Looking into Composr.... and have questions

newbie questions

I'm doing my reasearch on CMSs and while looking into security issues with the most popluar open source choices I ran across and recomendation for ocPortal.  After much reading on the Composr website and not finding information on it's security and how to make sure it is very secure I came here to the forums

Can anyone point me to the information I seek?

Thanks,

Oh, and one more question - does Composr create responsive website layouts?  Or do I have to make another site for smaller devices?

This is for v9, but should give you a good idea of the measures Chris takes to keep things secure.
Composr CMS: Content Management meets social media

And this is from 7.x. Look at the section under "Future policy" to see how Chris handles informing users of his CMS.
Composr CMS: Content Management meets social media

And this..
Ocportal : Security vulnerabilities, CVEs

In my opinion ocPortal/Composr is pretty secure. When there is a security issue, Chris is on top of it and puts out an update quickly. Even just general issues he has patches made available quickly, and are extremely easy to apply.

Hi, the Security tutorial should bring you up to speed. There is an option to enable the Mobile view of the website (which is responsive), and you can edit the template further if it doesn't meet your expectations.

KingBast said

Hi, the Security tutorial should bring you up to speed. There is an option to enable the Mobile view of the website (which is responsive), and you can edit the template further if it doesn't meet your expectations.

From “Post #114”, 20th February 2016, 2:51 am

 

I knew there was a current doc, but couldn't locate it quickly.

Cool ~ thanks guys,

I'll have a good read tomorrow when I hit this again.  I'm getting excited now.

CurrentWave said

Oh, and one more question - does Composr create responsive website layouts?  Or do I have to make another site for smaller devices?

From “Post #112”, 20th February 2016, 2:17 am

In addition to what KingBast said about a mobile view, there is also a Tapatalk addon that allow Tapatalk access to the inbuilt composr forum. I've installed it, but haven't had a chance yet to test it out. I've also installed Composr Mobile SDK addon, which appears to allow push notifications to a smart phone (Android and IOS) (haven't tested this yet, either).

Okay, I've done a lot more reading Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

This is the end of Feb. 2016 and I'm wondering - for a newbie which version would be best to get started with?  Stable ocPortal 9 or the beta Composr (that will be version 10 at some point).

And I've read how the company is changing - leaving the one-off site development biz to local companies.  
Besides documentation are there tutorials or learning videos for Composr?  What I mean is can one find the information and teach themselves to get up to speed with every aspect of Composr or are you dependent on someone at the forum taking pity on you and answering your newbie questions *guilty grin*  

What does the future of support and training look like for Composr?

sholzy said

CurrentWave said

Oh, and one more question - does Composr create responsive website layouts?  Or do I have to make another site for smaller devices?

From “Post #112”, 20th February 2016, 2:17 am

…I've also installed Composr Mobile SDK addon, which appears to allow push notifications to a smart phone (Android and IOS) (haven't tested this yet, either).

From “Post #117”, 20th February 2016, 5:06 am

I posted an error during install on the bug tracker about the "Composr Mobile SDK" addon. ( 0002212: [10b2] not detected as installed: Conversr - Composr CMS feature tracker)

This was Chris's note added to the tracker, "…unless you want to use the REST API, because
the Android/iOS code hasn't been put out yet (and that will be dev-friendly)."

So it looks like it's not quite ready to go, but it's something to think about for future use.  

sholzy said

I posted an error during install on the bug tracker about the "Composr Mobile SDK" addon. ( 0002212: [10b2] not detected as installed: Conversr - Composr CMS feature tracker)

This was Chris's note added to the tracker, "…unless you want to use the REST API, because
the Android/iOS code hasn't been put out yet (and that will be dev-friendly)."

So it looks like it's not quite ready to go, but it's something to think about for future use.  

So I should go with the currently good to go ocPortal 9 - it has a working mobil addon - yes?  Then at the end of April, if all goes as planned, I can upgrade to Composr 10 ;-)  Just trying to plan my way - as recommended on on the documentation pages…..

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind testing things out and venturing out on a limb. It's just that I have a big learning curve in front of me and I don't want to have things go off and I not know if it was something I did or something soft with the software.  I want to have all the functionality good to go while I learn all things cms (ocPortal/Composr style).

Hope I'm not stepping on any toes ~

If you want to have a reliable working website right now, then yes ocPortal v9 (which has a mobile template users can swtich to). Composr isn't really ready for a live deployment yet and you can upgrade when it is. The things you learn about ocPortal will probably carry over, as Composr is pretty much the next installment of ocPortal v9 (which is why it is referred to as v10).

~Jami said

Okay, I've done a lot more reading Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

This is the end of Feb. 2016 and I'm wondering - for a newbie which version would be best to get started with?  Stable ocPortal 9 or the beta Composr (that will be version 10 at some point).

And I've read how the company is changing - leaving the one-off site development biz to local companies.  
Besides documentation are there tutorials or learning videos for Composr?  What I mean is can one find the information and teach themselves to get up to speed with every aspect of Composr or are you dependent on someone at the forum taking pity on you and answering your newbie questions *guilty grin*  

What does the future of support and training look like for Composr?

From “Post #143”, 22nd February 2016, 6:51 pm

I believe the current timeline has the stable release due in April, which isn't that far away.

One very good thing about ocPortal/Composr is, there is a very good group of members willing to answer questions and help solve issues. There are lots of tuts and guides (both ocPortal and Composr). I wouldn't worry about being on your own when it comes to learning/using Composr. I've been using ocPortal for about 5 years now and have never not had a problem resolved by Chris or by forum members. And don't expect that to change moving to Composr.  

This is just my personal opinion…
I personally would not install v9.x since v10 stable is close. I would just (fresh) install v10b3 and play with it.

If v10b3 proves to be few (if any) bugs, then I would be comfortable in putting my time into setting it up and then just do upgrades to it (unless, of course, Chris would suggest doing a fresh install when stable is released).

If you were to install v9.x, you could always run into unforeseen issues while upgrading it to v10.

Just to be clear on Composr Mobile SDK - this is a tool for iOS and Android developers, rather than typical end-users.

Typical end users will benefit from our inbuilt mobile model (as with ocPortal) and/or the Tapatalk addon.

The CMS SDK is a new thing allowing developers to build out mobile apps that connect to a Composr site.

Mobile PUSH notifications are only an option if you have an actual mobile app to send them to - i.e. a custom one with CMS SDK, or the generic Tapatalk app.

steve - I've got a project I have to get going on so 'fresh installs' and 'playing' are not an option, wish they were.  From what I've read migrating from v9 to v10 is suppose to be seamless.  So I don't get the reason for jumping to 10 early, but I could be missing something, hence my posting here.  Won't the whole of ocPortal be jumping to 10 asap to reap the benefits?  Are there good reasons to jump now and not move up later?  These are things I wonder about.

Chris - good to know about the Composr Mobile SDK.  Thank you for explaining.

@KingBlast - Thanks for your input, that's kinda what I was thinking.  But I'm so new I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something.  Sometimes, when names change internal changes are so big it's best to just start with the new.

I hate being a newbie, thanks for all of your insight(s).  
I am looking at new hosting just for this project now, and I can't wait to get things started.

All things considered, v9 then upgrade sounds the way to go. There are some new features in v10, but there's a lot under the hood of v9 and you'll get the newer features with the upgrade when v10 is considered stable..

Jami said

steve - I've got a project I have to get going on …

From “Post #153”, 23rd February 2016, 10:12 pm

Sounds like you've answered your own question.  

If you had stated that at the beginning, my answer would have been different: Being Composr is currently in beta 2, it's not production ready yet and installing v9.x would be the better choice.

If I remember correctly (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), custom v9 themes won't carry over to v10, so that is something you need to think about when themeing v9.

What I meant by "playing around" is installing and getting used to it's features, the same as you would be doing installing v9.x.



My plans, based on my history of using ocPortal…
When v10b3 comes out, I'll do a clean install, test for a few days, and then start setting up a new site. v10 stable will probably be out before I have a chance to have the new site ready to go (I also have to write an importer for members and posts). The only thing that scares me is a database change between beta and stable, and I don't foresee that happening.

Now, on the other hand, if Chris would post saying there may be enough of a change between beta 3 and stable that there is too much of a risk, I'll hold off.

sholzy said

If I remember correctly (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), custom v9 themes won't carry over to v10, so that is something you need to think about when themeing v9.

My plans, based on my history of using ocPortal…
When v10b3 comes out, I'll do a clean install, test for a few days, and then start setting up a new site. v10 stable will probably be out before I have a chance to have the new site ready to go (I also have to write an importer for members and posts). The only thing that scares me is a database change between beta and stable, and I don't foresee that happening.

Now, on the other hand, if Chris would post saying there may be enough of a change between beta 3 and stable that there is too much of a risk, I'll hold off.

You bring up good points/questions -
It sounds like wait and see is the best answer     . . . . and if I can find play time maybe get some learning in.