Learn more
Here we have a summary of ocP's major features: as you'll see, you have many to pick from! You don't need to be a Rocket Surgeon to see why you should use ocPortal.
Remember that almost every feature in ocPortal is optional. We hate web software that forces too much on us (and the visitors), so we ensure ocPortal scales back and customises very well.
Companion information
Please also check the following information to help you in your CMS decision:
- Learn 50 reasons why ocPortal is different to other CMSs.
- Learn what ocPortal is not
(this page contains vitally important details to help you plan your project). - Learn our vision for ocPortal, as well as the future of the web.
- Browse the ocProducts portfolio to see example ocPortal sites.
- Set up a personal demo. Supply some details and we'll instantly set up your temporary site.
We also link to the shared demo below to illustrate all the features (click the blue arrows). - For documentation, please see our support section (also linked from the main menu)
Content types
Catalogues 
Think “databases on my website”.
- Unlimited data controlSet up multiple catalogues, each with it's own set of fields. There are 18 kinds of field, such as short text fields, description fields, and date fields.
- Different display modesDisplay the contents of categories using tables, boxes, or lists.
- Powerful structureEach catalogue contains categories which contain entries. Catalogues can have a tree structure of categories and/or work from an index.
- Configurable searchingChoose which fields are shown on categories, and which can be used to perform searches (template searches).
- Entirely customisableFull support for customising catalogue categories and entries, exactly as you want them- field by field.
- Classified adsEntries can automatically expire and get archived. See view reports.
- Community interactionAllow users to comment upon and rate entries.
- Import data from CSV files
Quizzes
- Run a competitionGive members a chance to win.
- SurveysGather data and find trends.
- TestsAllow members to take tests.
- Cheat preventionSettings to prevent cheating.
Galleries
- Supports images, videos, and audio
- Personal galleriesAllow your members to create their own galleries.
- TranscodingUpload any format, have the server convert it.
- Support for linking to YouTube videosSave on bandwidth.
- Auto-detection of video length and resolution (most file formats)
- Full tree-structure support
- Two different display modes
- e-cards
- Slide-shows
- Easily syndicate to Facebook
- Automatic thumbnail generation
- Import and export easilyWith .zip and metadata support.
- Optional watermarkingTo guard against thieving swines ;).
CEDI
Think “structured wikis”.
- Create an encyclopaedic database for your website
- Create a tree-structure, or use traditional cross-linking
- Track changes
- Great rich media support
- Allow users to jump in at random pages
- Make your pages either wiki-style or topic-style
- Display a tree structure of your whole CEDI (normal wiki's can't do that!)
Calendar
- Behaves like you'd expectDay/week/month/year views.
- Advanced “recurring event” settings
- Event reminders
- Detect conflicting events
- Microformats support
- Integrate a calendar month view, or an upcoming events view, onto your design
- Different event types
- Sophisticated permissions
- Priority flagging
- Programmers can even use the calendar to schedule website cronjobs
- RSS and Atom supportExport support, but also support for overlaying news feeds onto the calendar.
Downloads database
- Great organisationUses a tree structure for unlimited categorisation.
- ‘Sell’ downloads using website points
- Anti-leech protection
- Community-centeredAllow users to comment upon and rate downloads.
- Many ways to add new filesUpload files. Link-to existing files. Copy existing files using a live URL. Batch import links from existing file stores.
- Author supportAssign your downloads to authors, so users can find other downloads by the same author.
- LicencesMake users agree to a licence before downloading.
- ImagesShow images along with your downloads (e.g. screen-shots).
- Basic file versioning support
News and blogging
- Member blogsAllow members to have their own blogs .
- RSS and Atom supportExport and import feeds.
- Trackback supportSend and receive trackbacks.
- Scheduled publishing
- Ping support and RSS Cloud support
- Multiple news categories, and filtering
- Chicklet support
- Multiple ways to integrate news into your website
- Import from RSS feeds
- Easily syndicate to Facebook and Twitter
Page support
- Add unlimited pages
- WYSIWYG editor
- Convenient edit linksStaff see “edit this” links at the bottom of every page.
- PHP supportUpload your PHP scripts and run them inside ocPortal (may require adjustments to the script code).
General features
Installation
- Quick installerOur self-extractor allows faster uploads and will automatically set permissions.
- Wizard-based installation
- Auto-scans for compatibility problems
- Get your site up and running in just a few minutes
- Keep your site closed to regular visitors until you're happy to open it
- Configures serverAutomatically generates a .htaccess file for you.
- Auto-detection of forum settings for easy integration
Featured content
- Random quotesPut random quotes (e.g. testimonials) into your design.
- Image of the dayTo have your website feeling fresh.
- Showcase popular contentAutomatically feature links to your most popular downloads and galleries.
- Recent contentAutomatically feature links to your most recent downloads, galleries, and catalogue entries.
- Show website statistics to your visitors
- Random contentFeature random content from your website, specified via a sophisticated filtering language.
- TagsSet tags for content and display tag clouds.
Banners
- Multiple campaignsEach one can specify it's own width-by-height (e.g. skyscraper).
- Smart bannersIntegrate text-banners into your content via keyword detection.
- Wide supportAccepts image banners, flash banners, external banner rotations, and text banners.
- Determine which banners display most often
- Run a cross-site banner network
- Hit-balancing supportA site on a banner network gets as many inbound hits as it provides outbound clicks.
- Show different banners to different usergroups
- Track banner performance
- Use the banner system to display whole sets of sponsor logos
eCommerce and subscriptions
- Paid membershipSell access to sections of your website, or offer members specific permissions.
- Shopping cart for running an online store
- Multiple payment gatewaysAccepts payments via PayPal, WorldPay, SecPay, and manual transactions (cash/cheque).
- Extendable frameworkProgrammers can easily add new product types to sell, or payment gateways.
- Invoicing supportIncluding status tracking and online payment tracking.
- Basic accounting supportInput your incoming and outgoing transactions to get basic ledger, profit-and-loss, and cashflow charting.
- SSL/TLS/HTTPS certificate supportMake key pages of your choice run over SSL (e.g. the join and payment pages).
- Currency conversionsPerform automatic currency conversions within your website pages.
Search engine
- Choose what is searchable
- Boolean and full-text modes
- Keyword highlighting in results
- Search boxes to integrate into your website
- Logging/stats
- OpenSearch supportAllow users to search from inside their web browser.
- Results sorting, and filtering by author and date
- Search within downloadsIncluding support for looking inside archives.
Support/user-to-staff messaging
- Support ticket systemUsers can view and reply in private tickets to staff.
- Recommend-to-a-friendVisitors can recommend your website to other visitors.
- Staff can manage feedbackIncludes the ability for staff members to “take ownership” of raised issues, and for all staff to discuss them.
- Support ticket typesSet up different kinds of support ticket, with different access levels.
- Receive SMS alerts for important tickets
- Anonymous feedbackAny user can submit anonymous feedback.
- Users may review your content (optional)
Newsletters and mass-mailing
- Automatically create newsletters showing off your latest content
- Double opt-inPrevent false sign-ups by asking subscribers to confirm their subscriptions.
- Users can set their own interest levelFrom “all updates” to “important updates only”.
- Host multiple newsletters
- Flexible mailingsSend out mailings to all members, to different usergroups, or to subscribers of specific newsletters.
Web 2.0
Polls
- Have unlimited polls
- Integrate polls into your website
- Virtually cheat-proof
- Community involvementUsers can submit polls, and comment and rate them.
Multi-site networks
- Shared membershipShare members between multiple ocPortal websites.
- Syndicated site listAllows each member site to see an up-to-date list of sites in the network.
- Staff filterChoose which members are staff on which sites.
Points system
A virtual economy for your members.
- So many ways to earn pointsFrom submitting different content to how active they are, you control the economy.
- Point storeMembers can buy advertising space, temporary privileges, gamble, and more! .
- Gift systemAllows members to reward each other with gift points .
- Leader boardCreate some community competition, by showing a week-by-week who has the most points .
- Auditing
- ProfilesBrowse through member points profiles, and see what gifts members have been given.
Chatrooms and instant messaging
- Unlimited chatroomsEach with your choice of access restrictions.
- ModerationModerate messages and ban troublesome users.
- Integrate shout-boxes into your website
- Instant messagingMembers may have IM conversations with each other, or in groups.
- Site-wide IMGive your members the ability to pick up conversations anywhere on your site.
- Sound effectsMembers may configure their own.
- Programmers can write their own chat bots
- Download chat rooms logs
- BlockingChoose to appear offline to certain members.
Community features
- User submissionAllow users to submit to any area of your site. Staff approval is supported .
- Public awardsGive public awards to your choice of “best content” .
- Per-usergroup privilegesGive special members access to extra features, like file storage .
- BookmarksUsers can bookmark their favourite pages to their account .
Design and management
Administration Zone
- Status overviewUpgrade and task notification from the Admin Zone front page .
- BackupsCreate and schedule full and incremental backups, local or remote .
- AnalyticsWebsite statistics rendered as charts .
- Conflict detectionDetect when two staff are trying to change the same thing at the same time.
- Examine audit trailsSee exactly who has done what and when .
- OcCLEOptional use of a powerful command-line environment (for Unix geeks). Use unix-like tools to explore and manage your database as it if was a filesystem, and perform general maintenance tasks.
- Configurable accessRestrict to no/partial/full access based on usergroup.
- Configure a staff roster, for an automatically created staff page
- Detect broken URLs
- Content versioning
Design and themeing tools
- Theme Wizard: pick a colour, let ocP do the workRecolour all your CSS and images in just a few clicks (ocPortal picks the perfect complementary palette and automatically makes 100's of CSS and image changes) .
- Built-in template and CSS editing tools
- Quick-start logo wizard
- Interactive CSS editorQuickly identify what to change and preview.
RAD and testing tools
- Switch usersMasquerade as any user using your admin logging .
- Change theme images inline with just a few clicks
- Easily find and edit the templates used to construct any screen
- Error monitoringGet informed by e-mail if errors ever happen on your site.
- Make changes to content titles inline
- Easy text changesEasily change the language strings used to build up any screen.
- Easily diagnose permission configuration problemsLog permission checks, or interactively display them in Firefox.
- Developers tool to add and manage test sets
Design without barriers
- Full control of your visionControl hundreds of settings. Strip ocPortal down. Reshape features as needed.
- Full templating supportReskin features so things look however you want them to.
- No navigation assumptionsReplace default page and structures as required.
- No layout assumptionsShift content between templates, totally breaking down any default layout assumptions.
- Embed content entries of any type on your pages
Template programming language (Tempcode)
- Perform computationsRun loops, manipulate logic, numbers, and text.
- Handy effectsEasily create design effects like “Zebra striping” and tooltips – and much more.
- Branching and filteringTailor output according to permissions and usergroups, as well as user options such as language selection.
- Include other templates, blocks, or pages, within a template
- Create and use standard boxesAvoid having to copy and paste complex segments of XHTML.
- Easy web browser sniffingPresent different markup to different web browsers, detect whether Javascript is enabled, detect bots, and detect PDAs/Smartphones.
- Randomisation features
- Pull up member details with easeFor example, show the current users avatar or point count.
- Easily pull different banner rotations into your templates
Rich media and presentation support
- ComcodePowerful but simple content-enrichment language.
- Media embeddingEasily integrate/attach flash applets, flash video, and other common video formats, such as Quicktime or MPEG.
- Easily create cool effectsCreate scrolling, rolling, randomisation, and hiding effects. Put content in boxes, split content across subpages. Create XHTML overlays. Place tooltips.
- Customise your content for different usergroups
- Create count-downs and hit counters
- Automatic table of contents creation for your documents
- Custom Comcode tagsSet up your own tags, to make it easy to maintain a sophisticated and consistent design as your site grows .
- Include pages within other pages
- Upload media files in bulk
Standards
Web standards
- Support for all major web browsers
- True and correct XHTML markup
- WCAG, ATAGMeeting of accessibility guidelines in full.
- Tableless CSS markup, with no hacks
- Inbuilt tools for checking validity of XHTML, CSS, and Javascript
- Extra markup semantics, including Dublin Core support and microformats
- Standards-based (modern DOM and AJAX, no DOM-0 or innerHTML) Javascript
- Automatic cleanup of bad XHTMLXHTML outside your control (e.g. from RSS) will be cleaned up for you.
Search engine optimisation
- Support for short URLs
- Automatic site-map generation
- META dataSupport for meta keywords and descriptions for each content entry. Automatic summarisation of entries to create meta data.
- XML Sitemaps
- Keyword density analysis for your content
- Correct use of HTTP status codes
- Correct use of page titles
- SEO via semantic and accessible markup (e.g. ‘alt tags”)
Localisation support
- Translate ocPortal into your own language
- Translate content into multiple languages
- Custom time and date formatting
- Unicode support
- Language packsDownload new language packs from our website as users post them.
- Timezone supportMembers may choose their own timezones.
- Host multiple languages on your website at the same time
- Support for different character sets
- Serve different theme images for different languages
- Support for right-to-left languages
Security
- Configurable swear filtering
- IP address toolsAudit, check, and ban them .
- CAPTCHA, to stop spammers
- Track failed logins
- Automatic detection and banning of hackers
- Architectural approaches to combat all major exploit techniques
- Defence-in-depthMultiple layers of built-in security.
- XSS protectionDeveloped using unique technology to auto-detect XSS security holes before the software gets even released.
- Published e-mail addresses will be protected from spammers
- Protection from spammers trying to use your website for their own SEO
- HTML filtering
- Protection against CSRF attacksYou can temporarily ‘Concede’ your admin access for added protection.
- Root-kit detection kit for developers (developers developers!)
- Won't crash the Internet
Ease of use
- Professionally designed user interfaces
- AJAX techniquesStreamlined website interaction.
- WYSIWYG editing
- TutorialsOver 100 written tutorials, and a growing collection of video tutorials.
- Displays great on mobilesMobile browsers can be automatically detected, or the user can select the mobile version from the footer. All public website features work great on QVGA or higher.
- A consistent and fully integrated feature-setBreadcrumb navigation, previews, and many other features we didn't have space to mention here – are all present right across ocPortal.
Architecture
Debranding
Use ocPortal for clients and pretend you made it.
Permissions
- Detailed privilege controlOver 130 permissions.
- Control access to all your resources
- Create addition access controls based on URL
- Customise your permission error messages
- User-friendly permissions editor
Structure and navigation
- Visually browse your site structureIntuitive site-tree editor .
- Menu editorOur user friendly editor can work with 7 different kinds of menu design (drop-downs, tree menus, pop-ups, etc) .
- Zones (sub-sites)Organise your pages into separate zones. Zones can have different menus, themes, permissions, and content .
- Full structural controlEdit, move, and delete existing pages.
- RedirectsSet up redirects if you move pages, or if you want pages to appear in more than one zone .
Integration and conversion
- Convert from other softwareSee our download page for a list of importers.
- Use an existing member systemSee our download page for a list of forum drivers.
- Convert an HTML site into ocPortal pages
- LDAP support for corporate networks (OCF)
- HTTP authenticationTie into an existing HTTP authentication-based login system (OCF).
- Proxying systemProgrammers can integrate any existing scripts using our sophisticated proxying system (which includes full cookie support).
- Minimodules and miniblocksProgrammers can port existing PHP code into ocPortal itself .
- Export your Comcode as XMLOther systems may integrate your rich content, using (for example) XSLT.
Extendable and programmable
- VersatileYou can strip down to a core system, or build up with 3rd-party addons .
- Full API documentation
- High coding standardsNo PHP notices. Type-strict codebase. We use MVC.
- Free online developers guide book
- Custom field filtersFor example, restrict news posts to a minimum length.
- Stack dumps for easy debugging
- Synchronise data between staging and live sites using XML
Forums and members
Enjoy seamless integration with our cutting-edge
forum software — or integrate with your current product.
The following features only apply to our forum.
Scroll further down for integration options.
Membership essentials
- Multiple usergroupsMembers can be in an unlimited number of different usergroups. They can also ‘apply’ to join new ones .
- Social networkingCreate and browse friendships.
- Custom profile fieldsAllow your members to add extra information which is relevant to your website (or to their subcommunity) .
- Over 40 bundled avatarsMember's may also upload or link to their own .
- Member signatures, photos, and personal titles
- ProfilesBrowse through and search for members, and view member profiles .
- Member e-mailingAllow your members to e-mail other members through your website .
- Users onlineSee which members are currently online, unless they logged in as invisible .
Membership: cutting-edge features
- Invitation-only websitesExisting members can invite others .
- Allow members to create and manage a club
- Promotion systemMembers can ‘advance the ranks’ by earning points.
- Punishment systemWarnings, probation, and silencing of members from forums/topics .
- Personal topics between 2 or more membersA step up from the basic personal messages most forum software provides .
- IP address lock-downExtra (but optional) security for staff groups.
- Welcome e-mailsSet up multiple “welcome e-mails” to be sent out to new members on a schedule .
- Account pruningFind and delete unused accounts, merge duplicate accounts .
- Encrypted custom profile fields
- Members may set privacy settings for individual fields
- CSV filesImport and export using CSV files, including support for automatic creation of custom profile fields and usergroups – great for migrating data .
Forum essentials
- The usual stuffCategories, forums, topics, posts, polls .
- Forum and Topic trackingGet alerted by e-mail when new posts are made.
- Password-protected forums
- Full moderator controlDetermine who may moderate what forums.
- Quick reply
- Announcements
- Post/topic moderation and validation
- Over 40 bundled emoticonsAlso, support for batch importing new ones .
- Unlimited sub-forum depth
- Mass-moderationPerform actions on many posts and topics at once.
- Multi-moderationRecord and perform complex routine tasks .
Forum system: cutting-edge features
- Report postsWhen users report a post, a topic is created for the staff to discuss it .
- Inline personal postsWhisper to members within a public topic .
- Records post edit/delete history
- Highlight posts as ‘important’ Your posts will be high as a kite by then.
- Increased poll privacy
- Not just pinning topics, but sinking them too!
- Post templatesUse your forum as a database for record gathering .
- Post previewRead a topics first post directly from the forum-view.
Stay on top of things
- Find posts made since you last visited
- Remembers your unread postsEven if you frequently change computers .
- RSS and Atom support
- Recent activitySee what topics you recently read or posted in .
Choose to integrate instead? Still enjoy the following benefits:
Forum integration
- Support for popular productsSee our download page for a list of supported forums.
- Share login credentialsLogin with the same usernames/passwords.
- Share usergroupsControl website access based on someone's usergroup.
- Emoticon supportThe emoticons on your forum will also be used on your website. Your members will be happy little hobbits.
Content sharing
These also work with our forum.
- Show forum topics on your websiteGreat if you have a ‘news’ forum .
- Comment integrationNew topics appear in the ‘comments’ forum as you add content to your website. Members can watch these topics so they never miss an addition to your website .