Pages as Portal

[Jamer]

I am thinking or purchasing the Pages app but I want to make sure it is actually what I need. 

How easy would it be to create a portal (same as the original portal app) showing the latest news items from the forums I select to include images on the front page? (landing page)
See below:

Could I also have widgets still down the side etc?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[opentype]

13 minutes ago, Jamer said:

Could I also have widgets still down the side etc?

Sure. Most IPS sites using Pages for the front page look like that. You can put the widgets wherever you want in the default widget slots. 

14 minutes ago, Jamer said:

the latest news items from the forums I select to include images on the front page

I Pages you can set up widgets for all apps (excluding Commerce). Article feeds, Forum feeds, Gallery feeds, Blog feeds. It’s quite flexible. 

A post feed which shows the full forum is not a default option though. That would require template customization. The point of the widgets is to create links to the original content, not to show them directly. 

[Jamer]

27 minutes ago, opentype said:

Sure. Most IPS sites using Pages for the front page look like that. You can put the widgets wherever you want in the default widget slots. 

I Pages you can set up widgets for all apps (excluding Commerce). Article feeds, Forum feeds, Gallery feeds, Blog feeds. It’s quite flexible. 

A post feed which shows the full forum is not a default option though. That would require template customization. The point of the widgets is to create links to the original content, not to show them directly. 

Thank you for responding. 

Initially, I just want my front page to show the first topic from each of the selected forums, if you have time please take a look at my forum HERE (Front Page) and this is what I want to achieve. 

[opentype]

2 minutes ago, Jamer said:

I just want my front page to show the first topic from each of the selected forums …

You would have to create a Widget block in Pages for each forum and limit the number of items to 1. 
As mentioned before, you would have to let someone customize the template for these blocks to show the entire forum post. 

[Jamer]

23 minutes ago, opentype said:

You would have to create a Widget block in Pages for each forum and limit the number of items to 1. 
As mentioned before, you would have to let someone customize the template for these blocks to show the entire forum post. 

Hmmm I am quite good with IPS stuff but I am thinking this all sounds a little complicated. 

[evandixon]

Having previously used the Portal application you're using and having moved to the Pages application, I recommend this kind of setup:

• Create a database.
  • Set the database index to "Show records like articles".
    
    Setting this index type makes records look like the following:
    
    If you don't like the truncation, you can later edit the display template (this one's called "entry" in Category Articles), by replacing this:

    				<section class='ipsType_normal ipsType_richText ipsType_break ipsSpacer_bottom' data-ipsTruncate data-ipsTruncate-size='7 lines' data-ipsTruncate-type='remove'>
    					{$record->truncated()|raw}
    				</section>

    With this:

    				<section class='ipsType_normal ipsType_richText ipsType_break ipsSpacer_bottom'>
    					{$record->content()|raw}
    				</section>

    For your own future sanity, you should create a new display template first, then modify that one.

  • Configure records to create forum threads. Cool thing is that comments can be shared across the record and thread. If you create more categories, you can override these settings for each category (for example, each category could post in a new forum).
    
• When creating a new front-page post, add it to the database (see the "Add new article" button two images up)
• When wanting to front-page an existing thread, make sure it's in the appropriate forum (the one a topic would automatically be created in), then use the Copy to Database feature.
  
  (Note how this is in News Discussion)
  You'll also want to select "Copy Posts".
  

(Note: in early versions of 4.2, I encountered an issue where copying a thread to a database like that created a separate thread (because the thread wasn't properly linked to the record, and settings said for threads to be created for unlinked records). I wrote a plugin to fix it, and I was about to publish it, but I can no longer reproduce the issue without it. It's possible it was fixed sometime in the past year, though I don't see any obvious code fixes, and I need to do more testing before I'm comfortable removing my plugin from production. If you or anyone else encounter this issue, I can provide this plugin.)

I recommend trying this out either in a test instance or in a free demo before moving away from your current, stable setup.

[AlexWebsites]

I use pages on two of my websites and you can get pretty creative with what you want to show by creating your own custom blocks. Plus, there is no better way to have a custom home page than using the pages app. Depends on your skill level really, on how custom you can make your pages.

[Aiwa]

https://www.tacticaladvantage.com

https://aiwa.me

Converted from Portal long ago to Pages and haven't looked back. 

If you have at least a simple grasp of HTML and IPS templates, you can make a landing page VERY easily. 

Getting into Articles and Databases gets a bit more hairy understanding where all your templates are coming from. 

13 hours ago, opentype said:

excluding Commerce

Not true. While guests and members won't see it on my site, I have a block for myself that tells me if there are any pending support tickets. 

[opentype]

7 hours ago, Aiwa said:

Not true.

The context was feeding the app items to members/guests as you would do on a portal. But there is no “latest Commerce products” or anything like that. 

[Aiwa]

8 hours ago, opentype said:

The context was feeding the app items to members/guests as you would do on a portal. But there is no “latest Commerce products” or anything like that. 

Fair point 

[Jamer]

23 hours ago, evandixon said:

Having previously used the Portal application you're using and having moved to the Pages application, I recommend this kind of setup:

• Create a database.
  • Set the database index to "Show records like articles".
    
    Setting this index type makes records look like the following:
    
    If you don't like the truncation, you can later edit the display template (this one's called "entry" in Category Articles), by replacing this:

    
    				<section class='ipsType_normal ipsType_richText ipsType_break ipsSpacer_bottom' data-ipsTruncate data-ipsTruncate-size='7 lines' data-ipsTruncate-type='remove'>
    					{$record->truncated()|raw}
    				</section>

    With this:

    
    				<section class='ipsType_normal ipsType_richText ipsType_break ipsSpacer_bottom'>
    					{$record->content()|raw}
    				</section>

    For your own future sanity, you should create a new display template first, then modify that one.

  • Configure records to create forum threads. Cool thing is that comments can be shared across the record and thread. If you create more categories, you can override these settings for each category (for example, each category could post in a new forum).
    
• When creating a new front-page post, add it to the database (see the "Add new article" button two images up)
• When wanting to front-page an existing thread, make sure it's in the appropriate forum (the one a topic would automatically be created in), then use the Copy to Database feature.
  
  (Note how this is in News Discussion)
  You'll also want to select "Copy Posts".
  

(Note: in early versions of 4.2, I encountered an issue where copying a thread to a database like that created a separate thread (because the thread wasn't properly linked to the record, and settings said for threads to be created for unlinked records). I wrote a plugin to fix it, and I was about to publish it, but I can no longer reproduce the issue without it. It's possible it was fixed sometime in the past year, though I don't see any obvious code fixes, and I need to do more testing before I'm comfortable removing my plugin from production. If you or anyone else encounter this issue, I can provide this plugin.)

I recommend trying this out either in a test instance or in a free demo before moving away from your current, stable setup.

Oh wow, thank you for all of this useful information, I think I will end up purchasing Pages later this week and see how I get on, I will be asking more questions I am sure. 

Here is the first one, so would I just be creating an additional (pages) database or will this be another database within my current forum db?

[evandixon]

2 hours ago, Jamer said:

Here is the first one, so would I just be creating an additional (pages) database or will this be another database within my current forum db?

It's the same database in MySql, but the collections of records are called "databases" within IC. Technically, each has its own MySql table, probably because each record can have as many custom fields as you want. For example, you could make a database for bug tracking (like this one). Two of the fields are of course Title and Content, but the IPS bug tracker has a custom field for the status of the report. You could take it a step further and add a custom field for who's assigned to fix it, have multiple content fields (maybe one's for exception messages and another's for repro steps), or anything else you can imagine. Additional reading, conveniently made with the very application it's written about.

Also check out opentype's pages templates for more inspiration. My site makes use of Pages SuperDocs and Pages SuperHelp.

[Jamer]

2 hours ago, evandixon said:

It's the same database in MySql, but the collections of records are called "databases" within IC. Technically, each has its own MySql table, probably because each record can have as many custom fields as you want. For example, you could make a database for bug tracking (like this one). Two of the fields are of course Title and Content, but the IPS bug tracker has a custom field for the status of the report. You could take it a step further and add a custom field for who's assigned to fix it, have multiple content fields (maybe one's for exception messages and another's for repro steps), or anything else you can imagine. Additional reading, conveniently made with the very application it's written about.

Also check out opentype's pages templates for more inspiration. My site makes use of Pages SuperDocs and Pages SuperHelp.

Brilliant, thank you so much for you reply, I will check out the links you have provided. ?