- Compatible XF 2.x versions
- 2.3
- Additional requirements
- XenForo 2.3.0 or later and PHP 8.0 or later. No other add-on is required.
Live mode needs a relay that speaks the Pusher protocol: a free Pusher Channels app, or Soketi on your own server. Without one, pages still update by polling. Resource Manager and our Immersive Messenger are optional integrations.
- License
- Commercial. A Single site license covers one installation, an Unlimited sites license covers every forum you run. Redistribution is not permitted.
- Updates duration
- Twelve months of support and updates from the date of purchase, then an optional renewal (19 EUR for a single site, 44 EUR for unlimited sites). The license does not expire, so the version you own keeps working.
- Visible branding
- No
Your forum in real time: replies appear while members read.
A forum page is a snapshot. Someone answers while you read and you only find out when you press refresh, sometimes after posting the same answer yourself. Alerts wait for the next click, the staff bar is already out of date, and the conversation feels slower than the chat apps on your members' phones. Direct puts your forum in real time, on the pages your members already use.
Reading from the top of the thread in the dark style: Here right now shows who else has the thread open, and a new reply waits behind the 1 new reply button instead of moving the page. Sample community on a local test server.
A new thread appears at the top of the forum list without a refresh. Sample community on a local test server with a local test relay.
Everywhere else the forum keeps itself fresh: new threads at the top of forum lists, What's new and latest activity, sidebar widgets, members online and profile posts. Alert and conversation counters move by themselves, with a small notification in the corner that each member can turn off. Your staff watch the approval queue and the report counter change as it happens. With Resource Manager installed, new resources, updates and reviews appear live on resource pages and lists too.
Direct shares one connection with Messenger when both are installed. Everything is built from XenForo's own components: it follows your style in light and dark, stops its animations for members who ask for reduced motion, and leaves a page untouched wherever a style lacks the element it would update.
Direct works on styles that keep XenForo's standard page structure. On a heavily rebuilt style, an area it cannot find simply stays as it is.
Requires XenForo 2.3 and PHP 8.0 or later. Built and tested on XenForo 2.3.13 with PHP 8.3, and run on 2.3.11. Resource Manager support is optional and stays out of the way when Resource Manager is not installed. Direct has kept our own forum live since October.
A forum page is a snapshot. Someone answers while you read and you only find out when you press refresh, sometimes after posting the same answer yourself. Alerts wait for the next click, the staff bar is already out of date, and the conversation feels slower than the chat apps on your members' phones. Direct puts your forum in real time, on the pages your members already use.
See it move
The tour
A reply lands in the thread while Maren reads it, highlighted for a moment, with Idris typing below and the live dot in the navigation. Lanternlight Commons is a sample community on a local test server with a local test relay.Reading from the top of the thread in the dark style: Here right now shows who else has the thread open, and a new reply waits behind the 1 new reply button instead of moving the page. Sample community on a local test server.
A new thread appears at the top of the forum list without a refresh. Sample community on a local test server with a local test relay.
What's new reorders itself as a reply comes in, the alert counter moves, and a small live notification appears in the corner for a watched thread. Sample community on a local test server.
On the forum home, the last post column and the sidebar widgets such as Members online refresh on their own. Sample community on a local test server.
The staff bar counters for the approval queue and reports went up while the page was open, with no reload. Sample community on a local test server.
A resource page with Resource Manager installed: the new version number, the Updates tab and Last update change in place, and a button offers to show the update. Sample community on a local test server.
The Admin CP page shows the relay in use, the last accepted publication, the circuit breaker and today's estimated budget, with a how-to for Pusher or a self-hosted server and a Send a test event button that shows the relay's answer. Here the relay is a local test relay, so the timing is not a benchmark.
Behaviour options: a daily message cap, live, polling or nothing for guests, polling intervals, hidden tab disconnect, presence, typing and live notifications.
At 390 px wide in the light and dark styles: the new reply, the typing line and the live dot in the header. Sample community on a local test server.
Guests use polling by default, and the grey dot says how often the page refreshes. Members can turn live notifications off in their preferences. Sample community on a local test server.
On the forum home, the last post column and the sidebar widgets such as Members online refresh on their own. Sample community on a local test server.
The staff bar counters for the approval queue and reports went up while the page was open, with no reload. Sample community on a local test server.
A resource page with Resource Manager installed: the new version number, the Updates tab and Last update change in place, and a button offers to show the update. Sample community on a local test server.
The Admin CP page shows the relay in use, the last accepted publication, the circuit breaker and today's estimated budget, with a how-to for Pusher or a self-hosted server and a Send a test event button that shows the relay's answer. Here the relay is a local test relay, so the timing is not a benchmark.
Behaviour options: a daily message cap, live, polling or nothing for guests, polling intervals, hidden tab disconnect, presence, typing and live notifications.
At 390 px wide in the light and dark styles: the new reply, the typing line and the live dot in the header. Sample community on a local test server.
Guests use polling by default, and the grey dot says how often the page refreshes. Members can turn live notifications off in their preferences. Sample community on a local test server.
What your members see
A reply lands under the one they are reading, highlighted for a moment. If they have scrolled up, a "1 new reply" button waits instead of moving the page. Edits, reactions and moderation show up in place. Above the thread, Here right now shows who else has it open, and a line says who is typing.Everywhere else the forum keeps itself fresh: new threads at the top of forum lists, What's new and latest activity, sidebar widgets, members online and profile posts. Alert and conversation counters move by themselves, with a small notification in the corner that each member can turn off. Your staff watch the approval queue and the report counter change as it happens. With Resource Manager installed, new resources, updates and reviews appear live on resource pages and lists too.
Built to stay safe
- Polling fallback. With no relay, or while the relay is down, pages poll on their own and return to live when it answers again. A dot in the navigation tells members which mode they are in.
- A daily budget cap. Direct estimates the messages it sends and switches pages to polling until midnight UTC before your relay plan runs out. A quota refusal from the relay does the same.
- A circuit breaker. After three relay failures in a row it stops publishing for five minutes while pages poll, then tries again by itself.
- Permission checks on every channel. Every channel is private, and your server signs each subscription only after XenForo's own permission check. A live event carries an ID, not content: the page then loads what changed through XenForo, with the reader's own permissions.
- Invisible members stay invisible. Members who hide their online status are counted as guests in Here right now.
- Light on your plan. Guests poll by default, a tab left in the background disconnects after a few minutes and catches up when it comes back, and live refreshes are not counted as views.
Set up in minutes
Create a free Pusher Channels app, or point Direct at your own Soketi server, paste the keys into one Admin CP page and press Send a test event. The page shows the relay's answer and what to check if it refuses. It also tells you whether you are live, which relay is in use, the messages estimated today and the state of the breaker. The secret is never shown again once saved.Direct shares one connection with Messenger when both are installed. Everything is built from XenForo's own components: it follows your style in light and dark, stops its animations for members who ask for reduced motion, and leaves a page untouched wherever a style lacks the element it would update.
Good to know
Live mode needs a relay that speaks the Pusher protocol. Pusher's free plan is enough for most forums, and Soketi is free if you host it yourself. Without a relay Direct still keeps pages fresh, by polling. Guests use polling by default; you can give them a live connection or nothing at all.Direct works on styles that keep XenForo's standard page structure. On a heavily rebuilt style, an area it cannot find simply stays as it is.
Requires XenForo 2.3 and PHP 8.0 or later. Built and tested on XenForo 2.3.13 with PHP 8.3, and run on 2.3.11. Resource Manager support is optional and stays out of the way when Resource Manager is not installed. Direct has kept our own forum live since October.
What you get
- One payment, from €39 for a single site. No subscription. An unlimited sites license is available on the product page.
- Twelve months of updates. Every release in that year is yours, and the add-on keeps working after it.
- A 14-day guarantee. If it does not work as described on a compatible board and support cannot fix it, you are refunded in full.
- Support from the developer. The person who wrote the code answers.
- Theme-safe. Built from XenForo's own building blocks, so it follows your style, light and dark.
From the same workshop
- Immersive Messenger: A complete real-time messenger for XenForo 2.3, on native direct messages: chat, calls, events, polls, bots and more.
- Tandem: Your forum and your Discord, working as one community.
- XenPing: Say hello in one tap: a wave, a toast, a coffee, or a gesture of your own. Members wave back, and the quiet ones come back.
