Getting the most from the CMS.

[TheBen]

Pretty boring and bland but at the moment it does the job and that is shows a front page of articles from my forums but I would like it to do much more. For example last night I spent 3+ hours looking for a nice slider widget and more hours on here looking at hundreds of sites which use the CMS system. By far the best I have seen is: http://www.nationofblue.com/

The problem is that while it is most likely easy to the webmaster on NoB to come up with that for me someone who has never really tweaked the vBulletin CMS it is a mindfield, it is very cumbersome and slow to work with plus my homepage is live and I do not want to make a mess of anything while its live, I'd love to get some of my front page to look like NoB I have my own ideas on what I would like also but what is the best way to actually customise your CMS away from the stock CMS grids and layouts?

Thanks to anyone who responds.

[bszopi]

To start, exactly what are you trying to do? Do you have a layout in mind? There are several of us on here who could probably help out in telling you what needs to be changed and where, but we need to know what you are trying to accomplish first.

[TheBen]

To start, exactly what are you trying to do? Do you have a layout in mind? There are several of us on here who could probably help out in telling you what needs to be changed and where, but we need to know what you are trying to accomplish first.

I'm looking to build a similar layout to the above, we have a lot of sections and a lot of content, providing a base for PS3 and XBOX teams so would like to break it down between the two and also we have Internationals so again would like to create a section dedicated to that. The way NoB has it is all very neat and compact while mine shows the images etc, I looked at a few downloadable grids from vb.org but can't get anything near to what NoB use, I'm not looking to directly copy it but must admit to looking to do something fairly similar in the structure.

[reefland]

Mine isn't anything more than 4 php widgets...

[Mark.B]

Mine isn't anything more than 4 php widgets...

True, but lots of people point to yours as one of the shining examples of a good CMS deployment.....

[reefland]

Maybe one day I'll post some examples.

[TheBen]

Maybe one day I'll post some examples.

Wish you would, I mailed you about your site yesterday.

[reefland]

I'm going to start a new project soon and will consider taking the time to do some how-to's as I go.

[TheBen]

I'm going to start a new project soon and will consider taking the time to do some how-to's as I go.

I dropped you a PM as I wanted to put something to you.

[TheBen]

I guess I should be more specific about what I'm after.....

1. I'm looking for a good slider, I have looked all over the place and cannot find what I want or need, I've looked at and test virtually every slider on vb.org and don't like any of them, can I ask where you got the slider on NoB?
2. How do you pull your forum posts and News articles so neatly in blocks, could I ask you to share the code for how you do it?
3. How do you pull the polls?
4. How do you pull the calender?

The difference between your CMS and mostly every other one is the ability to pull your material in a neat manner, just looking to pull the material in a similar fashion but not directly copy the layout.

[TheBen]

Customising the CMS is actually a joke, I have never really looked at the CMS before and went with the stock look but on this occasion I want to customise it the way I want, which is just not happening. You need to know a decent level of PHP, you cannot get the grids where you want, it is the most cumbersome system I have ever used, it is slow and looks bland. Reading the CMS articles tell me nothing just very basics, for a CMS I'm actually disgusted about how poor this is.

I cannot turn off avatars in latest posts, I cannot turn off images on the main page unless I turn them off system wide, I cannot slim anything down unless I start hacking away at the existing PHP files related to the CMS. This is not a content management system at all, I have no idea what it is, a news wrapper maybe and not a very good one at that.

[Mark.B]

The CMS is greatly lacking but it IS usable, just about, once you get your head round it.

php knowledge is helpful, especially if you want to make a PHP widget, I confess I haven't done any of those but I have done the forumhome sidebar blocks with php which is the same principle.

[TheBen]

The CMS is greatly lacking but it IS usable, just about, once you get your head round it.

php knowledge is helpful, especially if you want to make a PHP widget, I confess I haven't done any of those but I have done the forumhome sidebar blocks with php which is the same principle.

The thing is I know what I want to do but I cannot do it and need to basically spend hours on it to get it right, and those hours I will need to figure out the code or hack the existing files, thats not what a CMS should be, this should be easy with choices presented to me in a neat and orderly manner.

I want my latest posts to just show the thread topic title and nothing else, and effectively update the title if a new post is made in another thread. I want to do similar with polls. And also articles to do that I need to hack the existing files or start making new PHP widgets, if I make new PHP widgets I get a horrible elephant displayed on every block, basically you need coding knowledge to be able to work at the CMS when that is not what a CMS is about. I'm actually really disappointed as it obviously costs money for a suite and I feel like I don't have a suite. There is next to little or no support related to CMS and because I want to customise it I have to go it alone and hope for community help.

[Mark.B]

I can't see your CMS (permission error), but there IS help available on here to set it up properly, and then for heavier customisation there is vbulletin.org.

Not pretending it's right, nor that it's an easy road, but it CAN be put to good use and many of us on here are testimony to that.

http://www.bowlandcentral.com/forum/content.php?

[TheBen]

I can't see your CMS (permission error), but there IS help available on here to set it up properly, and then for heavier customisation there is vbulletin.org.

Not pretending it's right, nor that it's an easy road, but it CAN be put to good use and many of us on here are testimony to that.
http://www.bowlandcentral.com/forum/content.php?

I turned my CMS off as I'm unhappy with it.

That looks nice and neat, its not exactly what I'm after myself but its much better than what I currently have.