From Vbulletin to Xenforo

rotpar

rotpar

Active member
Hi there,

first at all, I loved vbulletin and all it's option...I was their customer vor about 10 years until vbulletin 5.0 appeard and I saw what bullcrap they started to program. Horrible coding is just one piece of the whole cake and I think they will continue like that.

That's why I have some questions about xforo, what are very important for me as I have a running business forum.

1.) Are there any professional and clean templates for xenforo? The one I see here is (sorry) horrible but I love the functions of the software. Are there for example templates what look like ipb?

2.) Is it possible to use google web fonts? or cufon?

3.) Is it possible to customize the sidebar? For example if I want to place banner ads?

4.) Can I add and customize a welcome email message after user registration? if so, can I also create a email or newsletter template?

5.) Does Xenforo support mobile devices? So is there a mobile template?

6.) Can I keep my vbulletin links? my board is in german language and uses letters in titles like ä,ö,ü. An ü shows in a link as ue. An ä shows up as ae and so on. Is that a problem with xenforos seo option and can I keep the link structure?

7.) Does Xenforo convert YouTube urls into the Video itself? or does it just show the link?

8.) Does Xenforo have an internal referral System for it's users? like in vb?

9.) Can I treat search engine bots like members? for example to give a search engine bot access to a hidden category ?

10.) Is there no better option to add photos to a posting? I mean like in vbulletin where I have an upload manager and can upload and manage my uploaded stuff....

11.) Can I add custom icons to each forums category?

That's all for now, sorry for my bad english and I hope you can help me out whith that :)
 
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rotpar said:
Hi there,

first at all, I loved vbulletin and all it's option...I was their customer vor about 10 years until vbulletin 5.0 appeard and I saw what bullcrap they started to program. Horrible coding is just one piece of the whole cake and I think they will continue like that.

That's why I have some questions about xforo, what are very important for me as I have a running business forum.

1.) Are there any professional and clean templates for xenforo? The one I see here is (sorry) horrible but I love the functions of the software. Are there for example templates what look like ipb?

2.) Is it possible to use google web fonts? or cufon?

3.) Is it possible to customize the sidebar? For example if I want to place banner ads?

4.) Can I add and customize a welcome email message after user registration? if so, can I also create a email or newsletter template?

5.) Does Xenforo support mobile devices? So is there a mobile template?

6.) Can I keep my vbulletin links? my board is in german language and uses letters in titles like ä,ö,ü. An ü shows in a link as ue. An ä shows up as ae and so on. Is that a problem with xenforos seo option and can I keep the link structure?

7.) Does Xenforo convert YouTube urls into the Video itself? or does it just show the link?

8.) Does Xenforo have an internal referral System for it's users? like in vb?

9.) Can I treat search engine bots like members? for example to give a search engine bot access to a hidden category ?

10.) Is there no better option to add photos to a posting? I mean like in vbulletin where I have an upload manager and can upload and manage my uploaded stuff....

11.) Can I add custom icons to each forums category?

That's all for now, sorry for my bad english and I hope you can help me out whith that :)
Click to expand...

1. There are plenty of styles available and plenty of stylers who make some awesome themes. Kim & Forsaken (xenique.com) , Steve and Russ (pixelexit.com), John (razorthemes.com), CyberAp, Arty, Miner, Audentio the list is long but those are a few.
2. Yes (I'm sure I've seen forsaken make use of these custom fonts)
3. Yes.
4. I'll leave that for someone else to answer (but I'm quite sure it's possible) but i'm not 100% sure.
5. Not currently. But there is talk about responsive being the solution/path xenforo will take. Arty has an add-on that caters for mobile in the way of his responsive add-on. There are other solutions/apps but someone else can jump in here and fill you in more with that.
6. I'll leave that one for someone else to answer.
7. It converts them into the vid itself and displays the video within posts. (If i understood correctly).
8. No (not that I am aware of.
9. Leave that for someone else to answer.
10. I think xenforo handles images in posts nicely with their upload manager but I'm sure someone will clarify if something else is available.
11. Yes. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/node-secondary-images.1512/ & http://xenforo.com/community/threads/rc-1-custom-node-status-icons-read-unread.10886/

And hello :)
 
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4. Yes but the template edits will be removed during an upgrade and they are accessible in debug mode only.
6. You can use redirect scripts. The link structure is different.
9. Yes but it applies to all guests. There is no separate bot group but it has been suggested.
 
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Croeso - Welcome to XF rotpar.
Your English is excellent by the way (I teach English)
As you see support here is fast and accurate.

I think I have seen addons to do some of what you want. Almost all addons here are good quality and well supported.
e.g. sending a welcome email.
I have seen someone doing an image manager but I cannot remember details sorry.

I have seen very good comments about the responsive design for mobile by Arty.

Generally I find XF excellent. The admin is clean, and accessible. The code is stable and fast. Users love it because of Alert, Likes and more. You will find translation to German easy with phrasing.
I have a few things I would like better - remove the tick from search which forces default search on one forum. I hate that as it is easy to forget it and get no result which is false. But I just remove the tick in the code.
Secondly except very small boards like mine, the What's New needs better management. Thirdly Conversations have missing features. Both of these have good addons to help.
 
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WoW, thank you guys for your responses. Seems like this software will make me happy. @Shelley, I think THAT'S what I was searching for, thank you :) If there will be a free one, well that would be nice too of course.

My only problem are the templates... PLEASE guys don't mind but for me they almost all look horrible to me. I miss a clean and stylish template as ipb is using.

Well, I think I will buy a license in the next couple of days.
 
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rotpar said:
WoW, thank you guys for your responses. Seems like this software will make me happy. @Shelley, I think THAT'S what I was searching for, thank you :) If there will be a free one, well that would be nice too of course.

My only problem are the templates... PLEASE guys don't mind but for me they almost all look horrible to me. I miss a clean and stylish template as ipb is using.

Well, I think I will buy a license in the next couple of days.
Click to expand...

Trust me, the template system is light years ahead of that other software imo and it's easy to work with. Chances are you may not need to touch the templates as alot of the changes one can make can be done via css using the EXTRA.css template where all your edits are within one template and an added bonus that this template is never overwritten during xenforo updates.

It truly is a pleasure and if the template system still sounds daunting to you there is a great add-on TMS that may be of some interest to you. http://xenforo.com/community/resources/template-modification-system-tms.293/
 
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rotpar said:
WoW, thank you guys for your responses. Seems like this software will make me happy. @Shelley, I think THAT'S what I was searching for, thank you :) If there will be a free one, well that would be nice too of course.

My only problem are the templates... PLEASE guys don't mind but for me they almost all look horrible to me. I miss a clean and stylish template as ipb is using.

Well, I think I will buy a license in the next couple of days.
Click to expand...
I personally love the Charm style by CyberAP (but that's just me). :)
 
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Ok, One Last question, is it possible to Upgrade members to a higher level? For example, I want that people with 50 posts move to another usergroup with more privilegs. Is that possible?
 
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Shelley said:
2. Yes (I'm sure I've seen forsaken make use of these custom fonts)
Click to expand...

Monda & Iceberg are mainly what I use at mine - and I've gotten to the point I don't even serve 'em from Google's web fonts service. Downloaded the fonts, converted them to the appropriate format and just put the code in my EXTRA.css.
 
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rotpar said:
PLEASE guys don't mind but for me they almost all look horrible to me. I miss a clean and stylish template as ipb is using.
Well, I think I will buy a license in the next couple of days.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you want your forum to look like. Mine is the stock XF template - with mods that I've made in EXTRA.css. I promise you it doesn't look like here.
 
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