ocPortal vs phpBB vs Drupal vs Wordpress vs BuddyPress vs Everything Else

Moving should be pretty straight-forward.

Go to Setup->Configuration:Installation options and change the URLs there. That should rewrite the info.php file with the proper information (or you could update the information directly using a text editor). You might have to manually update your .htaccess file , especially if you have made any changes in the rewrites or created redirects. You would have to adjust any links where you used a full URL to another point on your site (e.g., using the "Add link" button on a Comcode or forum page). Finally, you need to clear your template and block caches which you can do by using DOMAIN/upgrader.php and hitting the "Clear caches" button.

Have you checked the database collation for your database? That's where I'd start looking.

My database uses utf8_unicode_ci and I have no case sensitivity. If needed, you should be able to change the collation on the database and its tables using phpMyAdmin or some other database tool.

Bob

I want to add a couple things to this Discussion.

@Dee  One thing to note about the "Extra Data" you got when you installed the theme. Note that when you install the theme there is a list of files to include during the install and sometimes there are blocks etc listed in that list that you will want to uncheck. Then you won't have the extra data you talked about.

@Chris and the developers.

To address the "Complexity" issue a lot of new users have regarding ocPortal why not make an "Advanced" and "Basic" Menu system in the admin. Hide a ton of the "extra features" to new users by default and allow them to switch between advanced and basic. New users needn't be inundated with Tree Explorers and I am sure a host of other options at first.

You guys should really consider making this a standard option I think .. (although I'm not a fan of the clouds in the background )

Issue in tracker implies it is likely to happen, although it does not work well on IE7 which currently we support. Also disrupts themes, so will have to happen at a compat break point.

But then I saw it has a cool like anti spam thing to add two numbers together for every post

Any individual site can implement quirky CAPTCHAs like that but it is "security through obscurity" as it's trivial to hack. The only reason they aren't broken is because bot makers have less incentive to make custom hacks for individual sites as they do for ones that work on the majority of sites.

also has a CROSS or TICK for subscribing to threads which I find really easy to understand.

Tracking is 100% rewritten in v8, is a lot nicer.

Hide a ton of the "extra features" to new users by default and allow them to switch between advanced and basic. New users needn't be inundated with Tree Explorers and I am sure a host of other options at first.

We pretty much do. The Setup Wizard recommends removing most addons, and most admin forms bury rarer stuff under expanders.

I just bought the Domain name I want to use for my site - got a .org.uk one.

I'm considering moving to developing the website on a portable Webserver running on my own laptop

I run windows 7 so a portable perhaps on this list - any recommendations?

Portable Web Servers Category

main reasons for this is hopefully it's faster then working on a site that based in the USA, other reason is it means I can work on the website anywhere, even without internet access and also turning off my WiFi will make my battery last longer. Also means less distractions from the online world.

Then when I'm finished I can upload it to my hosting company's server or another one perhaps in the UK as that's where I expect my main visitors to be from.

I also like the idea of being able to make frequent ZIP backups when I want of everything. So if I mess up then I can go back to a version that worked.

Any thoughts on whether this approach is a good idea?

I was thinking about the Pro's and Con of developing a website through cPanel vs locally on my Hard Drive and one big plus that struck me was that if I do it locally, I can configure ocPortal to the point where I have a nice default Template for use on future websites and then just fork from that personalising each one.

So I decided to give installing XMAPP a go and then install ocPortal into it - took way longer (40 minutes of trying) then I expected and for some reason wouldn't accept the username and password for the mySQL databse that I created, no idea why .. having said that I normally just create databses and users if I ever need to using cPanel's database wizard, so might have missed out a step in the php Admin screens

In the end just used root as the username and left the password blank and ocPortal finally installed

I found this user guide but seems to miss out several major steps

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quickly-set-home-intranet-ocportal/

Anyway I'm now up and running with XAMPP and ocPortal working locally off my PC.

Made my first zip backup .. so now I'll just begin playing around :-)

Perhaps a downloadable version of ocPortal which comes prepackaged with a portable webserver like XAMPP would be my next suggestion

something like this one that was made for Wordpress which worked a treat would be cool.

http://wordpress-portable.webnode.com/

Might lead lots of new people to try ocPortal locally on their hard drive.

BitNami :: ocPortal

Chris Graham said

BitNami :: ocPortal

Interesting Site - I went to it and tested out the WordPress install as I'm so familiar with WordPress just o see how it worked..

Funnily enough never came across that website and probably never would because I'd probably be typing in the words  "Portable Wordpress" or similar to find it.

I'd still say a prepackaged XAMPPS type thing with ocPortal is better though as that Stacks thing seemed to default to installing in Program Files

.. Anyway Today I tried importing my old phpBB forum which has over 600 members and over 3700+ posts - have to say very impressed with how the importing went :-)

especially since the phpBB database was hacked I assume by some automated script which gave links to some Arabic website so I was able to remove a lot of the offending entries much easier in ocPortal then in phpBB

But I can see several members I want to remove as well as all their post - is there any easy way to do that?

For example - I see several users who's email addresses end in .BIZ - The all look like fakes to me and quite a few that end in .RU emails - is there a way to search for members who's emails end in .BIZ or .RU and deleted them as well as all their posts?

Also there is one member with 70+ posts and what I'd like to do is delete that user, deletes any posts they replied to .. and if they started a Thread in the first place then just delete or move that thread to a hidden part of the forum.

Same thing with any forums that mention the name of a certain company in the text of the posts

I've managed to find part of oCportal that lets me do a key word search - found the company I want to get rid of all mention of in my posts, mentioned in 46 different posts - is there an easy way to delete those posts in a batch rather then have to do them one by one?


Also is there a way to stop brand new forum members being allowed to post external web links?

What I'd like is to say give newbies 10 point for every post that they make, and once they've earn say 50 point (i.e. posted 5 times) then they're allowed to have posts with external links.

I found in our old forum too many companies were posting solely to promote their own service, so they'd post once (with their link to their own website) and never post again.

I'm sure there is a way, via ip bans/deletes, etc. You can also check out using the OCCLE (the ocPortal Terminal - might have gotten the naming wrong there ), it's in tools.

BTW- also make good use of the Admin Search box, it is pretty darn smart and finds things in admin for you so you don't have to do lots of manual searching.

ocPortal is often described as being very complex and intimidating with information overload for new users. However, it is also the most powerful and flexible community creation tool you will find (without having to add on lots of add-ons). Where great flexibility and power is granted, you can't help but to have a large assortment of options, choices, and complexity. Wordpress on the other hand is designed primarily for blogs, but has add ons to make it more so. Still, it is designed not to be as flexible as ocPortal, so it is much simplier. I hope that makes sense. I, for one, rather have the complexities of ocPortal because I love the control and power it gives me. If it ever dumbed down, I'd leave.

ocPortal is extremely secure as well! I am all the time getting emails of some bot getting autobanned or some bot trying to hack the site, but failing to do so. Almost all attempts have failed for them (one did get through and post some spam, but it didn't last long and that hole got fixed by an ocPortal update). That is where true security lies, not in obscurity, but in proactive measures.

Also take the time to really learn the many fun flexibilities of ocPortal. The CEDI, catalogues, galleries, member blogs, redirects, virtual roots, comcode… its all there and more! You can create pages easily enough (Content > Page (comcode page). And best of all, everything is shared amongst the site! For example, the same forum tools are in your Personal Topics (think PM on steroids), CEDI, comment boxes, and more.

I've been using OCPortal since Oct of 2010, before that I had tried TikiWiki, SMF with TinyPortal, Wordpress with BuddyPress, and a few other custom solutions of my own coded in HTML.   

I really liked TikiWiki but found it severely limited in several areas, and upgrading was always a complete nightmare.  

My forum was the most active part of my site, and was running under SMF for years.  My users loved the SMF look and feel, and they absolutely refused to use the forum software in the other solutions I tried.  OCPortal pulled off a very nearly seamless import of my SMF site, which was the most critical part of maintaining my user base.  

They were willing to work with nearly anything for the encyclopedic portion of my site, but they insisted on that look and feel that PHPBB and SMF have.

As far as security, I am extremely impressed with OCPortal.  I have another life where I am heavily involved in politics, I was one of the original organizers of the Tea Party in the US, and also the Occupy Wall Street.  I have since left both of those involvements as each was hijacked by one of the major parties in the US.  

At any rate, this is relevant because the administration and the major operatives in both parties soon discovered my other OCPortal site that I use to promote and organize with, and it soon came under very heavy attacks from all sides attempting to hack the site with brute force methods and attempted PHP injections, among many other sophisticated tries.  Amazingly, after over one million attempts to gain access in less than seven months, they were not successful even once.

However, I did get my account suspended at my hosting provider due to the huge overload in my mail account from the notifications being sent to me about the attacks, sometimes hundreds of pages worth in a 24 hour period.  I simply set the software not to notify me of these attempts and just checked my IP Bans on a daily basis to keep track of the numbers.

For my encyclopedic tome of an automotive enthusiasts' website, the CMS features have proven to be just what the doctor ordered to organize the mountains of data into different yet interconnected formats to fully explore and organize the history of the automobile brands that we cover, restoration information, photos, manuals, sales brochures, important dates and events in company history, and hard data such as alignment or tuning specs, dates of changes etc.

Yes, it does take quite a while to digest the way the software operates, and to mentally internalize and understand the way the different modules may be used out of the box and with customization, but I have found it to be VERY well worth the effort.  The Zones feature and the CEDI(wiki) feature are extremely flexible and powerful ways to "compartmentalize" your site into different, easily understandable sections.

Thank you for your feedback, Dee, and I for one would suggest that you stick with it and "learn the language" so to speak, and you should be very pleasantly surprised over the next year or two with what you can create.
-mike

Amazingly, after over one million attempts to gain access in less than seven months, they were not successful even once.

Nice testimonial.

I chuckled at the 'they' reference, allowing my imagination to run riot. However, I think I should resist contributing to conspiracy theories publicly; what I think in my private thoughts is my own concern!

 

LOL     

It's a weird world to play around in.      "They" is the only logical way to think about it without making yourself nuts.  Or I guess MORE nuts would be the appropriate way to word that.  

Quite a testimonial to Chris's constant attention to security in OcPortal. Given the rock-solid under-pinnings and the great feature set, ocPortal is hard to beat as a CMS.

Bob