Contributors: A-Z Index

A

Name Photograph Title / Role Contributions / Notes
Allen Ellis Image Founder

Original designer for ocPortal

Also conceived and coded the Theme Wizard and Point Store

Son of one of the early inventors of Internet protocols (Usenet, aka Internet newsgroups)

Token non-brit

View

C

Name Photograph Title / Role Contributions / Notes
Chris Graham Image Founder

Original developer of ocPortal, former lead developer of Composr CMS

Masters degree in Computer Science from The University Of Sheffield

Undertaken work for over 15 FTSE-100 companies, as well as many small and mid-sized organisations. Includes a number of banks and major brands.

View
Chris Warburton developer for ocProducts

Made some key contributions to ocPortal

View

H

Name Photograph Title / Role Contributions / Notes
Haydn Maidment project manager for ocProducts

None available

View

J

Name Photograph Title / Role Contributions / Notes
Jim Davidson contributor

written many tutorials via Arvixe

View

P

Name Photograph Title / Role Contributions / Notes
Patrick Schmalstig Image Lead Developer

Joined Chris Graham behind the scenes in the development of Composr CMS in 2016.

Took on the lead developer role in 2023 when Chris Graham stepped back to attend to his new lifestyle changes.

Spearheaded the development of Composr CMS v11 and the new website, Composr.app.

Formed the company PDStig, LLC to take on professional support and development for Composr CMS users especially after the discontinuation of ocProducts, Ltd.

View
Philip Withnall Early Developer

Coded the chatroom, blogging support, the analytics system, and OcCLE (now Commandr)

Masters Degree in Computer Science degree from The University Of Cambridge

Other work has included helping out with Firefox, and ongoing work on GNOME

View

R

Name Photograph Title / Role Contributions / Notes
Robert Goacher Image Founder

Ran some of the early websites where ocPortal came from

Technically the original developer of ocPortal, in that he wrote the first few lines of code

Heavily involved in the feature design process

Hosted some of our early meet-ups

View

S

Name Photograph Title / Role Contributions / Notes
Steve Jarvis project manager for ocProducts

Wrote many tutorials via Arvixe

View

Newest 10 Entries

Question What is Wiki+?
Answer Wiki+ is a feature in Composr that allows you to create a collaborative, tree-structured database of information. It functions similarly to a traditional wiki but offers enhanced features such as post contributions, a hierarchical structure, and moderation capabilities.
Question Are there other Composr features helpful for support?
Answer Yes, features like:
  • Staff-only replies in the Support Ticket system enable private communication among support staff.
  • Notifications for new tickets, replies, or feedback ensure timely responses.
  • Blocks like main_contact_us provide a simplified front-end for ticket creation.
  • Forum moderation tools help manage support discussions effectively.
Question Can I integrate a dedicated issue management system with Composr?
Answer While Composr doesn't have a built-in issue tracker, a non-bundled addon (cms_homesite_tracker) provides an integrated, modified version of Mantis. Additionally, the Support Ticket system can function as a basic private issue tracker using features like Post Templates.
Question How can I restrict access to the support system to specific users?
Answer Utilize Composr's page access permissions to control who can access the Support Ticket page. This ensures only authorized users can submit support requests.

You can also control permissions based on ticket type when adding or editing a ticket type. Make sure if you go this route that the Support Ticket page permissions are very liberal (e.g. allow anyone to access, or just restrict to guests if you will never allow guests to make tickets). Otherwise, some people cannot make tickets even if they have permission on the type.
Question What are Post Templates and how are they beneficial for support?
Answer Post Templates are predefined text blocks that can be used as templates for new forum posts. They are particularly useful in support scenarios by:
  • Providing quick responses to common questions.
  • Ensuring consistency in staff responses.
  • Saving time and effort for staff.

Post Templates can be configured to be the default post in specific forums or restricted to certain user groups.

Go to Admin Zone > Structure > Forums > Post Templates.
Question How does Composr handle email integration for support?
Answer Composr can integrate with email for ticket management, assuming certain requirements are met:
  • PHP IMAP extension installed.
  • Functional PHP mail command (local SMTP server or configured Windows SMTP settings).
  • Active system scheduler (Cron).

With email integration, users can submit tickets via email, and staff can reply through the system. Composr cleans up email text for ticket clarity and allows forwarding emails to the integrated address for efficient handling.
Question How can I categorize and prioritize support requests?
Answer Support Ticket System: Utilize support ticket types, managed in the Admin Zone > Setup > Support tickets. Staff can set individual notifications for different types.

Discussion Forums: Create dedicated subforums for different support categories or priority levels.

Feedback System: The content to which the feedback is attached implicitly categorizes it. For prioritization, subforums can be used.
Question What are the advantages of using the Support Ticket system over the Discussion Forums?
Answer While both systems can be used for support, the Support Ticket system provides advantages like:
  • Separating replies into individual tickets.
  • Ticket assignment to specific staff members.
  • Tracking who has read a ticket.
  • Private replies between staff members.
  • Filtering tickets by type.
  • Automatic ticket creation, unlike manually creating forum topics.
  • Conflict detection when multiple staff are working on the same ticket.
  • Real-time alerts and display updates upon ticket replies.
Question How can Composr be used as a support desk tool?
Answer Composr offers three main systems for providing online support:

1. Support Ticket System: This system allows users to submit tickets and staff to respond, track, and resolve them. It features email notifications, ticket categorization and prioritization, staff assignment, and attachment support.

2. Discussion Forums: Conversr, Composr's built-in forum software, can be utilized for support by creating dedicated forums or subforums. Features like post templates and multi-moderations enhance support capabilities.

3. Feedback System: This system allows for comments on various content types, facilitating support directly related to that content.
Question How can I access the raw data behind the statistics graphs?
Answer Every graph in Composr offers a spreadsheet export option. This allows you to download the data in a spreadsheet format, enabling detailed manual review or further analysis using third-party tools.

Top 10 Entries

Question What is the purpose of "confirmed" and "non-confirmed" sessions?
Answer Composr distinguishes between confirmed and non-confirmed sessions for added security:
  • Confirmed: When you actively log in with your credentials.
  • Non-confirmed: When you return to the site and are automatically logged in via cookies.

You can configure zones to require confirmed sessions, preventing access from cookie-based logins alone. The Admin Zone uses this by default.
Question How can I enhance the security of my Composr installation on shared hosting?
Answer Shared hosting environments can be inherently less secure. Here are some tips:
  • Choose a Secure Host: Opt for hosts that offer suEXEC and open_basedir for better account isolation.
  • Test Security: Verify the host's security measures with the provided filesystem_browser.php script.
  • Restrict _config.php: Remove world-writable permissions from _config.php after installation.
Question How does Composr protect against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks?
Answer Composr utilizes multiple layers of defense against XSS attacks:
  • HTML Filtering: Configurable levels of filtering prevent malicious script injection.
  • Content Security Policy (CSP): Restricts the sources from which scripts and other resources can be loaded.
  • Input Sanitization: Data is sanitized before being processed to prevent malicious code execution.
  • Output Encoding: Data displayed to users is properly encoded to prevent interpretation as active code.
Question What are the different types of security alerts in Composr?
Answer Composr has a variety of hack-attack codenames that trigger security alerts and logging. Some common examples include:
  • DODGY_GET_HACK: Suspicious URLs with potentially harmful characters.
  • EVIL_POSTED_FORM_HACK: Possible CSRF attempts via malicious form submissions.
  • SCRIPT_UPLOAD_HACK: Attempts to upload PHP scripts, potentially malicious.
  • DOWNLOAD_PRIVATE_URL_HACK/TRY_TO_DOWNLOAD_SCRIPT: Attempts to download sensitive files.
  • BRUTEFORCE_LOGIN_HACK: Repeated failed login attempts.
  • SQL_INJECTION_HACK: Attempts to exploit SQL queries for data extraction.

You can customize alert handling for each type in data_custom/xml_config/advanced_banning.xml (Admin Zone > Security > Configure advanced banning).
Question What are some tips for secure website maintenance?
Answer
  • Avoid FTP: Use secure alternatives like SFTP or SSH for file transfer.
  • Secure Email: Enable SSL for IMAP and POP3 email protocols.
  • Strong Passwords: Use unique and complex passwords for different services.
  • Secure Computers: Keep your own devices patched and secure.
  • Maintenance Password: Remove the maintenance password from _config.php when not in use.
Question What are the main security features of Composr?
Answer Composr has a robust set of security features to protect your website, including:

Passwords:
  • Visual representation of password quality and enforcement of complexity rules.
  • Password expiry and prevention of re-use.
  • Secure password hashing, even if the database is compromised.
  • Temporary passwords for staff setup.

Login Restrictions:
  • Two-factor authentication via IP address approval.
  • IP address banning, including wildcard banning.
  • Session locking to IP addresses.
  • Configurable session expiry times.
  • Ability to prevent privileged actions from auto-logged in sessions.
  • Optional member approval process.

Auditing Systems:
  • Comprehensive audit logging of administrative actions.
  • Logging of user actions and IP address history.
  • Tools to analyze audit logs.
  • Failed login logging.
  • Hack attack detection, logging, and banning.
  • Email notifications for changes to user credentials.

Framework Security:
  • Protection against CSRF attacks.
  • Click-jacking prevention via CSP implementation.
  • Secure coding standards and scanning techniques.
  • Configurable HTML filtering to prevent XSS attacks.
  • Secure code modularization standards.

Other features:
  • Granular privileges and access permissions.
  • Content submission validation process.
  • Rootkit detection system.
  • Spam prevention systems.
  • Web application firewall rules.
  • Moderation systems.
Question Why are my searches slow, and how can I improve search speed?
Answer Slow searches can occur when dealing with large amounts of content. Here are some workarounds and solutions:
  • MySQL timeout setting: For MySQL 5.7+, set a query timeout to prevent searches from locking up your database. Composr automatically sets this, but you can configure it manually if needed.
  • Use InnoDB tables: Switching to InnoDB tables in MySQL can prevent slow queries from affecting other users on your website. Note that InnoDB is not officially supported by Composr yet.
  • Enable the fast custom index: As mentioned earlier, the fast custom index is optimized for handling large datasets and filtered searches, potentially leading to significant speed improvements.
Question How does the search engine handle different languages?
Answer Composr's fast custom index supports multiple languages. Content is indexed based on its translated version, ensuring that you get relevant results even when searching in a different language.
Question What are quoted phrases and how do they work?
Answer Quoted phrases allow you to search for an exact sequence of words. For example, searching for "red apple" will only return results containing that exact phrase. Keep in mind that enabling quoted phrases can increase disk space usage.
Question How do stop words affect search results?
Answer Stop words are common words (like "the", "a", "is") that are ignored by the search engine because they add noise and don't contribute to the meaning of the search query. You can customize the list of stop words for the fast custom index. See the search tutorial for more information.