Demo + add-ons?

[HittingSmoke]

I'm looking at potentially migrating a vB4 site to XenForo or IPB. The demo is great for testing out forum specific features but we also utilize the vB home page CMS/portal features which would need to be filled by an add-on (XenPorta seems to be the solution for that) but I can't demo a board with a portal add-on added to the demo as the add-on downloads are disabled for non-customers.

Is there a solution to this problem? I'd need to make sure our CMS needs are met before asking for a license for our project.

 

[JacquiiDesigns]

Xenporta is a really nice add-on - I make use of it at http://jpicforum.info

The demo board only has certain features enabled. It's not a problem - but more likely a security implementation. You should check out the Xenporta resource at http://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenporta-portal.90/ --- You'll see the featurelist.

Specifically though - perhaps you should ask in this thread if you can do a,b,c with xenporta, as I'm pretty sure the demo board will never allow access to installing/testing add-ons.

HTH,

J.

 

[oman]

I've made use of it at http://technologyhub.org/ - using the recent news block, as well as recent media in the side bar.

I've created a custom index layout to include various elements on the forum list page as well, like recent threads & taiga chat.

 

[Bram]

We were in the same boat as you 1 1/2 years ago HittingSmoke. As my site needed a powerful CMS solution we choose to integrate Xenforo with good old Wordpress, that does a much better job than vBCMS or vB Suite imo once you use a plugin to let your XF accounts comment on WP.

Yes, it takes some time to match the two skins but when finished its a nice solution.

 

[HittingSmoke]

We were in the same boat as you 1 1/2 years ago HittingSmoke. As my site needed a powerful CMS solution we choose to integrate Xenforo with good old Wordpress, that does a much better job than vBCMS or vB Suite imo once you use a plugin to let your XF accounts comment on WP.

Yes, it takes some time to match the two skins but when finished its a nice solution.

We actually started out doing this with phpBB but it ended up in disaster as the plugin developer fell off the face of the internet without notice and we were unable to update either script after that. It was actually the major tipping point that got us to vB4 in the first place, so we could have an all-in-one forum/CMS solution. Unfortunately my faith in vB from my experience with versions 2 and 3 was not paid back to me and I'm highly disappointed with the development and the plugin community. vB5 looks about as exciting as Windows 8 and I have no desire to work with it.

I'd considered the WordPress route with XF until I saw XenPorta, which looks much more attractive and powerful. I just really want some hands-on time with customizing it on my test server before I ask the guy who handles the money to shell-out for a license. He's understandably apprehensive because IPB is more mature and has more native features. However, that was my argument for moving us to vB4 and I don't think my campaigning for native features paid off in the end.

I'm going to be giving IPB a whirl on my test server since it's been brought up in the conversation regardless. I've never seen their admin interface but I've been a member of several large IPB powered communities and I have mixed opinions of it. XenForo on the other hand I absolutely fell in love with the first time I used it and the admin interface is so clean and straight-forward. I really want to go with XF personally, but it's not solely my decision and I don't think I can comfortably argue for it without at least setting up a demo with the single add-on which will be vital to our adoption.

There's also the law suit thing that's causing slight discomfort in our conversations about new board software but based on what I've read that seems to be something that will be resolved fairly soon in favor of XF.

 

[HittingSmoke]

And on a related note, it's absolutely mandatory that I test the vB4 > XF 1.1 importer on a backup of our database to ensure that we actually can migrate our forum over without issues. Since it's unofficial it would be a waste of money if we were to buy a license and the import failed.

 

[JacquiiDesigns]

What you're asking is likely not possible via the XF demo. It's a security risk having a myriad of people installing add-ons and such, so I highly doubt you'll be able to do so on the official XF demo. I could be wrong though. Try starting a conversation with one of the moderators for an official answer to your query

J.

btw - is it possible to install modifications on the ipb demo script? Is it possible to test importer scripts on the ipb demo script?? I wouldn't think so. ((Don't quote me on this though - I'm not familiar with the ipb demo.)) So why would we expect anything different of Xenforo? Just curious...