SMF Mods installed on the BSP SMF example forums

If you have looked at the two SMF forums install at
BSP you may have noticed that they have a number
of Mods applied to them to expand their functionality.

Bastion Special Projects SMF Example Forum

Bastion Special Projects SMF with Tiny Portal Example Forum

Here I will give you brief overview of each mod. please
see the "Located here" links for the full details of each
mod.

SMF Gallery Lite

What is it?
Simply put it is a basic image gallery for SMF.
It can have multiple categories and sub categories
and it can be set to allow any user group you want
access to it.

Located here

Global Headers and Footers

What is it?
This something you may find quite useful if you want
to add some HTML code to your forum but don't want
to play around with the PHP code. Take a look at either
of the example forums and you can see some uses for
this mod, Adding links to other areas of your site, adding
code for Adsense and other ads, code for free hosted
toolbars and more.


Located here

SMF Links

What is it?
This is a links directory that can handle multiple
categories and sub categories. Much like the gallery
mod you can give permissions to specific groups.

Located here

Auto Embed Video/Audio Clips

What is it?
This is a neat little mod that allows audio and video
clips from a wide variety of sites to embedded into
forum post without needing any special BB Code or
major modifications to your forum. You might want
to take a look at the link below to get a better
idea of what sites it can auto embed from.

Located here

TinyPortal

What is it?
TinyPortal is an addon Portal System or CMS
(Content Management System) for SMF. It is
a great way to greatly extend you forum into
much more by adding the ability is write and
post articles in addition to your existing forum.
It also includes a built in Shout Box among other
features. For the full details visit the link below*.

* TinyPortal requires you to register an account to
download the mod and to view certain areas of their
forum.

Located here


As I find and try more Mods I will update this blog
entry.

Installing Mods for SMF

Installing Mods to enhance SMF is fairly easy and will
allow you to expand your SMF forum's functionality to
no small degree.

SMF main site link

Go to SMF's site and select the customize link at the top
of the page. This page will let you select both Mods and
themes for SMF. Look though the Mods they have to find
the one(s) you are looking for*.

*A word of advice, only try one new Mod at a time to see
if any of them are going to conflict with each other. This
makes it easier to trace a problem.

Now the step by step...

1. Make a folder on you computer named SMF Mods. You
can save the Mod files to this folder to make it easier to
find them later.

2. Download the Mod(s) you want to the folder you made.

3. Log into your SMF forum and click the ADMIN tab/button.

4. Inside your admin panel click the Packages link. The page
this brings up will show you what Mods are currently available.

5. Click the Download Packages tab. This is where you will
upload your Mods. Look for the box marked: Upload a Package
Simply click the browse button to find the mod file on your
computer and then click Ok after you find the file. Next just
click the Upload button and sit back while it uploads.

6. after the file is uploaded it will give you the option to
apply the mod. Just click the Apply Mod link and follow
the on screen instructions.

An important note: Some Mods will require that you modify
your current theme before they will work properly. Most
Mods will work on the SMF Default theme automatically.


And that's it...

Installing SMF

There are two ways it can generally be installed. The easiest
way being to use a “one click” installer such as Fanastico. You
may however need to manually install it if your host doesn’t
offer an installer or if it is down for maintenance.

The SMF forum on this site was installed manually.

Located here:SMF Forum
And one with TinyPortal here:SMF Forum with TinyPortal

The installation process is relatively easy and mostly straight
forward.

1) Make a folder on you computer named SMF so it will be
easier to find.

2) Go to the SMF site and download either the current version
of SMF or their Webinstall. An important note: The SMF Webinstall may not work on all shared servers.

3) if you downloaded the current version of SMF unzip the
files in you SMF folder, it will open all of the needed files and
folders inside that folder.

3a) If you decided to try their Webinstall, simply follow their
instructions here: Webinstall instructions

4) On you site create a folder for your SMF forum.
Typically this will be named either www.yoursite.com/sfm/
or www.yoursite.com/forum/.

5) Create a MySQL database. You can use whatever name
for it you want but the easiest would simply be smf.

5a) Depending on your host you may have to create a password
for the MySQL database. Many host use a default password
though, usually the same one you were given when you bought
your hosting package.

6) Upload the files you unzipped in the SMF folder on your
computer to the folder you made on your site. It will take
a while because SMF has a lot of image files in it’s themes
folders.

7) After you have uploaded the files use you browser to
go to: www.yoursite.com/sfm/install.php this will start the
installation process.

8.) Enter the needed information in the required fields and just
follow the on screen instruction. Some of the information won’t
need to be changed but most of it is fill in the blanks…

Basic Settings
Forum name: Just enter the desired name of your forum
Forum URL: This will probably be filled in by the installer
Gzip Output: This will be checked already so there is no need
to change it.
Database Sessions: This will also be checked so there so there is
no need to change it.
UTF-8 Character Set: This is unchecked. If you are planning to use
international language packs it might be a good idea to check it.
Allow Stat Collection: This is unchecked also, If you want to help
SMF to visit your site to get ideas on how to improve the software
you can check it but you are not required to.

MySQL Server Settings
MySQL server name
MySQL username
MySQL password
MySQL database name
MySQL table prefix

This is all pretty much straightforward fill in the blanks stuff.
If you are in doubt about some it always remember to ask
someone before you get in over your head.

Create Your Account
Your username: Your preferred screen name
Password; Your password
Password: Verify your password
Email Address: Your email addy (must be a valid one)

This creates the forum’s root Admin account (your’s). It will require
your MySQL Database Password so the software can be sure you are
authorized to create the Root Admin.

And now you have reached the final page of the installer.
Congratulations, the installation process is complete!

Check the one box to remove the install.php and click the provided link
to get into you new forum.

And that’s it.