Elgg is very confusing. need help

I came to elgg from oxwall and this is my first question. Many of you may know oxwall. It is flexible and user-friendly. Elgg however provides more functionality with free plugins, but it is boring. I want a simple social network.

I am trying to do following things but do not know how:

  1. When user logs in, he should see a 3 column dashboard with an auto updating newsfeed where he can update status like in other social networks (SNWs)
  2. No friend feature, just follow feature. A user should see updates from the user he is following on his dashboard.
  3. No activity page and main menu.
  4. The user should not be allowed to customize the dashboard.
  5. Search area on top bar with autocomplete feature like fb, twitter etc etc

Can anyone help?

  • Hey, welcome to Elgg! Thanks for your feedback. We appreciate it when folks are willing to speak up about their experiences.

    Can you tell us what have you tried so far? Did you search the plugins repo for plugins that accomplish what you need? Did you look at the documentation from http://learn.elgg.org for writing a custom plugin?

    You've also mentioned that Elgg is "confusing" and "boring" and suggested that it is complicated, but haven't given any specifics. This makes it hard to figure out what exactly the issue is. Explaining what your goals are, what you've tried, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened would all be very helpful information for the community to assist you better.

  • Thank you for your attention and interest. I am not a developer. Yes I have downloaded lots of plugins. hundreds of them. For e.g I have downloaded 3 column river, river auto update plugin, followers plugin and for that matter other plugins. Themes are not so attractive. I guess this is the boring part, themes. Yes, I have also seen the documentation. The point is, it is not that easy as it is in oxwall to modify. I do not know how to explain, but it lacks ease. As mentioned earlier, I want to do following. Below I have explained my points with a little more details:

    1. I want to remove activity page and main menu from my website.
    2. When user log in, he should see a 3 column dashboard (not activity page) with an auto updating newsfeed where he can update status like in other social networks (SNWs)
    3. I want to remove friends feature, just need follow feature. A user should see updates from the user, he is following, on his dashboard.
    4. The user should not be allowed to customize the dashboard. I created a user to check, when I went to the dashboard, it was like what I see as admin.
    5. I want Search bar on top bar with autocomplete feature like fb, twitter etc etc. How to move it to the top bar.
  • 1. What do you want instead?

    2. Did you try river add on?

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/825625

    3. Just deactivate the friends plugin, download and activate followers plugin, which gives users a stream of posts of the people the user follows.

    4. User the Widget Manager to set the elements of the Dashboard.

    Or you can use my metro dashboard, perhaps?

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/1920099

    5. https://community.elgg.org/plugins/1207727

     

    what about these themes?

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/1963530

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/1945395

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/1929392

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/1929377

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/1944125

    https://community.elgg.org/plugins/2148629

  • Thank you very much for your reply and links

    1. I want a simple dashboard with newsfeed with columns on the left side and right side. See my oxwall test site and you will have answers to all my questions. Visit oxi.umairgroup.com and login with Username: umar01 and Pass: Umar_9

    2. Yes

    3. There is no friends plugin in Plugin section. I am using elgg 1.11. I have installed followers plugin

    4. You did not get me. Is a common user allowed to modify dashboard? To check how things look, I created a user and when I went to the dashboard, it was like what I see as admin. I was able to customize the dashboard. I was seeing widgets as if I was admin and not a common user.

    5. I know, but If you read the description, it says, "This plugin just fixes one nice core input view - nothing more. For that reason it's rather meant for the developers, not the plugins "end users". How can I make it work?

    Thank you for themes.

  • Another example can be twitter website. You log in, you see a 3 column dashboard.

  • 4. You did not get me. Is a common user allowed to modify dashboard? To check how things look, I created a user and when I went to the dashboard, it was like what I see as admin. I was able to customize the dashboard. I was seeing widgets as if I was admin and not a common user

    You can create a plugin to remove the ability to change the user dashboard to normal users.

  • I am not a developer. This is pity.

    What about other answers? did u see oxwall site?

    Can I do what i told here on elgg? If not, then i think I am better of with oxwall.

  • 3. friend feature in elgg work like follow feature, there is no friending confirmation. Change wording in langage file from frend to follow and you don't need follow plugin.

    4, Is a common user allowed to modify dashboard?

    Yes, user can modify his dashboard.

  • Steven,

    1. Can I make a site like this on elgg?

    3. Its weird, but there is no friends plugin in my plugins directory. How can I find it? There is only invite friends plugin. If you want, I can give you admin access to my elgg test site.

    4. I want to show normal dashboard to users. How can I do it? I dont want them to modify it.

    5. How to make this plugin work? Is there any alternative to it? Actually I want a search bar in the center of the top bar with autocomplete feature like fb, twitter etc.

  • @Umair Ali Elgg is a framework only.
    There are different themes and plugins that modify it, but in most cases need the individually solutions for each site.
    You can learn it yourself (including asking questions on the community), or hire a developer for this.
    The questions which you ask in here are very simple (at least, for me) and to make a site which you want is not so difficult