Questions, questions, questions...

cwe

cwe

Well-known member
Hi folks,

I've got 3 forums currently running on vBulletin 3.x platforms with various add-ons including vBAdvanced, DJ's media embedding and others. I've held off changing things as long as I could, but I think I'm getting close to the point where it's time to move/upgrade.

Some specific questions about potentially migrating my forums to XenForo:

1. Does XenForo (or any add-on/mod) offer any means to develop a home page showing recent threads (just titles, authors, etc. - not paragraphs of content from each thread/post)? See home page on http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com for an example of what I'm looking for.

2. Does XenForo (or any add-on/mod) offer any means to develop additional non-forum content pages similar to how vBAdvanced works?

3. Does XenForo (or any add-on/mod) offer media embedding (YouTube, etc)?

4. Can we create custom smilies and bbcodes in XenForo like we can in vB?

5. How does XenForo handle integration with ad code (AdSense)? Is it a template edit exercise? I currently have ad code on my forums wrapped with a bit of code so that it only shows to visitors (not to logged in members). Is this easy to do with XenForo?

6. I'm currently using TapaTalk to enable members to access my forums from their mobile devices. Does Xenforo offer a native solution for this functionality, or would TapaTalk (or an alternative) still be necessary?

7. I'm also currently using vBSEO. It would be nice if there were an easy means to redirect vBSEO urls to XenForo urls after conversion. Is there support for doing this?

8. Any other comments or advice from people who have made similar moves from modded vb 3.x forums to Xenforo? Anything I'm missing that was a challenge you solved?

9. Lastly, does XenForo offer customization services to help fix templates, etc. to achieve a similar look to existing forums?
 
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cwe said:
1. Does XenForo (or any add-on/mod) offer any means to develop a home page showing recent threads (just titles, authors, etc. - not paragraphs of content from each thread/post)? See home page on http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com for an example of what I'm looking for.
Click to expand...

@Brogan's Featured Threads may be able to do that.

cwe said:
2. Does XenForo (or any add-on/mod) offer any means to develop additional non-forum content pages similar to how vBAdvanced works?
Click to expand...

Yes. There are pages.

cwe said:
3. Does XenForo (or any add-on/mod) offer media embedding (YouTube, etc)?
Click to expand...

Yes.

cwe said:
4. Can we create custom smilies and bbcodes in XenForo like we can in vB?
Click to expand...

Yes.

cwe said:
5. How does XenForo handle integration with ad code (AdSense)? Is it a template edit exercise? I currently have ad code on my forums wrapped with a bit of code so that it only shows to visitors (not to logged in members). Is this easy to do with XenForo?
Click to expand...

Template edits.

As for easiness, we don't use ads, but it's pretty easy from what I've seen.

cwe said:
6. I'm currently using TapaTalk to enable members to access my forums from their mobile devices. Does Xenforo offer a native solution for this functionality, or would TapaTalk (or an alternative) still be necessary?
Click to expand...

XenForo is responsive, so TapaTalk is not necessary nor is it recommended.

cwe said:
9. Lastly, does XenForo offer customization services to help fix templates, etc. to achieve a similar look to existing forums?
Click to expand...

You can style your site however you wish. It's easy. There is support for customization-related stuff (e.g., "How do I style this?"), but XenForo does not offer styling services.
 
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1 can be achieved with various add-ons.

2 can be achieved with the Page node function.

3 and 4 are default features.

AdSense can be added to the built in ad_* templates and conditional statements (links in my signature).

XenForo is responsive by design - resize your browser to see it in operation.

Redirection scripts are available for imported forums.

We do not offer any custom services, you would have to contract a third party.
 
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Another question... I had to implement an add-on for one of my forums to give members the option to disable smilies. Does Xenforo have such an option natively, or would this require some custom modification?
 
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That's a shame. Please consider passing along a request/recommendation to the development team to add this to the feature list. It's important for accessibility. Photosentive people need to be able to disable animated images (some disable static images too as simply scrolling a page with many colors can be problematic). They don't always have the luxury to make a global change to the way their browser handles images, so having an option in the forum is necessary.
 
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Hi folks, two years later and I'm wondering if it's now possible to disable smilies on a per user basis with the latest version of Xenforo (or any available mods).
 
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cwe said:
Hi folks, two years later and I'm wondering if it's now possible to disable smilies on a per user basis with the latest version of Xenforo (or any available mods).
Click to expand...
Not currently and no mods I'm aware of.. but even if there was, you ARE aware that it's simply a matter of someone dragging and dropping an image (like an animated smiley) into the normal flow of the text and using it, correct? poke-eye.gif sweep.gif wacko1.gif

I personally keep some in a directory on my desktop for that very reason since sometimes the "information" that I want to impart by using one is not reflective of the smiley's that are in place on the site.
 
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* bump *

@Tracy Perry - vB3.x allows members to disable avatars and image rendering (image BB code) as an option in the control panel. Those default options just don't work on smilies.

~~~

So, it's been almost two years since I last checked on XF. I understand that version 2.x was just recently released. Any chance that a solution for disabling smilies is now available?
 
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@andybond - Thanks, but that mod allows the site admin to restrict smilies globally (or in specific forum rooms). What I'm talking about is allowing individual members the option to enable or disable smilies when they use the forum.
 
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cwe said:
Thanks, but that mod allows the site admin to restrict smilies globally (or in specific forum rooms). What I'm talking about is allowing individual members the option to enable or disable smilies when they use the forum.
Click to expand...

If you hide smilies for a particular user, the post would possibly make no sense, often smilies are used to replace words.
 
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cwe said:
@andybond - Thanks, but that mod allows the site admin to restrict smilies globally (or in specific forum rooms). What I'm talking about is allowing individual members the option to enable or disable smilies when they use the forum.
Click to expand...
No offense, but this is probably one of those cases where you created a monster - or multiple monsters - by allowing this in the first place. I can't think of a situation in which users really need to have all the smilies not display, unless maybe they're living in a very rural area somewhere or in a third-world country and pages load very slow because they're still on dialup. Which leaves just the Smiley Grinches who are inordinately incensed by others using smilies, and who are probably also the same people who complain when you use holiday decorations on the site. Should have just told them to get over it from the beginning.

Now, having said that, there are some users who can go overboard with the smilies, putting up walls of them, which is why I personally have a rule that a max of three per post is allowed. Of course, if you run a large site with a lot of new members coming onboard, that means more moderating, but in my experience most members get used to the limit fairly quickly and are good about exercising some restraint in the matter. You could probably also just edit the appropriate file somewhere to enforce a limit - I've just never bothered to look into it. But I know there's an addon for 2.0 that allows that: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/tl-user-smilies.6476/
 
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