eFiction-like Archive Plugin

[kimihu]

"eFiction is a software program that enables users to run automated original or fanfiction archives on their websites. The program is PHP and MySQL database driven and is released as open-source software." - eFiction Official Website

Would it be at all possible for a similar plugin to be created for ProBoards? I have searched and searched and cannot find one anywhere!

Thank you!

Kim

[Brian]

This looks like software you would install on a website, kind of like how WordPress works. I don't think a plugin is going to be able to manipulate the forum drastically enough to duplicate its functionality. The most effective way to achieve anything close to it would be to manipulate the forum's layout templates and structure to mimic it, but that will only get you as far as the forum's functionality allows.

Using their demo as an example and going from the top down: demo.efiction.org/index.php

• Our login pages are separate from the forum so you wouldn't be able to have the login fields directly on the page itself.
• You can make a certain post's contents show on the homepage but there are some limitations depending on the method you use.
• You can make the contents of the Forum Information & Statistics show on the right of the forum just like the site info on the demo site, but only on the homepage. We don't track statistics like word count or anything not already found in our forum info.
• I think you can repurpose the Important Threads plugin to get a list of Featured Stories.
• The Recently Updated Threads Sidebar plugin can be used to obtain a list of most recent stories.
• There's no way to automatically output a link to a random thread on ProBoards, so Random Story is out. The only other option to reproduce it would be to create a list of thread links for it to reference, then keep having to manually update that list any time a new story is created.

One thing to always keep in mind with requests like these that cover a lot of ground is that ProBoards is forum software first. While we have features like plugins and custom page creation that can make the forum function a bit closer to a fully-fledged website it's still a remotely-hosted forum at the end of the day. You'll get the most out of a ProBoards site when it's customized with that in mind.