vBindex vs. vBadvanced Homepage
 

Ok...i'm in some thinking now. I need a site. A vBulletin integrated in a site. I have vB 3 RC2.

What hack do you recommand to use ?

I'm interested in a...useful site. I need callendar, posibility to add news, new categoryes, etc.

Well...both seems to look very good. I have seen some sites that uses vBadvanced but i havn't see vBindex yet.

Can you help me on this one ?

thanx

EDIT : Ah...i can't edit the POLL question. I mean PORTAL !

www.tfogame.com uses vBindex last time i checked
http://www.digitalkore.net/ uses vBadvanced :)

imo each are good in their own respects, setup a test forum or two and compare your self :)

my site is currently running vbindex. with it you can do all of what you need and more. however, vbadvanced looks to be just as capable. i'm considering installing vbadvanced to see how it works and if it's more to my liking.

you can easily find sites running it at vbindex's homepage. of course, their site currently runs it. ;) you can also see my clan's site for a near vanilla vb3/vbindex look at vbindex. we're in process of designin a new look and the only modifications of the default vbindex is adding an irc info box and removing the 'welcome box' that goes on top of the news. oh, and the news icons aren't proprely setup for vbindex. we've carried those over from when we used vb2/vb home lite.

oh, and you may like to know the support at coreforums has been great. they're nice and responsive folks.

Hard hard choice. But i think i will try vBadvanced Homepage. The site that you show me, site's ho use vBindex don't look to good.

I'm interested in a posibility to use menus both on right and left...and most important posibility to add categoryes.

my front page is modifyed, it isnt default :)

Thats not the best example of vBindex in action ;) vBindex does allow both columns, its a simple switch in the ACP, I'd do as faranth suggested, install both on a test board and find the one that suits.

Some better demos

http://www.artorg.co.uk (although they've set the permissions wrong and guests can't view the news :p)
http://www.coreforums.net/ (the offical site)
http://www.dcevoclub.com/
http://www.hr3rdgen.org/

*cough*
I know this is lame, but... I know that I'll prefer my own new Newsportal / Modules Manager combination....

it's just the coolness factor of having an entire frontpage Portal run through only 3 lines of code, that alone would do it for me, but it's so much more than that... :D

Mine uses vbIndex...see it here --> www.dpclan.us

they both do the same thing (pretty much) ... the best way to choose the "right" system is to compare/contrast features/query/speed of site. What's more important is the speed of the site ... you don't want a site that does little query but takes forever to load (not implying anything).

Another thing, the big portal softwares out there is just a waste of space and time. Which in the long run will cost you money (time is money). vB3 has all the power you need. You just need an imagination, ability, and not be afraid to hack files.

Don't get me wrong their are some "portal software" that may suit your needs (especially if you are not strong with hacking files); but, the majority just adds redundant files/code/tables/queries.

An example of redundancy ...
adding a "journal"
adding a "reviews"
adding a "news system"
... they all use the same fields so, why create a new table/queries? Presentation of data is the only thing that is different.

Before you say "there are more fields in reviews" ... I will say add them to an existing table. Utilize what vb has then add if needed.

This approach is not for everyone.

Not entirely true. In some cases, when you keep things basic, a journal, a review and a news system may all indeed present this data structure:

- title
- text
- optional conclusion
- optional icon/image to go with it


But from the start, a Journal is taken care of entirely differently. The way to present the data is not just different in HTML but also in queries that fetch the data. Plus, there's generally different things you want in such systems, and just doing it via a field-management system won't always cut it, by far.

you can still use the same table ... add additional fields and call/display them when needed.
there is no need to add 3 different tables

^^ my bad that was just the only one besdies coreforums i know off the top of my head

really depends on the design of the journal system and the others.

There are plenty of complex, advanced journal system ideas that I could share (but won't - cos I'm planning them for my Journal System and I don't want others to steal the ideas, so you'll have to wait :p) which would ruin it for a Reviews system (for instance) to be able to use the same table.

But in general, if the things aren't very advanced, then yes, it COULD be written in such a way that they all make use of the same table. In fact, I actually am planning to have my Journal System take care of a whole lot more than just journals, so in a way I am already doing that. But I'll still use a different table for my reviews system and tutorials system, if only because those are separate hacks.

coreforums looks sexy now :)

thats partly my fault lol....
go with vbindex, i use em and well there good ok, nuff said.

Lastly i fixed that bug go to artorg.co.uk for the vbindex demo guest can view the news now :D

decent vbindex example http://www.corsacrazy.com/index.php

Yep if you wanted to do it this way you could, but I don't know exactly the effects that you would be trying to achieve. You wouldn't really save storage space because you would still have to add a new column for the type so that you could perform the select to receive specific data. Also if you're trying to save query usage it would be quite difficult to get the data in one query unless you did specific caching of the database.

Cheers,
g-force2k2

the idea is to use what is already available ...

geesshh i am also torn between this two... and I cannot wait for TECK to come out with a commercialise version... my site has been without a decent homepage for months after I switch to vb3

I really like both version but what would really make them great is if they had a Rotating Banner System. Only portal system out there with a half way decent banner system is vbportal. Which has yet to release a vb3 version. :disappointed:

I am using a third party banner rotating system (Phpnewads) :nervous:

i go for vBadvanced Homepage :)

Tried both and found that I like vBadvanced Homepage cos it reminds me of vbhome :)

heres my views :

vbindex - Not user friendly enough... there is no uninstallation link for you to click and uninstall and you have to do it manually... You cannot select more then 1 news forum to be displayed on the index page (correct me if I am wrong)

vbadvanced - pretty much similar to vbhome... so you will definitely feel comfortable with it. Comes with an easy uninstallation link for you to click.

It allows as many news forums as you require. And as I've said a million times, an uninstaller will be provided once vB3 and vBindex have gone final. Not user friendly? Well most of the feeback suggests otherwise, however do feel free to expand on that statement, I just don't see how it can be made much more friendly then 'Tick this box is you want this' ;)

well it can be a little more user friendly if u can start releasing the uninstallation part without waiting for vb3 gold and vbindex final...


by the way notice if u can improved on the calendar size... its looks out of shape when we select weekends on. :)

The calendar looks fine in the latest version as the sidebars automatically expand to take into account the extra ~100px the calendar takes up.

Both vBindex and vBadvanced are free, great, and powerfull.

Correct me If I'm wrong, But none of them include the "Category" notion for news display. News are just a continual flow of data without organization. :ermm:

Can we expect the implementation of it in the future ?

the calendar with weekends, that's the second problem of vbindex after an uninstall script.
vbindex is great with custom blocks to right or left with your like
both portal is very good anyways.

if by catagories you mean topics.. similar to what *nuke sites offer.. you can do that by using multiple news forums.. almost inherintly built in.. support would have to be added for using topic/catagory images.. but i think that is what you are talkin bout..

i use vbportal 2.3.0 right now and like it.. but growing tired of it.. front page has too damn many queries on it.. both vbadvanced and vbindex seem to be nice additions with minimal queries..

i am basically waiting on the vbwar, a great DL/Review/Links set of hacks, HTL, and a couple others.. thank god arcade is ready.. :D

but i am also having trouble deciding between vbindex and vbadvanced.. would be good to see some type of module support.. but since i have yet to play with either of them, i have no idea how hard it is to write your own sideblocks yet..

I use vbindex on http://www.rapcheck.com and am very happy with it. Didn't try vbadvanced and there was no particular reason I chose vbindex over it but I'm happy with the choice. I like most being able to add a page to my site just by adding a new template, and the page will cary the vbindex layout. Makes things easy. Also great support.

Hard choice both great ....

I'm not using either right now but have played around with vBindex.

On my vB3 installations I'm going with a 'no hacks' policy - at least for now. I can deal with added files or template mods but I think I'm done hacking vB files - it makes it too hard to upgrade and I'm getting old and cranky ;)

vBindex needs a little work but doesn't require you to modify any vB files so once they get a few more of the bugs worked out I'll give it a shot. Right now I'm using a <VirtualHost> redirect to get folks to the board - it works a lot better than my old <meta refresh> deal did and it only cost me $20 to get somebody from rentacoder to show me how to do it ;)

I've had nothing but joy getting the features in my much-modded vB 2.3.0 board to work under vB3 and had to port a fair bit of data over to new applications but so far have it all working except vBtrader and a journal package I had working under vb2.

So - rather than lose functionality I choose a 'no more file mods' policy - at least for the time being.

Sorry about being long-winded, but once they get things smoothed out a little I think vBindex gets the nod from me.

BTW - I did lie just a little. My photopost integration thingie required a one-line include in index.php - but that's the last file mod I think I'm doing :D

Im waiting for vbportal to come out. It offeres catogorys and all which i need. Otherwise i like vbindex better.

I thought I had gave my opinion here already, but didnt' see it. I definately vote for vBindex. Not only does the hacker (NTLDR) give excellant support, but the latest spiffy version is ... quite spiffy. *nods* Very neat integrated admin panel makes adding/subtracting/moving things a snap! And it's easy to customize for your own forum/site's particular tastes.

I thought VbIndex was real easy to use.. And i dont even know much about PHP tooo boot..

I Love it..

WHen ever vbwar comes out, vbindex and vbwar together its going to be sweet my friend..

The support for vBadvanced has really dropped off lately, so I may give vBindex another try especially since there have been updates/fixes since I first tried it out.

For the HTMLly (is that a word? :) ) challenged, vBindex makes it much easier to manage the layout of the blocks.

I say vBadvanced, as it allows me to do everything I want with my portal. ^_^

Lee is going to disown me for this one, but I voted vbAdvanced. The reason being is that I understand Tigga's coding alot better and can manipulate the code to do what I want it to do easier. Lee's coding is excellent, but a little too advanced for me to start messing around with. I'm afraid I might break something and I don't want to get yelled at when I have to run to Lee to fix it. ;)

I'll move up to Lee's execllent portal when I feel confortable with playing with the code more. ;)

I just installed and un-installed vBindex now, i dit not like it at all.. :-/ why? I really dont know.. it had just to much extra space and things, i'd rather go for a full customization and a few hours of hard-coding on my own.

BUT is has lots of great features and is really easy to install / un-install and will make a good supplement to those who want an easy solution.

Bump in light of vbacmps.