xenForo Portal?

[Fish]

Hello,

I'm looking at purchasing a xenForo license. I'm wanting to build a community site, where the primary focus is the forums, but I'd also like a portal page where various widgets can be placed as well as having the ability to "promote" forum posts as front-page news.

Similar to these two sites:

http://wildstar-central.com/
http://www.alttabme.com/


Is that feature built into xenForo or does a portal such as that require an addon? If so, which would you recommend for the greatest flexibility?

 

[Cupara]

So basically you want an article feature that you can write articles straight through the portal or promote a thread? As well I can have it set that when you create an article a discussion thread is created in the forum you select in the settings. Head on over to my site, sign up if you haven't, validate, and start a thread in the Suggestions/Feedback forum with exactly what you want to see in xfPortal.

 

[Morgain]

So basically you want an article feature that you can write articles straight through the portal or promote a thread? As well I can have it set that when you create an article a discussion thread is created in the forum you select in the settings. Head on over to my site, sign up if you haven't, validate, and start a thread in the Suggestions/Feedback forum with exactly what you want to see in xfPortal.

Thanks but where's your site? Not in your sig, I get - This member limits who may view their full profile. So cant get it that way. Your old domain is on hold with godaddy/ See I did try!

 

[Cupara]

https://dangerouslydreaming.com

Weird, I thought I changed my profile.

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

So thread promotion can't be done with Xenportal or Widget framework? I know recent threads etc can be displayed but I'd like to isolate the initial post or even add a background commentary/image to the thread as a way to promote it on the front/home page.

I'm creating a new site ATM and was hoping to have a front page with a thread "subject of the week" (or whatever) feature, and several smaller teasers, which obviously link to the discussions in the forums. I want a way visitors and members can land on my homepage and quickly see selected/highlighted/recommended threads and be drawn into the discussion. Can this not be done with existing add-ons? If not, then I'm very interested in xfPortal.

 

[Martok]

So thread promotion can't be done with Xenportal or Widget framework? I know recent threads etc can be displayed but I'd like to isolate the initial post or even add a background commentary/image to the thread as a way to promote it on the front/home page.

XenPorta does support thread promotion to the front page, where it shows the first post in a thread. See my website as an example or Jaxel's 8wayrun . com (the creator of XenPorta).

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

XenPorta does support thread promotion to the front page, where it shows the first post in a thread. See my website as an example or Jaxel's 8wayrun . com (the creator of XenPorta).

Ok, fair enough, I like the way your thread promotion looks and that's pretty well what I'm after thanks. But I just hope XenPorta is supported well and is stable (I don't have the technical knowledge to de-conflict or sort out too many coding issues) the reason I say that, is going by the discussion on XenPorta in the resource section there seems to be more than a few people having issues. Or is that more an exception than the norm?

 

[Martok]

You'll always read about issues in add-on threads. Though there will be some praising posts for add-ons, most people who have no problems probably don't post anything. Also if you look at the XenPorta thread, you'll see many posts for support which would not need to have been made had those members actually read the update release notes or the XenPorta FAQs

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xenporta-user-guide-and-faq.383/

I've not had any issues with it.

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

Oh right, yeah I can see the logic in what you're saying. It's the most downloaded add-on on XenForo so if XenPorta was riddled with probs it certainly wouldn't be up where it is hey.

Cheers for that, I'll definitely get it because I really do need some kind of thread promotion as well for the style of forum I'm working on.

 

[Kevin]

Thread promotion is also the basis for Simple Portal (http://xenforo.com/community/resources/simple-portal.1713/). Compared to XenPorta it is a stripped down basic portal page but because it can be used with the Widget Framework (http://xenforo.com/community/resources/bd-widget-framework.297/) additional 'blocks' can be added relatively pain free.

 

[Martok]

Thread promotion is also the basis for Simple Portal (http://xenforo.com/community/resources/simple-portal.1713/). Compared to XenPorta it is a stripped down basic portal page but because it can be used with the Widget Framework (http://xenforo.com/community/resources/bd-widget-framework.297/) additional 'blocks' can be added relatively pain free.

I've looked at Simple Portal as an alternative to XenPorta (which I had already installed). The one thing that put me off was that appears that only staff can promote to the portal page? If I'm correct in this (let me know if I'm not) then this wouldn't work for my community, where we let all full members have the capability to promote to the portal.

 

[Kevin]

I've looked at Simple Portal as an alternative to XenPorta (which I had already installed). The one thing that put me off was that appears that only staff can promote to the portal page? If I'm correct in this (let me know if I'm not) then this wouldn't work for my community, where we let all full members have the capability to promote to the portal.

It is controlled through a usergroup permission, "Promote Thread to Portalpage:", so it is up to the admin' to decide who is allowed to promote threads to the front page. I'm not as familiar with XenPorta (I haven't played with it for some time) but with Simple Portal it requires a few mouse clicks to get something promoted. While viewing the thread the user would need to click "Thread Tools" in the upper right and "Portalpage Options" which brings up a pop-up overlay. From the overlay the thread can be flagged to either add to the portal, remove from the portal, and, being added, to assign it to an optional portal category.

 

[Martok]

It is controlled through a usergroup permission, "Promote Thread to Portalpage:", so it is up to the admin' to decide who is allowed to promote threads to the front page. I'm not as familiar with XenPorta (I haven't played with it for some time) but with Simple Portal it requires a few mouse clicks to get something promoted. While viewing the thread the user would need to click "Thread Tools" in the upper right and "Portalpage Options" which brings up a pop-up overlay. From the overlay the thread can be flagged to either add to the portal, remove from the portal, and, being added, to assign it to an optional portal category.

Thanks for the info. XenPorta works in a similar way with usergroup permissions. Promoting to the front page is slightly different - there's a Promote Tread button, which is probably a bit more obvious than the Thread Tools menu (which normally isn't available to users so I guess it becomes visible through Simple Portal permissions with only promotion options for those who aren't moderators?). Promoting let's you specify a promotion icon (or not) and a promotion date, which can be different from the thread start date - handy for publishing an older thread to the top of the portal page.

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

Compared to XenPorta it is a stripped down basic portal page but because it can be used with the Widget Framework (http://xenforo.com/community/resources/bd-widget-framework.297/) additional 'blocks' can be added relatively pain free.

Should the Widget Framework be used with Simple Portal or is SP fine on its own? I mean would most people install both? I'm just looking at all options - my new site isn't live until July anyway so the time to muck around is now.

 

[Kevin]

Should the Widget Framework be used with Simple Portal or is SP fine on its own? I mean would most people install both? I'm just looking at all options - my new site isn't live until July anyway so the time to muck around is now.

Depends on what you're after as a front page. If using just SP then you'll end up with a very basic stripped down front page that has snippets of the promoted threads displayed. If you want to display anything else though (eg: sidebar widgets, etc) then you'll want to go with the Widget Framework also. And "out-of-the-box" install of SP will just display the thread previews and, well, that's it. Even the sidebar when viewing the XF forum home is not displayed (eg: members online, forum stats, etc.); if you want to display any of that data then you'll need the widget framework.

For out-of-the-box flexibility I'd say look at XenPorta. For a stripped-down bare-bones portal page that can you extend onto I'd say look at Simple Portal + Widget Framework.

 

[Kevin]

... (which normally isn't available to users so I guess it becomes visible through Simple Portal permissions with only promotion options for those who aren't moderators?).

Good question. You've just added an experiment to my To Do list on my test install.

 

[Martok]

Good question. You've just added an experiment to my To Do list on my test install.

I'd be interested to hear the results of your experiments. Although I'm happy with XenPorta I've been keeping an eye on Simple Portal. Depending on how things develop (and I've no problem in additionally using Widget Framework) I'd consider switching in the future if it better suited my needs.

 

[Kevin]

I'd be interested to hear the results of your experiments. Although I'm happy with XenPorta I've been keeping an eye on Simple Portal. Depending on how things develop (and I've no problem in additionally using Widget Framework) I'd consider switching in the future if it better suited my needs.

OK, the quick answer is... Yes, if you give the permission to the "Registered" usergroup then it forces the Thread Tools link to display with only one option in it. Below is a screen capture of how it appears. One caveat is that granting the permission also means that they can also remove items from the portal page meaning that if User A promoted something then User B can remote it.

 

[Martok]

Thanks for this.

One caveat is that granting the permission also means that they can also remove items from the portal page meaning that if User A promoted something then User B can remote it.

That's the same for XenPorta. The full members group on my forum is small and there's an implied trust that folk will use their special promotion permissions wisely. Should that trust be broken then the user would lose the permissions or a more select trusted group would only be able to do this.

One issue with XenPorta is that if a thread from a private node is published to the front page, everyone can see it (not good!) What happens if this is done in Simple Portal?

 

[Kevin]

One issue with XenPorta is that if a thread from a private node is published to the front page, everyone can see it (not good!) What happens if this is done in Simple Portal?

Just tried, same issue. From an admin account I promoted a thread in staff forum and then viewed it as a Registered account and the thread appeared.

 

[Dan]

One issue with XenPorta is that if a thread from a private node is published to the front page, everyone can see it (not good!) What happens if this is done in Simple Portal?

We actually coded Simple Portal with this in mind. You can promote a private or "premium" thread to the portal. If used with the character limit, when a user who does not have permission to see the thread clicks on Read more, it will redirect to a no permission page, allowing the admin to show previews of premium content but not allow the full article to be shown. Hope that makes sense.