VB Portals?

[Pilot]

<a href="http://www.phpportals.com" target="_blank">www.phpportals.com</a>

Looks like a great VB portal - if only they would release it and make it easy to install (preferably with no hacking).

I suggest people visit their site and encourage them to do so. It seems to be a bit of a closed hobby site at present for serious hackers only.

I would love such a Portal front-end - integrated with VB and easy to install. Are there any other options.

Hi.

The REASON it has not yet be released is simply because of some of the bugs that are still in the script itself.

Why in the world would we want to release something that is buggy? and then get all the +++++ing and complaining about the bugs.

I agree it should be released, but to safe time and support.. don't ya want us to get the bugs out?

So right now.. wajones, and all the contributing members (beta testers) and making sure it works... a lot of the members are using different hosts.. some using IIS, some using Linux... all different, so we have a broad range of installations... now.. we have to make sure all the problems and bugs are gone.

I do this too.. I have a lot of script half done, and some are done.. but until I am done testing them I am not going to release them, because I don't want to spend countless hours doing support.

But ya... go over to phpportals and support us. To do some basic testing and bug finding.. come to the site register, and hunt and peck around the whole site looking for stuff that does not seem to be working... or is working but a little haywired...

There is a light version out... I don't know if it is for download yet.. but it is close. I do believe.

[AJR]

I just installed vBPortal 2.0.1 on my vBulletin 2.0.3. I had a problem that EVERYONE seemed to have with their templates, but they have answerd the question hundreds of times! I'm having another problem getting WebLinks to work on the user site (admin side works well).

The vBPortal add-on is great! It will definetely bring my community "closer" by giving them more options... More options means more people means longer stays!

I doubt you will ever find a hack that does this many changes WITHOUT having to do some changes to your php files! In addition, they don't know what hacks you have installed and if they did it automatically, it would overwrite your previous hacks! I had the Stars hack installed prior to installing vBPortal. I had to carefully make sure I wasn't going to replace anything that was for the Stars hack.

I can't give out the site url yet as I'm still working on adding some hacks. I will import everything from my UB2K boards, then make sure everything is working properly.

If you have not already please state the weblinks problem on the phpportals board.. or email.. me if you are having problems.. lets get that solved

I am still running a version of vbp 2.0.1 myself hehe

[centris]

I downloaded 2.01 last week, and have nothing but problems with it, images don?t show, the config file seems not to be passing the url's - paths to the scripts. When you right click an image, properties etc. you get the path it is looking at: all the images are there. The top buttons at first worked, now they don't.

As for the vBPortals site I have been as regular visitor over the last week and BradC gave me a load of helpful advice but as a newbie the one glaring issue on that board is that of the contributing members status.

Why in the world would we want to release something that is buggy? and then get all the bitching and complaining about the bugs.

Well that?s what Alpha and beta releases are all about, scripts that are buggy, I think readers should look at the criteria for contributing members; The shorthand version is to my mind this:

• You must visit my board often.
• You must help others on the board
• You must help in finding errors in my code
• You can send me a donation.

The first three are fine; it?s a joint effort by the contributing members (right) however the last option that short-circuits the first three ways into the download area, simply blows the whole approach out of the water.

I am sure there are many members of this forum with the skills to debug, suggest, and help design etc. a truly unique portal, but ? they are not contributing members. If Microsoft adopted this approach with it?s OS?s we would still be using Win 3,11 for workgroups - Win 95 is coming soon (Honest)

Just my view, no malice intended, many eagerly await the LITE version and I wish you luck but if you REALLY want members to contribute - then let them - without the carrot on the stick approach.

[ariaforums]

Hmm Im a contributing member on PhPportals site (under a different name tho) 2.01 is stable, Ive installed on many sites for many people with only minor problems that were related to server conf or the way VB was set up on that particuler server.

Portal Lite apart from one minor problem I had, has also been stable on my server, considering this is only pre-release I think this is testement to the way its been created and debugged by the people who wish to see it succeed.

VBportal started out as one mans hobby (wajones), he has put in thousands of man hours creating a frontend for VB which he has willingly shared with countless people, many of those people have willingly donated and helped with the debugging and also contributing to the code, I dont think asking for donations is unreasonable considering the man hours and the cost of running the VBportl site which he has had to bear over the many months its has taken to get portal where it is today, remember, there's lots of commercial sites using the portal for there own gain, so its not unreasonable for wajones to ask for a little to cover his time or his costs.

Just remember, portal has been written mainly by 1 individual, how many thousands of people work at anyone time on MS code?
The only people dangling carrots are the big commercial software houses, wajones will be lucky to cover his time or material outlays.

[Bane]

Originally posted by centris
If Microsoft adopted this approach with it?s OS?s we would still be using Win 3,11 for workgroups - Win 95 is coming soon (Honest)

I'm sure wajones will be happy to know his software is being shipped with every pc sold at $75 a pop.

I honestly dont see the problem with giving people who donate access to beta software.

As a side note. Please notice on microsoft.com Microsoft has a beta version (Actually release candidate) for anyone willing to fork over $10 to try it. Maybe that approach works after all

[JoshFink]

Pilot, it seems to me that your upset that you are not getting an advance copy of vbPortal.

WaJones is not asking for beta testers, it is the people who want the script that are coming to him asking him if they can use it.

Like has been told to you numerous times on the site, you can download version 2.01 and see if it fits your needs. There are still a bunch of people running 2.01 that have zero problems with it. Me for one. Not one problem.

As Bane said, Microsot was kind enough to let me test their bugs for the minor fee of $19.95 I believe.. Lucky me

Pilot, if you want to be contributing member, follow one of the steps. Asking and Asking and Asking will not get it to you any sooner.

Josh

[centris]

so its not unreasonable for wajones to ask for a little to cover his time or his costs.

No it is not unreasonable, that was not what I was trying to say.
WaJones has stated this himself, vBPortal is a Hack, not a program, in fact it is a major hack to several scripts and the addition of several new scripts. This is what probably is causing me the most problems. Other than the donation part, the other options to gain access are vague to say the least. That frustrates folks.

I have only been around for about a week, as stated in my previous post, and I have read this comment many times:

Portal Lite apart from one minor problem I had, has also been stable on my server, considering this is only pre-release I think this is testement to the way its been created and debugged by the people who wish to see it succeed.

It is probably comments such as these that frustrate folks even more, they want it, you say I got it and it's stable, but it aint available??

I am sure there are many people, myself included that wish to see it succeed, the reason for my post was that on my forum I have what I call the Premium members area, it is only visable to those I think assist others in solving their problems, and my carrot? access to components such as CPU's HD's, Motherboards etc. all well below avarage prices. But you know what, I don't like the position it puts me in as word gets round I could see myself in the same position as WaJones. The original idea was sound, but in practice I think my problems are just around the corner.

Just to let you know.. I am just your average user, and I have installed EVER version of vbportal with success... day in and day out, we have new problems arise from members.. and not all but a lot of the problems or errors boil down to a semi-small user error, like for images... making sure you have them in the right directory and set correctly in the config files... same for parse errors, and some of the sql database errors.

Now I am not saying that if you have problems it is YOUR FAULT.. but hey everyone makes mistakes. vBportal 2.0.1 was released exactly for vb 2.0.1 and worked well on 2.0.2 as 2.0.3 came out.. it should work.. but by that time 3.0 was in the mill.. ya know.

And yes everyone can have their opinions on the contributing members and how things are handled.. but ya know what.. it boils down to one man's decisions and opinions... yes people can change their mind and everything... but I will tell you that wajones has put in ALOT OF TIME.. and so has his family with this project, and if he wants to delegate who he wants to be contributing members he can do so.

I tried to become a beta tester for Microsoft... and they denied me, cause I did not.. have some kind of education.. when win98 was in beta testing.. so it is an honor or a privaledge to be a contributing member and having access to a beta version. Yes I know it would be nice to say that everyone can get it right now.. and as problems arise they are fixed, but once again in one man's opinion and hell even mine.. doing it the way it is being done is just fine. Of course on that you can say "Well duh you are already on the contributing members list why should you be against it"... well hmm lets see I have a lot of respect for wajones, and whatever he decides to do ... for the most part I will agree. If he takes me out of that list for whatever reason I will not complain one bit.