ocPortal/ocProducts FAQ
This page will answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) about ocPortal and ocProducts. These are true FAQs, not a substitute for documentation, and not a piece of marketing material in disguise.Table of contents
About ocPortal
What is ocPortal?ocPortal is a website engine that allows you to create and manage your interactive and dynamic website from an easy to use administration interface. ocPortal is unique by the combination of a vast and diverse range of provided functionality, out-of-the-box usability, and an ability for unlimited customisation.
What features set it apart from other systems?
ocPortal provides many powerful community features that aren't to be found built-in to any competing products (to our knowledge at the time of writing). Features such as the 'points' system, and the point-store, that allow users to earn, donate and spend points in your community. Features such as integration with 7 different popular forums, as well as our own leading forum that is (optionally) seamlessly integrated into the system. Features such as a special status for 'super-members' in your community, where they can work collaboratively, organising themselves and their projects. If this all sounds just like a powerful portal solution… we have support for completely customised page, sub-site and menu creation and layout entirely from within our powerful Admin Zone. To read more about ocPortal's extensive features, see our Introduction tutorial.
How secure is ocPortal?
No honest and competent company can guarantee their web application to be completely secure. To make ocPortal as secure as possible, we:
- actively examine our code in great detail for possible security flaws and make sure we can find none before releasing our product
- have a written set of security standards that all developers comply with
- have designed the ocPortal architecture to abstract away common security problems, such as 'SQL injections'
- have written our code to pro-actively detect suspicious activity, alerting the user to it
- have prepared a 'security' tutorial giving a high level of technical detail on how to 'lock down' ocPortal beyond the high level of security provided by default
If there does turn out to be a security flaw in ocPortal, we will endeavour to fix it within 24 hours or less and provide a patch and updated download.
If you believe you have found a security flaw in ocPortal please contact us, so we may fix it before hackers can find and exploit it.
What are the host requirements for ocPortal?
Please see the 'Web Hosting' tutorial.
Is ocPortal standards-compliant?
We have gone to great lengths to make our code 100% compliant with all major standards, and present well in popular modern browsers (not just Microsoft Internet Explorer). ocPortal even includes an inbuilt validator that ensures compliance with these standards, as well as identifies common mistakes and browser incompatibilities.
Supported standards include XHTML, CSS and the highest WAI accessibility standard (level 3) - very few, if any, competing systems can claim this.
Do you support blogging?
ocPortal has excellent support for blogging, through the news system. The news system features both RSS and Atom syndication, for both input and output of news. Members of an ocPortal site may have their own blogs.
Does ocPortal support eCommerce?
ocPortal supports usergroup subscription in OCF, and includes an extendable eCommerce framework for making dynamically-dispatched purchases (as used on ocportal.com to serve out registration keys). ocPortal does not currently have shopping cart functionality.
Do you support classified ads?
Classified ads can basically be achieved using 'catalogues'. You'd add a catalogue for the ads:
- you'd define some fields (such as 'Ad title' and 'Ad message')
- you'd then add some categories to the catalogue
- you'd assign various permissions so that members could submit to this catalogue
- you'd link the catalogue onto your menus
- possible you'd place a 'recent entries' block onto your front page
What does ocPortal stand for?
ocPortal stands for "Online 'C' Portal", where 'C' is any of: Corporate, Community, Content, Collaboration or Commerce.
Why is ocPortal not a portal?
The definition of a 'portal' is very fraught, as it is used by different people in different ways. In the discusson forum world, it refers to a simple front end to the forum itself. In the business world, it refers to a place for visitors to make their 'home' for a specific subject. The third definition is what ocPortal is – a rich web application for providing different kinds of functionality. Many would think of ocPortal as a Content Management System (CMS), but we dislike this term as it is very vague and does not have any indication of ocPortal's advanced functionality for things like discussion forums and chat rooms.
When will the next version be released?
The next version of ocPortal, version 4, has been announced, but no time schedule has been released for it. It is in mid-development, but it is important to be aware that it is being worked on by part-time volunteers, and supporting/refining ocPortal 3 is a higher priority. There are a lot of great things that ocProducts staff would like to announce, but for complex reasons we are not yet in a position to do so.
Does ocPortal include its own forum? What forum would you recommend I use?
Since version 2.5, ocPortal includes a leading forum that can stand up to the toughest standalone competition. We strongly recommend that you use this forum, OCF, as it has the best possible integration with the rest of the system, and offers many innovative features that make it more effective than other forums.
Do you recommend Windows or Linux servers?
We feel Linux is more suited for PHP purposes than Windows. ocPortal will work fine on Windows, however setting file permissions remotely can be very tricky and non-standard between different Windows servers.
Do you recommend any web hosts / provide your own hosting?
We don't currently provide hosting or recommend other companies. We would generally advise that you seek a web host that is a well established company, and also isn't just the cheapest you can find. You should check the web host meets the minimum requirements we lay out in our web hosting tutorial. Please be aware that web hosting is an extremely competitive market, with most companies competing on price, features, and high limits – not quality of service. It would be advisable to keep in mind that quality of service is not going to be possible at the lowest prices, and is much more important than the other aforementioned things. ocPortal is progressive software, and some of the price squeezed service we have seen from cheap web hosts is only suitable for those with very basic needs.
Does ocPortal support (some forum vendor and version)?
Compatible forum software is listed in the web hosting requirements tutorial, and any issues are listed in the nuances of forum integration tutorial.
Is the software stable?
The ocPortal 3 line has now been out for over a year, and an enormous amount of work has been done to fix any problems that have been found - new bugs are still occasionally found due to the sheer size of the system, but these are increasingly obscure. New patch releases typically come out about once a month and it is generally advisable to keep up-to-date, as we also fix some usability issues in these releases. When bugs are found they are typically fixed very fast. Usually we will post a bug fix in our bugs database (linked to from the front page of your Admin Zone). In some cases (for instance, when the fix requires a lot of changes, or fixes an obscure problem) we will hold a fix back until the next patch release.
Will you implement (some feature)?
ocProducts is very open to new ideas, and a lot of planning goes on behind the scenes based on our feedback. We are very fortunate in that we regularly get new ideas directly from our users, and we listen very closely to them all - most items of feedback will prompt a staff discussion for corresponding software improvement. We regret that there are a variety of unavoidable reasons that prevent us from accepting all suggestions, or confirming acceptance of suggestions:
- we need to integrate any changes into our long-term development roadmap
- we need for us to design a clean product suitable for our wider user-base
- we work in a complex, changing environment, on the forefront of technology
Please contact us to make your suggestion.
Will you implement a point-bank/games-arcade/ecards/auctions?
These significant new feature categories are often requested, but are unlikely to be produced as official ocPortal features. This is because these features are very specific, and particularly contrary to the needs of most websites. We are not against these feature categories in any way, but these are best developed and released as third party addons.
Will you implement per-user permissions?
For reasons of simplicity we have opted to only provide per-usergroup permissions. ocPortal does have internal functionality for per-user permissions (used by the Point Store), but we feel that this would add unneeded complexity if it were placed in the administrative interface.
Is ocPortal available in (some language)?
ocProducts does not officially get involved in the translation of ocPortal, other than to reward those that release good public translations. Please check the internationalisation forum for more information on specific languages. We provide a tutorial, and tools, to translate ocPortal, and ocPortal has excellent internationalisation support.
Does ocPortal support unicode?
Contrary to popular understanding, PHP does not itself support unicode until version 6 (not yet released at the time of writing). PHP may appear to function with unicode, and some application may use PHP extensions to provide limited unicode support, but true, reliable, unicode support is not there. We've opted to support PHP 6 style unicode rather than patching support using PHP extensions that would cause significant disruption and inefficiency inside ocPortal. All-this-said, ocPortal can support unicode in older PHP versions, it's just some rare unexpected behaviour may result from it. Unless you are using PHP 6, we recommend using the character set technique for your language pack.
How can I get the enterprise version of ocPortal?
Please see:
ocPortal – View topic: Enterprise features
Registration
Can I remove the free version message/logo?You need to be holder of a registered licence before this message may be removed. We are able to provide a free version of ocPortal, but only with this logo present, for two reasons:
- The logo provides us with advertising
- The presence of the logo becomes an incentive for people to register
Without registered users, ocPortal could not be developed to the high across-the-board standard it is.
Removing the logo without registering is an act of piracy.
Can you provide free registration for our website?
We have given out many free registration keys in the past for charity websites. ocProducts will typically make a judgement based on websites for 'helping the needy' (be aware that we don't give free registration out to all non-profit or community websites). We also will often give out free registration for those that provide a substantial service to the ocPortal community - for example, to those that release good quality themes, or language packs. Please contact ocProducts privately if you think you might be an appropriate candidate for free licensing. (and don't want to pay
).How much does ocPortal cost?
Please see the registration page for the current ocPortal prices.
What registration type do you recommend? What is the difference?
Free upgrade to all new versions is the primary advantage of the ongoing subscription-based yearly-license. We recommend purchasing lifetime registration as at the current point in time we have not made any announcements about any release dates for new versions - in our view it is best to focus on the current version and get a lifetime licence for it, but we provide our customers the choice.
Can I have a bulk license for running ocPortal for many sites on my server?
Please contact us and we may be able to arrange a discount when selling you a certain number of keys in bulk.
About ocProducts / Services
What other products do you have?At this time, we place all our efforts into ocPortal, and related add-ons and services.
Is ocProducts available to perform some custom work for me?
Unfortunately we do not currently have the staff resources for performing paid custom work. We advise using services such as elance.com to find programmers to conduct such work.
What web browser do you recommend?
ocPortal is developed to work in all major web browsers. The ocPortal team are fans of Firefox due to it's excellent web standards support and collection of addons. Like almost all web developers, we loath the massive economic drain that Internet Explorer has created due to it's exceptionally poorer support for web standards compared to all other serious web browsers. This economic drain is estimated as billions of US-dollars, caused by the multiplied development costs associated with development of Internet Explorer workarounds. Internet Explorer development has been left almost stagnant by Microsoft after they used monopoly-abuse to kill off it's competition. When we say Internet Explorer does not support proper web standards, we don't just mean it's non-standard – important functionality for displaying advanced layouts is not available in Internet Explorer in any form, and the web cannot progress due to this; mentioned functionality is standard in all Internet Explorer's competition.
Why is your spelling so terrible?
ocPortal is a British (in fact, English) company, so spelling is in British English.
Installation issues
The install is failing, how can I make it work?The installer presents the most common point of failure for users, as it is a very sophisticated part of ocPortal, and also is the first piece of the ocPortal-framework used and thus first to catch framework problems.
Please submit a bug report to us. If we are unable to identify the problem, we may ask if we can access your server to resolve it ourselves.
If we suspect user error, we may offer to sell services to install it for you.
The installation failed and the config file is blank, what do I fill it with?
Please report the problem you suffered. Manually filling the config file will not result in a working configuration.
Why are you taking our FTP passwords in the installer? What dark plan have you got?
Passwords are only taken because of how PHP security works. PHP cannot extract files from the installation archive and place them on your website (normally) for complex reasons: the only way it can do it is to know your FTP password and to place the files there through FTP.
Essentially, the installer is automating via its archive what most web applications make the user do by hand: uploading all the files.
If you do not trust us - the installer is a script, and thus the source code to it is plainly viewable, so you can see precisely what is happening.
Why won't ocPortal work on my server, even though it meets the minimum requirements?
ocPortal is extremely compatible with different server configurations, tuned to work with many different problematic servers over a number of years, and developed with automatic compatibility detection software. Unfortunately some web hosts provide crippled versions of PHP, that are either rewritten to limit functionality, or configured to disable basic functionality (unfortunately PHP allows any piece of hundreds of items of basic functionality to be arbitrarily disabled). In addition, cheap web hosts often fit large numbers of users onto a single shared server, which can result in a rationing of server resources that is not in any way workable.
I used uploaded files manually using FTP and installed with the manual installer - why won't it work?
Unfortunately FTP can be slow and often results in corrupted uploads. This is why we developed the quick installer, and we strongly recommend using it if possible. Common reasons for corrupted upload include:
- files that only have partially uploaded (or even uploaded as blank)
- uploading in 'text mode' instead of 'binary mode' (only matters on a minority of servers)
- files that never uploaded at all
What file permissions should ocPortal have?
Please check the installation tutorial.
Forum integration
Can I embed my forum between the portal menus?Yes. You need to enable the 'forum in portal' option from the Admin Zone, and change the forum link on your menus to point to "index.php?page=forums".
Why do my embedded forums have the wrong height?
It is crucial that ocPortal is running from exactly the same domain name as your forums. This is because the forum runs within a frame, and if the domain is different, the web browser will not allow ocPortal (for security reasons) to find out the height of the forums to automatically adjust the frame height.
Can I share login between the portal and my forum if I am using a forum driver?
ocPortal uses the forum for authentication, but users may have difficulty sharing cookies between the forum and the portal.
It is recommended that you set the cookie names to be different between the portal and forum, making them run on separate cookies. The disadvantage to this is only minor, whilst you are a lot less likely to suffer from cookie conflict issues.
Why does my cookie integration not work?
There are many factors to cookie integration, and it is renowned to be problematic. These problems include: strange and inconsistent browser/privacy behaviour, the trickiness of getting exactly matching and correct paths and domains, the change of format between forum versions, secondary usage to forum session cookies, and old cookies masking new cookies. Due to all these problems, we cannot provide personal support for cookie integration except on a commercial basis.
How do I change the forum base-URL (because my forum links and emoticons are broken)?
You must correct it using the config editor script, available under the 'Environment' link in the 'Configuration' box of the Admin Zone. The installer asked for this value, but many users (wrongly) do not change it from the default auto-detected value.
Note that once the value in the config editor is changed, the 'Comcode page cache' must be cleared so as to update the value. To do this, hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift and reload a page from your ocPortal site in a browser, when logged into ocPortal as an administrator. Clearing the caches manually is only necessary when using the config editor, as it is separated from ocPortal for fail-safe reasons.
Why do I not have commenting boxes on my portal?
You must create a comment forum with the name specified in your configuration settings. Also, commenting must be enabled for the content involved, and must be enabled globally (– although both these elements allow commenting by default).
How do I use my forum skin for an ocPortal theme?
There is no way to do this. Skins/themes define the visual appearance of applications by specifying visual properties for specific aspects of the specific application, they are not like all-purpose coats of paint.
Can I switch to OCF from my existing forum?
This is only supported if there is an available importer to perform this. Currently this is only the case for IPB and vBulletin.
It may seem possible to perform this action by editing the info.php file, but this is highly ill-advised because it will result in misassociated members and usergroups.
Can I switch from OCF to another forum?
This is not supported.
Common problems
Why do I get a message, 'Cannot modify header information' or 'Headers already sent'?This message occurs if superfluous blank lines (or infact, any kind of data) is present outside the region marked by <?php and ?> in the source code file specified as the output starter.
This superfluous data is usually inserted either:
- by faulty editor software, such as the editor integrated into the cPanel web-hosting control panel.
- because your site has been infected by a virus residing on a poorly configured shared server.
Technically… a web page contains headers and data, where the headers always have to preceed the data. If there is data outside the PHP code region, then this data is sent before PHP can finish executing the code necessary to send the headers.
Why is the text bigger/smaller than it should be?
You accidentally enlarged the text size in the browser. Whilst most sites don't scale properly with browser text size (in Internet Explorer, at least), ocPortal is designed so that it does. This is why you only notice it in ocPortal - the other sites don't adhere to the accessibility standards, and thus it is the other sites that are at fault.
Why do images files start grey, then blend?
This is due to a flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, which is now a very dated web browser. Please upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, Safari, Firefox, or Opera.
Why do my backups not work?
If there is something about your server configuration that prevents PHP scripts from executing for a long time, even if left running in the background, this will cause the backup system to fail. To check this is not an error, rather than a time-out, check your ocPortal error log.
How do I get more than <just a few megabytes> of upload support?
PHP defines its own upload limits, which ocPortal can not exceed. Try renaming the bundled 'recommended.htaccess' file to '.htaccess'; if this fails, you will need to persuade the server administrator to increase the PHP 'post_max_size' and 'upload_max_filesize' options.
Why do I get blank pages? OR, Why do I get errors saying the script has run out of memory?
ocPortal is designed to run on a PHP memory limit of 12MB or higher; some PHP configurations come with an 8MB limit, but the majority of web-hosts have it raised to a more reasonable level: take into account that every ocPortal interface, even the installer which unpacks a large archive, is being asked to run within a tiny 8MB, which includes the space taken up by the PHP source code being run. If you encounter these problems, please submit a bug report, and we will optimise the area where they are occurring for you.
Note that the 'blank page' problem is likely to be due to memory running out, as some PHP installations do not give errors in this event, even if the PHP 'display_errors' option is enabled.
Why do I get errors about "imagetypes()" or other errors relating to image or GD?
You may have enabled 'GD' in your configuration, but do not actually have GD configured into PHP. GD comes as standard, and is very widespread across web-hosts, and ocPortal uses it for various areas. Officially, GD is required, but if you encounter problems when it is disabled in your configuration, please submit a bug report.
Common usage queries
How do I change the header text (title bar text) away from "A site about ocPortal-?"?In order to change the ocPortal header text that is shown in page titles, you must choose to edit zones from the Admin Zone. This is because header text is defined on a per-zone basis, rather than globally. To change the text visitors see, edit the Welcome Zone.
Can I include PHP code in my templates?
This is not possible: we could have very easily allowed this, but it would mean that themes could essentially be distributed that delete files, for instance. Templates could still be abused, to steal password cookies, for example: but direct server attacks are less likely.
Instead, use our tempcode language, which provides all the power you should need: and if you need more power, you should be working with source code in conjunction with the templates.
Can new items be added to the point store?
At this time, they can only be added via custom programming new point store 'hooks'.
What are catalogues?
Catalogues holds structured records of data. The system is extremely powerful, as the staff can create new catalogues with any structure of their choosing. The default FAQ page on an ocPortal install is a catalogue.
What is CEDI?
CEDI is our equivalent to a WIKI: a community-built ad-hoc database.
Why are Comcode pages stored as files?
This is because a number of them need to be provided by default, so that they may easily be created and edited in a text editor, and so that they may easily be transferred between portals.
How do I open my site?
This is available in the configuration. Please read our 'Basic Configuration' tutorial.
I turned on short URLs, but they won't work, and now ocPortal links are all broken. How do I fix it?
Use the config_editor.php script to force short URLs to be off.
How do I move to another server?
Please check the documentation - we have a tutorial about moving sites.
Why won't WYSIWYG work on Safari?
Unfortunately Safari currently does not (or has not had until recently) adequate functionality to support this. The WYSIWYG editor is third-party software integrated with ocPortal, and we are dependant both on what web browsers that software supports, and by extension the limitations of different web browsers. WYSIWYG functionality works using non-standard features of web browsers.
Why do I get an Internal Server Error when saving the site configuration?
Your server has an extension called 'mod_security' enabled, which is thinking the presence of a configuration option that contains HTML is an attack on the server. Disable mod_security by renaming recommended.htaccess to .htaccess. If this doesn't work, try the file with just leaving these 5 lines at the top:
Code
# Disable inaccurate security scanning (ocPortal has it's own)
<IfModule mod_security.c>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</IfModule>
I've renamed recommended.htaccess to .htaccess, but why ocPortal won't load anymore?
Unfortunately the Apache web server gives very poor error feedback, and setting features that it's configuration environment doesn't understand can cause it to fail. Try commenting out lines (put "#" at the start of the line) to work out what lines cause the problems, and leave those lines commented out.
Why don't unvalidated posts show up in the staff checklist?
This is an intentional design decision, to make sure the tally only took into account website resources, and wasn't always 'spammed to the point of meaninglessness' by an ongoing stream of forum posts. However, we have since learnt that some users prefer the tally to be more transparent, and thus we have made an unofficial method to set this. Please see the 'hidden functionality' topic:
http://ocportal.com/forum/pg/topicview/misc/5906/index.php&kfs232=0
How can I disable the required e-mail validation of new members?
This is a popular request but is not currently a feature. An unofficial workaround is available at:
ocPortal – View topic: Where do I disable validation of new members?
Please be aware that a working e-mail server is a requirement for an ocPortal website, as many aspects of the system require email.
How can I prevent users editing avatars/photos?
Deny access to the editavatar or editphoto page (as appropriate), and edit the Personal Zone menu to have the 'check permissions' option set upon the relevant links.
How do you put flash banners in the banner rotation?
This is not currently supported. You may, however, include flash in template using regular HTML. More advanced users could use Tempcode to manual create a custom banner rotation.
How can I change the calendar to use 24 hour clock / start a week on a Sunday?
This is not currently supported, but planned for a future version. Culture is divided about what is the first day of a week, many people firmly believing their convention is correct - which is why we will make it an option, for the administrator to choose.
I am having trouble deleting files ocPortal has created on my server?
Files created by web applications typically are owned by a different server user to the account holder user for the server account. ocPortal tries to work around this, but in some cases it may fail. If you are having trouble deleting a specific file, please let us know the filename. The best way to delete troublesome files is to use the file manager in the web hosting control panel - these can usually delete files created by web applications as well as files created by the server account.
Why is my feedback forum spammed when I have CAPTCHA on? How can I turn on CAPTCHA for the feedback?
CAPTCHA is ignored for the feedback system, because this is the last port of call for people if they are disabled in some way that prevents them from using the CAPTCHA feature to join. Also, feedback is usually hidden, and thus spam is less of an issue for it.
Unofficially, you can turn on CAPTCHA for feedback by typing the following into OcCLE:
Code
:set_value('captcha_on_feedback','1');
Why do screens not appear correctly and interactive functionality not work correctly?
It sounds as if ocPortal Javascript is failing to execute. One small (or big) error in the Javascript initialisation can cause all Javascript functionality to fail.
If you're using Firefox, please go to the Tools menu and then 'Error Console', then click 'Clear'. Then reload the screen that has the problem on, and try to recreate it. Fresh errors will probably have appeared in the Error Console. Please create a support ticket with a screenshot of these fresh errors.
If you're using IE, IE does have a Javascript error icon that appears near the bottom-left when an error happens, but it is very poor. It's worth installing Firefox just for this error console capability.
Can I include a YouTube video / something else from another website?
The website you are getting content from will likely provide an HTML snippet which you can place inside the 'html' Comcode tag. See also the FAQ answer to 'Can I include HTML?'.
Why do I get an error about a missing comment topic forum when I try to use comment topics?
You may have renamed the default OCF comment forum, or you may have changed the name used for it in the configuration. These need to match up.
Why is mail not getting sent from the server?
This can be very difficult to debug, but is unlikely to be the fault of ocPortal. One possibility is if your server is on a spam blacklist. Another is that the outgoing email server you are using is clogged or broken. Another possibility is that your website name could look like spam. If you are using the inbuilt SMTP sending functionality (if you filled it in in the configuration), please be aware that it is best to not use this unless the inbuilt PHP functionality (which is auto-configured by the web host) is not working.
What permissions do I set?
The permissions are designed to be logical and flexible, and the Permission Tree Editor is a great tool to see a visual representation of what content/category permissions affect what modules, as well as to provide override capability. Never-the-less, it can be confusing at times, as often combinations of settings interact in complex ways. A useful technique exists in ocPortal to debug permission problems by seeing what permission checks are failing. To use this technique, make a writeable file, data_custom/permission_checks.log, load up a screen (perhaps using the SU feature), and then check the contents of the file. When you are done, delete the file.
How can I show different content to different usergroups?
Permissions are usually the tool to use to customise things for different users, but sometimes the actual message is what you need to customise rather than just limiting access. In this case, use the Comcode if_in_group tag in your Comcode pages to deliver targetted portions of Comcode to limited sets of usergroups.
How do I show random content in a box in the front page?
Place the main_content block on the page with the right parameters. Here is an example to pick a random download: [block="download"]main_content[/block].
To get a full list of valid content-types, look to see what filenames exist in the sources/hooks/systems/awards directory.
The main_content block is actually very flexible, and can also show specific content items of your choice, or randomise from sets.
Various blocks require ID codes for what content to include. Where do I find these?
Look at the URL you see in the web browser address bar when you view content. It'll include the ID (usually a number) near the end. If the ID is not a number, it will have been manually chosen.
Themes/Appearance
Where do I get new themes?The default theme can be modified to have a colour scheme of your choice, and can also be manually customised in any way. At this point not many third party themes have been released, but we are seeking for this to change, and willing to provide free registrations for those that release high quality custom themes. Our long-term goal with themes is to make theme editing as easy as possible, and we seek progressive ideas as to what improvements we could make to further this goal.
How do I change (some aspect of ocPortal's appearance)?
ocPortal is displayed to web browser's using standard web technologies wherever possible, employing best practices. The appearance is fully configurable and defined using a combination of XHTML (in templates), CSS, and images. Sometimes these technologies can be complex to edit and require a good technical understanding, and this is unfortunately unavoidable; an analogy, is that writing or painting also require practice. Unfortunately for economic reasons ocProducts is not able to step through specific changes for free. It is often worth asking on the forum in case other user's can help.
I've edited template/CSS and my changes won't show?
These files are evaluated and cached by ocPortal, so changes will only show if either the cache is disabled, or the cache is emptied. A quick way to empty the cache is to hold down ctrl+alt+shift and click refresh in the web browser (you need to be logged in as staff). Alternative ways to empty the cache including using the cleanup tools in the Admin Zone, or to manually delete cache files from the filesystem.
How do I know which template to edit?
Use the 'template tree' feature available from the drop-down list in your personal stats block. It'll show the template structure for the screen you're viewing. If the personal stats block is not available, add &special_page_type=tree to the URL.
Another technique is to add &keep_markers=1 to the end of the URL. This renders the current screen with comments in there marking the start and end of templates. You can then save the page, and edit this using a WYSIWYG HTML/CSS editor. Integration could be aided using a diff tool such as 'Winmerge' - comparing the original file to the new file, and using the template comments to identify in what ocPortal template to perform the identified change.
Can you provide any advice on editing CSS?
We would definitely advise using the Firefox web browser with the 'Web developers toolbar' extension (or the 'Firebug' extension). This extension provides advanced functionality to test CSS changes 'live' on the screen you're currently viewing. Once you've determined what works, you can then put these changes into ocPortal's CSS using the ocPortal CSS editing interface. There are now also addons for other web browsers that provide similar functionality, but Firefox generally provides a better development environment overall and has a lot of other useful extensions.
How do I change the logo?
Hold down ctrl+alt+shift and click it. You'll then be able to upload a replacement images. Please be aware that CSS changes will likely also be required, if the spacings around the logo need to be adjusted. See:
http://ocportal.com/forum/pg/topicview/misc/7953/index.php&kfs239=0
A template is used in two aspects of the system, but I need it to work differently in each?
Please read about the GUID feature in our tempcode tutorial.
Can I put PHP in templates?
This is not supported for security and architectural reasons. Instead, you can create a miniblock, and then place that miniblock into a template using the BLOCK symbol.
Is there a CSS map?
No, there is too much CSS to feasibly make a map as is often used for forum software. Instead, we would recommend using the Firefox 'Firebug' extension to identify what CSS is used where.
How can I change how times are displayed?
You can either change the settings for the whole of ocPortal by changing key strings in the global language file, or you can make specific changes for individual templates. To make changes for individual templates, use the FROM_TIMESTAMP symbol on the RAW_ prefixed equivalent that usually exists to the default date/time parameter to the template. For example, {$FROM_TIMESTAMP*,%d %y,{RAW_DATE}}. For documentation about the syntax, please see the PHP manual:
PHP: strftime - Manual
How do I edit the header/footer?
The actual XHTML header is in HEADER.tpl, but the visual 'header' is in TOP.tpl.
The actual XHTML footer is in FOOTER.tpl, but the visual 'footer' is in BOTTOM.tpl.
GLOBAL.tpl holds the top/bottom, menus, and main page together.
How do I edit ocPortal in an HTML editor?
It is not possible to do this, as ocPortal screens are constructed by an amalgamation of many template files. It is possible, however, to construct HTML pages, using an HTML editor. HTML pages can be placed into ocPortal zones much like a Comcode page can: however, we would advise you use Comcode pages instead.
How can I hide the help panel?
Please see:
http://ocportal.com/forum/pg/topicview/misc/5906/index.php&kfs232=0
How can I include flash?
You may use regular HTML via the 'html' Comcode tag, or you may use our 'flash' Comcode tag.
Can I include HTML?
Yes. It is easiest to use HTML if you disable the WYSIWYG editor to do this. Put [html] and [/html] into your Comcode, then put the HTML you desire inbetween. If you want to mix HTML and Comcode more freely, use the semihtml Comcode tag instead of the aforementioned html Comcode tag.
How can I add a block / How can I change how a block looks / How can I add a box?
Our users are often confused about the difference between a block and a box. A block is an embeddable dynamic unit, and whilst most blocks are rendered in boxes, this is not necessarily the case. It also certainly isn't the case that all boxes are around blocks. Boxes can be placed around anything, and are used in many places.
The box type a block uses is changeable by editing the template of that block; this is often useful if you want to place a main block on a panel where a side block would usually go.
If you want to make your own box in Comcode, just use the 'box' Comcode tag around some existing Comcode.
Do you have another question?
Please first check the documentation, and if there is no obvious answer, post your question on our public forums so anyone can answer. If your question involves confidentiality please contact ocProducts (a link for this, which opens a support ticket, is available from the menu on our main website). Please be aware that for economic reasons ocProducts are not able to provide technical support to non-registered users except in the case of notable usability problems, bugs, or where we see an opportunity for engagement that will lead to a better product. Officially ocPortal registrations do not come bundled with technical support, but we do try to help wherever possible and have a very good reputation in this area.