Contributors: A-Z Index

A

Name	Photograph	Title / Role	Contributions / Notes
Allen Ellis		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		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		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		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	How can I communicate privately with other members?
Answer	Conversr offers two ways to have private conversations: Private Topics: Start a private topic from a member's profile, by clicking "Whisper" on their post and selecting "Quote post to a new Private Topic with this member," or from your account by selecting "Start a Private Topic" and entering the desired username. Participate in the topic just like a regular forum topic. You will receive notifications for new posts in your private topics. Topics can be moved to the "Trash" category or other categories of your choosing for organization. Inline Personal Posts (Whispers): Send a private message within a public topic by clicking "Whisper" on a post and selecting "In-topic personal post to this member." Whispers are visible only to the sender and recipient, and the whispered post is highlighted. Receive notifications for new whispers.

Question	What are some key considerations when choosing field types for my catalogue?
Answer	When selecting field types, consider: Data type: Choose the appropriate field type for the data you want to collect (text, numbers, dates, etc.). Comcode support: If you need rich text formatting or translation support, opt for fields that support Comcode. Validation: Some field types offer built-in validation to ensure data accuracy. Privacy implications: Be mindful of the sensitivity of the information and whether it requires specific privacy considerations.

Question	How can I ensure the privacy of personal information stored in my catalogues?
Answer	Composr's privacy system can help manage personal data within catalogues. To leverage it: Use specific field types: Utilize dedicated field types for sensitive data like member IDs, usernames, emails, IP addresses, and passwords for efficient handling by the privacy system. Enable "May contain personal information": Mark fields that may contain personal information, enabling the privacy system to identify and handle such data during purging or downloading.

Question	What are some specialized types of catalogues available in Composr?
Answer	Composr supports specialized catalogues, including: eCommerce catalogues: Integrate with the Composr shopping cart for online stores. Classified ads: Offer features like archival categories and usergroup-specific advert durations.

Question	How are breadcrumbs handled in catalogue views?
Answer	Catalogue breadcrumbs can be customized using XML code (Admin Zone > Structure > Configure breadcrumb overrides). By default, they include the list of catalogues. However, Composr provides default breadcrumb XML that removes this, focusing on the current category hierarchy. Tree catalogues omit the index link, while non-tree catalogues include it.

Question	What is a tree catalogue and how do I create one quickly?
Answer	A tree catalogue has a hierarchical category structure (which can contain sub-categories), similar to the download system. Composr offers a special feature for creating tree catalogues by simply typing the desired categories in a specific format (which is explained and available when adding a new catalogue), which automatically generates the tree structure. Alternatively, a non-tree catalogue is simpler and only has top-level categories.

Question	Can I customize the look and feel of my catalogue?
Answer	Yes, Composr allows advanced users to customize catalogue appearance through Tempcode programming. This involves using template IF directives to apply specific styles based on the catalogue's name and manipulating template parameters for complex layouts. Alternatively, you can create new template files using the catalogue name in the file to specify complete templates for specific catalogues. Check out the tutorials for more information.

Question	What are the different display types for catalogue entries?
Answer	Composr provides four main display types for catalogue entries: Title lists: Simple lists of entry titles linking to the full entry page. Field-maps: Highly flexible, displaying as many fields as you desire within the category view. Tabular listings: Organizes entries into columns, suitable for short data fields. Grids of images: Displays entries as a grid of images, ideal for visual catalogues. It is possible to create your own templates including ones that are specific to a catalogue. Check out the catalogues tutorial for more information.

Question	Why might I need a programmer for my catalogue?
Answer	While Composr catalogues offer great flexibility, they can become complex if you need sophisticated data relationships, efficient searching, high data reliability, or advanced customization. In these cases, a programmer's expertise in database design, normalization, and templating can be invaluable.

Question	What are catalogues in Composr?
Answer	Catalogues are custom databases you can create within your Composr website. They allow you to define your own records with custom fields and organize them into categories. Think of them as powerful tools for managing various types of content, like a database of books, a directory of businesses, or even a classified ads system.

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.

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