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	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.

Question	How does scoring work for quizzes with different question types?
Answer	Multiple-choice and short answer questions: These are automatically marked based on your defined correct answers. Long answer questions: These require manual marking, resulting in a percentage range being displayed to the user until you assess their response. Unmarked questions: These questions are collected but don't contribute to the overall score, allowing you to include optional or non-scored elements.

Question	Can I reward users for completing quizzes?
Answer	Yes, you can reward users with points for successfully passing a test. This incentivizes participation and encourages users to engage with your content.

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