Using xenForo for comments on site articles

[GameIV]

I'm developing a website that posts news articles, reviews, and maybe even a wiki down the road. I would also like to have a forum for our members, and I'm interested in using XenForo. To avoid having a separate registration for people to comment on articles/reviews/etc. on the main site, I'm wondering if there is a way I can integrate XenForo so I only have one user database for everything.

I'm curious if anyone has successfully implemented XenForo into their own site by embedding it below articles so people can leave comments. I would prefer this over simply suggesting people discuss the article in the forums, because I want a way to display comments about the article right on the same page.

If there aren't any sites demonstrating this type of functionality, does something like this at least sound possible with XenForo?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Forgot to mention - I'm coding the CMS (in PHP) myself for the main site, so I would feel comfortable writing code that could integrate XenForo. I just wasn't sure how much of a project it would be.

 

[LPH]

Since you didn't specify the way the site posts news articles then it is difficult to be specific. Basically you are looking for a bridge. This link will take you to several.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/bridges-integrations.17/

Hope this helps.

 

[GameIV]

Since you didn't specify the way the site posts news articles then it is difficult to be specific. Basically you are looking for a bridge. This link will take you to several.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/bridges-integrations.17/

Hope this helps.

Haha, I edited my post just as you replied to cover that - I'm basically writing the main site from the ground up without any 3rd-party CMS. I'm wondering how easy it will be to integrate XenForo. Thanks, by the way.

 

[LPH]

Haha, I edited my post just as you replied to cover that - I'm basically writing the main site from the ground up without any 3rd-party CMS. I'm wondering how easy it will be to integrate XenForo. Thanks, by the way.

If you are good with PHP then I'm told it is easy.... if you are a copy/paste webmaster then you will want to search the threads to get code samples. Otherwise, start here ...

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/kotomi-generic-script-bridge.122/

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xenforo-connector.202/

 

[GameIV]

I was just looking at those exact two threads!

I'm feeling better about this. It looks like it won't be too bad, after all.

 

[Garani]

Without writing a CMS, you could use the excellent XenPorta add-on. Basically it elevates the first thread message into a news article and displays it. Of course all replies are available as well. http://www.ibriganti.eu is what my guild build around Xenforo anche Xenporta, but there are many interesting examples out there.

So, yes, you can do it, there are a number of ways that you ca do it, it really is up to you to decide how to make the workflow go.

 

[GameIV]

Very cool, thanks for the idea. I actually went ahead and purchased a XenForo license a few days ago. Using the XenForo Connector (second link in LPH's post above) I was able to connect my main site with the XF community. Since I put that in place, I've found out how easy it was to pull user data as well as thread information. It was so quick and easy that my main site is already fully integrated with XF's user system. It really was a piece of cake. I had plans to show content on the main site only to people that belonged to certain usergroups in XF, and it's quite a relief to see that it is indeed doable.

I plan on having a separate commenting script that I'll write on my own, since they'll operate in a different way than how threads/replies work. It's always good to know about other options, though.