Everything that you will do to customize your Portal to your taste and needs are all easily done through the Forum Admin Control Panel which is popularly known as the ACP.  When you go to your ACP, you will see new items in the left frame menu under the category Portal.  All that you will do with the Portal are through these menu items.  This manual is going to discuss each menu item but not in a sequential manner as it appears in the menu.  Instead, the discussion will be from the creation of a page until the configuration of the portal and the blocks.

With the Portal, it is possible that you have as many Portal pages as you want.  You are not stuck into just one portal page.  You can create all the pages that you need for you website from the ACP Portal menu.  To create a portal page, go to the ACP and in the Portal category, click Page Management.  After clicking the link, you will see something like this:

In this page, you can see all the portal pages created for your website.  It is required that at least one portal page exists and one portal page must be default.  The default page is the page being displayed when portal.php is visited in your website.  You can make a page default by clicking on Make Default and the label Default will be displayed for this page.  You can also edit a portal page by clicking Edit or delete a portal page by clicking Delete.  Take note that a default portal page can't be deleted.  Each portal page has a Page ID.  This Page ID is the parameter being passed into the URL to view a particular page in your portal.  For example, if you wanted to access the Sample 2, you have to specify portal.php?page=3 in the URL because 3 is the Page ID of that page.  Now, if you wanted to add another Portal Page, click Add Portal Page.

After clicking the button, you will see something like the image at the right.  You need to specify a name for the page you are going to create.  This name must be descriptive enough to identify the page.  The Template File is the layout you are going to use for your new page.  These files are located in your templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/layout directory with the standard phpBB extension for template files (tpl).  Layout files now come with a configuration file with a filename same of the file but with extension of (cfg).  When this file is available with the layout file, the Blocks Position Tags (to be discussed later) will be automatically created for the created page.  You can also choose to have your new page display forum-wide blocks (to be discussed later) or not.  The View by dropdown list tells the portal engine what user level are authorized to view a portal page.  It can be accessible to All, only by guests, registered users, moderators or only administrators.  Take note that as an administrator, you are always allowed to view any portal pages.  You can also set added permission per Usergroup.  You will see all the Usergroups in your board if any with a checkbox for each Usergroup.  If you tick at least one of these Usergroups, it will tell the portal engine to only allow access for those particular Usergroups.  If you tick none, then Usergroup permissions will not be used.  When you are done, just click Submit and your new portal page is now created.  Again, if a layout config file is available and position tags are automatically created for that page, you will see something like the image below:

Every portal page is made up of multiple blocks on the Portal.  These blocks are located in each page with the use of Blocks Position Tag.  These "tags" define the position of a block in to a page.  Each page inherits the position tags of the layout it is using.  So, if the layout has the position tags "center," "left," and "right," then every portal page created from this layout can position blocks in the "center," "left," and "right" positions.  If forum-wide blocks is enabled for a page, the standard "header" (left column) and "footer" (right column) tags are also inherited by the page. Position tags are automatically inserted per portal page created because of the layout config file.

If layout config file is not available, you can manually insert position tags by clicking Blocks Position Tag.  The following page will be displayed:

To add a tag, click Add New Position.  A page which looks like the image in the left must be displayed.  From this page you, must specify the Position Tag Key, a Position Character that must be unique for each page and the Portal Page where that position tag will be included.  It is easier just to use the first letter of the Position Tag Key as the Position Character.  Now, how will you know what is the Position Tag Key?  To get the key, you have to open the template layout that you use for the file.  For our example, let us use the included layout1.tpl file from the package.  The contents of the template files is displayed below:

In the case of the layout above, the blocks row tag is center_blocks_row and in this case, the position tag key is center.  You just have to find all the blocks row tag in the layout file, and from that, you can get the position tag key.

An Portal page is made up of different portal blocks.  To add a block, click Blocks Management.  After clicking the link, you will see something like the image at the left.  In this page, you will see all the portal pages created in your website. To manage the blocks in a portal page, click a specific portal page displayed.

From this page, you will see all the blocks that will be displayed with the selected portal page.  If you enabled forum-wide blocks for the portal page, then the header and footer blocks will also be displayed.  Take note that any changes you will do for header and footer blocks will be changed for all portal pages using forum-wide blocks.  You can also add or delete forum-wide blocks using any portal page where it is enabled.  Also from this page, you can see the page ID of the portal page.  If you will look at the Action column, aside from the default Edit and Delete actions, there are also Move Up and Move Down.  These actions are used so that you can move the blocks up and down per block position.  Now, to add more blocks to a portal page, click Add Blocks.

More options are now available when creating a block.  You also don't have to learn any HTML or PHP to create a block since the standard phpBB editor is also available to create a block with static content which is just the same of normal posting of messages in the forum.

The Block Title is the text that is to be displayed in the titlebar of the block.  It also uniquely identify the different blocks in the blocks management list above.  The Block Position tells the portal engine where to position the blocks.  Choices include the position tags created for the specific portal page.  When forum-wide blocks is enabled for the page, header and footer position tags are also available.  You can also opt to make a block Active or not.  When NOT Active, the block will not be displayed in the portal page.  If you decided, to make it available, you just have to set it as Active.

There are 2 ways to create a block on your Portal.  Through static content using the default phpBB editor or through a Block File.  For the static content, you can opt to choose between the use of BBCode or HTML.  Just type the content in the editor and choose the Type if it is BBCode and HTML.  Creation of static content is that easy.  Now, if you want to use a Block File, you can choose among the Portal blocks available in the blocks directory.  Remember that whenever a Block File and static content is both specified, it would be the Block File that is displayed and not the static content so always choose -- None -- for the Block File if you've wanted static content.

Portal blocks can be cached for faster performance and less bandwidth because of lesser connections to the database.  Caching option (Cache?) only works with Block Files since static content is automatically cached by the portal engine.  Just take note that caching a block makes the block display same information for a number of seconds defined by Cache Duration.  Blocks that are user-based like the User Info block must not be cached since it changes for every user.  Blocks that also change so often must only be cached for a short time (e.g. Recent Topics block - cache around 60 - 300 seconds).  There are also blocks the only display static content but can't be displayed using the editor.  A good example is the Search block.  In this case, you can cache the content for a longer time (e.g. one day - 86400 seconds).

Blocks access permission is also the same as that of the portal page.  By now, you should already be familiar with the permission per user level and per Usergroup.

The Display of blocks can now also be altered.  There are three parts of the blocks that can be enabled or disabled.  These parts are the Border, Titlebar and Background (BG).  You can now opt to display a block with all these parts displayed, all these parts disabled or a combination of what is enabled or not.  Now, for those using the forum in different aside from English, there is also now an option to Localize the text being displayed in the Titlebar.  When Localize Titlebar is enabled, the portal engine will not display the Titlebar text (assuming the Show Titlebar is enabled) from the Block Title field.  Instead, it will look at the language file included with the block in the directory blocks/lang_xxxxx where xxxxx is the forum language.  The retrieved Titlebar text will be from the variable $lang['Title_yyyyy'] where yyyyy is the name of the block (e.g. search for blocks_imp_search.php) which is case sensitive.

If layout template files have layout config files, block files also now have a block config files.  So what are these block config files for?  Since the Portal supports individual block configuration through the ACP, Block Variables (to be discussed later) are assigned for each block wherein values can be changed through Portal Configuration (to be discussed later).  With the use of these block config files, Block Variables are now automatically inserted in the configuration whenever a block is added.  Take note that same block added multiple times in a page or pages will have the same block variables in use.  So changes in the configuration for this block will change all blocks added.  Same as the portal page, you will know if block variables are automatically inserted for the block when you see something like this:

It is possible on the Portal to configure each block file added to any portal page through the Portal Configuration page in the ACP.  But in order to make them configurable, Block Variables must be added for a specific block.  These variables are directly used in the block files.  And same with position tags, block variables are automatically inserted when a block is added with the help of a block config file.  Once added, it is now considered as a portal configurable option.  Block Variables can also be used portal-wide and not only for a specific block.

In case that you need to manage a block variable, just click on Block Variables and the page something like the page below will be displayed:

You can add a block variable by clicking Add Block Variable and the page like the image at the left will be shown.  The Field Label is the label to be shown in the Portal Configuration page.  The Field Info is an additional descriptive information on what the field will be used for, what values are being expected or how should values be specified.  The next field, the Config Name, is the most important information for a block variable.  It must be specified exactly as how it is used in the blocks or in the portal.  Block variables are used using the $portal_config array and config name is used for defining a variable in an array accessible by $portal_config['xxxxx'] where xxxxx is the exact config name.  

Options and Field Values are always used side by side.  They must be specified when Control Type chosen is either dropdown lists or radio buttons.  Options must be a comma delimited labels that will be shown as choices in the dropdown lists or radio buttons (e.g. Yes,No).  Field Values on the other hand are the values the variable will take if the corresponding choice in the Options are chosen (e.g. 1,0)  It must also be comma delimited with number of items exactly the same with that of Options.

The Control Type defines how this control will be displayed in the Portal Configuration page.  There are four choices, namely, textbox, dropdown list, radio buttons and checkbox.  A textbox is for variables wherein the specified value will be used.  Dropdown lists and radio buttons are used for variables with a set of selectable values and expected values can only be from this set.  A checkbox is just for a variable with values of either 1 or 0 (a radio button or drop down list can also be used for this purpose but a checkbox is the most direct and easy way).

The Block dropdown list is only used to identify for which block the variable is going to be used.  You can also identify if it is not used in a specific block by choosing Portal Config.  This field does not affect the use of a variable and is just here to help the administrator identify in the Portal Configuration page for which block that variable is to be used.

The Portal is totally configurable through the ACP by clicking the Portal Configuration link.  At the right is a sample portal configuration page.  Some of the fields in this page are portal default and the rest are from the Block Variables page.  The options to be discussed in this manual are only those fields that are considered Portal-wide.

Default Portal Page
This is just the same as making a portal page default in Page Management.  The dropdown list contains all the portal pages you have created using Page Management and you can easily select one to make the portal default page.

Enable system-wide portal header
When enabled, header (left column) blocks will be available for all pages in your forum.

Enable system-wide portal footer
When enabled, footer (right column) blocks will be available for all pages in your forum.

Enable cache system
You can opt to enable or disable the cache system being used by the Portal.  Take note that the cache system, when enabled, will give increased performance for your website.

Header/Footer width
You can define the width of forum-wide left and right columns in pixels.

Cache File Locking
Enable/disable cache file locking and when enabled, can avoid cache corruption under bad circumstances.

Cache Write Control
Enable/disable write control (the cache is read just after writing to detect corrupt entries).  Enable write control will lightly slow the cache writing but not the cache reading.

Cache Read Control
If enabled, a control key is embedded in cache file and this key is compared with the one calculated after the reading.

Cache Read Control Type
Type of read control (only if read control is enabled).  The available choices are: md5 hash control (best but slowest), crc32 hash control (lightly less safe but faster, better choice) and length only test (fastest).

Cache File Name Protection
If set to true, you can use any cache id or group name.  If set to false, it can be faster but cache ids and group names will be used directly in cache file names so be careful with special characters. (you don't have to worry about assigning cache id or group name because it is automatically handled by the portal engine).  False setting is faster.

Cache Automatic Serialization
It can be used to save directly data which aren't strings but it is slower.  It is ideal to set it to true but if you want faster performance, you can opt to set it to false.  As of now, no problem is being reported for setting it to false.  But in case of problems when setting it to false, just leave the item set to true.

Whenever you make changes in your portal through the ACP, the portal engine automatically clears the portal cache related to the changed information.  Now, there are times that you can make updates to the block files or other portal files to be used.  To be sure that updates will be reflected immediately, you can click Delete Cache Files so that all the portal related cache files will be deleted and changes will be immediately reflected.