Couple questions about XenForo's abilities and features

Mott555

New member
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. There is no web API, but there are a few add-ons that add one. If you are developing it yourself, there is a forum dedicated to members providing you help (I'm active in said forum) along the way.
2. Blogs are not built in, but there are 2 blog add-ons that can be purchased. Pages in a simplistic form are built in (see the Example page at the bottom of the forum home)
3. Completely possible.
4. You can only use the online demo before purchasing a license.
5. There is no definitive feature set or comparisons to other software.
 
Thanks for the quick response Jeremy. I will look around this site some more to see what I can learn, but I suspect XenForo will work great for what I need.

Just registered for the online demo and all I can say is wow! XenForo is a really nice forum. Looks nice, it's fast and smooth, and lots and lots of options.
 
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I've got an additional question, or rather clarification. I signed up for the online demo and have been playing with it, and I realize it's somewhat limited compared to the full install. Will a full install allow for creation of general pages (not forums or nodes) that can be linked in the navigation bar at the top? I'd like to have a few static information pages without having to rely on an additional CMS or directly editing HTML files.
 
You should be able to do that in the demo. Pages are nodes in XenForo. To get them to show up in the navigation bar you'll need to edit the navigation template.

The only limitations the demo should have is installing add-ons / accessing files to upload, etc.
 
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