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 Are there any limitations to importing forum data?
Answer Yes, some limitations exist, particularly with specific forum platforms.
  • General: Private messages are often combined into private topics.
  • phpBB: Usergroup configuration and HTML entities may require manual adjustments after import.
  • vBulletin: Calendar recurrences, ratings (karma), and 'goes to coventry' are not imported perfectly. Attachments may need to be extracted directly from the live database due to potential corruption in SQL dumps.
  • Simple Machine Forum: Banning features may not import perfectly due to differences in how Composr handles bans.

View

Question Where can I find the import functionality in Composr?
Answer Navigate to Admin Zone > Tools > Import.

View

Question What data formats can Composr import?
Answer Composr primarily uses database connections for importing. However, it also supports neutral data formats like CSV spreadsheet files and importing downloads from a directory.

View

Question Can I import data from other platforms into Composr?
Answer Yes, Composr offers importers for several popular platforms:
  • Forum Software: Invision Board, MyBB, phpBB, Simple Machine Forum, vBulletin
  • Content Management Systems: WordPress
  • Special Importers: HTML website importer, Composr merge (for merging another Composr site)

View

Question How do I move my Composr website to a new server?
Answer Moving a Composr site involves transferring both the files and the database.

Files:
  • On the old server, ZIP the entire Composr directory.
  • Download the ZIP file to your computer.
  • Upload the ZIP file to the new server using SFTP/FTP.
  • On the new server, unzip the file.

Database:
  • On the old server, create an SQL dump of your database using the mysqldump command or phpMyAdmin.
  • Download the SQL dump file.
  • If your URL is changing, search and replace the old URL with the new one in the SQL dump file.
  • Upload the SQL dump file to the new server.
  • Restore the database on the new server using the mysql command or phpMyAdmin.

Important Steps:
  • File Permissions: After transferring files, ensure correct file permissions are set on the new server. You can use the fixperms.php script, the upgrader script, or manually adjust them.
  • Configuration: If database settings are different on the new server, update the _config.php file or use the config_editor.php script to change the settings for both the site and forum databases.
  • Base URL: If your URL has changed, update the base URL setting in the Installation Options editor (config_editor.php).
  • Caches: Clear the block cache using the upgrader.php script.

View

Question Can I integrate third-party JavaScript libraries into Composr?
Answer Yes, you can integrate third-party JavaScript libraries using various methods:
  • Direct reference by URL: Include the library's URL in your theme's HTML.
  • Composr's JavaScript API: Use Composr's API for organized inclusion and potential future compatibility benefits.
  • Manual integration: Directly include the library's code in appropriate template files.
Choose the method best suited for your needs and technical proficiency.

View

Question How does Composr handle user authentication with external systems like LDAP or HTTP authentication?
Answer Composr can integrate with LDAP and HTTP authentication, but these features are considered complex and may require programming experience to set up correctly. Both methods allow users to log in to Composr using their existing credentials from the external system, streamlining access and management.

View

Question What are the limitations of using a third-party forum driver?
Answer Using a third-party forum driver can lead to limitations. Custom profile fields of type LONG_TEXT are limited to TEXT length, cookie integration is not officially supported and can be complex, and some forum drivers have specific quirks detailed in the nuances tutorial.

View

Question What are the implications of using the "none-forum" driver?
Answer Using the "none-forum" driver disables or limits many Composr features, including commenting, points, and user interactions. Consider using Conversr instead and restricting access to the forum zone, join module, and personal zone.

View

Question How can I integrate my forum visually into my website?
Answer Composr allows you to integrate your forum visually into your website. Enable "Show forum within website" in the Admin Zone configuration module and update the forum link in your menu to pass through the "forums" embedding module. You may need to adjust CSS to achieve a seamless look.

View

Top 10 Entries

Question How do I manage refunds in Composr?
Answer
  • Monetary payments: Issue refunds through your payment gateway.
  • Point payments: Manually refund points through the points system.
  • Cancellations: Cancel purchases in the Admin Zone to allow repurchasing. Remember to manually undo any associated actions (e.g., removing name highlighting).

View

Question What are the shipping options in Composr?
Answer You can handle shipping costs in three ways:

  • Flat rate per order: Configure a fixed shipping cost for all orders.
  • Weight-based calculation: Define shipping costs based on the order's total weight.
  • Shippo integration: Get real-time shipping quotes from various carriers based on weight, dimensions, and destination.

View

Question How do I handle taxes in Composr?
Answer Composr offers flexible tax handling:

  • TaxJar integration: Supports international taxation for many countries.
  • TaxCloud integration: Supports complex USA taxation, including destination-based rules.
  • EU digital goods tax: Handles EU-specific regulations for digital products.
  • Custom tax rates: Define your own percentage-based tax rates.
  • Tax hooks: Developers can extend tax functionality and implement additional tax providers.

View

Question What are the different types of products in Composr?
Answer Composr offers various "products," which are broader than typical eCommerce products. They include:

  • Usergroup subscriptions: Offer access to specific usergroups with recurring payments.
  • Catalogue items: Physical or digital goods sold through the shopping cart and a special "products" catalogue.
  • Orders: Collections of products purchased together.
  • E-mail addresses: Sell personalized email addresses on your domain.
  • Topic pinning: Allow users to pay to pin forum topics.
  • Name highlighting: Offer highlighted usernames on the forum.
  • Banners: Sell banner advertising space.
  • Custom products: Define and sell any product or service you wish.
  • Permission products: Sell access to specific permissions, such as download categories.
  • Gambling: Allow users to wager points.
  • Work: Represent invoiced services.
  • Non-purchasable products: For accounting purposes (interest, tax, wages, other).

View

Question How do I set up PayPal in Composr?
Answer
  • Sign up for a PayPal Business Account.
  • Enable "Auto Return" in PayPal and set the return URL to http://yourbaseurl/index.php?page=purchase
  • Enable "Payment data transfer" in PayPal and copy the data transfer identifier for Composr.
  • In Composr, go to Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > eCommerce options > Payment gateway (PayPal-specific).
  • Paste the data transfer identifier and save.

View

Question What payment gateways does Composr support?
Answer Composr supports PayPal, CCBill, and Authorize.Net for processing payments. While Composr could be extended to support other gateways, doing so may require professional development and customization.

View

Question What are the limitations for uploading large files?
Answer
  • 32-bit PHP build: Files larger than 2GB are not supported.
  • 64-bit PHP build: Files larger than 2GB are supported, but the file size will not be displayed.

For very large files, it's recommended to upload them manually and provide the URL instead of directly uploading them through the web form.

View

Question Can users search for specific downloads?
Answer Yes, the unified Composr search system allows users to find downloads based on keywords. This includes searching within download titles and descriptions, as well as within the content of certain file types like PDFs, text files, and even some binary formats (providing they are not too large in size).

View

Question Can I add images to my downloads?
Answer Yes, Composr automatically creates a gallery for each download (if the galleries addon is enabled). You can easily add images directly after creating the download or through the download-view screen. The download gallery is displayed within the download-view screen itself.

View

Question Are there security features to protect downloaded files?
Answer Yes, Composr includes security measures to protect downloads.
  • Protection from hackers: Uploaded files are stored with obscured filenames, preventing direct access and bypassing of the download system. Additionally, an anti-leech feature (when enabled) prevents direct download links from being shared on other websites (this is done by requiring a session ID which is validated against the person / device accessing it and only provided when Composr presents the download links to you on the site).
  • Basic security: Composr will not let anyone upload dangerous scripts (such as PHP files) which can be executed.
  • Rootkit detection: The rootkit detection tool under yourbaseurl/rootkit_detection.php can help scan files for shell scripts and backdoors. Composr's Health Check can also do this regularly. Note this only offers very basic detection and will not work for obfuscated backdoors (you should use antivirus to scan for those).

It is the responsibility of webmasters to run antivirus on their site to regularly scan files uploaded to it. Composr does not include antivirus software or virus scanning.

View