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	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.

Top 10 Entries

Name	Philip Withnall
Title / Role	Early Developer
Contributions / Notes	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

Name	Allen Ellis
Photograph
Title / Role	Founder
Contributions / Notes	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

Name	Robert Goacher
Photograph
Title / Role	Founder
Contributions / Notes	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

Name	Chris Graham
Photograph
Title / Role	Founder
Contributions / Notes	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.
Links	gameRevolt (@[email protected]) - LinuxRocks.Online

Website	Earth & Sky
Screenshot
Short Description	Earth & Sky is a Composr v11 gallery website showcasing natural photography by Mark Brunner.

Website	Saving Wallden
Screenshot
Short Description	This is an informational website for a Visual Pinball X game in development called "Saving Wallden". The site features the planned game rules, development news, and a download of the game as it is so far.

Website	PDStig, LLC
Screenshot
Short Description	This is an informational site / portfolio for PDStig, LLC, the company run by one of Composr's lead developers, Patrick Schmalstig.

Website	Composr CMS: Content management meets social media
Screenshot
Short Description	This is the main website for Composr CMS version 11. It runs the latest build of v11. Currently it is just a placeholder but will soon replace compo.sr when v11 becomes stable.

Question

Should I use the bleeding edge releases or the git repository?

Answer

That depends on several factors. Here are some pros and cons of each:

Bleeding edge releases	Git repository (v11 branch)
Easier to set up and use, and does not require knowledge of git	Harder to set up and use unless you are familiar with git; must routinely run the file integrity check, database upgrade tool, and check database schema tools in the upgrader after pulling
More stable, but less frequent updates	Less stable, but more frequent updates (almost daily!)
Only contains core code and addons unless you manually install non-bundled addons; non-bundled addons must be manually updated	Contains all core code and non-bundled addons; non-bundled addons are updated with pulls (though you will need to check file/database integrity often and check blocks/modules for available upgrades)
Ability to test the upgrader / upgrading between new v11 versions	Not able to effectively test the upgrader because git pull might load in and update new code early before the release is available
Always contains the latest files.bin and db_meta.bin because these are compiled with every release	Does not always contain the latest files.bin and db_meta.bin. Therefore, file and database integrity may report false-positives.
Intended for general user testing	Intended for developers / developer testing: * special run-time checks are enabled for extra debugging (if the .git directory exists in the install) * contains the automated test suite for running tests

Click here to access the git repository.

Question	Can I switch a v11 install from git over to using the releases from composr.app?
Answer	It is not recommended you do this because you may run into issues. For example, some changes were made in crypto_master.php and data/upgrader2.php prior to the first v11 alpha. These changes will result in a broken upgrade unless you already pulled these changes from git. Similar situations could happen in the future as well. It is recommended you either discard the git install and use a fresh install from the Downloads, or to maintain a git install and a bleeding-edge release install separately. Do not combine the two.

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