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Newest 10 Entries

Question What is the Composr maintenance policy?
Answer Composr follows a rolling release model. This means:
  • New major/minor versions are released as they are ready.
  • Patch releases, primarily containing bug fixes, are only released for the latest supported major/minor version branch.
Users are responsible for staying updated to the latest release or applying necessary hotfixes.

This policy allows developers to focus resources on the latest versions and encourages users to leverage the ongoing improvements. You can find the release status on the Composr maintenance status page.
Question What are the general courtesy guidelines for interacting with the Composr community?
Answer
  • Understand that Composr is developed and maintained by volunteers who dedicate their time to the project.
  • Refrain from demanding free support or expecting developers to work on specific schedules.
  • Avoid placing undue pressure on volunteers or pushing them beyond their capacity.
  • Approach the community with respect and a collaborative spirit.
  • Remember that offering financial sponsorship for desired features can accelerate development.
Question How can I provide design feedback for Composr?
Answer Constructive design feedback is valuable. To provide effective feedback:
  • Be specific and detailed. Identify particular issues and provide clear examples.
  • Offer solutions. Suggest improvements or provide mockups demonstrating your ideas.
  • Avoid vague statements. General comments like "it looks dated" are unhelpful.
  • Understand design constraints. Consider factors like modularity, generality, feature density, compatibility, performance, and the subjective nature of design.
Directly reporting specific design bugs to the tracker or redesigning Composr interfaces yourself are excellent ways to contribute.
Question How do I make a feature suggestion for Composr?
Answer You can suggest features through the tracker or the Report Issue Wizard. When making a suggestion:
  • Be comprehensive and self-contained. Provide all necessary information and context for the developers to understand your suggestion.
  • Focus on widely beneficial features. Esoteric suggestions are less likely to be implemented.
  • Understand developer constraints. Feature development depends on factors like developer availability, funding, and project strategy.
  • Consider sponsoring features. Financial contributions can prioritize the development of desired features as it affords developers the time to implement it.
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.

Top 10 Entries

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 Core 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.

Stepped back as lead developer in April 2025 due to economic constraints.

Links

PDStig, LLC

Name Jim Davidson
Title / Role contributor
Contributions / Notes

written many tutorials via Arvixe

Name Chris Warburton
Title / Role developer for ocProducts
Contributions / Notes

Made some key contributions to ocPortal

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

None available

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

Wrote many tutorials via Arvixe

Name Philip Withnall
Title / Role Early Developer
Contributions / Notes

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

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

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