Is there documentation for xenForo?

[Ati]

Hi,

I currently have a vBulletin forum, and thinking of starting a new one in a couple months. I'm used to the vBulletin software, with some custom modifications and design, but I am not happy with their new versions, and the way things are going on over there.

So I've been looking at xenForo as an alternative, but I just can't seem to find any real documentation for it. Like full feature-list, list of things that can be set (like registration options, poting options etc.). Is there anything like this? If there is, please point me to it. Thanks.

Also, I've been looking at the add-ons sections of the forum. I honestly cannot decide if they would be good for me or not. I understand that you need to be a licence-holder to be able to view attachments, but I need to see what the forum is capable of before buying it, so it's like "catch 22"... How do I find out what the addons are capable of?

One of my main concerns is registration. Is there a way to create addons during the registration? For example, with my vBulletin site, I made an addon that only lets certain e-mail addresses be validated (e-mail addresses that are present in another database). Can this be done with xenForo? Either during the validation stage, or during registration itself. Especially with Facebook-connect in mind, since that does not go though normal registration sequences.

A useful feature in vBulletin is the "ignore" feature. Buth the built-in "ignore user" feature and the "ignore thread" add-on. I have not seen anything like this in xenForo, although I'm pretty sure it has to be there somewhere, as this is a must for any forum, at least the "ignore user" part. Is this available in xenForo? If not, is there an add-on to do this?

Another thing I could not find is the number of unread messages on the forum. Is this shown somewhere, or is there an add-on available that shows this? (I would really love to see the attachments of the addons, maybe I would not have so many dumb questions then. )

How do forum permissions work? I would like to create a big number of forums/topics, and only allow access to these based on certain outside criteria (get access to topic 1 on day 1, get access to topic 2 on day 2, get access to topic 3 on day 3, ...). I'm sure this is not built-in, but is this possible at all by creating an add-on?

I'm pretty sure there are tons of other questions, but I need to start somewhere...

Thanks,

Attila

 

[Ati]

From another thread: "Registration can be disabled completely, yes.
It will need to be enabled to manually approve new registrations though, or you can create new members directly in the ACP."

How easy/difficult is it to add a new user directly into the database, and set their default permissions? (Not through ACP, but with an automated script. Say the user registers for another service on another site, and at the same time, automatically gets a forum user created.)

 

[Floris]

Though not official, and still in the making, the end-user guide has been published, and we're building the moderator-guide. While working on preparing for the admin-guide.

http://xenfans.com/docs

 

[Marc]

Though not official, and still in the making, the end-user guide has been published, and we're building the moderator-guide. While working on preparing for the admin-guide.

http://xenfans.com/docs

Ooooo shiny

 

[Floris]

Ooooo shiny

A simple start, we're soon paying some people who have an interest writing/contributing to the manual / docs.
We're just finishing up the mod-guide and putting images/videos everywhere for step-by-step visual guidance.

We're also gathering up links from xenforo and xenfans as a resource, linking them in the admin and dev section.

 

[Marc]

Looks a good start to me Floris ...... Done well over there and Im sure there will be many people on here who appreciate the time and effort.

 

[Ati]

Though not official, and still in the making, the end-user guide has been published, and we're building the moderator-guide. While working on preparing for the admin-guide.

http://xenfans.com/docs

Good start! Thanks a lot! I'll keep my eye on this when the admin section gets filled up.

In the meantime, is there anything that can be done about the screenshots in the add-on sections? I would really like to see them. I don't want to download any of the attached files, just see the actual pictures, not the thumbnails.

 

[Floris]

Looks a good start to me Floris ...... Done well over there and Im sure there will be many people on here who appreciate the time and effort.

Most of the thanks goes to the xenfans community, especially Nix

 

[Floris]

Good start! Thanks a lot! I'll keep my eye on this when the admin section gets filled up.

In the meantime, is there anything that can be done about the screenshots in the add-on sections? I would really like to see them. I don't want to download any of the attached files, just see the actual pictures, not the thumbnails.

Registration is free, I hereby invite you to sign up - I will add it to our February todo list to see if we can offer Images to guests but .zip to members; Not sure XenForo rc1 supports that. Thanks for posting it out.

 

[Ati]

Registration is free, I hereby invite you to sign up - I will add it to our February todo list to see if we can offer Images to guests but .zip to members; Not sure XenForo rc1 supports that. Thanks for posting it out.

I meant on this forum, in the Add-ons section. (I'm registered on your forum, too. ) It only allows the view of screenshots (attachments) for license-holders. Which I am not. And it would help to become one if I could visually see what the addons are capable of doing.

I'm still undecided about what forum engine I want. I know that all of the features I want can be done on vBulletin, but I'm not sure I want to stick to that engine anymore. If all of these could be done with xenForo (even if it requires addons), I would seriously consider having this as my next forum-engine.

 

[Floris]

Ah ok, well, .. that I can't answer

 

[Junior]

Another thing I could not find is the number of unread messages on the forum. Is this shown somewhere, or is there an add-on available that shows this? (I would really love to see the attachments of the addons, maybe I would not have so many dumb questions then. )

Hey Attila!

You'll never know unless you ask I believe you're looking for the "What's New" link for this. It is a sublink under forums.

http://xenforo.com/community/find-new/608783/threads

If you're just looking for an addon that displays how many posts have been made since your last visit. I don't think that is available at this time.

 

[Ati]

Hi Junior,

I believe you're looking for the "What's New" link for this. It is a sublink under forums.

If you're just looking for an addon that displays how many posts have been made since your last visit. I don't think that is available at this time.

What I'd like is a line on the main forum page, saying "You have 57 unread posts", or something similar. I don't want to link to the vbulletin version of this, but it's available there as an add-on. Clicking this would take me to the actual "What's new" page, but by simply logging in, I would already see the number of unread posts. This is one line, but such a great feature, that for me, this is a must. Having this as an add-on is fine, it does not have to be built-in into the general forum engine.

If it's not available as an add-on, how difficult would it be to write it? Unfortunately I have no idea about the structure of xenForo, or how easily understandable its database structure is.

This is my main problem with xenForo right now: I have no idea what it's capable of. After buying it I could study it, however, I would like to know if the things I want are even possible.

 

[Shadab]

This is one line, but such a great feature, that for me, this is a must. Having this as an add-on is fine, it does not have to be built-in into the general forum engine.

Ragtek released an addon for displaying an unread post counter:
» http://xenforo.com/community/threads/ragtek-unread-post-counter.10230/

And I hope he doesn't mind me uploading the screenshot here...

 

[Ati]

Ragtek released an addon for displaying an unread post counter:
» http://xenforo.com/community/threads/ragtek-unread-post-counter.10230/

And I hope he doesn't mind me uploading the screenshot here...

This is what I meant. Perfect, thank you!

One question down!

 

[Shadab]

To answer some of your other questions...

How do I find out what the addons are capable of?

Almost everything that can be done as part of the forum core can be achieved using an addon. If you are interested in the development side of the addons, you would find these two forums very useful:

» Development Tutorials and Resources
» Development Questions

Is there a way to create addons during the registration? For example, with my vBulletin site, I made an addon that only lets certain e-mail addresses be validated (e-mail addresses that are present in another database). Can this be done with xenForo? Either during the validation stage, or during registration itself.

This can be done both at the validation stage (ie, in the Model layer) or the user registration stage (ie, in the Controller layer), depending upon how far you want these restrictions to take effect. Here's a related thread:

» http://xenforo.com/community/threads/directory-structure-small-code-question.5330/
(sample code for intercepting the user registration is given)

 

[Ati]

To answer some of your other questions...

Thanks a lot!

 

[Ati]

Good morning guys!

I went through the Admin Options that EntropiaPlanets posted a few hours ago (great stuff!!!), it gave me a good feel for what can be set on the Admin page.

I see here (and read on the forum) that registration can be completely disabled. I also see that there is a Facebook-connect feature that lets people create new forum accounts using existing Facebook data. Question: how do these two options work together? Let's say I disable registration, but want to give existing users the option to link their Facebook data. Will that work? Can this be done? I don't want people registering new accounts using their Facebook login, but I want existing users to be able to link their Facebook login.

A couple things I noticed while using xF intensively: when there is no new post in the "What's new?" section, it just says so. vB used to link me to a page that lists post from the past 24 hours. Is there no such feature in xF? :-o

xF has a built-in option to irritate certain users, yet there is no option to NOT irritate users: be able to ignore certain users, and be able to ignore certain topics. I read that this is not even planned for 1.0. Are there any plans to include this feature in the very near future? Other than the list of unread posts (which is available as an add-on -- thanks to Shadab for pointing me to it), this is the other feature that I really need -- I don't think there is any single one of my users who does not use this feature. Let's say there is a political debate in one of the topics, I'm not interested in it at all -- I don't want that topic be listed as "to be read" on the What's new page. I can live without the "ignore user" feature for now, but the "ignore topic" is another must.

 

[Ati]

Here's my next question: can xF handle hundreds of usergroups?

What I'd like to do is create a tutorial-website, with a couple hundred lessons. Users would get access to topics based on where they are in the tutorial. Users who have just received their first lesson only have access to the general area, and the forum for the first lesson. Users who have received their second lesson get additional access to the forum for the second lesson. Etc.

(Mailings of the lessons and setting user permissions is to be handled outside of the forum.)

Or is there a better way to handle this scenario?

Thanks.

 

[Ati]

when there is no new post in the "What's new?" section, it just says so. vB used to link me to a page that lists post from the past 24 hours. Is there no such feature in xF? :-o

Wow, there's a "You may view all recent threads instead." link there now. Was it there on Monday, too, and I was totally blind, or is this a new feature?