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Question How do I manage refunds in Composr?
Answer
  • Monetary payments: Issue refunds through your payment gateway.
  • Point payments: Manually refund points through the points system.
  • Cancellations: Cancel purchases in the Admin Zone to allow repurchasing. Remember to manually undo any associated actions (e.g., removing name highlighting).
Question What are the shipping options in Composr?
Answer You can handle shipping costs in three ways:

  • Flat rate per order: Configure a fixed shipping cost for all orders.
  • Weight-based calculation: Define shipping costs based on the order's total weight.
  • Shippo integration: Get real-time shipping quotes from various carriers based on weight, dimensions, and destination.
Question How do I handle taxes in Composr?
Answer Composr offers flexible tax handling:

  • TaxJar integration: Supports international taxation for many countries.
  • TaxCloud integration: Supports complex USA taxation, including destination-based rules.
  • EU digital goods tax: Handles EU-specific regulations for digital products.
  • Custom tax rates: Define your own percentage-based tax rates.
  • Tax hooks: Developers can extend tax functionality and implement additional tax providers.
Question What are the different types of products in Composr?
Answer Composr offers various "products," which are broader than typical eCommerce products. They include:

  • Usergroup subscriptions: Offer access to specific usergroups with recurring payments.
  • Catalogue items: Physical or digital goods sold through the shopping cart and a special "products" catalogue.
  • Orders: Collections of products purchased together.
  • E-mail addresses: Sell personalized email addresses on your domain.
  • Topic pinning: Allow users to pay to pin forum topics.
  • Name highlighting: Offer highlighted usernames on the forum.
  • Banners: Sell banner advertising space.
  • Custom products: Define and sell any product or service you wish.
  • Permission products: Sell access to specific permissions, such as download categories.
  • Gambling: Allow users to wager points.
  • Work: Represent invoiced services.
  • Non-purchasable products: For accounting purposes (interest, tax, wages, other).
Question How do I set up PayPal in Composr?
Answer
  • Sign up for a PayPal Business Account.
  • Enable "Auto Return" in PayPal and set the return URL to http://yourbaseurl/index.php?page=purchase
  • Enable "Payment data transfer" in PayPal and copy the data transfer identifier for Composr.
  • In Composr, go to Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > eCommerce options > Payment gateway (PayPal-specific).
  • Paste the data transfer identifier and save.
Question What payment gateways does Composr support?
Answer Composr supports PayPal, CCBill, and Authorize.Net for processing payments. While Composr could be extended to support other gateways, doing so may require professional development and customization.
Question What are the limitations for uploading large files?
Answer
  • 32-bit PHP build: Files larger than 2GB are not supported.
  • 64-bit PHP build: Files larger than 2GB are supported, but the file size will not be displayed.

For very large files, it's recommended to upload them manually and provide the URL instead of directly uploading them through the web form.
Question Can users search for specific downloads?
Answer Yes, the unified Composr search system allows users to find downloads based on keywords. This includes searching within download titles and descriptions, as well as within the content of certain file types like PDFs, text files, and even some binary formats (providing they are not too large in size).
Question Can I add images to my downloads?
Answer Yes, Composr automatically creates a gallery for each download (if the galleries addon is enabled). You can easily add images directly after creating the download or through the download-view screen. The download gallery is displayed within the download-view screen itself.
Question Are there security features to protect downloaded files?
Answer Yes, Composr includes security measures to protect downloads.
  • Protection from hackers: Uploaded files are stored with obscured filenames, preventing direct access and bypassing of the download system. Additionally, an anti-leech feature (when enabled) prevents direct download links from being shared on other websites (this is done by requiring a session ID which is validated against the person / device accessing it and only provided when Composr presents the download links to you on the site).
  • Basic security: Composr will not let anyone upload dangerous scripts (such as PHP files) which can be executed.
  • Rootkit detection: The rootkit detection tool under yourbaseurl/rootkit_detection.php can help scan files for shell scripts and backdoors. Composr's Health Check can also do this regularly. Note this only offers very basic detection and will not work for obfuscated backdoors (you should use antivirus to scan for those).

It is the responsibility of webmasters to run antivirus on their site to regularly scan files uploaded to it. Composr does not include antivirus software or virus scanning.

Top 10 Entries

Question What are gift points, and how do they work?
Answer Gift points are a separate points balance that can only be sent to other members as gifts. They cannot be spent directly or used in escrow transactions.

Gift points are earned daily based on usergroup membership and replenish independently of the regular points balance. When a member sends gift points, they become regular points for the recipient.
Question Can members send points to each other?
Answer Yes, members can send points to each other as a token of appreciation, reward for a service, or as part of an agreement using the Points Escrow system.
Question How does content validation affect point earning?
Answer Points are typically awarded immediately upon content submission to encourage participation. However, forum posts requiring validation only earn points after approval to deter spam. To further encourage high-quality content, consider using the "awards" addon to reward exceptional contributions.
Question Can I reward members who use specific browsers or operating systems?
Answer Yes, Composr allows you to configure bonus points based on browser/platform criteria. You can set bonus points for members using Open Source browsers, specific operating systems, or even those who have enabled privacy features like "Do Not Track" (DNT) or "Global Privacy Control" (GPC).
Question What's the difference between points balance and rank points?
Answer Points balance refers to the number of points a member currently has available to spend. This is the 'liquid' currency they can use for various actions.

Rank points represent the total points a member has accumulated throughout their time on the website. These points determine the member's rank, which can grant access to additional privileges and act as a status symbol.
Question How can members earn points on my Composr website?
Answer Members can earn points in various ways, including:
  • Joining the website: A welcome bonus for new members.
  • Daily visits: Encourage regular engagement.
  • Content interactions: Liking, rating, and submitting various forms of content.
  • Forum participation: Posting and having posts validated.
  • Chatroom activity: Reward active participation in chatrooms.
  • Quizzes and polls: Encourage learning and engagement.
  • Website recommendations: Reward referrals.
  • Receiving points from other members: Facilitate community appreciation.
  • Selling downloads: Monetize content creation.
  • Birthdays: Offer a special bonus on their birthdays.

Most earning methods can be customized in the Admin Zone > Setup > Configuration > Points options to fit your website's needs.
Question What are cleanup tools in Composr and how do I use them?
Answer Cleanup tools assist with website maintenance by deleting unnecessary data and optimizing database tables. They are divided into "De-cachers" and "Optimizers". You can access them through:

Admin Zone > Tools > Cleanup tools.
Question How can I access PHP-Info in Composr?
Answer PHP-Info provides a comprehensive overview of your PHP configuration. You can access it within Composr by navigating to Admin Zone > Tools > PHP-Info / Server Checks.

This page also provides additional useful server information.
Question What is the purpose of the Health Check feature in Composr?
Answer The Health Check feature in Composr proactively identifies potential issues that may affect your website's performance, security, and overall health. It performs various checks and alerts you to problems like:
  • Broken links and forms
  • Security vulnerabilities
  • Outdated software versions
  • Server performance issues
  • Email configuration problems

The Health Check can be run manually or scheduled to run automatically and send e-mail notifications of results.
Question How can I use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to enhance my website?
Answer CDNs improve website performance by serving content from geographically distributed servers, reducing latency and server load. You can leverage CDNs for your Composr website by:
  • Configuring the CDN option in Composr with a comma-separated list of CDN domain names.
  • Ensuring your files are mirrored on the CDN servers.
  • Utilizing the CDN_FILTER directive and symbol to control what content is served via CDN.