Topic: Simpleportal on my website

[Sibwolf]

Hi everybody!

First off, I just want to say that simple portal is amazing and a great idea, props to you guys for creating it 

I would love to install simple portal on my forum, but I'm worried about a few things before installing it.

Here is my website:

www.sc2gateway.com

My forum:

www.sc2gateway.com/forum

Here are the things I'm worried about:

1) I would like to get rid of the main site and instead of it have custom html pages that are now available in the new build of simple portal. So, in other words have the forum work together with the website for a great experience. I don't like it the way it is now, because it seems as though the forum and website are a little separated... Will simple portal have those custom pages synced up with the forum. Pretty much similar to the way your site looks like now.

2) Is there any way that I can test simple portal out on my local computer before doing it on the actual site. In other words have all the files ready to go on my local computer and then just upload them into the hosting server? I tried to go into the /forum/index.php file I have in my computer but it opens it up with Notepad ++ not with a regular browser.

Can someone please help me with these questions asap

Hope to have Simple Portal running soon 

- Sib

[rodeosolstice]

I suspect you can't as it has to be integrated as a SMF Mod, and it has to be on the server to access the Database (unless you're home PC is setup as a server).

A suggestion would be to setup a second forum, a "test" forum on your server, and play with it there. I have multiple forums setup for testing - they all need to be on the server to function though.

Hope that helps!

[Nathaniel]

1) If you want to keep your forum at '/forum' then you will have to use SimplePortal's Standalone mod. (have a look at the PortalStandalone.php file in your forum directory)
If you want to move your forum's files to your main folder, then you will have to move the files, and then run the RepairSettings.php file afterwards to fix the SMF paths.

SimplePortal has custom pages that you can easily add to your website/forum, although you will need to add any menu links manually.

2) If you want to make a test site on your localhost, then you will have to install a webserver of some kind, personally I use xampp under windows, because it is incredibly easy to install and setup.

[Sibwolf]

Thank you both for your answers!

A suggestion would be to setup a second forum, a "test" forum on your server, and play with it there. I have multiple forums setup for testing - they all need to be on the server to function though.

I think I will go with setting up a "test" forum on my server, since I might have to test certain features in the future as well. I use go daddy as my hosting provider and installied simple machines forum through their go daddy hosting connection. Hence, I have no idea how to actually install the new forum Tha'ts also the reason I'm still stuck with 1.1.10 because I have no idea how to put in 2.0 in the server 

Rodeosolstice, do you have go daddy by any chance? Is your "test" forum on the same database as your regular forum or does it have it's own database?

1) If you want to keep your forum at '/forum' then you will have to use SimplePortal's Standalone mod. (have a look at the PortalStandalone.php file in your forum directory)
If you want to move your forum's files to your main folder, then you will have to move the files, and then run the RepairSettings.php file afterwards to fix the SMF paths.

SimplePortal has custom pages that you can easily add to your website/forum, although you will need to add any menu links manually.

Yes I would like to move it to the main folder. By moving files, do you mean just taking the whole "forum" folder and cuting and pasting all those files that I have inside the forum folder into the main folder of my site?

Also, regarding Xampp. I actually considered having it just on my computer and then figured it's best if I can have my graphic designers have access to the "test" forum to see it as well and be able to see how the graphics fit in to the theme. But thanks for the offer

Thank you again!

[Sibwolf]

Never mind, I've installed the new "test" forum

http://betavn.sc2gateway.com

So now if I will install simple portal and then set up the website exactly the way I want it. When I transfer over this ready to go site into the old one, will everyone's accounts and topics be lost?

If yes, how can I keep all those topics and just replace the forum with this new one?

Thank you,
- Sib

[Sibwolf]

Also, I would love my site to look similar to the Simple Portal site. With that menu bar on top which links to your different pages. How do I add those custom links to the pages and have a menu bar like you guys?

Also, I love your "Our Team" page and I would love to have one as well. Is that something that simple portal does as well, or is this all custom coding?

Thank you,
- Sib

[Nathaniel]

So now if I will install simple portal and then set up the website exactly the way I want it. When I transfer over this ready to go site into the old one, will everyone's accounts and topics be lost?

If yes, how can I keep all those topics and just replace the forum with this new one?

That should be possible, although you should definitely backup your main site before trying. It can be a tricky process if you aren't totally sure how its going to work.

If you follow this process when you want to update your main site, then you shouldn't have any issues.
1) Move your files from your test site to your main site. (Overwrite all files except the Settings.php file)
2) Transfer the 'sp_' tables from your test websites database to your main websites database.
3) Run the 'install2.php' file using your browser (upload it into your main smf install directory) to clear up the sp parts of your database.

Please note that, the process above will effectively uninstall any mods that are on your main site, but aren't installed on your test site.

Also, I would love my site to look similar to the Simple Portal site. With that menu bar on top which links to your different pages. How do I add those custom links to the pages and have a menu bar like you guys?

You have to add each link manually. The code will depend on your theme, but you can refer to the General Custom Theme Tutorial for that.

Also, I love your "Our Team" page and I would love to have one as well. Is that something that simple portal does as well, or is this all custom coding?

Our team page is all custom coding, although you could make one using a Custom PHP page.

[Sibwolf]

Thank you again Nathaniel! 

Are there any website where I can find "official" simple portal themes?

Is there any way I can get access to that custom coding for the about team page?

Thank you,
Sib

[Nathaniel]

Are there any website where I can find "official" simple portal themes?

There are a few topics relating to themes that have specific SimplePortal support in the Themes and Graphics board. However, normally any theme will work with SimplePortal, the only edit that is usually required, is the menu button edit. Refer to the General Custom Theme Tutorial for more information about that.

Is there any way I can get access to that custom coding for the about team page?

No. That page was created by the SimplePortal team, for SimplePortal.net. At the moment we don't intend to release the source code.

There are other team pages for SMF, such as this one.