Xenforo Features

[Freeze Dried Pop]

I've been looking at Xenforo and trying to decide if it's right for me, right now I use Invision Power Board.

While Xenforo looks incredibly nice and has a ton of features that "pop", alot of this seems to be styling features that anybody could achieve with any forum software with a little css and javascript (of course i'm not intending to not knock your hard work).

In terms of actual extra features what makes Xenforo any different from a forum script such as IPB?

 

[John L.]

I've been looking at Xenforo and trying to decide if it's right for me, right now I use Invision Power Board.

While Xenforo looks incredibly nice and has a ton of features that "pop", alot of this seems to be styling features that anybody could achieve with any forum software with a little css and javascript (of course i'm not intending to not knock your hard work).

In terms of actual extra features what makes Xenforo any different from a forum script such as IPB?

I, personally, haven't used IPB in quite some time so I cannot give an accurate description of what makes XenForo different. However, I will say that XenForo has been the smoothest forum software I have worked with. It's not about jQuery and CSS styling, but about how well (and how quickly) the functionality works behind the scenes. Not only that but K&M are very helpful and responsive to all questions and suggestions.

The biggest draw back for XenForo right now is the addon community which is slowly growing but has a ways to go. If addons and resources are very important to you and your community then that is an important thing to note. You might not find all of the addon equivalents that you need.

XenForo for me is quick, easy-to-use and makes moderating on my forums much easier. Can IPB do all the things "feature-wise" that XenForo can do? Sure, but does it do it as well...I would doubt it.

 

[Rigel Kentaurus]

I've been looking at Xenforo and trying to decide if it's right for me, right now I use Invision Power Board.

While Xenforo looks incredibly nice and has a ton of features that "pop", alot of this seems to be styling features that anybody could achieve with any forum software with a little css and javascript (of course i'm not intending to not knock your hard work).

In terms of actual extra features what makes Xenforo any different from a forum script such as IPB?

If you *care* for features, you might as well go for vBulletin, it has, for, far the most features of any forum packages, and the better collection of addons (most free). If you want the most features, that is the choice.

I think you will find every single feature of XenForo in IPB, it is a little hard these days for forums to have "killer features", because if they implement something really well (Like link comes to mind), the others will rush into copying that feature and leaving the innovator with little advantage.

I am just changing from vBulletin (after a short stop with IPB), the core reason for me was performance, ease of usability, and ease of maintainability. The HTML/CSS is coded so well that when I upgrade I do not need to spend three days redoing templates (and mine is a heavily modified forum), the addon engine is coded so well that so far, the upgrades have broken none of my addons, they just keep working. If you are a developer, the code feels advanced and natural, like the platform for the next 3-5 years.

 

[CTXMedia]

In terms of actual extra features what makes Xenforo any different from a forum script such as IPB?

Have you tried the demo?
http://xenforo.com/demo/

I use IPB 3.1.4 on my big board and I'm migrating it to XF.

I can only say that I simply prefer the way XF works. I know that's a bit ambiguous, but it just "feels" better to me than IPB.

It doesn't have all of the features that IPB does. It doesn't have all the companion products that IPB does (although there are a few add-ons that give similar functionality). It doesn't have all the settings in the ACP, etc.

But it works really really well. There are hardly any glitches or things to find work-arounds for, and the editor only has one oddity that I have found in months of using XF - [the cursor disappears sometimes and you have to click on a smiley to get it to appear] but this in a know issue and will be/has been fixed.

I'm waiting for v1.1 of XF and for the big-board search facility before I can migrate but you can see most all of the feature in play here on the XF forums which is running 1.1 beta.

There's also the Have you seen? forum where features are demonstrated - so pop in there for some of what's available and what is coming.

I would suggest using it here for a while as a user, and then trying out the demo to get the ACP perspective. If may suit you and your site, it may not, but either way it is solidly built and very well supported.

Good luck,
Shaun

 

[erich37]

In terms of actual extra features what makes Xenforo any different from a forum script such as IPB?

this ?

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/semantic-html.892/

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/html-5-microdata-in-breadcrumb.12347/

 

[Reeve of Shinra]

While some of the styling effects can be achieved on another platform if you have the appropriate html/css/javascript knowledge, the challenge comes from upgrades that would require extra effort to ensure your changes don't break. So the question then becomes, is it worth your time and effort? How would this effort contribute to the long term value?

That being said, I feel the nuances on the surface are not just skin deep. A lot of people far more savy than I am seem very happy with the backend coding as well.

 

[kkm323]

Have you try xf demo
aslo Have You Seen...?

 

[Freeze Dried Pop]

this ?

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/semantic-html.892/

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/html-5-microdata-in-breadcrumb.12347/

This I like, SEO is incredibly important for me and well structured code is a massively underlooked aspect.

Thanks for all the other responses, I guess they were the answers I was expecting. It is difficult to have killer features in this day and age.

I suppose it would be better to talk specific comparisons, especially in regards issues I have with IPB.

While people have commented on it's lack of add ons, what thoughts do people have on the ease of writing add ons and integration with other scripts?

In terms of Forums Scripts I found IPB to be very bloated and mod creation difficult. A big turn off is the fact that I can't quickly and easily see much documentation for extending Xenforo. Any forum that could create the sort of documentation and example code libraries that the likes of Google do for their API's would get a massive thumbs up from me.

I'm a massive fan of the Code Igniter community and while the framework itself has some issues, I love the fact that rather than finding people who've shared fully made scripts, people tend to share frameworks. That is, tools for doing what you want rather than providing "what you want", which is never actually "what you really want".

Any forum script such as this which could build a community aimed at sharing between developers would probably become the best community out there. If you look at any others everyone's making add ons that can be installed in one click by novices, not sharing within a community of developers. Can you imagine ever taking an IPB addon, adjusting it a bit and re-releasing it? I can't, all hell would probably break lose.

But i've gone of on a tangent, what I mean to say is, what is the developer community like here and is there much in the way of code examples/libraries and if so where the ruddy hell is it beacuase I can't find it

On a final note another big thing for me is not just speed, but general server load. IPB seems to use 20-25mb of memory on every page load (with APC cache) While this is on a forum with nearly 200,000 members it can take its toll on the server with over a million visitors a month, to the point that I now have 32GB of RAM on my machine. But I think this was already covered when I last looked at Xenforo a year ago!

 

[Paul B]

It is difficult to have killer features in this day and age.

I would say they nailed that with alerts.

The development sub forums are here (you need to be associated with a license to post in those forums): http://xenforo.com/community/#development-help.51

Most developers seem to like coding for XenForo.
It may be harder at first than what you're used to (MVC) but once you grasp the fundamentals it's a lot easier to code efficiently and quickly.

This is a base install on localhost.

 

[Freeze Dried Pop]

I would say they nailed that with alerts.

The development sub forums are here (you need to be associated with a license to post in those forums): http://xenforo.com/community/#development-help.51

Most developers seem to like coding for XenForo.
It may be harder at first than what you're used to (MVC) but once you grasp the fundamentals it's a lot easier to code efficiently and quickly.

This is a base install on localhost.
View attachment 19191

I was looking for any sort of documentation, does that not exist?

 

[Paul B]

Not at the moment, apart from a few guide threads and videos.

 

[James]

I was looking for any sort of documentation, does that not exist?

You should be able to run XenForo through PHPDoc and create a documentation for it, but nothing else officially.

 

[EQnoble]

While people have commented on it's lack of add ons, what thoughts do people have on the ease of writing add ons and integration with other scripts?

If I can make an addon...it is the best software for a webserver that I know of

Any forum script such as this which could build a community aimed at sharing between developers would probably become the best community out there.

Bingo! We have a winner

If you look at any others everyone's making add ons that can be installed in one click by novices, not sharing within a community of developers. Can you imagine ever taking an IPB addon, adjusting it a bit and re-releasing it? I can't, all hell would probably break lose.

But i've gone of on a tangent, what I mean to say is, what is the developer community like here and is there much in the way of code examples/libraries and if so where the ruddy hell is it beacuase I can't find it

I can't speak for anyone but myself but if I come up with something useful...it will only be useful if another can customize it for their needs...

A simple example of sharing code...brogan posted a code edit for a countdown addon, I turned it into an addon, and then Mikey took that addon and added options.

Of course there will be addons that people won't make an open project out of but that is up to the individual and the nature of their addon

you can find what you are looking for in these sections
http://xenforo.com/community/#add-ons-and-modifications.27
http://xenforo.com/community/#development-help.51

On a final note another big thing for me is not just speed, but general server load. IPB seems to use 20-25mb of memory on every page load (with APC cache) While this is on a forum with nearly 200,000 members it can take its toll on the server with over a million visitors a month, to the point that I now have 32GB of RAM on my machine. But I think this was already covered when I last looked at Xenforo a year ago!

I don't get into the numbers much myself but suffice to say I have way less ram than you and host many domains on a single server a bunch of them also running XenForo and load-wise for me it is almost like nothing is even there.

 

[DRE]

The HTML/CSS is coded so well that when I upgrade I do not need to spend three days redoing templates (and mine is a heavily modified forum), the addon engine is coded so well that so far, the upgrades have broken none of my addons, they just keep working.

I was thinking about leaving xenforo for IPB until I read this.

It's a nightmare when you create lots of custom changes and they don't carry over during an upgrade.