MyBB Ideas

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Link to the Portal

Voting Closed
51 votes

Submitted by DrPoodle, 19th February 2007, 12:12:41 AM

I think there should be a visible link to the portal on install, maybe at the bottom with the footer links. This would advertise this widely *un-used* feature in MyBB, and would also cut down on the amount of people asking for some kind of "blog" or similar feature to be included in the MyBB package. I use my portal as the main page of the forums, as do quite a few people, and it is connected to my "News" forum so it is essentially my "blog".

Every other page of MyBB gets linked to, but this one is left out *sniff*

Included

25 Comments

  1. I agree, I only realized there was a portal (a while back, of course) when I had looked through the settings a bit and saw it there, and I think after reading some things on the forums. It is very hidden by default.

    Justin S., 19th February 2007, 12:17:00 AM

  2. It should be in the header next to the help and other options. ;)

    Cool_Guy, 19th February 2007, 12:29:34 AM

  3. I think this is a good idea, but there should be an option in the board settings where you can disable the link.

    Kodaks, 19th February 2007, 12:44:10 AM

  4. A link should be in the header template, along with all the other 'Calender - Memberlist' etc links. No need for a new setting to disable/enable it, just use the templates!!!

    FirefoxWiz, 19th February 2007, 12:58:48 AM

  5. Same thing happened to me that happened to Justin S. This is a very nice idea and wouldn't mind if it were implemented. You should have an option as to whether the link is there or not because some themes in my opinion don't look very good with the portal enabled. ^_^

    Sargeant_Pepper, 19th February 2007, 1:09:03 AM

  6. I agree with the addition of this, but really it's a simple template change either way (if you want or don't want a link)

    DennisTT, 19th February 2007, 4:00:25 AM

  7. i like what Kodaks say about that (I think this is a good idea, but there should be an option in the board settings where you can disable the link)

    crsoft, 19th February 2007, 8:19:03 AM

  8. I don't agree. This doesn't need to be implemented by default since most admins would just remove it imho. Most mybb forums I see do not use the portal. They either have the forums as front page or use a CMS in conjunction with mybb.

    labrocca, 19th February 2007, 8:42:18 AM

  9. Well, considering I've had to add this link myself at the top, I fully agree with this idea! :D

    judel, 19th February 2007, 8:30:33 PM

  10. To labrocca:

    Don't you think a lot of MyBB sites might use this feature if they actually knew about it? Reading the comments here (and in the forums), it seems like a lot of people don't know this exists. I only found it by wondering what the "portal.php" file did when I was uploading...

    I think most forums don't use it because they don't know about it, and making this a default link would make people more aware.

    DrPoodle, 19th February 2007, 9:24:52 PM

  11. Dr. Poodle..I know about it and don't use it one even one of my 23 sites. Personally I don't think it looks all that great nor transitions well to the forums itself.

    labrocca, 19th February 2007, 9:35:14 PM

  12. I think we should count the actual users of it, not the amount of forums each user has. Otherwise I could go and make 200 forums using it and claim I have the majority.

    At the end of the day, it is a small change which will unlock a massive part of MyBB for many people who want some kind of blogging application or a integrated homepage for MyBB.

    DrPoodle, 19th February 2007, 10:31:37 PM

  13. Dr Poodle you only need to go to the mybbfans directory to see many sites NOT using the portal. You can count them there. I very often visit other mybb sites...probably more often than most. I check every single new showcase or design. I rarely see the portal used...my sites or not.

    The portal also imho is lacking in features and control. Until that is taken care of an automatic link to the portal shouldn't be considered. If anything we should suggest better portal controls. Like box positioning and choosing.

    labrocca, 20th February 2007, 10:49:30 AM

  14. The extra setting is a good idea but I would prefer it to be off by default. I don't think it is 'hidden', I saw also saw portal.php while uploading and then later, the portal settings in the admincp. It is also seems to be a well documented feature in the wiki and quite a few threads in the forum.

    ~andrew~, 20th February 2007, 12:40:12 PM

  15. Well whatever MyBB Fans directory says, 22 people so far think this is a good idea, so the demand is there.

    DrPoodle, 20th February 2007, 6:20:05 PM

  16. Well we do have the portal there, and since it's there, why not make the best out of it? Right now it's like hidden in a corner.

    DennisTT, 21st February 2007, 12:04:33 AM

  17. Yeah, and like labrocca said, if you could put more settings into it to allow certain sideboxes it would be great.

    DrPoodle, 21st February 2007, 12:14:51 AM

  18. I never knew about the portal until I saw the file while browsing the directory on my computer.
    I then went to the address on the web to see what it was, and wondered why there wasn't a link to it in the header.

    I personally like the portal, probably because I liked the old portals on phpBB,
    but beside the point, I never knew it existed, which is probably one reason why you don't see many people using it.
    I think it would be a good idea to just go ahead and put the link
    to the portal in the template, which wouldn't be hard.

    Dr Small, 21st February 2007, 2:28:30 AM

  19. I agree that the portal should possibly be explained during install or possibly even asked if you want it implemented. However on a new board install...the portal page will be blank. Also it requires extra admin changes to decide what forums to draw news from. It's just not ready imho to be implemented as default. If this idea thread was "beef up the portal page" I would vote for it 100%. If it's defaulted now...I believe MOST installers would then manually ask HOW to delete the link. Many forum owners already have front pages or have no need for them.

    A proper setting in the admincp for portal would be nice where you can enable/disable and it would show the link accordingly. This imho goes along with my request for conditional statements inside templates. Implementation of such config variables would be incredibly easy to implement if conditionals were allowed in templates.

    {if $config[portal] ==yes} {$portal_link}{/if} It would be as easy as that!

    labrocca, 21st February 2007, 3:40:34 AM

  20. {if $config[portal] ==yes} {$portal_link}{/if} It would be as easy as that!
    - labrocca

    Someone would have to write up some documentation, of how to use that also.
    Because, it looks easy, but some examples of how to use it would really help.

    Dr Small, 21st February 2007, 2:15:01 PM

  21. Hardly anyone uses the Calendar but I don't find threads asking how to remove that. Also, you wouldn't have to use template conditionals to display it. You could just use {$portal_link} and have all the conditional programming done in the global.php for it. I think the Portal should default to the first forum created when you install it. it should also have checks run so it doesn't come up with a nasty php error when that forum is deleted.

    DrPoodle, 21st February 2007, 6:50:42 PM

  22. Well, I didn't know the portal even existed until another forum owner told me about it. I don't tend to use it all that often, but it is nice to have that link there...just in case!

    judel, 22nd February 2007, 6:22:59 PM

  23. I like labrocca's idea for beef up the portal page.

    B-P, 25th February 2007, 10:52:18 PM

  24. It's necessary to make the portal really similar to the MyBB home page, IMHO: the current one isn't so nice to see...

    Syst3m Crash3r 480, 7th April 2007, 3:08:40 PM

  25. Link included in 1.4

    Ryan Gordon, 22nd May 2007, 2:11:09 PM