[title sub="Written by Steve Jarvis, Sponsored by Arvixe hosting"]Composr Supplementary: Recommended Composr Addons[/title]

[media width="150" description="the getid31 addon at work" float="right"]data_custom/images/docs/sup_recommended_composr_addons/36a04289ae05a78386e70f56a160adf6.png[/media]
I wanted to talk about some of the addons for Composr which I install on a regular basis depending on which type of site I am creating. Some of them I install in every install and I'll give you a brief overview of them and why I use them.

[title="2"]Admin search stemmer[/title]

The Admin zone search stemmer enhances the existing adminzone search functionality. It basically allows for searching of words such as Publishing and the search will then return results including things like Publish as well as publishing. I'm sure you can see how useful this will be if you aren't sure exactly what you are looking for.

[title="2"]Getid3[/title]

Getid3 is an addon which you won't need for every site but for sites where videos will be uploaded it can be invaluable. The Getid3 addon will automatically detect the height, width and length of video files when they are uploaded to the gallery.

[title="2"]Member directory boxes[/title]

Member directory boxes is an addon which restyles the member directory to show avatars etc. For a large community site many users will be noticed first by avatars so this is a great addon for community sites to make members more easily findable.

[title="2"]Downloads follow up emails[/title]

This addon adds follow-up email functionality to the Composr Downloads module. If your site makes use of the downloads module this allows you to solicit feedback to enable you to improve what's offered where a user may not have left any before.

[title="2"]JustGiving[/title]

For a personal website the JustGiving addon will allow you to embed a block for your JustGiving page directly onto the site without needing much customisation. For larger sites it is an opportunity to show support for a particular charity event.

[title="2"]Facebook connect[/title]

For a site where you are asking user to sign up the Facebook connect addon is a must. There are a lot of draws on people's time and making it easier for users to sign up to your site the more likely they will sign up and interact with your Composr site.

[title="2"]Activity feed[/title]

The Activity feed displays a self-updating feed of logged site activity, with options to filter the contents. There is also a block for entering new activities directly into the feed, allowing a &ldquo;status update&rdquo; functionality. If the Facebook of Twitter addons are installed then the system can syndicate out activities to the user&#8217;s Twitter and Facebook followers. For a community based site this is a really popular addon which becomes even more popular when used alongside the Facebook or Twitter addons. Read more about installing the activity feed addon [page="_SEARCH:sup_adding_an_activity_feed_to_your_composr_website"]here[/page].

[title="2"]Workflows[/title]

If your site has a lot of users who will be creating content, the workflows addon allows you to set a process where the content has to be signed off by other people before it goes live. This could be either a stepped process where content is passed along a chain before appearing on site or where different usergroups have responsibility for different elements of the content.

I hope you have found this useful and these addons will give you a head start in making your Composr website exactly what you want it to be.

[box="Thank you Arvixe"]This tutorial was sponsored by [url="Arvixe hosting"]http://www.arvixe.com[/url].[/box]

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