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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

Title Installation
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Description

Quick installer: Our self-extractor allows faster uploads and will automatically set permissions.

Wizard-based installation

Auto-scans for compatibility problems: Be informed of problems before installing

Get your site up and running in just a few minutes

Keep your site closed to regular visitors until you're happy to open it

Configures server: Automatically generates an htaccess file for you (for Apache).

Auto-detection of forum settings for easy integration

Install test content

Title Web Pages
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Description

Add virtually unlimited pages to your site

WYSIWYG editor (powered by CKEditor)

Convenient edit links: Staff see “edit this” links at the bottom of every page.

PHP support: Upload your PHP scripts and run them inside Composr (may require adjustments to the script code).

Hierarchical page structure: Supports parent and child pages

Periodic content reviews: Helping you ensure ongoing accuracy of your content.

Add Comcode pages (the default) or static HTML pages

Supports revisions and revision control systems (such as git); add new pages as files, and Composr will automatically register them in its system.

Title Downloads
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Description

Clear organisation: Uses a tree structure for unlimited categorisation.

Anti-leech protection: download links contain a session ID

Community-centred: Allow users to comment upon and rate downloads

Many ways to add new files: Upload files. Link-to existing files. Copy existing files using a live URL. Batch import links from existing file stores.

Author support: Assign your downloads to authors, so users can find other downloads by the same author.

Set licences: Make users agree to a licence before downloading.

Images: Show images along with your downloads (e.g. screen-shots) (this implicitly uses galleries).

Basic file versioning support

Control monthly bandwidth use site-wide

Title Wiki+
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Description

Think “structured wikis”.

Create an encyclopaedic database for your website

Use a tree-structure or traditional cross-linking

Supports revisions: Track changes

Display the tree structure of your entire Wiki+

Allow users to jump in at random pages

Make your pages either wiki-style or topic-style

Allow members to contribute to Wiki+ pages by adding Wiki+ posts

Title Quizzes and Surveys
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Description

Run a competition: Choose winners randomly from those who passed the quiz.

Surveys: Gather data and find trends.

Tests: Test members' knowledge on a variety of topics.

Cheat prevention: Settings to prevent cheating, such as time limits, question / answer shuffling, and re-testing rules.

Integration with points: Charge points to enter a competition, or award points for winning.

Title News and Blogs
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Description

Member blogs: Allow members to have their own blogs on their profile

RSS and Atom support: Export and import feeds.

Trackback support: Send and receive trackbacks.

Scheduled publishing

Ping support and RSS Cloud support

Multiple news categories and filtering

Multiple ways to integrate news into your website

Import from RSS feeds

Supports geotargeting

Members can rate and comment on news articles and blog posts

Send out a news article as a newsletter

Title Calendar
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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
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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
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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
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Title / Role Lead 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.

Links

PDStig, LLC