Some things we need to know before moving to XenForo

[Faisal 24]

Hello everyone,

I work in a company that uses vBulletin as a (Self-hosted) private community for (announcements, generalizations, discussions, tutorial articles, tips and instructions, how-to, resources, and more) for employees only.

I have been reading and watching some videos about XenForo for some time now and I think it will be a good upgrade for us.

I am thinking about keeping the old vBulletin forum under an archive folder, not using the importer script, and starting XenForo in fresh installation for some reasons that have nothing to do with any of XenForo or vBulletin or even how the importing script itself.

However, I do still have some questions about using XenForo as a nonpublic privet community.

1- Is there a recommendation article about setting up and managing the XenForo as a privet community that I need to read?

2- Once we have the registration only by invitation, then it not working anymore, so we stop user registration and add every new employee manually from the admin area.
In XenForo what would be the best practice to allow only employees to sign up? (if any) or do we just add new users from the admin area?
please note that we have (active directory) enabled in our company, but I don’t know if it is supported on XenForo.

3- I see that XenForo does have a (questions and answer) posting type, which is nice and will be used.
However, I have one section for (HR) where any employee can ask a question but only the HR manager can answer so there will be no voting for the best answer because there will be only one answer from one person.
Is this possible?

4- Sometimes we force-read a topic to all users, this is done in vBulletin by an add-on.
Can we have this in any way or form on XenForo?

5- Is it possible to assign one user to more than one user group?

6- in (Resource Manager) Can we make different access permissions for different categories?
For example, user-group A can access category A only and user-group B can access category B only.

7- Can we add custom pages?
I see that you have a forum type (Article) which is nice and will be used, but we also need to have custom/static pages that are not under any category/node.

8-1- How does XenForo handle multi-language interfaces?
8-2- Does XenForo support RTL (Right to Left) interface?
8-3- Does XenForo support multi-language content in any way if needed?

* Using third-party add-ons is ok but not recommended.

More questions:
9- After purchasing a Self-hosted license can I install it twice? One production under the main domain and one development under the sub-domain (dev.same-domain.com) or on localhost?

10- What characters character set to UTF8 UTF8MB4 to use for English/Arabic content?
utf8mb4_general_ci
utf8mb4_unicode_ci
utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci
or something else is recommended?

11- If I install XenForo on the root of my domain, can I keep vBulletin in a subfolder for archive or do I need to move it outside like a sub-domain? (archive.my-domain.com)


That’s all for now.

Thank you

 

[CedricV]

1- Is there a recommendation article about setting up and managing the XenForo as a privet community that I need to read?

There isn't a specific article that covers everything. Additionally, the support forums have numerous threads discussing best practices for private communities. And you can always ask for help.

2- Once we have the registration only by invitation, then it not working anymore, so we stop user registration and add every new employee manually from the admin area.
In XenForo what would be the best practice to allow only employees to sign up? (if any) or do we just add new users from the admin area?
please note that we have (active directory) enabled in our company, but I don’t know if it is supported on XenForo.

Xen-Soluce offers a great add-on for cheap money:

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xen-soluce-invite-system.7402/

But you can of course disable registrations and add employee's manually. Can't answer for Active Directory, don't know what you mean with this.

3- I see that XenForo does have a (questions and answer) posting type, which is nice and will be used.
However, I have one section for (HR) where any employee can ask a question but only the HR manager can answer so there will be no voting for the best answer because there will be only one answer from one person.
Is this possible?

You can achieve this by setting permissions. Create a forum for HR questions and set permissions so that only the HR manager can post replies. This can be done by configuring the node permissions.

4- Sometimes we force-read a topic to all users, this is done in vBulletin by an add-on.
Can we have this in any way or form on XenForo?

There are no built-in options for force-reading, but you can use notices or custom add-ons to achieve this functionality. Additionally there's a free add-on which allows you to force read:

[OzzModz] Force Users To Read Threads

Aug 13, 2018

Force a user to read a thread before he can perform further actions in the forum.

• Painbaker
• Add-ons [2.x]

5- Is it possible to assign one user to more than one user group?

Yes, it's possible, this is a built-in feature and can be managed through the admin control panel.

6- in (Resource Manager) Can we make different access permissions for different categories?
For example, user-group A can access category A only and user-group B can access category B only.

Yes, you can set different access permissions for different categories in the Resource Manager.

7- Can we add custom pages?
I see that you have a forum type (Article) which is nice and will be used, but we also need to have custom/static pages that are not under any category/node.

Yes you can create custom pages. This can be done through the admin control panel under the "Content" section by creating a new "Page" node.

8-1- How does XenForo handle multi-language interfaces?

You can install different language packs.

8-2- Does XenForo support RTL (Right to Left) interface?

Yes, XenForo supports RTL interfaces. You can find and install an RTL language pack.

8-3- Does XenForo support multi-language content in any way if needed?

You can create content in multiple languages by using language packs and switching between them as needed.
This is also a great add-on:

[FOX] Ultimate Translator

Dec 8, 2023

Automatic translation to your Forum based on Google Translate, in up to 106 languages

• FoxSecrets
• google language language. translation translate translations
• Add-ons [2.x]

More questions:
9- After purchasing a Self-hosted license can I install it twice? One production under the main domain and one development under the sub-domain (dev.same-domain.com) or on localhost?

Yes, you can install XenForo twice with a self-hosted license: once for production and once for development

10- What characters character set to UTF8 UTF8MB4 to use for English/Arabic content?
utf8mb4_general_ci
utf8mb4_unicode_ci
utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci
or something else is recommended?

I believe the recommended character set is utf8mb4_unicode_ci. This supports a wide range of characters, including those needed for both English and Arabic.

11- If I install XenForo on the root of my domain, can I keep vBulletin in a subfolder for archive or do I need to move it outside like a sub-domain? (archive.my-domain.com)

Of course.

As said before, this is a very helpful community so if you are in need of any help, don't hesitate to post in the correct forums.

 

[Faisal 24]

Thank you @CedricV for all the answers, very helpful.

Can't answer for Active Directory, don't know what you mean with this.

The short answer will be (Single sign-on) so I will not worry about adding or removing users at all.
But it is fine, not every day will add or remove an employee.

 

[Old Nick]

9- After purchasing a Self-hosted license can I install it twice? One production under the main domain and one development under the sub-domain (dev.same-domain.com) or on localhost?

Yes, you can install XenForo twice with a self-hosted license: once for production and once for development

It seems to me that the development forum (online) must be password protected, I think I read that in an answer from @Paul B
Installation in localhost does not need password protection of course...

 

[Faisal 24]

It seems to me that the development forum (online) must be password protected, I think I read that in an answer from @Paul B
Installation in localhost does not need password protection of course...

Hi @Old Nick
Both of my installation (production and development) sites are nonpublic so

 

[CedricV]

It seems to me that the development forum (online) must be password protected, I think I read that in an answer from @Paul B
Installation in localhost does not need password protection of course...

But in reality, how many do actually password protect it?

You're welcome @Faisal 24

 

[Mr Lucky]

But in reality, how many do actually password protect it?

It would be stupid not to whether because it would be an infringement of the licence agreement and would in most cases cause Google to view duplicate content.

 

[Faisal 24]

I don't know about you guys, but my development sites never have the same content from the production site whether it is XenForo or anything else.
So there will never be Google duplicate content.
And more importantly, it is locked from the public. (password protected, VPN, etc...)
Why would you make your development sites open to the public in the first place?

Mostly I use my development sites for:

1. testing new things before implementing them in production
2. preview new designs and/or ideas for approval
3. in some cases training new staff (playground)

So all my development sites are locked to a limited group of people.

 

[Faisal 24]

OK, back to the topic

I signed up for the demo and I see even I set all the (Unregistered / Unconfirmed) permissions to (NO)
Unregistered still can view some pages like the Help pages. (Communication > Help pages)
Maybe something else will not be available to permissions control, I don't know.
I think and correct me if I am wrong, the only way is to disable these pages and add them as node pages to be able to control the permissions for theme.

There is no way to restore the default permissions for the (Unregistered / Unconfirmed) user group?