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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 does Composr protect against Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks?
Answer	Composr utilizes multiple layers of defense against XSS attacks: HTML Filtering: Configurable levels of filtering prevent malicious script injection. Content Security Policy (CSP): Restricts the sources from which scripts and other resources can be loaded. Input Sanitization: Data is sanitized before being processed to prevent malicious code execution. Output Encoding: Data displayed to users is properly encoded to prevent interpretation as active code.

Question	What are the different types of security alerts in Composr?
Answer	Composr has a variety of hack-attack codenames that trigger security alerts and logging. Some common examples include: DODGY_GET_HACK: Suspicious URLs with potentially harmful characters. EVIL_POSTED_FORM_HACK: Possible CSRF attempts via malicious form submissions. SCRIPT_UPLOAD_HACK: Attempts to upload PHP scripts, potentially malicious. DOWNLOAD_PRIVATE_URL_HACK/TRY_TO_DOWNLOAD_SCRIPT: Attempts to download sensitive files. BRUTEFORCE_LOGIN_HACK: Repeated failed login attempts. SQL_INJECTION_HACK: Attempts to exploit SQL queries for data extraction. You can customize alert handling for each type in data_custom/xml_config/advanced_banning.xml (Admin Zone > Security > Configure advanced banning).

Question	What are some tips for secure website maintenance?
Answer	Avoid FTP: Use secure alternatives like SFTP or SSH for file transfer. Secure Email: Enable SSL for IMAP and POP3 email protocols. Strong Passwords: Use unique and complex passwords for different services. Secure Computers: Keep your own devices patched and secure. Maintenance Password: Remove the maintenance password from _config.php when not in use.

Question	What are the main security features of Composr?
Answer	Composr has a robust set of security features to protect your website, including: Passwords: Visual representation of password quality and enforcement of complexity rules. Password expiry and prevention of re-use. Secure password hashing, even if the database is compromised. Temporary passwords for staff setup. Login Restrictions: Two-factor authentication via IP address approval. IP address banning, including wildcard banning. Session locking to IP addresses. Configurable session expiry times. Ability to prevent privileged actions from auto-logged in sessions. Optional member approval process. Auditing Systems: Comprehensive audit logging of administrative actions. Logging of user actions and IP address history. Tools to analyze audit logs. Failed login logging. Hack attack detection, logging, and banning. Email notifications for changes to user credentials. Framework Security: Protection against CSRF attacks. Click-jacking prevention via CSP implementation. Secure coding standards and scanning techniques. Configurable HTML filtering to prevent XSS attacks. Secure code modularization standards. Other features: Granular privileges and access permissions. Content submission validation process. Rootkit detection system. Spam prevention systems. Web application firewall rules. Moderation systems.

Question	Why are my searches slow, and how can I improve search speed?
Answer	Slow searches can occur when dealing with large amounts of content. Here are some workarounds and solutions: MySQL timeout setting: For MySQL 5.7+, set a query timeout to prevent searches from locking up your database. Composr automatically sets this, but you can configure it manually if needed. Use InnoDB tables: Switching to InnoDB tables in MySQL can prevent slow queries from affecting other users on your website. Note that InnoDB is not officially supported by Composr yet. Enable the fast custom index: As mentioned earlier, the fast custom index is optimized for handling large datasets and filtered searches, potentially leading to significant speed improvements.

Question	How does the search engine handle different languages?
Answer	Composr's fast custom index supports multiple languages. Content is indexed based on its translated version, ensuring that you get relevant results even when searching in a different language.

Question	What are quoted phrases and how do they work?
Answer	Quoted phrases allow you to search for an exact sequence of words. For example, searching for "red apple" will only return results containing that exact phrase. Keep in mind that enabling quoted phrases can increase disk space usage.

Question	How do stop words affect search results?
Answer	Stop words are common words (like "the", "a", "is") that are ignored by the search engine because they add noise and don't contribute to the meaning of the search query. You can customize the list of stop words for the fast custom index. See the search tutorial for more information.

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.

Top 10 Entries

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.

Question	Where are download galleries located, and can I move them?
Answer	By default, download galleries (to contain screenshots of a download) are placed under the root gallery. You can move them to a different gallery for better organization. Here's how: Create a new container gallery (e.g., with codename "downloads"). Change the "Create download galleries under" configuration option to your new gallery's codename. Use Commandr to move existing galleries to the new location.

Question	Can I sell downloads on my Composr site?
Answer	Yes, the download system integrates with the points system, allowing you to charge for downloads. This is particularly useful for communities where members create and share content, like game modifications. You can set prices for downloads and creators earn points when users purchase them. Additionally, you can create a subscription-based system by requiring points for downloads, which users can purchase via methods like PayPal.

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