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	How can I improve my search results?
Answer	Here are some tips for improving search results: Use specific keywords: The more specific your keywords, the better your results. Use boolean operators: Use "+", "-", and quotation marks to refine your search. Optimize content titles and meta keywords: These fields are given priority during search, so make sure they accurately reflect your content. Consider enabling the fast custom index: Especially beneficial for large websites or frequent filtered searches.

Question	What is the fast custom index and why should I use it?
Answer	The fast custom index is Composr's own search engine, designed to be faster and more efficient than MySQL full-text search, especially for large websites and filtered searches. Benefits of the fast custom index: Faster filtered searches: Significantly improves search speed when you add filters like category or author. Configurable stop words: Control which common words are ignored during search. Better stemming: More accurately recognizes variations of words (e.g., "like" and "liking"). Multilingual support: Indexes content based on different language translations. Downsides of the fast custom index: Slight lag in indexing new content: New content takes a short time to be indexed. Less accurate ranking: Ranking is based on the most obscure keyword, not a blend of all keywords. Cannot perform blank searches: You must enter at least one keyword.

Question	Can I filter my search results?
Answer	Yes, you can filter your search results by: Content type: Choose to search specific content types like news, forum posts, or Comcode pages. Author/Submitter: Search for content submitted by a specific member. Date: Limit your search to content submitted within a specific time frame. Category (for certain content types): Narrow down your search to specific categories within a content type.

Question	What is the difference between natural and boolean searching?
Answer	Natural search is a more relaxed approach where you type in your search terms and Composr tries to find the most relevant results, even if they don't contain all the words. It's like a Google search. Boolean search requires more precision and uses operators like "+", "-", and quotation marks to define exactly what you're looking for. For example, searching for "+car -maintenance" will only return results that contain the word "car" but not "maintenance".

Question	How do I search my Composr website?
Answer	There are a few ways to search your Composr website: Using the search bar in the header: This is the simplest way to search. Just type your search term in the box and click the search button. Using the 'Search' module: This module offers more detailed search options. You can access it via the 'site:search' page-link (usually under About > Search in the default menu). From the Forum: Click the 'Search' button on the forum or use the contextual search box on the forum member bar. This will search within your current forum or topic.

Question	How do I mark correct answers in a quiz?
Answer	For questions with predefined answers, you can mark correct answers by adding [*] after the answer. If no answer is marked correct, the question will require manual marking. You can also use the [UNMARKED] tag after a question to exclude it from scoring.

Question	What is the input syntax for quiz questions?
Answer	Quiz questions are inputted in blocks, separated by blank lines. The first line is the question, followed by potential answers on subsequent lines. Different question types are indicated by tags after the question, such as [MULTIPLECHOICE], [MULTIMULTIPLE], [LONG], [SHORT], and [SHORT_STRICT].

Question	Can I create complex, multi-screen quiz interfaces in Composr?
Answer	While Composr's built-in quiz system is excellent for standard formats, creating intricate multi-screen quizzes might require custom development using Composr's decision tree framework or other programming tools. This allows for highly customized quiz structures and advanced branching logic.

Question	How can I analyze quiz results effectively?
Answer	Composr enables you to export quiz results to a spreadsheet file, facilitating in-depth data analysis. This is especially useful for manually marked questions, identifying competition winners, and processing data for marketing or research purposes.

Question	What are Quiz Sets and how can I use them?
Answer	Quiz Sets are a helpful organizational feature in Composr. By prefixing quiz names with "Example: ", you can group related quizzes together. This allows for combined scoring and percentage calculations, particularly beneficial for multi-part questionnaires or tests.

Statistics

Forum statistics:	45 topics, 14 posts, 2 members Our newest member is test