Some questions before buying

[riverpatrol]

I am looking to migrate a small forum from phpBB3 (3.0). I've done the research and I am liking Xenforo. Since this is an out of pocket expense I need to confirm a few things before I can pull the trigger.

1. I need to keep the new forum looking like the old forum as much as possible. Many of my users are not Internet adept, so I want to keep it as familiar for them as possible. I have looked at dozens of styles but none of them come close. Is there a style that is customizable and responsive? I don't want to design an entire style, and would prefer not to have to pay someone to do it.

2. Is there an add-on that will display a set number of random pictures from the Gallery on the forum main page? I have looked but I don't find anything. Or is this possibly a built-in feature of the Gallery?

3. Can pictures in the forum and Gallery be restricted so that only members can view them? Same thing for downloadable Resources.

4. This is the big one: importing from phpBb3 Gallery. I see that there is not an importer available for this, due to lack of interest. I have done more significant data conversions in the past, so I wouldn't be afraid to tackle this one. But, I need some reassurance that it can be done before I pull the trigger. I have tried to research this, but I am unable to find any technical information. Is there a data dictionary available? Is there a generic importer available? (I have looked at the available Gallery importers and don't find one.) It would help if I knew what the required fields were, and how the data is stored (files or blogs).

These are my biggies. Thanks in advance for your attention.

 

[Chris D]

1. I need to keep the new forum looking like the old forum as much as possible. Many of my users are not Internet adept, so I want to keep it as familiar for them as possible. I have looked at dozens of styles but none of them come close. Is there a style that is customizable and responsive? I don't want to design an entire style, and would prefer not to have to pay someone to do it.

It's difficult to know exactly what you're aiming for but ultimately any style built for XF will be responsive as the default style that ships with XF is.

XF itself is customisable with many style properties. Many of the premium styles for sale have some sort of framework built into them that expand these properties for even more customisation.

2. Is there an add-on that will display a set number of random pictures from the Gallery on the forum main page? I have looked but I don't find anything. Or is this possibly a built-in feature of the Gallery?

It's built into the gallery. You can display recent or random images on the forum list at the top, bottom and/or in the sidebar. We have it enabled here in the sidebar.

3. Can pictures in the forum and Gallery be restricted so that only members can view them? Same thing for downloadable Resources.

Yes for both RM and Gallery. Full permission control including restricting to members only.

4. This is the big one: importing from phpBb3 Gallery. I see that there is not an importer available for this, due to lack of interest. I have done more significant data conversions in the past, so I wouldn't be afraid to tackle this one. But, I need some reassurance that it can be done before I pull the trigger. I have tried to research this, but I am unable to find any technical information. Is there a data dictionary available? Is there a generic importer available? (I have looked at the available Gallery importers and don't find one.) It would help if I knew what the required fields were, and how the data is stored (files or blogs).

I'm sure it's doable. In terms of documentation of how to do it, I would recommend essentially copying the structure of the existing importers. I would say following the VBGallery importer is the most straight forward but it may depend on which features are available in the existing gallery.

Support for this can be found in our XF Development Disucssions forum when you are a licensed customer. I'll keep an eye out for you posting there and chime in if I can.

 

[riverpatrol]

Thanks Chris. I will take a look at the VBGallery importer to see if I can answer my questions there.

 

[0ptima]

I would say following the VBGallery importer is the most straight forward but it may depend on which features are available in the existing gallery

I built a custom importer based off of this and it was very simple to do.