migrating from phpBB?

[andrew55]

I have been using phpBB for years and am strongly considering switching to xenForo.

1. Is it possible to put my own custom html/css at header and footer (outside of forum)? We have a custom header and footer which matched the rest of our site and would like to have the forum between these. Is this a complicated thing to do, or is it a matter of editing some template files?

2. Right now I have two installations of phpBB on one domain. One is a public forum and one is a paid/private forum. Users in private site have accounts in both forums. Users only in public forums only have account in public forums, and cannot see profiles/interact with users of private forums (except through the profiles in public forums). All access permissions are controlled by aMember (membership script). And users who have accounts in both forums have only one account in aMember. Single sign-on exists through aMember. All users sign in through aMember. Users can navigate from one forum to another while remaining logged in.

Is it possible, and if so, what would I need to do to set up this type of configuration with xenForo? Would I need to buy two separate xenForo installations? Would the "XenCentral Multisite System" provide this capability without having to purchase two separate installations?

I know aMember has an integration plugin for xenForo (they use this forums script on their own site, but I'm not sure about he rest.

3. When importing from phpBB, I'm tryig to understand how this will work and if it's even possible with our configuration. For example, after import, will it be possible to keep xenForo users synced to aMember accounts?

Thank you for any clarification.

 

[Paul B]

Is it possible to put my own custom html/css at header and footer (outside of forum)?

What do you mean by "outside of forum"?
If you mean replacing the XenForo header and footer, yes that would be possible, but it would obviously require some work.

You can import both phpBB databases and you would be prompted what to do with duplicate accounts - the options being to rename or merge.
Or, you could run two XenForo instances, which would obviously require two licenses.

I can't comment on aMember as I don't use it and I personally wouldn't recommend it as it doesn't integrate very well.

 

[andrew55]

Thanks for the reply.

As far as "outside of forum," I don't want to replace XenForo header and footer, but just add some custom html to show at very top of page, and very bottom of page, throughout whole installation. Is this something that can be done (paste my own html somewhere) or is the script tricky to modify in this way?

Thanks for the clarification on importing.

As far as integration with aMember, our phpBB integrations with aMember work fine (single sign on, users being logged into two forums at once, usergroup integration, etc). But as a forum, XenForo appears to be much better of a choice. It's loaded!

Could you please let me know what you mean by aMember and XenForo not "integrating very well." I'd be happy to know before I throw down some cash for two XenForo instances.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[Paul B]

The simplest way to have a custom header and footer would be to edit the templates.

With regards to aMember, it doesn't follow the recommended way of implementing permissions as it only allows a single primary user group to be applied to each member account.
XenForo recommends a primary account and secondary accounts, which allow for cumulative permissions.

Implementing Permissions Across Multiple User Groups

 

[andrew55]

Thanks for the clarification. Got lots to chew on!