Few questions before buy

[michalcabala]

Hello,

I'm new here. Excuse my bad English please (I'm Czech )

Me and my friend, we are running forum (one of czech hockey club fans) running on phpBB. I don't want to swear on that system. It's free and doing quite good job. But, we would to push it forward and there's a lot of things about that system that, no offense, really piss me off. I have few question "before I buy". Yes, i can download and try a "nulled" system, but I'm not a thief.

So, let't go to the questions with few details :

1. Server and performance:
We haven't done an update in a loooooong time, so we are currently running older version of phpBB - 3.1.8.
Stats to this day: 19 topics, 163313 replies, 825 users/members (most of them inactive or registered but no posts or logged in just few times). Running on paid theme "Marina" from Themeforest. Unique visitors: around 2k per day, around 100k per month in the winter months.
Server settings: PHP: Not sure exactly now, but it's 5.x, MySQL(i) 5.6.17, current DB size: 1.00235 GB. No HTTPS.
memory_limit : 256 MB, max_execution_time: 90 sec. (This will be increased to 512MB / 300 sec. soon, we will also update PHP and MySQL version to latest and turn on HTTPS).

Current forum is running pretty smooth, but i know it can be even better. Current Google Pagespeed score is 62 on mobile, 89 on desktop.

So, how about performance? DB size? It's maybe a stupid question, I'm just curious.

2. Theme development
My friend is just an "ordinary" user, I'm...like 80% designer and 20% developer. I have basic PHP + MySQL knowledge. But, I have around 12 years experience of custom Wordpress theme development. phpBB custom theme development makes me crazy! - it's one of the reasons why I would like to move from phpBB to another system.

It's custom theme development for Xenforo easier? It's PHP files? Can i develop, for example, custom "widgets" in PHP (for example: XML or JSON data that fits in our design) and place them in theme easily? It's like in Wordpress - HTML code with code snippets placed into it? Implementation of PWA functions to custom theme?

Again, sorry for maybe stupid questions. But we are on a budget, trying to find and choose solution that will meet our requirements for:

• stable, secure and fast forum system
• easier custom theme development and maintenance (no need to "rewrite whole theme code" with "every" forum system update )
• easy making custom theme elements (widgets etc.)
• most modern and simple solution for end users (reading, posting, mobile experience, ...)

Thank you so much in advance for your replies and explanations about Xenforo! It's currently my no.1 choice, just want to be sure that this system can be the right choice for me (development) and for our community (end users).

Many thanks and have a nice day!

Michal

 

[Paul B]

That size forum wouldn't be an issue for XF - there are forums with tens of millions of posts and thousands of simultaneous online visitors.

XF is fully customisable in terms of HTML, CSS, and if you have the requisite knowledge, JS, and PHP.

In terms of updates, XF marks changed templates as outdated and in most cases, it is possible to just merge changes.
I used to use phpBB and it is far superior and easier in that respect.

Try the demo if you haven't already done so.

Create a XenForo demo

xenforo.com

 

[michalcabala]

I had tried demo, looking very good for me. Only thing i have to do is translation - there's no Czech.

I forgot:

• Current forum is running from 1st August 2014, so it's quite "small"
  
• With basic, single license, can I make dev site running on localhost and on public server that is not on a final domain? For example, to show other site admins and selected members dev progress and forum look?
• Theme files are PHP or "static" HTML, like on phpBB?
• Don't have to worry if the "minor" update (for example 2.2.6 to 2.2.7) comes out, causes a malfunction of my custom theme?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Paul B]

With basic, single license, can I make dev site running on localhost and on public server that is not on a final domain?

Yes - the license permits test and development installations.

Theme files are PHP or "static" HTML, like on phpBB?

Style templates are HTML/CSS.

Don't have to worry if the "minor" update (for example 2.2.6 to 2.2.7) comes out, causes a malfunction of my custom theme?

As I posted above, XF marks changed templates as outdated and in most cases, it is possible to just merge changes.
Any outdated templates would need to be resolved to avoid errors.

 

[Alan_SP]

And you have option to manipulate templates by not making direct template edit, but with function to find some content, and then replace it, or add before or after own content, so when you do update, if the old code still exist, your additions will still work.

And in case content you're "hooking into" is missed, you can easily find newly changed content and keep "hooking into" with very easy change.

It's TMS from vBulletin.

 

[MollySpens]

And you have option to manipulate templates by not making direct template edit, but with function to find some content, and then replace it, or add before or after own content, so when you do update, if the old code still exist, your additions will still work.

And in case content you're "hooking into" is missed, you can easily find newly changed content and keep "hooking into" with very easy change.

It's TMS from vBulletin.

I think the same