Very interested, but some worries

[Naatan]

Hi, I've been researching many different forum solutions and have currently boiled it down to Vanilla Forums, IPB and XenForo.. XenForo is definitely at the top of that list but (as with the other ones) I have some worries.

First, for all the themes I've seen available for XenForo they pretty much ALL seem to follow the exact same wireframe, leading me to believe that the templates themselves are either not very customisable, or customising them would break integration with certain backend features so people opt not to do it. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Second, and this is more a question than a worry, I am looking to use Wordpress as the main repository for users to login and register, I then just want to carry over that session to XenForo. Now I'm a senior developer with years of experience in web development so I have no doubt I'll be able to pull this off.. but I'm wondering whether XenForo itself offers an interface for SSO, or whether I'll need to basically hack my way through? In either case, can anyone inform me of the complexity involved in doing this?

And last, I'm looking for a solution that can scale well, the project I'm on will likely have thousands upon thousands of visitors (millions if all goes well, but they might not all visit the forums) and I'm simply wondering how XenForo can scale with such large communities. Seeing as it's a rather new project I would imagine that scalability might not be on your radar yet.

Thanks in advance for anyone taking the time to read/answer my questions.

 

[Slavik]

The lack of CMS with true integration is a barrier for a lot of forums who would simply switch in a heartbeat should a solution exist. The only viable solution I see that works very well at the moment is xenForo + SubDreamer. I hope the devs can address this highly requested feature, even if only basically, so that forum owners can realise an article driven front end (bit more complex than pages, but not much) - this will remove a big barrier and see a volley of new licenses being sold.

There hasn't even been an announcement of a CMS, or any hint of one. IF an offical xenforo cms was to exist im guessing we are at LEAST a year away from it.

 

[Rob]

There hasn't even been an announcement of a CMS, or any hint of one. IF an offical xenforo cms was to exist im guessing we are at LEAST a year away from it.

A full blown CMS isnt actually a requirement for all, however the ability to aggregate excerpts of articles from different categories onto a homepage is a basic need. In my opinion, the pages functionality in xenforo isnt *that far* away from being able to handle this. Of course, Im aware a fully featured CMS is not coming to xenForo any time soon but I do think that basic barriers to switching could be removed with just a little focus on pages functionality improvements.

 

[Forsaken]

The lack of CMS with true integration is a barrier for a lot of forums who would simply switch in a heartbeat should a solution exist. The only viable solution I see that works very well at the moment is xenForo + SubDreamer. I hope the devs can address this highly requested feature, even if only basically, so that forum owners can realise an article driven front end (bit more complex than pages, but not much) - this will remove a big barrier and see a volley of new licenses being sold.

I'm looking at using http://fork-cms.com as it is a fairly light weight CMS that can be expanded easily.

 

[Rob]

I'm looking at using http://fork-cms.com as it is a fairly light weight CMS that can be expanded easily.

I'm sure it is a good system, but until a reliable, stable and supported bridge exists it doesnt matter how good it is. Thanks for the link though... i'm looking now

 

[guiltar]

The only viable solution I see that works very well at the moment is xenForo + SubDreamer.

But SubDreamer is just an article system as you mentioned. Threads and articles are almost same things. Why not to use Xen for articles?

 

[Forsaken]

But SubDreamer is just an article system as you mentioned. Threads and articles are almost same things. Why not to use Xen for articles...

Because articles and threads aren't the same.

Threads are meant for discussion, while articles are really meant to present the original information, with a lesser focus on following comments (Similarly to blogs).

 

[Rob]

xenForo doesnt yet provide a viable way of breaking articles down into categories with paging and to aggregate excerpts from latests articles in X category to a homepage. In short, xenforo is not a CMS.

 

[guiltar]

Because articles and threads aren't the same.

Threads are meant for discussion, while articles are really meant to present the original information, with a lesser focus on following comments (Similarly to blogs).

It's only matter of design. By functional they are almost same (example of article based on thread).

 

[Rob]

Displaying an article like an article should display is not the issue.... that bit is easy.

 

[Rob]

It's only matter of design. By functional they are almost same (example of article based on thread).

The article is nice... but, http://do4a.com/blogs/ the article homepage looks crap! It's clearly a bodged up forum!!!

I'm not sure why you cant see my point.

 

[Naatan]

I think one main problem with XenForo ever being viable as a CMS is that it's admin panel is oriented at advanced users. If you've ever used Wordpress you know that it's a joy to use as everything looks slick and works smoothly. If you're missing certain functionality you just use the CMS to install a plugin for it, no know-how required. Of course all of this is offset by the fact that the way Wordpress is coded is just atrocious, which XF is MUCH better at thanks to it's use of the Zend Framework and some nice innovations on top of that.

In a nutshell I personally think that for XF to become viable as a CMS it needs to do some work on the admin panel to make it usable by those end-users who aren't necessarily of a technical orientation.

 

[guiltar]

The article is nice... but, http://do4a.com/blogs/ the article homepage looks crap! It's clearly a bodged up forum!!!

I'm not sure why you cant see my point.

That page is not necessary at all but we leave it for better managment and categorization of articles.
The home page really plays the role of article homepage.

 

[Rob]

That page is not necessary at all but we leave it for better managment and categorization of articles.
The home page really plays the role of article homepage.

What powers your homepage??

 

[guiltar]

What powers your homepage??

As you can see it is actually news list like in WP or any other article system. But news item can be any thread either article or regular thread.

 

[Rob]

Can you point me to the add-on that powers your homepage? Is it available? It might help me.

 

[guiltar]

Can you point me to the add-on that powers your homepage? Is it available? It might help me.

It's all custom addon that we that are still developing with yoskaldyr.

P.S. Sorry for offtop

 

[Rob]

Ok, no problem.

 

[SubdreamerCMS]

But SubDreamer is just an article system as you mentioned. Threads and articles are almost same things. Why not to use Xen for articles?

Hello all,

Subdreamer CMS is a content management system that provides article management but it's not just an article system. Your articles under Subdreamer CMS have a template system for alternative displays, ratings, social sharing, tags, and page assignments with category management also coming. SEO, download manager, media gallery, security and performance, and more. We are not as polished or established as the open source giants like Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress, or commercial CMS's like Expression Engine, etc etc etc.. but many customers have chosen Subdreamer CMS over those systems for various reasons. Forum integration is certainly one of our specialties. SDCMS has plugins for top posters, forum stats, users online, latest posts and more.. and of course a solid user integration.. no complicated bridges or hacking. So far, our integration with XF has been solid.. no complaints and a ton of room to expand interactivity with XF if developers wanted to get creative and create Subdreamer plugins to pull XF data.. most popular users, active users, most liked content, random user, you name it. We also have a forum news plugin which can excerpt posts and display on other pages. Our skinning/template engine is a breeze to work with and your biggest hurdle will be just to match your xf header/footer/design with your chosen Subdreamer skin to create one overall design forum+cms and a great community website. SD takes care of the backend, permissions etc. Match your usergroups and away you go.

Rob, hopefully I can work with you directly to give you a good look at what we can offer xf+sd configurations.

Cheers

 

[mikoo]

Anyone around here using subdreamer? Experiences so far?

 

[Robbo]

I never like to use something like it, I like to code my own stuff to the exact needs. But from the looks of it I can see myself purchasing some time in the future.