Best Xenforo Add-On for Wordpress Integration

[trigatch4]

I'm planning a huge move that requires XF/WP integration:

• Changing domain names
• Replacing XF homepage with WordPress
• Moving the Forum to a directory (or sub-domain)

It seems there are two potential solutions:

• XFtoWP by @kolakube
• Article & Forum Connect by @ThemeHouse

XFtoWP is more affordable but has known issues and support is less than optimal. Article & Forum Connect is more expensive but more advanced, maintained by a larger group of devs, but could be overkill.

To top it off, XF 2.3 is finally on the way and XF 3 isn't far behind- should I wait to pull the trigger until @Kier and the team make it official so that I can see how these add-ons are impacted?

 

[digitalpoint]

To top it off, XF 2.3 is finally on the way and XF 3 isn't far behind- should I wait to pull the trigger until @Kier and the team make it official so that I can see how these add-ons are impacted?

I believe they have said that XF3 isn't going to change a ton as far as addon's go... mostly breaking changes related to styling. If that matters to you anyway...

 

[JamesBrown]

I'm planning a huge move that requires XF/WP integration:

I've tried it so many times but with it always ending in tears. Swore I would never try and integrate them again. That said I've not tried either of your suggestions. I still use WP as a front end have links to discussion threads at the bottom or articles, but that's about it. Best of luck. It will be interesting to see how you go on.

 

[willl]

Hey there! I'm with the team that does Article Forum Connect (and I'd most likely be the person helping you set it up, too )

It really depends on your goals for the implementation. I will note Article Forum Connect is designed to do a handful of things really well, as opposed to our previous integration methods (XLink + XPress): Syncing comments to threads, putting content behind a user-auth paywall, and.. Well, that's the core of it. It may seem more advanced just because we have a few different methods of technical implementation for comments depending on needs, and we white-glove the installation for you just so we can make sure it's doing everything you expect

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

 

[Wildcat Media]

I've tried it so many times but with it always ending in tears.

Same here--I have specific needs and none of the integrations will ever do what I want due to the mix and number of domains I need tied to the forum. To make it worse, staff doesn't even want to use WP. And honestly, outside of a few pet projects, I'm getting away from WP.

I've instead been working on creating my own "portal" home page to replace the site's home page, and then I need to find a way to display a search forum in "article preview" view. Then, anything we post as an article will automatically get placed on the site's home page.

 

[Suzanne O]

Wait for 3.0 as the functionality is probably going to screw your head in.
You might want to talk to @digitalpoint over this because he does not like wordpress's forum features.

 

[Mr Lucky]

then I need to find a way to display a search forum in "article preview" view.

There is a good addon to do this.

[cXF] Enhanced Search Forum Widget

This is a cXF Pack C Membership Add-on. Upgrade your account to cXF Pack C Membership for: 1-year access to all cXF Pack C Membership Add-ons for XenForo 2 1-year access to all cXF Premium Customizations for XenForo 2 If you got our...

xenforo.com

I use it on my portal

 

[JamesBrown]

I will stay with a wordpress front end, as I use wordpress for so much else, Like Gravity forms for instance, Also, I just find that wordpress articles get indexed faster and get served more often than articles written within the forum.

 

[TPerry]

I will stay with a wordpress front end, as I use wordpress for so much else, Like Gravity forms for instance, Also, I just find that wordpress articles get indexed faster and get served more often than articles written within the forum.

Yep... if you are dependent on strictly using what XF base script offers... but there are 3rd party article add-ons that can rank decently and are directly integrated into XF.

 

[JamesBrown]

but there are 3rd party article add-ons that can rank decently and are directly integrated into XF.

Yes I've split tested them over an 18 month period and wordpress wins for me. Seems Google loves wordpress

 

[Mr Lucky]

I believe you could easily use Wordpress as a home page but would not necessarily need to integrate unless you require users to be signed up to both. The main issue for me would be if I wanted the WP theme to be exactly like the xF - it isn't so easy to customise things like the navigation menu to look exactly the same.

But it is fairly straightforward to show feeds from the xF forums on a WP page using the RSS widget. Search forums have made this especially useful.

Where it all falls down is if you need users to be the same and if you want to show entire threads on WP

 

[TPerry]

Yes I've split tested them over an 18 month period and wordpress wins for me. Seems Google loves wordpress

But sometimes the sugar costs more than what it's worth.
I've got a site (on another VPS) that runs WordPress... same basic "bones" as my XF sites for the VPS setup... seems that the WordPress VPS gets stressed a LOT more because that very WordPress is a popular attack vector - in fact, I recently had to burn that VPS out new and restore from a good backup because of a WP add-on security hole. And yes, I have auto-updates configured.
I'll stick with products that are fairly solid when used with XF and supports it directly.. and which articles that I'm creating seem to be having no issues with Google search ranking them.





BTW, the Indi Library is the HOME for EKOS. And as a further note, that EKOS site is actually based off WordPress and one of the crappy forum add-ons offered.



Seems that WP "coding skills" are frequently lacking in their 3rd party offerings... and the core code is rather "crap" that is in SORE need of a refactoring.

 

[Wildcat Media]

Seems that WP "coding skills" are frequently lacking in their 3rd party offerings... and the core code is rather "crap" that is in SORE need of a refactoring.

I cut back on WP after they decided that creators should use a new editor (Gutenberg). And that, too, is dumped on top of the same ancient coding that like you say, is like having a "kick me" sign taped to my back walking through the high school of Internet attacks. A move like that only highlighted the idea that the developers were, again, focused more on features that users didn't ask for, rather than totally rewriting the core for the 21st century.

I did install the Classic Editor plugin right away when it came out, so I could keep normality in posting. I'll say that Gutenberg is OK for laying out WP pages (I set up a client site in record time using it), but for regular posting it is a freakin' trainwreck. I have used word processors for decades in my writing, and the Classic Editor flows the same way--I can focus on writing, not dinking around with some stupid block editor that has a mind of its own.

There is a good addon to do this.

[cXF] Enhanced Search Forum Widget

This is a cXF Pack C Membership Add-on. Upgrade your account to cXF Pack C Membership for: 1-year access to all cXF Pack C Membership Add-ons for XenForo 2 1-year access to all cXF Premium Customizations for XenForo 2 If you got our...

xenforo.com

There was some feature of that addon that didn't fit in with how I wanted it to work in the site, but I still do have it bookmarked for future reference. (I filed it under Plan B at the time. ) It's something I'll revisit later this year after I get another project cleaned up.

 

[Rushster]

I have a complicated setup and XFtoWP has been brilliant. I have XF and WP integrated along with a MediaWiki install all connecting to the WP user DB. The XFtoWP extra addon can add a user to the WP DB when they register on XF so you can have people register on either the WP side or the XF side.

I also have premium accounts which are activated through XF and I have managed to remove stuff like banners etc for Premium members on the WP side. Everything is doable.

Support has also been really good from Alex over at XFtoWP. If you need to do this now, this is the one I would recommend and I have tried just about all of them.

 

[Digital Doctor]

use it on my portal

Is there a way to have the “install the app” link open in safari iOS if I’m browsing in chrome mobile ?

For me, I just copied the URL and pasted it into safari but most users won’t do that.

I guess the question is … can you specify a browser (safari) when using another browser (chrome)?