I want to switch to Xenforo, but I have many concerns...

Amin Sabet

Well-known member
Don't know whether to post this in the Pre-Sales forum or this one - please move if I have it in the wrong place. Some of my questions are about Xenforo, and some relate to what is possible through addons.

My name is Amin, and I own several photography-related vBulletin 4.x sites:

http://www.mu-43.com
http://www.photographerslounge.org
http://www.talkemount.com
http://www.fujixspot.com
http://www.leicaplace.com

My reasons for wanting to switch to Xenforo:
-Better looking
-Better performance (based on this)
-Nice looking and functional mobile version
-Image and link proxy capable for turning embedded images into https (very important for changing photography forums over to https)
-Some great addons (I really like the post ratings addon I see at Admin Zone)
-vB5 doesn't look so great to me
-Perhaps most importantly of all, my sites are heavily dependent on vBadvanced CMPS, which the developer is not going to support going forward. So the writing is on the wall...

Some concerns which I hope the community here can comment on:

1) Is there a way for me to replicate the two column structure I have on my sites currently without messing up the mobile style?

2) My logged in members see the most recent 20-30 discussions in the right column on every page including thread pages. Guests see most recent 10 discussions. Can I do this in XF?

3) Is there a way to make it look like vB postbit as opposed to the vB postbit legacy style I see in this forum?

4) I currently use an "Easy Forms" addon in my "Buy & Sell" forums. To make a listing, members fill out a form, which outputs as a thread. Example here: http://www.mu-43.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

Can I do something like that in XF?

5) I use another addon for members to mark those Buy & Sell threads as completed after a transaction. Can I do something like that with XF?

6) Can I import Post Thanks and iTrader ratings to XF?

7) Two of my sites (mu-43 and photographerslounge) use PhotopostPro and one (mu-43) uses ReviewPost. Can those be preserved in the switch?

8) Each of my sites has a subforum containing threads that are automatically featured on my site front page.

For example: http://www.mu-43.com/forumdisplay.php?f=108

gets automatically featured here: http://www.mu-43.com/

9) My sites have a forum that gets posted to automatically from an Ebay RSS. Example: http://www.mu-43.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93

Can I do this in XF?

10) I use a product which automatically replaces specific words with a designated affiliate link. It takes these from an Excel spreadsheet which I manually populate. Here is the product: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=263699&page=4

Is there a similar addon for XF?

11) I use an addon to automatically notify members when their posts/threads have been moved, deleted, or edited. Does XF do this?

12) Just last year I stopped using vBSEO and did all the rewrites necessary to switch over to the vBulletin URLs. Will that present any issues with rewriting now to XF URLs?

13) Is there anyone who specializes in converting vBulletin sites to Xenforo sites and preserving all the types of features mentioned above? I really want to make the switch, but I don't want to do all the work.

Thanks for any/all help/comments!
 
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1) Is there a way for me to replicate the two column structure I have on my sites currently without messing up the mobile style?
This would be based on the style selected for your sites. There are excellent people who can help style XF.

2) My logged in members see the most recent 30 discussions in the right column on every page including thread pages. Guests see most recent 10 discussions. Can I do this in XF?

Yes. There are ways to do this.

3) Is there a way to make it look like vB postbit as opposed to the vB postbit legacy style I see in this forum?

Yes. This is based on the style you choose and build.

4) I currently use an "Easy Forms" addon in my "Buy & Sell" forums. To make a listing, members fill out a form, which outputs as a thread. Example here: http://www.mu-43.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

5) I use another addon for members to mark those Buy & Sell threads as completed after a transaction. Can I do something like that with XF?

A Classified add-on is being built.

6) Can I import Post Thanks and iTrader ratings to XF?

I do not know. Sorry.

7) Two of my sites (mu-43 and photographerslounge) use PhotopostPro and one (mu-43) uses ReviewPost. Can those be preserved in the switch?

XenReviews.com is a very sophisticated add-on and is in beta. There are also add-ons such as Bob's ShowCase.

8) Each of my sites has a subforum containing threads that are automatically featured on my site front page.

Brogan's add-on for featured threads is the ticket :)

9) My sites have a forum that gets posted to automatically from an Ebay RSS. Example: http://www.mu-43.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93

I don't know. Sorry.

10) I use a product which automatically replaces specific words with a designated affiliate link. It takes these from an Excel spreadsheet which I manually populate. Here is the product: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=263699&page=4

I don't know. Sorry.

11) I use an addon to automatically notify members when their posts/threads have been moved, deleted, or edited. Does XF do this?

This is a core feature in XenForo.

12) Just last year I stopped using vBSEO and did all the rewrites necessary to switch over to the vBulletin URLs. Will that present any issues with rewriting now to XF URLs?

Jake has helped many people with redirects.

13) Is there anyone who specializes in converting vBulletin sites to Xenforo sites and preserving all the types of features mentioned above? I really want to make the switch, but I don't want to do all the work.

Thanks for any/all help/comments!

There are numerous people who can help. I'm not one but just wanted you to know that this is a great community. XenForo is well worth the purchase.
 
Thanks, Snog! That was a very important piece to the puzzle. Now no need to wait for a classifieds addon.

If I can find someone to do the full conversion from A to Z including all customization for a price I can afford, I will jump on it.
 
4) Not quite the same, but it may work for you
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/custom-fields-by-waindigo.885/

5) Take a look at this
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/working-on-a-classifieds-add-on.89552/

6) Take a look at these addons that can import from iTrader
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xencentral-trading-system.448/
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xentrader.245/

7) PhotopostPro and ReviewPost work with XF

8) Take a look at this
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/cta-featured-threads-portal.2599/

9) Yes

12) You will just need t correct re-directs. Lots of threads about this.

I recently switched from VB to XF and everyone loves it!
 
I'm with my licence few days ago and I'm highly impressed with xenForo.
I'm seriously thinking about to buy more licences for other projects.
If you move to xenForo, you and your users will love it. I'm 1000000000% sure.
 
Another question - I have quite a few members who are subscribers with recurring payments setup through PayPal. From what I understand, I'd have to set up their subscriptions manually after changing to Xenforo. Is it possible to link those subscriptions to their already existant PayPal recurring payments, or do I need to ask each of them to cancel though PayPal and re-subscribe?
 
My eBay RSS on vb3 had to be re-done to overcome problems, but it works similar for me on Xenforo today:

One other item on your list was the postbit, which was significant concern for me as well. A Styling Designer created the solution for me, but will say that duplicating a vb postbit has had it's challenges, which I've handled myself.

Initially continued using PhotoPost Pro for nearly a year, but eventually converted away to Xenforo Media Gallery. A default XF install was fine, but PP-Pro had some issues with a few XF addons.

You should consider making the change on only one of your sites first, and see how things work out after a while. I think you'll feel more comfortable after some experience.
 
7) PhotopostPro and ReviewPost work with XF

If there is anything better instead of photopost, do let us know. I would switch in a heartbeat!

So far only wordpress gallery plugins and to some extent IP.Gallery have feature and looks which also integrate with your forum. XF gallery lacks a lot of features, looks and feel... it feels so clunky and like copperminegallery which I left 9 years ago for photopost!!!
 
I converted two sites yesterday and one today, so too soon to say stats, but so far so good!

EDIT: One interesting stat so far is that my APCu caching is getting about 30% more cache requests per second with Xenforo than it was getting for vBulletin 4. I don't know whether there is any significance to that.
 
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