11 replies to this topic

[southernlady5464]

Yeap, I'm another one of the refugees...altho my license doesn't expire til April and I can't do anything about jumping ship til after the first of the year anyway, I figured while I wait, I would get use to the layout and see what I can learn.

I have a hobby forum that is just a small one...it's really there as a convenience for a few of us to get together which is why this price increase of vB caught me so flatfooted and then made me mad. But after looking at what was here and talking to a good friend who uses IPB, this might be the best thing that happened.

I also have a Zen Cart store on my domain, which is my bread and butter. At this point, none of my sites are interconnected except for my hand coding the sites together.

Okay, my questions:
Can IP Downloads be configured to handle zip files in a similar fashion to an ecommerce store?
Are there limits to the size of the files IP Downloads can handle?
Can IP Downloads handle multiple files for a single item?

I'm also a VB Designer...and would love to continue to design themes but of course transfer that talent to IPB instead.
How hard is designing a theme for an IPB forum?
How much can be customized? Is there a manual?

I know about the converter and my forum is as up to date as it can be (running 3.8.4 patch level 1 right now) and wll continue to remain as up to date as vb will allow it to be between now and April 8th, 2010, the date my license expires if I don't bail before then.

I know I'll have others as the days go by but these are the ones I have right now.

Liz

[southernlady5464]

Okay, so lots of views and no replies...

But I have another question now that just occurred to me. I have a HUGE collection of smilies (my forum likes them) and they prefer them sorted in categories so they can find them so I have them in what amounts to "folders". I have 15 such folders with a total of just over 1100 and about another 500 not installed. (DON'T ask..I told you they like smilies). Vb makes it very easy to add them since I don't need anything to go with the smilie, all I do is load it in my ftp and in my case, in the folder I want it in and add it.

Now, if I have to add them with a .pak I am in serious trouble with my forum members because about 80-85% of them do not have the .pak file of ANY file for that matter.

How are smilies handled and can they be put in folders?

Liz

[bfarber]

southernlady5464, on 24 October 2009 - 07:11 PM, said:

Okay, my questions:
Can IP Downloads be configured to handle zip files in a similar fashion to an ecommerce store?
Are there limits to the size of the files IP Downloads can handle?
Can IP Downloads handle multiple files for a single item?

I'm not sure what you mean by "in a similar fashion to an ecommerce store", however IP.Downloads is fully capable of allowing zip files to be uploaded.

You can configure the file size limits for files in IP.Downloads, but of course any server-side restrictions (upload_max_filesize setting in php.ini, for instance) can also limit the allowance.

IP.Downloads will be able to handle multiple files for a single item in the upcoming 2.1 release.

southernlady5464, on 24 October 2009 - 07:11 PM, said:

I'm also a VB Designer...and would love to continue to design themes but of course transfer that talent to IPB instead.
How hard is designing a theme for an IPB forum?
How much can be customized? Is there a manual?

Our skin is entirely CSS driven, so it should be quite easy to design anything you can imagine. We put in a lot of effort in IPB 3 to combine templates as well. If you are a forum-designer already you should be able to understand this, hopefully. Basically, your "wrapper" is one template (where as in IPB 2 there was a wrapper, a header template, a footer template, a template bit for a member bar, a template bit for the navigation bar, etc.). By combining all these separate templates into one, it's much easier now to radically change the appearance of a page. You can, for instance, completely move something in the skin to another area of the skin, without having to worry about variables and such.

If you would like to test first hand, you can sign up for a demo on our website and test the skinning system in the demo.

southernlady5464, on 25 October 2009 - 07:53 PM, said:

But I have another question now that just occurred to me. I have a HUGE collection of smilies (my forum likes them) and they prefer them sorted in categories so they can find them so I have them in what amounts to "folders". I have 15 such folders with a total of just over 1100 and about another 500 not installed. (DON'T ask..I told you they like smilies). Vb makes it very easy to add them since I don't need anything to go with the smilie, all I do is load it in my ftp and in my case, in the folder I want it in and add it.

Now, if I have to add them with a .pak I am in serious trouble with my forum members because about 80-85% of them do not have the .pak file of ANY file for that matter.

You can upload smilies via FTP to the appropriate smilie folder(s) and then mark them in the ACP to add them to the packs. Or you can upload single image files via the ACP if you prefer.

[southernlady5464]

bfarber, on 26 October 2009 - 10:18 AM, said:

I'm not sure what you mean by "in a similar fashion to an ecommerce store", however IP.Downloads is fully capable of allowing zip files to be uploaded.

You can configure the file size limits for files in IP.Downloads, but of course any server-side restrictions (upload_max_filesize setting in php.ini, for instance) can also limit the allowance.

IP.Downloads will be able to handle multiple files for a single item in the upcoming 2.1 release.

Oh, this is fantastic news as most of us despise working with Zen Cart but it is the best FREE solution out there. Since I will be replacing my forum software anyway, I may as well add IPDownloads on. My server is not an issue as we are on a VPS and can upgrade as needed.

Quote

Our skin is entirely CSS driven, so it should be quite easy to design anything you can imagine. We put in a lot of effort in IPB 3 to combine templates as well. If you are a forum-designer already you should be able to understand this, hopefully. Basically, your "wrapper" is one template (where as in IPB 2 there was a wrapper, a header template, a footer template, a template bit for a member bar, a template bit for the navigation bar, etc.). By combining all these separate templates into one, it's much easier now to radically change the appearance of a page. You can, for instance, completely move something in the skin to another area of the skin, without having to worry about variables and such.

If you would like to test first hand, you can sign up for a demo on our website and test the skinning system in the demo.

Yes, it does make sense and I will when I get some time...we are heading into our busy season at the store, for a crafts store, Christmas starts early.

Quote

You can upload smilies via FTP to the appropriate smilie folder(s) and then mark them in the ACP to add them to the packs. Or you can upload single image files via the ACP if you prefer.

I know my community will hearing appreciate that. So do I as it will make my life easier.

I do have one more question now. I was reading thru the forum and stumbled across a thread about a forum being hacked. Now I realize that it's usually due to being on a hosted server or due to your lack of updates of improperly applied permissions, etc but it does happen in this world. One of the things vb has is called an unalterable user in their config file. Usually you put the owner/admin/tech person there so if the forum is hacked at least one or two can access the forum and restore it.

Is there something similar to that in IPB?

And thanks for answering my questions so far. I appreciate the time y'all are taking with all of us. I know it's been overwhelming these last 10 days or so.

Liz

[bfarber]

southernlady5464, on 26 October 2009 - 12:03 PM, said:

I do have one more question now. I was reading thru the forum and stumbled across a thread about a forum being hacked. Now I realize that it's usually due to being on a hosted server or due to your lack of updates of improperly applied permissions, etc but it does happen in this world. One of the things vb has is called an unalterable user in their config file. Usually you put the owner/admin/tech person there so if the forum is hacked at least one or two can access the forum and restore it.

Is there something similar to that in IPB?

And thanks for answering my questions so far. I appreciate the time y'all are taking with all of us. I know it's been overwhelming these last 10 days or so.

Liz

There is not a similar feature in IPB, no. There are ACP restrictions, however. If you wanted, you could have one admin account that has access to everything, and all other administrators could be blocked from editing administrators, for instance. Then if you ever needed to edit an admin, you could log in as that first unrestricted account, but for everything else you use your other normal admin account. If anything happened to those accounts, they wouldn't be able to edit that first unrestricted account.

[southernlady5464]

Thank you for your answers...I've liked everything I've heard so far but what has impressed me the most has been the professionalism shown by all the staff on this board. Esp this week when y'all are so overwhelmed with refugees. Y'll have been very patient and have given us very clear answers. Something we haven't been granted lately where we were.

Liz

[bfarber]

I'm glad I could help. Just let us know if you have any other questions. Remember you can call our sales line during normal business hours as well to speak with someone directly if you prefer.

[southernlady5464]

I realized as I read a reply in my email that I did have another question.

Is there a switch in the admin panel or something that allows me to change what people actually get in their email? The reason I ask and I've never have seen in it in vb but it must be set the way I like it by default but I get emails telling me a replay has been posting on a thread I am following and the link with IPB. With vb, on most of them, I get that same information but I also get the text of the post.

So is it possible to switch something on in IPB to give me the text of a post as well as the link?

Liz

[Matt]

Liz,

The topic reply notification emails should already contain the contents of the post. You can further edit the text in the Admin CP, though.

[southernlady5464]

Matt, on 27 October 2009 - 02:22 AM, said:

Liz,

The topic reply notification emails should already contain the contents of the post. You can further edit the text in the Admin CP, though.

Apparently I'm missing something here because this is what I got while following this thread on this board:

Quote

southernlady5464,

broni has just posted a reply to a topic that you have subscribed to titled "VBULLETIN USERS WORRIED ABOUT SKINNING".

The topic can be found here:
http://community.inv...view=getnewpost

There may be more replies to this topic, but only 1 email is sent per board visit for each subscribed topic. This is
to limit the amount of mail that is sent to your inbox.

There wasn't any more to the text of the email.

Now, an example of one of mine:

Quote

Reddie has just posted in the The Dailies forum of GBLCreations Forums under the title of Well, I'm glad it's Wed.

This thread is located at http://www.gblcreati...rum/xxxxxxxxxxx

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
*Whooboy, Liz, glad you were able to get in somehow and fix it. Do you know what you did to break it??

Carol*

That's what I am trying to see if I can change or if there is even a way to change it.

Liz

[bfarber]

http://community.inv...ercp&tab=forums

Quote

Include a copy of the post when emailing me from a watched topic
Enabling this option will send a plain text version of the post in the watched topic email.

[southernlady5464]

Okay, apparently I failed to check that box. Guess, I'll have to set up a set of tutorials for my forum members when the time comes.

Thank you for answering my questions. I'll go back to reading the other's posts and if I don't see an answer, I'll be back. Liz