Hello, as the title states I'm a prospective XenForo customer with a few questions. I'm looking for forum software to go along with an indie MMO video game I am developing. I apologize if this information could be found somewhere, I wasn't able to find any kind of feature sheet for XenForo.
1) Here's my big requirement: I want all user accounts to be managed by the forum/website. I want my game to pass authentication off to the forum, that way the game and website have unified accounts. Does XenForo have anything to facilitate this? Maybe a web API, or creating a custom add-on? My game has no user management or authentication yet so there's no existing system to integrate, I'm hoping I can write the game logic to use the forum's user database in some manner. Another idea is to write an authentication system for the game and have the forum use that system instead of its own. However it's accomplished, I just want a unified user database.
2) This one is a soft requirement (this one had me looking at vB 5 until I couldn't find a single good review about it): Creating arbitrary information pages or blogs using the forum software. I don't have a website or CMS yet, and I don't really need much of a site except for a few static pages and a blog. Does XenForo have any way of creating a few pages and a blog? That way I'd have no CMS other than the forum itself.
3) Private Forums and Group Permissions: I'd like to assign users to groups and determine which forums they have access to based on that. For example, a hidden moderator-only forum, another forum just for business partners and management, another forum for users with closed-beta access, another forum that all registered users can access, etc.
4) Trial mode: Does XenForo have any kind of trial or evaluation mode I could install offline for evaluation and development purposes? Of course I would move to a paid license before actually going public, but I'd like to see if I can make this fit my purposes and allow the rest of my team to check it out as well before purchasing a license.
5) Feature Information: Is there a page on this site that explains the feature set of XenForo and maybe even compare it to other forum engines? I wasn't able to find one.
The first point is the most important, I can compromise on the latter ones. Thanks in advance.
1) Here's my big requirement: I want all user accounts to be managed by the forum/website. I want my game to pass authentication off to the forum, that way the game and website have unified accounts. Does XenForo have anything to facilitate this? Maybe a web API, or creating a custom add-on? My game has no user management or authentication yet so there's no existing system to integrate, I'm hoping I can write the game logic to use the forum's user database in some manner. Another idea is to write an authentication system for the game and have the forum use that system instead of its own. However it's accomplished, I just want a unified user database.
2) This one is a soft requirement (this one had me looking at vB 5 until I couldn't find a single good review about it): Creating arbitrary information pages or blogs using the forum software. I don't have a website or CMS yet, and I don't really need much of a site except for a few static pages and a blog. Does XenForo have any way of creating a few pages and a blog? That way I'd have no CMS other than the forum itself.
3) Private Forums and Group Permissions: I'd like to assign users to groups and determine which forums they have access to based on that. For example, a hidden moderator-only forum, another forum just for business partners and management, another forum for users with closed-beta access, another forum that all registered users can access, etc.
4) Trial mode: Does XenForo have any kind of trial or evaluation mode I could install offline for evaluation and development purposes? Of course I would move to a paid license before actually going public, but I'd like to see if I can make this fit my purposes and allow the rest of my team to check it out as well before purchasing a license.
5) Feature Information: Is there a page on this site that explains the feature set of XenForo and maybe even compare it to other forum engines? I wasn't able to find one.
The first point is the most important, I can compromise on the latter ones. Thanks in advance.
