I have came to a decision that we will be needing a portal system for the forums. Since FFF is growing much bigger these days, I believe a portal system would do much better as it will even act as our main site or homepage. Now before you ask me what the hell is a portal, then let me explain...
A portal system is an advanced content management system that will allow us to easily include different elements from the vBulletin message board on the web site's homepage. It also allows us to easily create and manage new pages in which we can set different settings other than the default. It's module system also makes it very easy to add custom modules without hacking any of the files, plus it is very easy to integrate with other vBulletin pages and hacks. Everything is also template based and completely integrated with vBulletin, so it is very easy to customize and change everything through the Admin CP.
Features
A portal system is an advanced content management system that will allow us to easily include different elements from the vBulletin message board on the web site's homepage. It also allows us to easily create and manage new pages in which we can set different settings other than the default. It's module system also makes it very easy to add custom modules without hacking any of the files, plus it is very easy to integrate with other vBulletin pages and hacks. Everything is also template based and completely integrated with vBulletin, so it is very easy to customize and change everything through the Admin CP.
Features
- Easily create and manage the site's content and new pages through your vBulletin Admin CP.
- Easily add new modules without hacking any vBulletin or portal files.
- Movable modules which allows you to change the position of each module by simply clicking a link.
- Add an unlimited number of custom blocks.
- Control access to each module or page with usergroup permissions.
- Module Types - Includes BB Code modules, Template modules, and PHP file modules. Perfect for the beginner or the advanced coder.
- Ability to set a different value for each module's settings on a per-page basis.
- Easily enable/disable modules on a per-page basis.
- Set and change all options via the Admin CP.
- Upload / Download Module interface that makes adding a new module as simple as uploading a file through your browser.
- Everything is completely template based so it is very easy to customize.
- Fully phrased to support the vBulletin language system.
- Install file that will make all database queries and templates for us in seconds.
- Un-installs in seconds.
- Tested and stable with vBulletin 3.5.0+
- 100% validated XHTML 1.0 compliance
- And much more!
- Site Navigation - A navigation module allowing the users to easily navigate the portal pages and the rest of your web site.
- Welcome Block - Creates a login box for members to log into the site on the homepage, or shows logged in users their avatar, last visit, private message info, reputation info, and rank (all of which may be enabled/disabled).
- News - Pick specific threads, or just select a forum to pull posts from and have these posts displayed as news articles on the portal page. Additional options to show attachments, avatars, icons, ratings, images, HTML, and more in your news posts.
- News Archive - A condensed version of older news posts. Includes options to control the number of archived posts to show.
- Latest Topics - Show the latest threads started in the forum. Additional options to set the number of threads to display, pick specific threads or forums to pull threads from, show a preview of the first post, ratings, icons, last post info, and more.
- Current Poll - Show a poll and allow users to vote and see the results on the homepage.
- Buddy List - Show the user's buddy list for members who are logged in.
- Online Users - Shows a list of active users, including the stats for the 'most users ever online'.
- Stats - Shows statistics such as total members, threads, posts, top poster, and newest member.
- Today's Birthdays - Shows all members with a birthday today, along with their age and a link to their profile.
- Mini Calendar - Shows a mini calendar with links to days with scheduled events from the calendar we select.
- Search - Search box to allow users to quickly search the forums.
- Quick Moderation - Shows the number of posts, threads, users, attachments, and calendar events awaiting moderation for users that have permission to moderate these items.
- Custom Page Content - Allows you to easily specify a template to include the content from on a page.
