work with inferior software and not so good with a better one but it's a live evaluation.  "If it's good for this site is more than adequate for mine"  can't be very wrong.  ;)

All portals can be good for a beginning, as an administrator gains experience and learns more will be more able to evaluate. No one is perfect all have their bugs. Beyond these it is also a taste and look matter, how someone feels using it and what suits someone and the site team best.

And remember that site content and organization, as well as good administration and moderation are the main goals.
  For Greek aeromodellers and our friends around the world  - Greek Button sets for SMF - Greeklish to Greek mod
Δeν αφιερώνω χρόνο για μηνύματα σε greeklish.

WillyP

There are lots of choices, but the OP had already limited the topic to ADK and Tiny Portal. For whatever reason, there was no mention of Porta-Whatever or CMS bridging, so presumably he ruled those out already, probably set up test sites and installed dozens of different options and didn't like any, except for ADK and Tiny Portal.

So lets compare ADK and Tiny Portal, ok? Years ago I chose Tiny Portal over ADK, I don't recall why. If there were a good bridge with Nucleus CMS, I probably would have gone with that. But the OP probably never even heard of Nucleus. I am considering switching to Flux because there is a bridge to Nucleus, even though it is not a great bridge, at least it is a start.

Kindred

you could not have chosen TP over ADK years ago, since ADKportal was just released this year....
Слaва
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.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

feline

I think it is legal to highlight the advantages of its own product without having to speak negatively about other products. But it can not be meaningful in this discussion, to assess other people so negative.
Everyone should review existing products and form his own opinion.

WillyP

Quote from: Kindred on August 24, 2011, 11:11:05 AM
you could not have chosen TP over ADK years ago, since ADKportal was just released this year....

I should have said I chose TP over every other portal that was available at the time. I assumed that included ADK, my mistake. My memory is not that good that I would remember which ones or why. I originally had used phpBB but did not like the support I got on a simple question.

agridoc

ADK portal was officially released on Nov. 4 2009, so it's 1 year 9 months and 20 days old.

However numbers can be misleading if someone doesn't know the story behind. TinyPortal's first release is Feb. 10 2005 but Bloc very soon put an announcement that it was a beta version and uploads were available only from his site and only for registered members. I had to convince him after quite a few years that being off SMF modsite was not a good policy and that we were loosing popularity. Arantor with his DreamPortal does the same now, not in SMF modsite. It's up to the creator to decide. As most portals offer downloading from their homesite, downloads in SMF modsite is not a good index of popularity.

A rough index of popularity is Google search. Portal names were used in quotes for better accuracy. So wo get for

SimplePortal: 4.080.000 results
TinyPortal:   3.890.000 results
ezPortal:     1.180.000 results
PortaMX:        599.000 results
ADK Portal:     452.000 results
Dream Portal:    62.000 results
Gencportal:      13.600 results


So we have a clear heading by SP and TP, SP just slightly in front, with others following. I believe real popularity relation might be slightly different than this given by Google search but not very much.

Popularity is something to consider but it's not a safe measure of what is best for someone's need. These numbers will change with time. Newer software need time to become popular. However, popularity is not a useless measure, if correctly estimated.

TinyPortal's popularity was greatly affected by Bloc's retirement from the project but it quickly gains lost space with IchBin™ showing a remarkable strength and ability as developer and leader.  ;)
  For Greek aeromodellers and our friends around the world  - Greek Button sets for SMF - Greeklish to Greek mod
Δeν αφιερώνω χρόνο για μηνύματα σε greeklish.

feline

Quote from: agridoc on August 24, 2011, 02:03:12 PM
So we have a clear heading by SP and TP, SP just slightly in front, with others following. I believe real popularity relation might be slightly different than this given by Google search but not very much.
You have to note that the most portals are available for SMF 1.x and 2.x, PortaMx as example is ONLY for 2.0.
Also you have to note the first development time and the number of topics they written in the support forums.
And many posts in a support forum mostly indicate problems and questions which a users have...

bloc

Quote from: feline on August 24, 2011, 11:42:03 AM
I think it is legal to highlight the advantages of its own product without having to speak negatively about other products. But it can not be meaningful in this discussion, to assess other people so negative.
Everyone should review existing products and form his own opinion.
Legal, sure, but you use constantly a tactic that put people off. No respect for others work in sight, and you keep hammering in "this and that feature is absolutely necessary" - when it clearly is not.

Envy? :) lol, I don't think you know me, Feline, nor did you ever I would imagine,even when we worked on TP at one time years ago.

But back to what I said: why is SimplePortal much more popular than PortaMX then? If it is indeed much better, would not people flock around it and give up all their SP/TP/EzPortal sites to give PMX its deserved popularity? The thing is that you are TOO busy getting people to use your mod that its off-putting.

The thing about SMF 2.0 versus SMF 1.1 is true. But at least half the SMF sites now use SMF 2.0.. Its not just about how many features you have. SP has even less than TP or PMX, maybe more portals too..but it still hit a spot with users. Why?


oldrow

This is great feedback on all of them, however I am still undecided!  :P

feline

Bloc, you know that many of your attempts TP friends have our portal and especially for me as a person to do bad.
Should I publish the messages here is where I claimed had copied TinyPortal?
Should I post the nasty insults from Crip here?
These are all things that have hurt us, but we have still managed to have a modern and promising future portal development.
Which of these portals, the user ultimately decides is not in your or my hand ... that the user decides.

bloc

Quote from: feline on August 25, 2011, 07:28:25 AM
Bloc, you know that many of your attempts TP friends have our portal and especially for me as a person to do bad.
Should I publish the messages here is where I claimed had copied TinyPortal?
Should I post the nasty insults from Crip here?
These are all things that have hurt us, but we have still managed to have a modern and promising future portal development.
Which of these portals, the user ultimately decides is not in your or my hand ... that the user decides.

Now this will turn into a off-topic thing again..so I'll be very short: you can post whatever you like, Feline. Threats like that will only bounce back at yourself.


Kindred

enough....

Personal issues between the various authors aside. :P


Bottom line is (as always) test them out for yourself and find the one which works for your needs.

Слaва
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.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

ZarPrime

I wish I could see into the future.  I would love to know what Portal Feline's users decide to go with once she is tired of coding for it and it goes the way of her blog software, into the crapper. :P

Reference ...
http://portamx.com/2525/support-for-pmxblog-stopped/
http://portamx.com/2532/pmxblog-1-0-for-smf-2-0-and-a-installed-portamx-1-x/

tragidy

Question about the portals.

Which has the better GPL/GNU license if any?
Open source Matters, the GNU GPL License is one of the most valuable text ever created by mankind.
Support all open source projects when possible as their concepts are paving the future. ~ tragidy

Kindred

GPL sucks...


AFAIK, none of the existing portals use GPL or even BSD...   I think they are all proprietary licenses.
Слaва
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.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

WillyP

Quote from: oldrow on August 24, 2011, 06:48:08 PM
This is great feedback on all of them, however I am still undecided!  :P

Do you have any specific questions?

Quote from: Kindred on August 25, 2011, 11:16:48 AM
enough....

Personal issues between the various authors aside. :P
Quite true!

Quote from: Kindred on August 25, 2011, 11:16:48 AM
Bottom line is (as always) test them out for yourself and find the one which works for your needs.
Excellent advice!

feline

Quote from: ZarPrime on August 25, 2011, 10:53:07 PM
I wish I could see into the future.  I would love to know what Portal Feline's users decide to go with once she is tired of coding for it and it goes the way of her blog software, into the crapper. :P
If a product is no longer used, it is normal that this product will be withdrawn from the market. What is so objectionable?
It is reprehensible that we have decided to wish a few more users to make an update?

live627

Quote from: Kindred on August 26, 2011, 10:41:36 AM
AFAIK, none of the existing portals use GPL or even BSD...   I think they are all proprietary licenses.
Dream Portal was OSI until they were forked...

TheListener

Simple Portal is now 2.0.1 friendly.

lucas-ruroken

sorry for restart an old topic...
QuoteADK portal was officially released on Nov. 4 2009, so it's 1 year 9 months and 20 days old.

but... adkportal was approved by smf on 2011
Adk Portal 3.1 is coming....

Design your universe!

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