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

Top 10 Entries

Title Third party integration
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Description

Support for integrating popular forum software: See our download page for a list of supported forums.

Share login credentials: Login to the Composr site with the same usernames/passwords as your forum.

Share usergroups: Control website access based on someone's forum usergroup.

Emoticon support: The emoticons on your forum will also be used on your website.

Title Stay on Top
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Description

(Conversr only)

Virtual Forums: Find posts made since you last visited or within a time frame.

Remembers your unread posts even if you frequently change computers

Recent activity: See what topics you recently read or posted in

Unanswered topics: Find which topics have not yet been answered

RSS and Atom support

Title Conversr Forums
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Description

The usual: Categories, forums, topics, posts, topic polls, announcements / pinning, sinking, quick reply, topic closing

Forum and Topic tracking: Receive notifications when new posts are made on monitored topics and forums.

Password-protected forums

Present an 'introductory question' which members must answer or agree to before accessing a forum.

Full moderator control: Determine who may moderate what forums.

Inline personal posts: Whisper to members within a public topic; only those members will see the post.

Over 50 bundled emoticons: Also, support for batch importing new ones

Multi-moderation: Record and perform complex routine tasks; make post templates for those tasks.

Mass-moderation: Perform actions on many posts and topics at once.

Post preview: Read a topic's first post directly from the forum-view. Also see the latest posts when making a new post.

Highlight posts as ‘important’

Title Membership
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Description

(These features pertain to Conversr only)

Profiles: Browse through and search for members, and view member profiles.

Multiple usergroups: Members can be in an unlimited number of different usergroups. They can also ‘apply’ to join new ones.

Social networking: Create and browse friendships.

Custom profile fields: Allow your members to add extra information which is relevant to your website (or to their subcommunity), and members can set privacy settings on them.

Promotion system: Set up a usergroup rank ladder so members advance the ranks through their rank points. Members can view rank on their profile rank tab including unlocked and unlockable privileges.

Private Topics: A special kind of private messaging system between 2 or more members. Think 'on-site e-mail inbox'.

Invitation-only websites: Restrict registrations from the public; existing members can invite others to join.

Allow members to create and manage clubs (personal usergroups).

Avatars: Include avatars that members can pick from, or allow members to upload their own.

Member signatures, photos, and personal titles

Users online: See which members are currently online (unless they logged in as invisible)

Account pruning: Find and delete unused accounts, or merge duplicate accounts, based on defined criteria.

CSV files: Import and export members using CSV files, including support for automatic creation of custom profile fields and usergroups – great for migrating data

Title Support Tickets
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Description

Users can communicate with staff privately through Support Tickets.

Assign to individual staff: Includes the ability for staff members to “take ownership” of raised issues, and for staff to discuss.

Allow users to e-mail in their tickets and replies to a designated e-mail address

Expanded access granting: Grant third party members access to individual tickets.

FAQ integration: Automatically search FAQs before opening a ticket.

Multiple ticket types: Set up different types of support tickets, with different access levels and fine-grained ticket notification settings.

Anonymous posting: Allow staff to post anonymously or as a designated support operator account so that customers don't always expect the same employee to reply.

Merging: If customers open multiple tickets for the same issue, you can merge them.

Closing: Let customers close tickets that are now resolved, or do it yourself.

Filtering: Filter the tickets you see by status and ticket type.

Title eCommerce and Subscriptions
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Description

Paid membership: Sell access to sections of your website, or offer member privileges.

Shopping cart for running an online store

Extendable framework: Programmers can easily add new product types to sell, or payment gateways / tax services / shipping providers.

Multiple payment gateways: Accepts payments via PayPal or other gateways developers may add, and manual transactions (cash/cheque).

Invoicing support: Including status tracking and online payment tracking.

Basic accounting support: Input your incoming and outgoing transactions to get a basic ledger, profit-and-loss, and cashflow charting.

Currency conversions: Perform automatic currency conversions within your website pages (requires an API key).

Title Featured Content
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Description

Random quotes: Put random quotes (e.g. testimonials) into your design.

Awards: Showcase your most popular content, and optionally award the submitter with points.

Tags: Set keyword tags for content and display tag clouds.

Recent content: Automatically feature links to your most recent content (via main_multi_content block).

Show website statistics to your visitors (via stats graphs or page hit counters).

Random content: Feature random content from your website specified via a sophisticated filtering language.

Title Newsletters
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Description

Automatically create newsletter issues highlighting your latest content

Double opt-in: Prevent false sign-ups by asking subscribers to confirm their subscriptions.

Host multiple newsletters: Visitors can subscribe to the ones they want.

Flexible mailings: Send out mailings to all members, to different usergroups, or to subscribers of specific newsletters.

Welcome e-mails: Send multiple welcome e-mails to new users automatically, on a configurable schedule (Conversr-only).

Bounce cleanup: Automatically clean out bounces from your e-mail list.

Unsubscribe: Recipients can easily unsubscribe from newsletters through an unsubscribe link provided in the e-mail.

Change settings: Newsletter subscribers can change their subscription settings on-site.

Drip sending: Prevent overwhelming your mail server or outbound limits.

Title Searching
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Description

Choose what is searchable

Boolean and full-text modes

Keyword highlighting in results

Search boxes to integrate into your website

Logging/stats

OpenSearch support: Allow users to search from inside their web browser.

Results sorting, and filtering by author and date

Search within downloads: Including support for looking inside archives.

Composr fast custom index: Support full-text searches in instances where your database does not

Title Banners
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Description

Multiple types: Each one can specify its own width-by-height (e.g. skyscraper).

Smart banners: Integrate text-banners into your content via keyword detection.

Broad media compatibility: Image banners, external banner rotations, and text banners.

Determine which banners display most often

Run a cross-site banner network

Hit-balancing support: A site on a banner network gets as many inbound hits as it provides outbound clicks.

Targeted advertising: Show different banners to different usergroups.

Track banner performance

Use the banner system to display whole sets of sponsor logos or partners

Supports Geotargeting

Periodic content reviews: Reminders to check (or remove) banners