Questions for XenForo pre-sales team

I want to make certain there aren't any surprises if and when we make the transition from vBulletin 4 to XenForo, so I'm compiling a list of questions for the XenForo pre-sales team.

Please post your own questions as well and I'll post all of them that I can't answer with available online documentation.

what is the final invoice?

do we keep our post counts?

are the system requirements tuffer than what vBulletin is?

what are other integrations? rss feeds? specific apps? Easier access for other iPhone/droid apps?

video integration on posts?

how long does a migration typically take?

What are good things to buy that are extra if there are any? e..g what are the up-sells before they try to upsell last minute

what kinds of php/sql errors are common?

How are usernames/passwords handled? how secure is that?

Is there a particular OS that works better?

How does it perform on virtual machines?

Atown done asked a lot of great questions. I'll try to come up with some and get back to you.

Atown is on a roll!

I have a few questions in mind as well, but will wait until I have more time to type them out.

Most importantly, I want to make certain we can control forum visibility and access using usergroups. Our current forums make extensive use of usergroups to control who sees what (e.g. staff members can see staff forums without having to log in separately).

Our server is running CentOS, which shouldn't be an issue, but it was a nightmare getting a Mumble server working on CentOS (which is a big reason why we stuck with TeamSpeak).

The monthly donations we receive also tie in with our forums, so I want to make sure that holds true for XenForo as well. It's not essential since we can set up recurring monthly donations directly through Paypal, but I like to be able to see, at a glance, who's currently donating each month and keeping us online.

Migrating to a new set of forums is going to be involved. Since Lloren resigned and no one has stepped up to take on all of the responsibilities he's shouldered (though I had offers for help, which I greatly appreciate and plan to accept here in the near future), I'll likely have to handle at least some of the migration process. That may require asking my wife's parents to watch our kids for a Saturday because I'm going to need to block off 2-4 hours to work on this.

So keep those questions coming, everyone! Atown got us off to a great start!

Hello all, run with some of you guys on Guild Wars 2, so thought i'd chip in as I work with Xenforo 5 days a week as my full time job (I am a web consultant)

---
what is the final invoice? presuming no VAT or added sales tax then $140

do we keep our post counts? Yep

are the system requirements tuffer than what vBulletin is? nope Xenforo runs lighter than Vb

what are other integrations? rss feeds? specific apps? Easier access for other iPhone/droid apps? there is Rss, also a responsive view, best mobile app for it is tapatalk (which is a free app)

video integration on posts? by default

how long does a migration typically take? depends on server speed, i would estimate about 2-4 hours for your size site on a standard host.

What are good things to buy that are extra if there are any? e..g what are the up-sells before they try to upsell last minute xF 1st part products are resource manager, gallery, and enhanced search, a site your size wouldnt need the search, gallery and resource manager depends if you have use for them.

what kinds of php/sql errors are common? xF itself doesnt have errors like this, a badly coded addon may, but those few and far between

How are usernames/passwords handled? how secure is that? Xenforo has 2 factor authorization for those that wish to enable it. also the default system is very secure, best on market.

Is there a particular OS that works better? i use centos, others use many different flavors of linux all work fine.

How does it perform on virtual machines? VPS? very well, i use it on several VPS

Most importantly, I want to make certain we can control forum visibility and access using usergroups. Our current forums make extensive use of usergroups to control who sees what (e.g. staff members can see staff forums without having to log in separately). xF uses permission layers alittle different to vB but they allow even greater control once you get used to them.

Our server is running CentOS. Centos is fine, i use it on all my clients


The monthly donations we receive also tie in with our forums...There is a built in subscription system, also there are some donation mods.

Migrating to a new set of forums is going to be involved. Since Lloren resigned and no one has stepped up to take on all of the responsibilities he's shouldered I don't work on Sabbath, but I can offer a few hours free a week to help, try to give back when I can, plus always happy to offer free advice anytime.

Tek7@Work said:

The monthly donations we receive also tie in with our forums, so I want to make sure that holds true for XenForo as well. It's not essential since we can set up recurring monthly donations directly through Paypal, but I like to be able to see, at a glance, who's currently donating each month and keeping us online.

)

Click to expand...

That being said, is there any types of perk systems they have seen others use xenforo with?

Can it do payment processing? Thats a big game changer too.
if so do they handle it or do we use like a stripe system to attach into it?


Yeah the user groups is a huge part of what we need too. I wonder if they can do like "sub-admins" too for the different clans so that they can moderate a sub-category in a blanket sense.

Also how does it handle avatars? I know this is a little minor but.... i like megaman.....

also what are the SEO values moving forward? Does it have improved meta description creation ?

For the articles manager, does it have built in tools or fill-in / fields for that?

That being said, is there any types of perk systems they have seen others use xenforo with? Xenforo can be expanded alot, most things are permission based so you could in theory restrict perks to x group.

Can it do payment processing? Thats a big game changer too. Default Xenforo uses Paypal to process payments, others can be added via addons

Yeah the user groups is a huge part of what we need too. I wonder if they can do like "sub-admins" too for the different clans so that they can moderate a sub-category in a blanket sense.
yep, there is a social forum addon created by Jon W (also a believer) that does exactly this.

Also how does it handle avatars? I know this is a little minor but.... i like megaman..... non animated in postbit by default unless you activate the imagemagik option

also what are the SEO values moving forward? Does it have improved meta description creation ? Automated by default, but there is a plugin to allow manual editing, also it uses tags.

For the articles manager, does it have built in tools or fill-in / fields for that?
depends which addon you intend to use for the article system.

This thread made my morning. Thank you so much, Richard! And welcome to the forums.

I'm more excited than ever to make the move to XenForo now. I'm planning on performing the migration on Saturday, September 19 starting around 10-11 a.m. Central. I should have 5-7 hours where I can focus on the (monumental) task.

Richard - You mentioned the Sabbath. Do you observe the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday? (CGA is an interdenominational community, so I don't want to make any assumptions.) If you observe the Sabbath on Sunday, I might ask if you could field urgent questions on Sept. 19, either by phone (if you're comfortable with that), TeamSpeak, or text/Google Hangouts messages.

Also, do you have any guides or recommendations learned by experience regarding migrating from vB4 to XF? We have 15 days for initial prep and I'd like to be as prepared as possible before the 19th.

Hello Tek, And i observe the Saturday Sabbath (i live in wales so thats GMT), so sadly wont be available on 19th, however i can advise you before or we could attempt a transfer in weekday or sunday.

Things to consider

Set up a test site first and do a dummy transfer to ensure all data moves smoothly.

Then start a test site which will have all addons, skins etc ready but no content, this will be the base for the live transfer, all the data will be imported into this one.

As for Web site theme/skin do you have one picked already? if not i could work with you on creating one (free of charge)

As for server, what type of power do you have vps, shared, dedicated etc? will determine the speed.

I'm not you (ofc),Richard, but couldn't you help tek out after sundown(18:08) on Sat(19th). It would be a little later than Tek wanted but with the time difference it could work out.

Saturday evenings UK are the only time I get to Skype with my fiancée who is in states with her family ATM.

If the prep work is done before hand the move itself will be a simple process of inputting the old database credentials and then just letting the script run

presuming the server is in good shape it will work through the database converting each category of data in order

RichardRobins said:

Hello Tek, And i observe the Saturday Sabbath (i live in wales so thats GMT), so sadly wont be available on 19th, however i can advise you before or we could attempt a transfer in weekday or sunday.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Saturday, Sept. 19 will be the only day I have available to migrate the forums as I work Monday through Friday, my wife works Tuesday through Saturday, I've already cleared it with my wife's parents to watch the kids on the 19th (I'm usually solo with my 2 young daughters on Saturdays), and I don't dare try to schedule anything that requires focus and a dedicated block of time on a Sunday as that's the only day all of us (me, my wife, and my 2 daughters) are together for the whole day.

I may be able to set up a dummy site ahead of time and run tests before Sept. 19, though. If I get the opportunity and get a test site built, I can send you the address and any questions I might have, if that's okay with you.

RichardRobins said:

Things to consider

Set up a test site first and do a dummy transfer to ensure all data moves smoothly.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I...just don't know when I'll have the time to do that before Sept. 19. If I can do one step now and another step later and yet another step later, then maybe I can make something work (and with a test site not in public view, I think that should be feasible).

RichardRobins said:

Then start a test site which will have all addons, skins etc ready but no content, this will be the base for the live transfer, all the data will be imported into this one.

Click to expand...

A good plan.

RichardRobins said:

As for Web site theme/skin do you have one picked already? if not i could work with you on creating one (free of charge)

Click to expand...

A custom theme or skin right out of the gate would be fantastic and above and beyond what I'd hoped for. I'd tentatively planned to run the stock theme until I or someone else had time to choose and install a new theme.

But if you're willing to work up a custom theme, oh my word, that would be fantastic. Even changing the palette on the stock skin--something to set us apart from the default, which is something we've never done with vB4 in the years we've been using it--would be most excellent.

I'm a big fan of high contrast/"mild" colors (my vocabulary escapes me; I'm thinking of colors that don't smack your eyeballs with a 2x4--no red text on black backgrounds, for example), but I'll defer to others for requests on specific colors. As long as everything is functional and I don't burn the forums down, I'll be thrilled.

RichardRobins said:

As for server, what type of power do you have vps, shared, dedicated etc? will determine the speed.

Click to expand...

Dedicated. If you'd like, I can contact our server hosting provider and ask for the specs of our server.

Sounds good, if you get the test site up let me know, as for the theme, if you get me some ideas of the type of colours oyu are after, (blue is safe, green not so, red black highlights on mostly white can be classy etc)

I will send you a message here with my email address.

I have a red/black theme PC area, and desktop. I'd love a nice red/black theme for the forums, without white, it makes my eyes hurt in my dark little PC hole i live in.

Are the themes "easy" to make and test locally? if so I can work on my own.

I could most likely produce a dark copy of the theme for night reading

as for easy to make, depends on complexity, and would be near impossible to make without using xenforo itself, unless you edit the xml which possible but not really ideal

Two themes are done a White,Red, Black and Grey (light)
and a Black, Red, and white theme

light needs a few more tweaks but will last for weekend until i have time to fix any remaining issues

Download Files and XML file.[/B]
http://kingdomgamer.net/CGAStyles.zip

Step 1 upload the contents of the Upload contents folder to the doc root of the forum (so in same area as index.php etc) its safe to overwrite, as the edited images in styles will need to overwrite the default ones
Step 2 : import the XMLs file provided in the zip (style-CGA-Dark-&-Red.xml and style-CGA-Light-&-Red.xml) via the xenforo admincp > appearance > import style
Step 3 select which you want as default via the appearance > styles page, its the toggle/circle next to the name

dark Theme Pictured on my Test Board