SMF For Free Support Forum

The Portal Page is in three sections:


The Top Section:




ENABLE PORTAL

1.  To turn your Portal Page On: Admin CP-Configuration-Portal Settings, put a checkmark in Enable Portal.


2.  Board to display the news: Choose a Board in the dropdown list or make a new one just for this purpose.
        NOTE: The board must be one that is available to Guests.

   
3.  Number of news items to display:  Set this to the number of items you would like it to display in this section.
        NOTE: It will display only the first post in each Topic in the Board you chose above.

      You must Add a boardnews block in order for the news to show on your portal.  Read the directions for adding blocks.

4.  The Portal can have 1, 2 or 3 columns to it. First give some thought to what you would like to put on your Portal and where you would like it.

     The columns are currently set up to the following widths. You can change them at any time to your liking.
         NOTE: (of course make sure they total 100)

• Left Block Width 20%:
• Center Block Width 60%:
• Right Block Width 20%:

Click SAVE to save the changes to this section.

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The Center Section:



Portal Blocks   
This section shows the blocks you have already set up. It is organized in sections:   Left, Center,  Right

• Block Order:   Change the order of the blocks in each column. 0(zero) will always be at the top
• Block Title:    The title for the block. Type in what you would like it to say here.
• Block Type:   The dropdown shows what type of block this is.(for example html,whosonline)
• Alignment:     Use the dropdown to place the block left, center or right.
• Block status:  Use the dropdown to enable or disable the block
• Options:        Use this if you decide to delete a Block

Remember to click Edit Blocks when finished

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The Bottom Section:



Add Block
This is where you add blocks to your Portal.   
There are 9 preset blocks:

• html:                  Any HTML, such as chat boxes, affiliate codes, etc. Use your imagination.
• userblock:           Log-In Section. Links for PM's, unread posts, time logged in, etc; after you are logged in.
• boardnews:         This will pick up the posts from that board you made in the top section
• recentposts:        The 10 most recent posts(view changes depending on if member is logged in or out)
• recenttopics:       The 10 most recent topics(view changes depending if member is on logged in or out)
• whosonline:         The same as the "who's online" in the forum section.
• searchbox:           The fast way to search without going all the way into the forum.
• randomimage:      You must have images in your gallery for this to work.
• randomgame:       You must have games in your arcade for this to work.

Remember to click Add Block when finished

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Screenshot example:

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Some html guides to help you with the html blocks:

Html Hell:  Very basic HTML for the novice.
Cedge's HTML Cheat Sheet

I set my portal up as soon as I started my forum, but it doesn't look as good as your screen shot. I re-set the column widths to 25 - 50 - 25 and the right column appears to be 15, while the center column remains at 60. I then set the columns to 30 - 40 - 30, and the same thing.. it won't adjust.

Also, I removed my 'recent topics' because it was listing them out on the portal page as individual blocks instead of like in your screen shot, as one block with a divider line between the topics. It doesn't matter what stylesheet I'm using, as it did it with all of them. Currently I am using Heaven and Hell.. modified. Any ideas on how to get the column widths to set up properly?

I found when setting mine up that I had to play some tricks with it in order to get the columns to stay at the size I wanted them to.    I have an html block on the left and one on the right.   Because of what is in those blocks the center block, which as board news in it,  no matter how I type it will not change size and thereby mess up the other blocks.    It was the only way I could find to force them to stay the same size        

I set my portal up as soon as I started my forum, but it doesn't look as good as your screen shot. I re-set the column widths to 25 - 50 - 25 and the right column appears to be 15, while the center column remains at 60. I then set the columns to 30 - 40 - 30, and the same thing.. it won't adjust.

Kyouri re: making the blocks stay the size you want them.
In the html blocks you can put your info inside a table. 
Give the table a width.   The block will stay at that width.
I set the cellspacing to 10... keeps it from crowding the edges.

for example:

<table align=center width="210px" cellspacing="10">
<td align=left valign="middle">


Your html goes here

</td>
</table>

You need to have something in left, right and center to have them balance out.  If you have something that is oversized it is going to push stuff around.  Put something in each column and see what happens.

Are you using the picture in an HTML block?  If so, put <center> in front of the picture and put </center> after it.  That should take care of that part of it.

http://gazoo.net/htmhell/main.html  This is a really good site I used to learn the basic HTML, in fact I still use it to refer to.  It can teach you how to use the different tags to make things the way you want them.

http://cedesign.net/help2j.htm  This one is also good for finding that elusive code to make things do what you want.

umm this is kinda on/off tyopic but thanks and how did u get ur layout not style sheet to look like a real webstie

Gamerz, who are you asking and what is the url that you are referring to?  We don't know who needs to answer.

that would be u

Forum Url: http://gemstone.smfforfree4.com/.smfforfree4.com
When I add the portal, the link that use to go to the forum is now the link for the portal.

The forum becomes a new link with a "action=forum" added to the end of the forum link.

Just curious how this changes the way the search engines looked at what use to be the forum link.

The forum has all the activity, and likely would be indexed considerably more.

Do I need to resubmit the new forum url to search engines?

Just curious how this all effects the way the search engines have become use to things.

Make any sense?