is it a bad (or good)idea to install Composr without including any forum at all

I am in the very early stages of developing (mostly asking questions and getting used to Composr's format) my website after a successful install. I have been wondering whether I really need a forum and members. First question - is it even possible to unstall/use Composr without a forum? Does it mess up the rest of or any of the software or limit some scope of the softwares function?

If it is an acceptable use of the software, then is it better to wipe what I have installed and reinstall the whole download? or is their a way to start where I am (which is almost a blank state) and maybe use the setup wizard?

When you install Composr, it allows you to select what sort of configuration you want to use Composr for. A lot of folks select Community, but you've got other options. The cool thing about Composr is that you can include (or not) most things.

For sure I'd look at https://compo.sr/docs/tut-configuration.htm just as a quick look, but then I'd look at https://compo.sr/docs/tutorials.htm and scroll down to the video found in the section called Running the Setup Wizard after Composr CMS installation. In that video, it talks about the various ways to configure Composr, depending on your use case. I'm just an average Composr user, but maybe you can share with us all, what sort of website do you want to make? This might help everyone reading this to pitch in their answers and experiences to help you create a masterpiece.

 

You can just go to Admin Zone > Structure > Addons and remove cns_forum. I can't remember off-hand the exact ramifications of doing that, possibly comment topics and support tickets will no longer be available or possibly they'll be reduced in functionality.

Thank you Malatesa and Chris.

I am also thinking of no members… so can I also remove the member module without serious problem? I am thinking, if I do that, what happens to the Admin and test members?

Members is built into the core and cannot be uninstalled as an addon. You have to use a forum driver without them. We do have the "No forums or members" forum driver, which is set at installation.

What you can try is changing:
to:
in the _config.php file.

Then login as 'admin' and the password is the master password.

I'm not 100% how well this would work, as it's not designed to be changed like that, but I suspect it will work.

friendly said

I am in the very early stages of developing (mostly asking questions and getting used to Composr's format) my website after a successful install. I have been wondering whether I really need a forum and members. First question - is it even possible to unstall/use Composr without a forum? Does it mess up the rest of or any of the software or limit some scope of the softwares function?

If it is an acceptable use of the software, then is it better to wipe what I have installed and reinstall the whole download? or is their a way to start where I am (which is almost a blank state) and maybe use the setup wizard?

From “Post #7366”, 18th Nov 2022

Hey

I've been watching the progress on your site. I'm a photography nut and I'll be starting work on a Composr site to display my photography, so we have something in common here. I'll share any insights and methodologies with you here in the forums once I have learned something. You're raising some great questions for folks that want to create an art or photography website with Composr! While Composr is abundantly suited for creating online communities, I believe it is also capable of elegantly hosting and displaying the work of artists like you.

Well Malatesa, I'm really glad that you are getting something out of my journey to create a gallery website. I'm certainly being helped by the answers. I have to say here that I have been watching the development of what is now Composr since 2009. Built my first gallery site (about dinosaurs and paleo artists - Prehistorics Illustrated) around then with ocPortal. That site stayed up till my webhost just went dark, along with my website, around 2015. I never rebuilt it. But I learned enough to build another personal gallery website for my art business in 2015-16. I used ocPortal again and it has held up with no faults from the software till now.

But it is version 9.0.18 and since it operates just fine, I have asked myself why go to the trouble of jumping the wall between version 9 and 10. I actually asked myself that yesterday… why dont I just use my website without rebuilding a whole new clean version? I am in my late 60's and earlier this year had quintuple bipass open heart surgery followed by a stroke 5 months later. And inspite of that here I am rebuilding the website with Composr.

Composr is way more powerful than I need but it works perfectly for what I want. I did chicken out on eliminating the Forum and membership. I'll live with that and it will add dimension to the site. There are controls that you can limit or expedite membership privileges  as you like. I think I mainly didnt want to get members who join so they can post their own form of self promotion and advertising and have to constantly police the forum. Frankly, on the existing website I took an extended leave from the forum and when I had checked back in I saw it was overrun. Not knowing what to do, I also, after all that time, couldnt find my current password and felt helpless to fix the issue. Then later I got the itch to address the problem and after getting advice from Chris as to how to regain access again… I found my last password and got back in the front door.

So here I am. Old ocPortal 9.x.xx site is still running while the new 10.x.xx Composr site is half done and on it's way to replace it soon.

Then after this I have another website ready to develop. I do really love Composr, but it's taking me some time to get my balance back in navigating the inside backroads of Composr to make it a more personal design.

friendly said

Well Malatesa, I'm really glad that you are getting something out of my journey to create a gallery website. I'm certainly being helped by the answers. I have to say here that I have been watching the development of what is now Composr since 2009. Built my first gallery site (about dinosaurs and paleo artists - Prehistorics Illustrated) around then with ocPortal. That site stayed up till my webhost just went dark, along with my website, around 2015. I never rebuilt it. But I learned enough to build another personal gallery website for my art business in 2015-16. I used ocPortal again and it has held up with no faults from the software till now.

But it is version 9.0.18 and since it operates just fine, I have asked myself why go to the trouble of jumping the wall between version 9 and 10. I actually asked myself that yesterday… why dont I just use my website without rebuilding a whole new clean version? I am in my late 60's and earlier this year had quintuple bipass open heart surgery followed by a stroke 5 months later. And inspite of that here I am rebuilding the website with Composr.

Composr is way more powerful than I need but it works perfectly for what I want. I did chicken out on eliminating the Forum and membership. I'll live with that and it will add dimension to the site. There are controls that you can limit or expedite membership privileges  as you like. I think I mainly didnt want to get members who join so they can post their own form of self promotion and advertising and have to constantly police the forum. Frankly, on the existing website I took an extended leave from the forum and when I had checked back in I saw it was overrun. Not knowing what to do, I also, after all that time, couldnt find my current password and felt helpless to fix the issue. Then later I got the itch to address the problem and after getting advice from Chris as to how to regain access again… I found my last password and got back in the front door.

So here I am. Old ocPortal 9.x.xx site is still running while the new 10.x.xx Composr site is half done and on it's way to replace it soon.

Then after this I have another website ready to develop. I do really love Composr, but it's taking me some time to get my balance back in navigating the inside backroads of Composr to make it a more personal design.

From “Post #7430”, 22nd Dec 2022

Your work is great!

These are extraordinary!