Maybe converting to tinyportal!

[Cache-man]

Hey Kai, to make my test site I just created another directory on my hosting called /tp/ and then installed a fresh installation of SMF, and then TP, and then used a copy of the existing site's database (i did not use the actual database, just in case anything went wrong, but be using a copy you get to see hop SMf+TP looks with your existing content).

I too fing the portal appealing for the same reasons you go on to mention.

From what I can gather so far, you can select a particular board from your forums, and all posts from there will be displayed on your home page (I've yet to investigate further into this to see if you can manually add miscellaneous posts from other boards to the homepage.)

I've yet to get to grips with TP's articles system properly, and am not sure if it is quite up to scratch for my needs yet, but that is kinda expected as SMF+TP is a forum, and not a Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla which is specifically designed for that purpose.

As for the content editor, we might have to ask bloc if there might be a way to implement such a editor (something like mosCE), failing that it might be easier to use 3rd party WYSIWYG program/editor and then just paste the resulting HTML code into TP's editor.

And if I do decide to transfer all the content to the forum, as threads insted of articles, then I would have a dedicated board on the main forums, but I would probabally create a "reviews" link on the menu, linking to a article/contents page which would list all links to each review and section thread. This way reviews cound be found from within the forum, and/or from the reviews link on the TP main menu.

I've still got a lot of playing to do before i make any firm decisions about converting to TP, but I think your right in saying TP is the way forward.

[kai920]

Hey Kai, to make my test site I just created another directory on my hosting called /tp/ and then installed a fresh installation of SMF, and then TP, and then used a copy of the existing site's database (i did not use the actual database, just in case anything went wrong, but be using a copy you get to see hop SMf+TP looks with your existing content).

Sounds good - I wouldn't point it direct to the database either. Would be dangerous to do so I think!

As for the content editor, we might have to ask bloc if there might be a way to implement such a editor (something like mosCE), failing that it might be easier to use 3rd party WYSIWYG program/editor and then just paste the resulting HTML code into TP's editor.

Exactly my thinking too - having Joomla's MosCE around just for this purpose might not be a bad idea... it's quite powerful for the popup/rollover images, alignments, etc.

And if I do decide to transfer all the content to the forum, as threads insted of articles, then I would have a dedicated board on the main forums, but I would probabally create a "reviews" link on the menu, linking to a article/contents page which would list all links to each review and section thread. This way reviews cound be found from within the forum, and/or from the reviews link on the TP main menu.

This is probably what I'd do as well - would be great if this can be automated somewhat. Perhaps it's already possible, but I have yet to install TP but will try to play around with it later today.

Wonder how simplemachines.org is run, do they have their own "CMS" built on top of SMF?  I really like the way the tabs are setup.

As for CMS on top of SMF, there is http://www.subdreamer.com (who advertises on simplemachines.org) but it's US$125 per license 

[kai920]

I started playing around with TP 0.8.6 on JSAS with an old copy of my site.

It seemed to install via package manager okay, but the database entries were not created for some reason. I had to manually invoke manual_tp_install.php and 1139149106manual_tp_install.php to make sure everything went through (though I did NOT have to do the search & replace as dictated by the text file, as 1139149106manual_tp_install.php added the 6 required smf_tp tables.

Would I have to do this on the live site? I'm not sure... guess will find out when the time comes.

Installed SMF Corporate as test theme but had to stop there, hopefully will have more time later today to play with TP!

[bloc]

kai920, although the manual_tp_install.php will install required database tables, it will not do the required changes to SMF files. For that you will need to edit them manually.

Regarding WYSIWYG editor...I will have a look at Joomlas editor. One thing I want to avoid though, is a big editor included..for example FCKeditor is a fairly large editor, bigger than TP itself actually..

[kai920]

hey Bloc,
That's the thing, I found that somehow, something did make the changes to the SMF files... I searched through the first and last entries on the "search and replace text file" and the changes were indeed made.

Probably something I did wrong, or maybe it's an isolated & peculiar setup <shrug>...

[kai920]

Regarding WYSIWYG editor...I will have a look at Joomlas editor. One thing I want to avoid though, is a big editor included..for example FCKeditor is a fairly large editor, bigger than TP itself actually..

Do wysiwyg BBCode editors exist?  Something simple that can be used to create and organize posts or articles (stored locally)...

[bloc]

No, not that I know of..and I have been searching for some time.

[Cache-man]

Regarding WYSIWYG editor...I will have a look at Joomlas editor. One thing I want to avoid though, is a big editor included..for example FCKeditor is a fairly large editor, bigger than TP itself actually..

Do wysiwyg BBCode editors exist?  Something simple that can be used to create and organize posts or articles (stored locally)...

Well, SMF does have its own WYSIWYG BBC code editor, which does a resonable job of creating the necesarry BBC code. Well, it's not a true WYSIWIG editor, but you can preview your post and then go back to editing.
I think vBulliten has the capability of a better WYSIWYG editor, although it's a while since I looked at vB so I cant remember how advanced it is.

[bloc]

The option of bbcode-based articles is def. interesting. I am not sure when it will be included, but when it does, using SMF own system is of course the way to go.

Have been looking at TinyMCE again, and it does seem like a good choice.

[kai920]

Don't forget MosCE (http://www.cellardoor.za.net/mosce/) which has recently been updated.