XenHome: The Multi-Purpose Portal/Front End/Blog/Article System

[Ruven]

XenHome would be a front page portal that would be extended by the use an updated Pages system to create a quasi CMS system for XenForo. It would not be a full CMS system of course, but it would be enough for the large majority of users.

• Developers would need to create a simple tabbed page that would be shell for our content. It would have a simple set of controls and options within the XenForo admin panel used to define what content goes in some of the basic blocks available.
• These blocks would contain simple things like latest posts, threads, sitestream, ads, news, new members, etc. And a main block for your article/blog content.
• Something similar was created for vBulletin called Pro vB. Its a paid mod that costs 40 bucks, i used it with my 3.8 install and it worked decently well.
• Here are some sites that use it... reptile canada, expang, turbobuick. Im sure the guys here could make that look much much better using the design skills shown with XenForo so far.

• Now about the content. A thread is created in the same way as always. Admins/mods click on the "Publish" button, similarly to how it works in vB.
• The post is then transformed into its own Article Page and published into the main content area.
• Article Pages would basically be a post that has had all of its forum looking attributes stripped. The formatting would automatically rearrange itself into an article mode (with maybe the option of having multiple display modes for other uses).
• Replies to the article would be done with a minimalist interface that would load in an overlay once the reader scrolled, hovered or clicked in the comments area.
• Forum users who want to reply would be redirected to the Article Page to reply there automatically. All replies would occur inside the Article Page and would then automatically merge with the original thread after an admin specified period of time.
• Image attachments within the post would also automatically know where to position themselves for optimal aesthetic value.
• The same coder that made Pro vB also made a script called Advanced Forums that does some of this. This is how one of his Article Pages looks, here is another example done differently, and this is how his Articles List looks.

• You tie the whole thing up by having some sort of Article Scroller integrated into the whole thing.
• FPSS works with vB, Wordpress, Joomla, and a number of other scripts. Its pretty good, but there are plenty of other similar solutions to this.
• Once a post was published and transformed into an Article Page, admins or mods would then have the ability to click on an "Add To Slideshow" button.
• The article would then be added to the slideshow at the top of XenHome, it would take the previously uploaded picture and re-purpose it to use there. Pro vB actually comes with a rudimentary non animated article slide show btw.

So i havent come up with anything new here, ive just pointed to 3 different paid scripts that combined would create a Front Page for XenForo that would come very close to fulfilling the needs of the majority of users. The rest is just my thoughts on how integrating this kind of functionality to the already established Pages, Attachment, and other XenForo features would create something more compelling than anything the competitors are offering.
You might end up with something at least as nice as this without a lot of headaches.
The sky's the limit with how you could then upgrade the entire thing into a more fully fledged CMS... but for now it would be a very nice article server, blog platform, or front page portal.

 

[Jaxel]

Could you start a thread .... so there would be a place to discuss options for your XenForo HomePage idea ?

Done: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/8wayrun-com-modifications-for-xenforo.4470/

 

[James]

Just an FYI... the Foro in XenForo isnt really supposed to be Spanish.
More like a phonetic spelling of 4.O

Hmmm, Foro is the word for The Forum in Latin as well.
Maybe we spin XenForo as being XenLatin ?
Makes more sense. A meeting of the east and west... Xen/Zen is the East, and Foro is Europe/West.

Something tells me it was meant to be ambiguous

 

[Tanax]

Basically, this is almost exactly like IP.Content - which I like very much. It allows you to create a website with forum as a core. It could even look different than the forums(or implement the forum wrapper so that it follows the same style). Read more on www.invisionpower.com and IP.Content. That homepage was created with IP.Content. Is that kind of how you imagine this being used?

• Developers would need to create a simple tabbed page that would be shell for our content. It would have a simple set of controls and options within the XenForo admin panel used to define what content goes in some of the basic blocks available.

Wait, whaat? Why should they be forced to create a "tabbed page"? How about just creating pages? Letting the user decide if they should use the forum wrapper(which would include the header with the link-tabs aswell as the footer and having the actual page content in between) or have no wrapper and create all page HTML by themselves(which would allow them to create websites without that aspect of forum integration).

• These blocks would contain simple things like latest posts, threads, sitestream, ads, news, new members, etc. And a main block for your article/blog content.

I like this. There should be different kind of blocks.
RSS-feed -block (this would enable fetching latest posts, threads, sitestream, news, new members, etc)
Static Content -block (this would enable creating ads blocks)
Etc.

A "main block" is useless in this situation since you would just use the RSS-feed block to fetch all articles into that page.

• Now about the content. A thread is created in the same way as always. Admins/mods click on the "Publish" button, similarly to how it works in vB.
• The post is then transformed into its own Article Page and published into the main content area.

This was also very confusing. So you mean that all threads are transformed into an article?? I do not like that. I like the idea of being able to promote certain threads to an article on the main page! But I certainly don't want that for every thread and I also want this feature of promoting a thread to an article restricted to just certain usergroups.

• Article Pages would basically be a post that has had all of its forum looking attributes stripped. The formatting would automatically rearrange itself into an article mode (with maybe the option of having multiple display modes for other uses).

I agree with that. Perhaps being able to assign a certain article layout(templates can be made in ACP) per article.

• Replies to the article would be done with a minimalist interface that would load in an overlay once the reader scrolled, hovered or clicked in the comments area.
• Forum users who want to reply would be redirected to the Article Page to reply there automatically. All replies would occur inside the Article Page and would then automatically merge with the original thread after an admin specified period of time.

This I disagree with. I think it's better if the posts are actually stored in the original thread on the forums and have the article fetch the replies in the thread and post them as comments to the article. Commenting the article would be possible aswell which essentially would create a new post in the thread aswell.

• You tie the whole thing up by having some sort of Article Scroller integrated into the whole thing.

Or just create a page and have the main content with a RSS-feed block and fetch the articles

• Once a post was published and transformed into an Article Page, admins or mods would then have the ability to click on an "Add To Slideshow" button.
• The article would then be added to the slideshow at the top of XenHome, it would take the previously uploaded picture and re-purpose it to use there. Pro vB actually comes with a rudimentary non animated article slide show btw.

Could be interesting. Not sure what the purpose is though, care to explain a little more in-depth?

Just my thoughts about this I like it - it does leave room for a lot of discussion though so that it fits everyone's needs!

 

[Digital Doctor]

like IP.Content

Xenforo.Content
+ Want
+ Like

Pro vB also made a script called Advanced Forums that does some of this. This is how one of his Article Pages looks, here is another example done differently, and this is how his Articles List looks.

I think these URLs are dead.

 

[Lukas W.]

I think these URLs are dead.

They're more than six years old after all.

 

[Andy.N]

It's time to see if there is a possibility for a portal.

 

[Digital Doctor]

It's time to see if there is a possibility for a portal.

Maybe for the 8 year anniversary !!

 

[ibrian]

It wouldn't even need to be a separate portal - there are addons for 1.5 that allow you to select posts for your homepage, and another to allow additional widgets. From what's been said by the developers, these features are already built into XF2 - we just haven't seen them implemented yet. I cross my fingers in hope.

 

[Ruven]

Wow, this is still a thing. I still have that horrible picture as my avatar. Is there a xenforo CMS now?

 

[Ozzy47]

Nope.

 

[Dragonsys]

Wow, this is still a thing. I still have that horrible picture as my avatar. Is there a xenforo CMS now?

Probably XenPorta by Jaxel or AMS by Bob would be the closest

 

[ge66]

Pages and widgets are solving part of the problem.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Pages and widgets are solving part of the problem.

Pages solve what ?
Xenforo itself doesn’t use their own pages.