OK, now what?

[wakewatcher]

Thanks to a bit of your hand holding I'm up and running. The documentation was great for installation and I've spent some time looking through all the options but editing the front panel so far has alluded me. I can't figure out how the landing page of mysite.com gets to the frontpage before anyone logs in. Right now I'm just getting the standard SMF Login/Registration page. I'm trying for something similar to this tinyportal.net frontpage. I'm missing something here.

[@rjen]

Is there a question in there?

[wakewatcher]

Is there a question in there?

Sorry bad implication of a question I guess. My question is how do I get the front panel to show up on the landing page of mysite.com? Or how do I get my landing page/frontpage/front panel to show up as it does on tinyportal.net?

[lurkalot]

Are you saying, when you visit the site all you see now is the forum index page instead of the home page?

Which setting do you have selected in Settings: Frontpage, What to display on frontpage?

Promoted topics only
Promoted topics + articles - sorted on date
Only forum-topics
Forum-topics and articles - sorted on date
Only articles
Featured article with frontpanel
Frontpanel only
Go directly to forum index
TP module

[wakewatcher]

Are you saying, when you visit the site all you see now is the forum index page instead of the home page?

Which setting do you have selected in Settings: Frontpage, What to display on frontpage?

Promoted topics only
Promoted topics + articles - sorted on date
Only forum-topics
Forum-topics and articles - sorted on date
Only articles
Featured article with frontpanel
Frontpanel only
Go directly to forum index
TP module

No I don't have it set to show the topic index  I have it set to show the front page but this is what it is showing when landing before logging in.


After logging in you get this screen.  So apparently the frontpage is there but not until you login.



Here are the Frontpage Settings.  I tried about every combination of them. (Except probably the correct one.)



Here are my permission settings.



Once folks are logged in then the frontpage test page loads.  It just doesn't when someone shows up as a guest. (I guess.) My front page is really directed to potential new members. Not current ones.

hmmm.. Odd that that last permission screen shows the blocks in the 'upper' panel not the front panel.  Here in the "Blocks and Panels" is shows it to be in the Front panel.



I feel like I'm taking a drink from the proverbial fire house. But it tastes good (so far.)

[@rjen]

Hmmm, this is caused by your setting SMF that guests cannot access the forum...

This is a pretty rare situation: we typically suggest that you allow guest access in general, but disallow guests to access the boards.

It seems that the front PANEL does not show due to this . By the way: the other panels do show. You could also consider creating a top or center block and set those blocks to only show on the Frontpage . You will have to activate the panel(s) first...

[wakewatcher]

Aw so technically the frontpage is part of the forum. Makes sense. I do have guests having the ability to "Search for posts and topics" (Not sure why I did that) And everything else is unchecked. Is there better choices? I won't do anything just now as Mick has graciously offered to look at my site in person.

[lurkalot]

I was wondering if that setting "guests cannot access the forum" was causing it, it one hundred percent is.  But I couldn't work out why it should if there's no forum info shown on it.  I need to find our original conversation regarding this to refresh my memory.

[lurkalot]

Reading back from those discussions I'm under the impression soothing has got broken somewhere for the front panel blocks, and the front page blocks should show as long as there's no forum content on there.

[@rjen]

Maybe, but nothing was changed in that area so that may have been an existing issue

[lurkalot]

Yep, just seems like th front panel blocks don't work wih this set. Pretty sure we tested this at the time. 

I think best way for this particular case is to "Allow guests to browse the forum" and then hide the individual boards that wakewatcher need to hide.  Then apply the blocks as necessary..

[wakewatcher]

Reading back from those discussions I'm under the impression soothing has got broken somewhere for the front panel blocks, and the front page blocks should show as long as there's no forum content on there.

I'm not sure I'm following. Did I do something wrong with my SMF setup or did I do something wrong with my TP setup?
What is confusing to me, among other things, is the front page blocs show up in "front panel blocks" but show up in the upper panel in the permissions section.

[lurkalot]

Sorry, no I hink we've hit a bug somewhere in the portal itself.  I did notice the front blocks are not showing in the block access page too.  Very strange.

Not many people gide the whole forum from guests tbh, they usually have one or more boards open to guests, and others they need to be logged in to view them.

[@rjen]

The block access page is indeed showing the wrong panel names: we will look into that.

And I can confirm that when the guest access is switched off in SMF, the frontpanel is not showing...

See attachments on my test forum:
1. with guest access
2. without guest access...

We need to look into this, but it will not be fixed very soon.

So the proposal would be to allow guest acess to your forum, and the go into the boards (Modify boards) and disallow the guests there...

[wakewatcher]

The block access page is indeed showing the wrong panel names: we will look into that.

And I can confirm that when the guest access is switched off in SMF, the frontpanel is not showing...

See attachments on my test forum:
1. with guest access
2. without guest access...

We need to look into this, but it will not be fixed very soon.

So the proposal would be to allow guest access to your forum, and the go into the boards (Modify boards) and disallow the guests there...

Hey thanks for this and thanks for your patience. I still must be missing something as pre-login the panels are not there. This is what I've done.  Allowed Guest per:



And denied guest permissions per:





But still only after they login does the frontpage show up. I'm likely misunderstanding something.

[lurkalot]

I've just turned on guest access for you, so you should see your front page as guest now.

You just need to decide what blocks you need and where they should show.

[wakewatcher]

I've just turned on guest access for you, so you should see your front page as guest now.

You just need to decide what blocks you need and where they should show.

I was making changes just now too so maybe we walked over each other because now prior to login you can see the forums if you click the forum button.  Could you go in and disable that?  The forums should only be visible to those that have successfully logged in.
Thanks.

[lurkalot]

Done. Sorry. 

Info center might still be an issue but the boards are all hidden.

[wakewatcher]

Done. Sorry. 

Info center might still be an issue but the boards are all hidden.

I don't want to be greedy. I can live with the info center if needs be.  But confused. It appears that you undid the changes I made per @rjen where it is shown that guests need to allowed. So you changed that back and therefore there must be some other setting you tickled. I dug around and didn't find it. If its easy for you to tell me what you did that would be great. (Under the guise of teaching a man to fish rather than giving a man a fish. But thanks for the fish just the same!)

[lurkalot]

Done. Sorry. 

Info center might still be an issue but the boards are all hidden.

I don't want to be greedy. I can live with the info center if needs be.  But confused. It appears that you undid the changes I made per @rjen where it is shown that guests need to allowed. So you changed that back and therefore there must be some other setting you tickled. I dug around and didn't find it. If its easy for you to tell me what you did that would be great. (Under the guise of teaching a man to fish rather than giving a man a fish. But thanks for the fish just the same!)

Think I only changed the setting in SMF Admin > Features and Options > General,

Allow guests to browse the forum

While testing I did add a little message on the forum page which is only viewable to guests. You can simply turn it off if not needed, but it might be handy as it tells guest they must be signed in to view the forums.

[wakewatcher]

Think I only changed the setting in SMF Admin > Features and Options > General,

Allow guests to browse the forum

While testing I did add a little message on the forum page which is only viewable to guests. You can simply turn it off if not needed, but it might be handy as it tells guest they must be signed in to view the forums.

Thanks.  Sure is a lot places to play with in SMF.  Aw the ">> Notice: The forums are viewable to members of this site only. <<" is something you added.  I thought it might be the standard message but I like it.  Thanks!

[lurkalot]

Think I only changed the setting in SMF Admin > Features and Options > General,

Allow guests to browse the forum

While testing I did add a little message on the forum page which is only viewable to guests. You can simply turn it off if not needed, but it might be handy as it tells guest they must be signed in to view the forums.

Thanks.  Sure is a lot places to play with in SMF.  Aw the ">> Notice: The forums are viewable to members of this site only. <<" is something you added.  I thought it might be the standard message but I like it.  Thanks!

That message is coded in a php block, and contains a little snippet of php code to stop it annoying everyone including admins, so only geusts shoud see it. 

You can edit the message to suite if desired.

[wakewatcher]

@lurkalot

While testing I did add a little message on the forum page which is only viewable to guests. You can simply turn it off if not needed, but it might be handy as it tells guest they must be signed in to view the forums.

This message is great. I'm keeping it but did run into another snag. It might be a SMF theme snag.  I'm old school so I'm using the default curve theme. Unlike your AlphaCentauri it has a search field on the front page. (I don't need it at all and if there was a way to get rid of it I would.) But when you are a guest (not logged in) and use that Search field it takes you to the standard SMF without the TP panels. Is there something I can to either get rid of that search field on the home screen or have that redirect to the forum page which also has the login and register links.

[lurkalot]

This message is great. I'm keeping it but did run into another snag. It might be a SMF theme snag.  I'm old school so I'm using the default curve theme. Unlike your AlphaCentauri it has a search field on the front page. (I don't need it at all and if there was a way to get rid of it I would.)

wakewatcher.  Visit your site anf press Ctrl+F5 to refresh. Then check to see f yor search has gone please.

[wakewatcher]

Thanks. Some of you guys are scary good!