This is just a placeholder site for Composr CMS 11 beta. It will become the new homesite once version 11 reaches stable. For the current v10 homesite, click here. Please also use the v10 tracker to report v11 issues.

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 staff be effectively managed in a Composr community?
Answer	Successful staff management requires a mindful approach that prioritizes fostering a positive and productive environment. Key recommendations include: Respect staff limitations: Avoid overwhelming staff with excessive workload or overly ambitious site expansions. Active involvement: Maintain active involvement in overseeing staff activities and ensuring their effective functioning. Open communication: Engage in regular communication, providing feedback, addressing concerns, and recognizing achievements. Foster teamwork: Encourage collaboration and information sharing among staff members. Lead by example: Ensure staff adhere to community rules and demonstrate expected behavior. Empowerment and trust: Grant sufficient freedom and control to enable staff to excel in their roles. By fostering a supportive and empowering environment, community managers can enable staff to contribute their best efforts and drive the community's success.

Question	How should staff members be chosen for a Composr-based online community?
Answer	Choosing staff for online communities differs from traditional hiring processes due to factors like unpaid positions, varying time commitments, and remote interactions. Focus should be placed on identifying individuals with: Genuine interest: Look for members passionate about the community and its goals. Available time: Ensure potential staff can dedicate sufficient time to fulfill their responsibilities. Relevant skills: Prioritize skills and experience aligned with the specific role requirements. Maturity and discipline: Seek individuals who demonstrate responsible behavior and commitment. Recruitment methods like directly approaching active community members or allowing the Composr points system (or the karma non-bundled addon) to identify dedicated contributors can be more effective than traditional advertising.

Question	How can content issues be reported and addressed by staff?
Answer	Composr's content reporting system, powered by the Tickets addon, allows users to report problematic content to staff. Key features include: Report links: "Report this" links embedded throughout the site enable users to flag content for review. Custom reporting interface: Forums offer a dedicated interface for reporting individual posts. Anonymous reporting: Logged-in users can choose to report content anonymously. Ticket-based management: Reports are automatically created as support tickets, facilitating staff collaboration and record-keeping. Comprehensive report details: Tickets include content title, type, ID, submitter information, an embedded rendering of the reported content, and the reporter's explanation. This system ensures efficient handling of content issues, allowing staff to address concerns effectively while maintaining a transparent record of actions taken.

Question	How can staff members collaborate effectively in Composr?
Answer	Composr offers various tools to facilitate staff collaboration: Private forums: Dedicated forums with restricted access enable staff to discuss site operations and coordinate activities. Composr installs a staff forum by default in Conversr. Conflict detection: When multiple staff members attempt to edit the same resource simultaneously, Composr displays warnings at the top to prevent accidental overwrites. Staff checklist & dashboard: The Admin Zone dashboard provides a shared checklist for task management, along with space for notes and links. Staff notifications and tickets system: Staff receive notifications about various site events, including support tickets from the "Contact Us" page, allowing for efficient issue handling. Content notes: Staff can embed notes within Comcode or use dedicated "staff notes" fields for various content types to share information and context. Validation and workflows: Content can be intentionally left unvalidated even by staff, enabling secondary checks before publishing. A dedicated workflows addon allows for complex approval processes with multiple stages involving different staff groups.

Question	What defines a staff member in Composr?
Answer	There are two ways to define "staff" in Composr: System-defined staff: This includes administrators and super moderators who have specific privileges within the forum/member system (Conversr). Privilege-based staff: Anyone granted the necessary permissions for a particular situation is considered staff for that context. Composr prioritizes flexibility by utilizing privileges over fixed roles, allowing for customized staff responsibilities. However, certain features like "staff reply" in tickets inherently rely on a pre-existing understanding of "staff."

Question	What steps should I take if my website has been hacked?
Answer	If you suspect a security breach, take immediate action: Identify the Cause: Analyze access logs for suspicious activity and pinpoint the vulnerability. Clean and Restore: Restore your website from a clean backup and thoroughly remove any malicious code. Address Vulnerabilities: Patch security holes, update software, and strengthen security configurations. Seek Expert Help: If needed, consult security professionals for assistance with cleanup and prevention.

Question	What additional security measures can I implement for my Composr website?
Answer	SSL: Enable HTTPS for encrypted communication and improved user trust. Secure Zones: Configure sensitive zones to require confirmed sessions. Restrict Logins: Enforce IP address confirmation for enhanced account security. Maintenance Scripts: Restrict access to maintenance scripts like upgrader.php via IP restrictions. Server Hardening: Disable unnecessary services, change default ports, enable automatic updates, and more. Robots.txt: Use the robots.txt file to prevent search engine indexing of sensitive areas.

Question	How does Content Security Policy (CSP) contribute to Composr security?
Answer	CSP adds a layer of protection by controlling the resources the browser is allowed to load. It helps prevent: XSS Attacks: By restricting inline scripts and limiting script sources. Data Injection Attacks: By controlling the allowed origins for data requests. Clickjacking: By specifying allowed framing sources. Composr's CSP implementation utilizes "Trusted partner sites" and nonces for fine-grained control.

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.

Top 10 Entries

Question	How can I control who can view specific pages or categories?
Answer	You can manage access control for zones, pages, and categories primarily through the Permissions Tree Editor (Admin Zone > Security > Permissions Tree Editor). This tool provides a central location to set view permissions for different usergroups. You can also edit individual zone and category permissions through their respective editing interfaces, but the Permissions Tree Editor offers a more streamlined and efficient approach.

Question	What is the difference between access permissions and privileges in Composr?
Answer	Access permissions control whether members of a certain usergroup can view specific areas of your site, such as zones, pages, and categories. A member only needs one of their usergroups to have access permission to view the content. But permissions work on a deny-first policy; if one of the permissions applicable to viewing something is denied for a usergroup, then the whole thing is denied for that usergroup (e.g. even if a download itself grants access, access will be denied if its category denies access). Privileges, on the other hand, dictate what actions a usergroup is allowed to perform across the website, like using advanced Comcode or bypassing the word filter.

Question	How can I change the news archive display to show summaries instead of just headlines?
Answer	By default, the news archive screen shows only headlines. To display summaries like the news block, add :inline=1 to the page-link. For example, if your news archive page-link is site:news, modify it to site:news:inline=1. This will show summaries instead of just the headlines in the archive view.

Question	What are Trackbacks and how do they work in Composr?
Answer	Trackbacks are a blogging feature that creates a link from an article on one blog to an article on another, acting as a citation mechanism. How Trackbacks Work: The original article includes a "trackback" link in its HTML. When another blogger writes an article referencing the original, their software uses the trackback link to inform the original site. Composr receives the trackback and displays a list of articles linking back to the original. To enable trackbacks, go to Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > Feature options and check the "Trackbacks" option. You can then enable trackbacks for individual content items.

Question	How can I filter the news archive to show specific content?
Answer	The news system allows advanced filtering: Blog vs. Non-Blog Posts: Choose to display blog posts only, regular news posts only, or both. Category Filtering: Limit results to specific news categories. Double Filtering: Apply a second category filter for a two-level categorization system (useful for large sites). These filters are controlled through parameters passed to the news blocks and carried through navigation links. When viewing a news post, you can also filter by the categories associated with that post.

Question	How do I display external RSS feeds on my Composr website?
Answer	Composr offers two blocks for displaying RSS and Atom feeds in a news-like format: main_rss block: Suitable for main content areas side_rss block: Designed for sidebars and smaller spaces To add a block, use the Block Construction Assistant or insert the following Comcode into your page: `[block="http://example.com/feed.xml"]main_rss[/block]` `[block="http://example.com/feed.xml"]side_rss[/block]` Replace "http://example.com/feed.xml" with the actual feed URL. Important: Exercise caution when using external feeds. Ensure the source is trustworthy, as malicious feeds can contain harmful code.

Question	What are RSS/Atom feeds and how do they benefit my website?
Answer	Feeds, in formats like RSS and Atom, are XML files that syndicate your website content, making it accessible beyond your website. They can be viewed using feed reader applications (e.g., Feedly, Vienna) or integrated into other websites or web browsers. Composr supports both RSS and Atom for syndicating news and other content. While RSS is more common, Atom is a cleaner, standardized format. Both effectively share your content updates. Benefits: Wider audience reach: Your content becomes accessible to those using feed readers and aggregators. Content repurposing: Other websites can incorporate your feed, increasing visibility. Increased traffic: Users discovering your content in feeds may visit your website directly. Staying on top: Those who use your RSS feeds will see when you post new news articles.

Question	What are Personal Categories/Blogs in Composr? How do I create one?
Answer	Composr allows members of permitted usergroups to have their own personal news categories, also known as "blogs". These blogs appear as a tab on the member's profile (Conversr-only) and may also appear in the main news block depending on your configuration. To create a blog, a member simply adds a news post and selects their personal category. If the category doesn't exist, it will be automatically created upon submission. A dedicated "Blogs" CMS module (Admin Zone > Content > Blogs) is available if the "Separate blogs" configuration option is enabled. This simplified module focuses on blog posting and can be used to restrict members from submitting to general website news.

Question	What is "pinging" and how does it work in Composr?
Answer	In blogging, "pinging" is an automatic notification sent to blog search engines and other services when you publish a new post. Composr can automatically ping services defined in Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > Feature options. These services then index your new article, making it searchable. A default ping service (`http://pingomatic.com/ping/?title=title&blogurl=url&rssurl=rss`) is pre-configured to relay your ping to numerous other services. You can customize the ping URL with these placeholders: title: The article title url: The article URL rss: The URL of your news RSS feed Pinging only occurs for news categories accessible to the public (guests).

Question	How do I schedule a news post to be published at a specific time?
Answer	Once you have enabled the system scheduler (requires the Composr calendar and commandr addons), an advanced scheduling option will appear when adding or editing news posts. By setting a future date and time, your post will remain unvalidated until the chosen time, at which point it will be automatically validated and published.

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