Forum:Using Portals?

Hi, I'm from the Echo Bazaar Wiki, and the wiki has grown quite a bit that I feel it is time to have a more detailed homepage. I really like what the Dragon Age Wiki has done with theirs, but I cannot quite grasp how they did it. Hovering over the different boxes, I noticed that the edit links all point to a Portal/Component of some sort.

My question is: How do I use Portals? I have looked at DragonAge's Help:Portal page, and I don't quite get where or how to start.

Specifically I want to have
 * icons which link to pages in my wiki (plus points if I get it to 'flip through different pages like DA wiki does)
 * a news feed box, capturing the most recent blog posts
 * a How to Help box
 * feed from the forum
 * a space for polls
 * twitter feed

I know some basics of html and css, but I am very very new to the wiki language. :) Links to tutorials and stuff would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers, Neonix (talk) 02:26, April 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * The Dragon Age approach to homepage design is relatively complex by comparison. It utilises javascript in their c:dragonage:MediaWiki:Common.js for their custom slider, templates within templates, which are then laid out on the main page using Wikia's main page column tags. Needless to say, designing something similar will take you a lot of time. For the specific wants you've listed:
 * Icons are just images that are set to link to certain pages e.g.  is an image called Blah that would link to the article Blah2. Dragon Age Wiki has beautified their icon images by making them round with transparent backgrounds &mdash; you'll need image editing software such as Photoshop to achieve that effect. As for the flipping... the part of their MediaWiki:Common.js that refers to a "slider" needs to be copied, as well as this template, which would require significant alterations to make its content for your wiki. That part will take time.
 * News feed boxes are just blog lists. You can find help regarding blog lists here. The default implementation of these blog lists is not the best, however. Dragon Age Wiki used CSS to touch these up.
 * A how to help box is text, really &mdash; Dragon Age Wiki's is here.
 * Code for making a feed from a forum is the exactly the same as the code used to list those threads in the forum pages on your wiki. See the code in your Forum:Watercooler, for instance.
 * See Help:Polls for poll help.
 * Twitter feed: type in, replacing Blah with the user name of the Twitter account. The limit refers to the number of posts that show up.
 * Hope some of that information is helpful to you. :) The 888th Avatar   (talk)  08:04, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much! :) Just one more thing, about that twitter feed, is it possible to 'subscribe' to more than one user? (something akin to twitter's lists) Neonix (talk) 21:20, April 5, 2011 (UTC)


 * If you want to use Dragon Age Wiki's portal setup, I suggest you ask Tierrie about it. He is the one who developed the system, and he is very helpful for people who want to set it up on different wikis. He has also been looking for feedback on how he can improve the Help:Portal page to make it easier for people to understand. ~ Gardimuer { ʈalk } 15:38, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
 * Alright, I will! Thanks! Neonix (talk) 21:20, April 5, 2011 (UTC)