SEO Friendly Urls and vB Migration Q's

[NURV]

Hi, I've been debating moving to XenForo from vB for a few years now and have some questions.

1. How customizable are XenForo's built in SEO friendly Urls? Will I be able to duplicate my current structure so I don't lose indexed pages? Otherwise, are they close enough to something vBSEO may have outputted that a simple .htaccess rewrite line can allow me to keep my current traffic?

2. Does XenForo automatically import user paid subscriptions and user group settings from vBulletin or does this need to be recreated from scratch?

3. There seems to be some bugs on XenForo mobile. When scrolling down a thread, in some browsers you can scroll to the right and find a large open space. Additionally, in some browsers the field for typing the body of your thread does not allow text to be inputted. These issues are fine in Safari and Chrome but I asked my users to test some XenForo sites and see what they think and I guess some less popular browsers cause these issues.

Anyway, hope to get some replies. I still can't get over how fast XF is!

 

[Paul B]

You won't be able to replicate the URL structure.
Other than route filters, which allow you to change certain components of the URL, they aren't customisable in that sense.
Redirection scripts are available to redirect existing indexed links.

Recurring subscriptions are not imported. Your members would have to resubscribe after the account upgrades are created.

Are you seeing the problems on this site? We haven't had any bug reports of that nature.
I use Chrome without issue on my tablet.

 

[NURV]

I'll find out about the issues and what browsers.

Can you show me some examples of how the XenForo Urls can look? I definitely would be interested in the redirection scripts too since I have over 50,000 threads that I'd want to keep indexed properly.

If a user is already subscribed, I assume I can manually resubscribe them as well? I don't have a huge list of subscribers so this is doable.

How much of the skin is customizable without editing templates? I assume things like fonts, colors, logo image and all that can be easily changed?

Does the plugin system work similar to that of vbulletin 3.8.x? I enjoyed how easy that was to use.

Thanks!

 

[Paul B]

This is a forum URL: https://xenforo.com/community/forums/xenforo-pre-sales-questions.5/

This is a thread URL: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/seo-friendly-urls-and-vb-migration-qs.92869/

The Route Filters function will allow you to change /forums/ or /threads/ for example.
See here for an explanation: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/route-filters.47946/

Yes, you can manually upgrade users.

How much of the skin is customizable without editing templates? I assume things like fonts, colors, logo image and all that can be easily changed?

Very easily using Style Properties.
Try the online demo: Admin Demo

I've never used VBulleting so can't comment on how it compares.
Add-ons are typically installed by uploading the files and importing the .xml.

 

[NURV]

I've never used VBulleting so can't comment on how it compares.
Add-ons are typically installed by uploading the files and importing the .xml.

As a developer, I could create code in the admin area and select the "hook" in the vb code where it would be executed. I could do this without uploading files. For third party plugins, obviously I had to ill laid them.

 

[NURV]

Another question, how does it run on windows servers? Have you heard much from users doing this?

 

[Paul B]

The template modification system is the preferred method of injecting content now.

For running code in templates the xen:callback tag can be used.

It works fine on Windows servers - I have done several installs myself.

 

[NURV]

Is there a plugin readily available that will add a responsive sidebar to the thread and forum pages? I'd like to be able to put content there such as ads and other custom widgets.

For example, on https://www.namepros.com/ they have the sidebar on most pages. Is this an option in the settings, or does it exist as a plugin, or did they do it custom?

 

[Paul B]

There is an add-on for that.

 

[NURV]

Vbulletin has a system where people can report posts and a thread is automatically created in a staff forum for the reported post to be discussed. Does XF have something similar?

Also, does XF have an infraction system, and if so is there any documentation available so I can read how it works?

 

[Mike]

Reports can be set to go into a forum, though the default is the "report center" which handles things like permissions, assignment and status tracking which either aren't built into a forum or can't be done with a forum.

XF has a warning system: https://xenforo.com/help/warnings/ Your best bet may be to play with it in a demo.

 

[NURV]

A few more questions:

1. What are my options for migrating a vB 3.x board with 1.2 million posts and 45k members? Can I use the free importer to achieve this? What are the benefits of using this paid importer instead? https://xenforo.com/community/resources/vbulletin-big-board-importer-vbulletin-3-vbulletin-4.1981/

2. Is there a plugin available to show a different status icon for every forum?

3. I asked a few posts ago about an addon to show the sidebar on most pages. Does anybody know the name of this addon or link to it? I'd like to be ready to add that from the getgo.

4. Is there a plugin to show latest posts on the sidebar? If so, where can I find it?

Thanks again. Very close to making my purchase and beginning my migration.

 

[Paul B]

The built in importer should be able to handle that.
The primary benefit of the paid importer is the speed at which it imports the content.

Different icons per forum can be implemented using CSS.

I'm not aware of the sidebar add-on but you can check the resources.

There are also various add-ons which allow latest posts to be displayed in the sidebar.

 

[Ridemonkey]

A few more questions:

1. What are my options for migrating a vB 3.x board with 1.2 million posts and 45k members? Can I use the free importer to achieve this? What are the benefits of using this paid importer instead? https://xenforo.com/community/resources/vbulletin-big-board-importer-vbulletin-3-vbulletin-4.1981/

I used the Big Board importer to migrate. It would have taken many hours (estimated 6-8) to migrate my board's 3m posts, whereas the Big Board importer did it in <30 minutes. The speed at which it imports is not just a big advantage for migration day - what it let me do is test after test so that I could be sure that my go-live import would go smoothly. I wouldn't have been able to do as many tests if each import was going to take half a day or more.

With all of the prep and staging the migration of attachments prior to go-live, the entire downtime for migration of 3m posts and 80k users was less than an hour.

3. I asked a few posts ago about an addon to show the sidebar on most pages. Does anybody know the name of this addon or link to it? I'd like to be ready to add that from the getgo.

4. Is there a plugin to show latest posts on the sidebar? If so, where can I find it?

I use [bd] Widget Framework to create various custom widgets, including sidebars. It also has a built-in widget for showing the latest posts. You can customize which pages each widget shows up and where they show up.
https://xenforo.com/community/resources/bd-widget-framework.297/

 

[NURV]

Ok, so I've set up a test site and I was wondering, is there a way to show "Latests Posts on the sidebar?" I've looked at Widget Framework and it doesn't seem to have this ability so I'm assuming this is built into XenForo somewhere?

I'm talking about how on https://www.namepros.com/ they have "New Replies" on the sidebar. How can I accomplish this?

 

[Paul B]

Now that you're licensed, support questions should be posted in the relevant customer forum as typically support won't be provided in pre-sales.

However, you will need to check the resources for that functionality as it's not part of the core.

 

[melbo]

Widget framework does this.

 

[Ridemonkey]

Ok, so I've set up a test site and I was wondering, is there a way to show "Latests Posts on the sidebar?" I've looked at Widget Framework and it doesn't seem to have this ability so I'm assuming this is built into XenForo somewhere?

It's in Widget Framework.

In the Admin CP > Appearance, you can create a new widget. When you create a widget, you choose a Renderer of "Threads" and a Widget Type of "New Threads."

You can then hook that widget anywhere by putting the appropriate phrase in the Position section.