Featured Sites: A-Z Index

H


Newest 10 Entries

Question How do I report an emergency problem with my Composr site?
Answer Emergency problems are events that have significantly and suddenly affected your website's functionality due to legitimate bugs or undocumented usability issues. To report these:
  • Open a tracker issue explaining the problem and providing as much detail as possible (mark it as a major bug).
  • Help the developers help you. Provide access to your site (see the software feedback tutorial for more information), describe the exact situation, and avoid protracted back-and-forth communication.
  • Take backups before upgrading. This allows for easier recovery in case of problems.
Remember that bug fixing is not a free service. While developers are committed to Composr's stability, maintaining backups and practicing restoration procedures is your responsibility.
Question How can I get support for Composr?
Answer The community forum is an excellent resource for support. Users can help each other out with various problems. However, please remember that there's no guarantee of free professional support. If you need immediate or guaranteed assistance, consider hiring a professional developer.
Question I'm getting a lot of spam on my site. What can I do?
Answer Composr offers various anti-spam measures. Refer to the Anti-spam settings tutorial for advice on configuring these settings. If you believe there's an issue with the anti-spam system itself, report it to the issue tracker. Do not report general spam incidents.
Question My website is experiencing performance issues. What should I do?
Answer If you are experiencing performance issues, first identify the specific problem with your web host's help. Composr provides tools to manage database size, bandwidth, and disk I/O. However, high request volume or CPU usage may require server upgrades like a VPS or dedicated server.

If your web host complains about resource usage, gather detailed information from them, including specific URLs causing problems and resource usage metrics. If their limits are unreasonable, consider switching web hosts.
Question How do I report a security problem?
Answer Security problems must be reported privately. You can do this by marking the issue as 'Private' on the issue tracker (if you use the Report Issue Wizard, it will do that automatically when you select security-hole). Publicly disclosing security holes is irresponsible and may result in penalties. The core developer team will disclose the issue after a patch is released.
Question How do I report a bug in Composr?
Answer Every bug, no matter how small, should be reported. You can report bugs using the Report Issue Wizard or directly through the issue tracker. There is also a link to report bugs on your Admin Zone Dashboard where the version information is located. And when clicking that link, you can view open issues specific to your version of Composr.

When reporting a bug, be sure to:
  • Check for duplicates: Make sure the bug hasn't already been reported.
  • Report bugs individually: Each issue should be reported separately for better tracking and resolution.
  • Verify it's a Composr bug: Issues with third-party addons and code should be reported to their respective developers.
  • Consult the FAQ and tutorials: Check for common problems and solutions, particularly server configuration issues.
  • Provide comprehensive information: Include a clear and specific title, detailed steps to reproduce the problem, your browser version, Composr version, error messages, stack traces (if available), and any other
relevant details.
  • Use clear and concise language: Write in proper English, use correct terminology, and avoid vagueness.
  • Be respectful and patient: Remember that developers are volunteers and may not respond immediately.
Question What is the role of robots.txt in SEO?
Answer The robots.txt file provides instructions to search engine crawlers about which parts of your website they should and should not access. You can customize the robots.txt file to prevent sensitive content from being indexed or to guide crawlers toward the most important areas of your site.
Question What is SEO and why is it important for my Composr website?
Answer SEO is the practice of optimizing your website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). By improving your SEO, you increase the visibility of your website, driving more organic (non-paid) traffic to your content.
Question How can I edit the metadata in Composr?
Answer Composr provides several ways to customize your metadata:
  • Site-wide Settings: You can configure default metadata for your entire site in the Admin Zone under Setup > Configuration > Site options.
  • Content-Specific Settings: When adding or editing content like Comcode pages or news posts, Composr provides fields for customizing titles, descriptions, and keywords specific to that content under the "Metadata" section.
  • Automatic Detection: Composr can automatically generate metadata by analyzing your content, but it's generally recommended to refine these suggestions manually for best results.
Question Should I trust agencies that promise top search engine results?
Answer No; be wary of agencies guaranteeing top rankings for any desired keyword. Achieving top results for competitive terms requires significant effort, expertise, and often, an ongoing strategy.

Focus on agencies that prioritize ethical "white-hat" SEO techniques like creating valuable content, optimizing website structure, and building natural backlinks. Avoid those employing "black-hat" methods that can lead to penalties from search engines.

Top 10 Entries

Title Installation
Icon Image
Description

Quick installer: Our self-extractor allows faster uploads and will automatically set permissions.

Wizard-based installation

Auto-scans for compatibility problems: Be informed of problems before installing

Get your site up and running in just a few minutes

Keep your site closed to regular visitors until you're happy to open it

Configures server: Automatically generates an htaccess file for you (for Apache).

Auto-detection of forum settings for easy integration

Install test content

Title Web Pages
Icon Image
Description

Add virtually unlimited pages to your site

WYSIWYG editor (powered by CKEditor)

Convenient edit links: Staff see “edit this” links at the bottom of every page.

PHP support: Upload your PHP scripts and run them inside Composr (may require adjustments to the script code).

Hierarchical page structure: Supports parent and child pages

Periodic content reviews: Helping you ensure ongoing accuracy of your content.

Add Comcode pages (the default) or static HTML pages

Supports revisions and revision control systems (such as git); add new pages as files, and Composr will automatically register them in its system.

Title Downloads
Icon Image
Description

Clear organisation: Uses a tree structure for unlimited categorisation.

Anti-leech protection: download links contain a session ID

Community-centred: Allow users to comment upon and rate downloads

Many ways to add new files: Upload files. Link-to existing files. Copy existing files using a live URL. Batch import links from existing file stores.

Author support: Assign your downloads to authors, so users can find other downloads by the same author.

Set licences: Make users agree to a licence before downloading.

Images: Show images along with your downloads (e.g. screen-shots) (this implicitly uses galleries).

Basic file versioning support

Control monthly bandwidth use site-wide

Title Wiki+
Icon Image
Description

Think “structured wikis”.

Create an encyclopaedic database for your website

Use a tree-structure or traditional cross-linking

Supports revisions: Track changes

Display the tree structure of your entire Wiki+

Allow users to jump in at random pages

Make your pages either wiki-style or topic-style

Allow members to contribute to Wiki+ pages by adding Wiki+ posts

Title Quizzes and Surveys
Icon Image
Description

Run a competition: Choose winners randomly from those who passed the quiz.

Surveys: Gather data and find trends.

Tests: Test members' knowledge on a variety of topics.

Cheat prevention: Settings to prevent cheating, such as time limits, question / answer shuffling, and re-testing rules.

Integration with points: Charge points to enter a competition, or award points for winning.

Title News and Blogs
Icon Image
Description

Member blogs: Allow members to have their own blogs on their profile

RSS and Atom support: Export and import feeds.

Trackback support: Send and receive trackbacks.

Scheduled publishing

Ping support and RSS Cloud support

Multiple news categories and filtering

Multiple ways to integrate news into your website

Import from RSS feeds

Supports geotargeting

Members can rate and comment on news articles and blog posts

Send out a news article as a newsletter

Title Calendar
Icon Image
Description

Day/week/month/year views

Advanced “recurring event” settings

Event subscriptions: Receive reminders and notifications by event or event type

Warnings about conflicting events

Microformats support

Integrate a calendar month view, or an upcoming events view, onto your design

Supports categories: Have multiple event types

Multiple time zones: Have different events in different time zones with configurable conversion settings.

Priority flagging: Choose between 5 priorities

Programmers can even use the calendar to schedule custom tasks (Commandr) to be run

RSS and Atom support: Export support, but also support for overlaying news feeds onto the calendar.

Supports geotargeting

Feedback: Allow members to comment and rate events. Segregate feedback on recurring events by date.

Title Galleries
Icon Image
Description

Multimedia: Supports images, videos, audio, and more.

Personal galleries: Allow your members to create their own galleries which show up on their profile.

Support for embedding YouTube videos: Save on bandwidth.

Auto-detection of video length and resolution (most file formats)

Full tree-structure support: Have galleries within galleries within galleries.

Multiple display modes

View entries as a slideshow

Automatic thumbnail generation

Mass import: Also supports importing metadata

Optional watermarking: To guard against thieving swines ;) .

Geotargeting

Adjustments: Automatic size and orientation adjustments according to metadata.

Title Catalogues
Icon Image
Description

Think “databases on my website”.

Flexible data control: Set up multiple catalogues, each with its own set of fields. There are many types of fields, such as short text fields, upload fields, and date fields.

Multiple display modes: Display the contents of categories using tables, boxes, or lists.

Powerful structure: Each catalogue contains categories which contain entries. Catalogues can have a tree structure of categories and/or work from an index.

Configurable searching: Choose which fields are shown on categories, and which can be used to perform searches (template searches).

Compliance with data protection legislation: Specify which fields may contain sensitive data. These fields will be anonymised as appropriate when members download or purge their data.

Entirely customisable: Full support for customising catalogues, categories, and entries, exactly as you want them- field by field. You can even make custom page templates per-catalogue.

Classified ads: Entries can automatically expire and get archived. You can also send out view reports.

Community interaction: You can allow users to comment upon and rate entries.

Import data from CSV files

Periodic content reviews: Helping you ensure ongoing accuracy of your data.

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

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.

Links

PDStig, LLC