Turnkey Portal and Vortal Plug-in :

Turnkey Portal and Vortal Plug-in :

Source: This article is compiled by the India Web Developers Team

What are Portals and Vortals?

Most of the big, well-known sites like Yahoo and AOL are considered portals. They are gateways into the Internet for many users. Portals can be of the consumer type or enterprise type.

A Portal attracts a broad (horizontal) range of users whereas a Vortal appeals to a more narrowed (vertical) audience.

Vortals focus on a group of people with a specific passion or interest. They are sometimes called 'online communities' or ' vertical portals.' If you are interested in horses, for example, go to horsenet.com. Here you can chat with others interested in horses. You can also buy horse-related products and books and find information about horses. Enterprise information portals, B2B markets are also vortals.

We can build your Portal, Vortal or Community. This Portal development may include adding several features or components that are not normally found on a typical site. For example, you may need a discussion forum so that your visitors can share ideas or experiences. Creating this forum requires deciding which forum software to use and then installing it on the server.

There are many other components or modules you may wish to add to your Portal / Vortal.

Credit Card Processing   E-commerce or online purchase of products or services

Chat                                   This allows users to chat online

Calendar                            Show tour events or let users post events

Search                               Keyword or phrase search of the whole site

Classified Ads                   Allow users or members to post their own classified ads

Rotate Banner Ads          This component displays ads for a specified time on each page

Application Form              Visitors can complete an application and send it

Shopping Cart                  Select a product online and drop it in a cart for purchase

Quiz                                   Use it for an online course or for fun

Survey and Poll                Get helpful information about visitors

Links                                  Allow visitors to add their favorite links

Installation of the script component is only the first step. It takes some time to learn how to administer it. For example, in the case of discussion forums, setting up the topics and discussion areas is involved. After setup, ongoing control over the discussion is needed.

The sky is the limit with Portal development. It can be much more than just launching a site. When compared to a printed publication, it can range from a family newsletter to the Washington Post!
Additionally many people are surprised that a good Portal is an ongoing process. Once it is designed, developed and published, the Portal then needs visitors. This requires site promotion. Also the site will become obsolete and stagnant unless it is updated and maintained.

COMPONENTS OF PORTAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Concept, design and text development
2. Site development
3. Installation of components: CGI/ Perl scripts
4. Graphic and animation development
5. Banner ad creation
6. Updating/ improving content