pre-sale questions

[merav]

Planning to purchase 'forum' software, and considering vBulletin.
I have number of questions in order to understand that vbulletin cover our needs.

First a short description for what we are looking for.
My company is looking for a forum system that will be used by our system’s users all over the world.
These forums should be viewd ONLY by allowed users (allowed users will be the users that administrator gives him/her a user & password.
There should be no way for user that is not allowed to register our forums.

1. Is there a way to have the username & password window before entrance to the forum lists and data? – as all the data on these forums should be secured, and users that doesn’t have username & password should not be able to view any data!
Also, is there a way to block the new registration to this forums by guests?
2. Is there a way to report the forum data (all the fields, and status of posts, etc)?
3. Is there anywhere I can have a demo to see how it looks like (forum, CMS..)?
4. In case in the future we would like to move all the data to another system, can we have this data, and if so – how?
5. Can we block the option to add attachment to a post for a user group?
6. Did you also create a domain for the forum? If so, can we choose the domain?
7. Is it possible to buy a private storage server for our needs (VPS) from bulletin?
8. Is it possible to customize your code in our environments, in order to have some other feature we might need?
9. What are the design options for the forum? Can we put our company’s logo? …
10. Is there any monthly maintenance amount we should pay to vbulletin? Is it onetime cost or we should renew the vbulletin license every year?

Thanks in advanced,
Merav

[Trevor Hannant]

1. Yes, you can prevent guests from viewing the forum so that they only see a login screen

2. I'm not sure what you're looking for - if you mean get notified of all posts/threads, yes. If you mean something else, then please clarify and I can answer more specifically.

3. We have a live demo of vBulletin 4 Publishing Suite, including full access to the admin control panel. You can set one up for your own use from this page (The demo is active for 24 hours. If you feel you need more time, send an email to [email protected] with the DemoID and ask for an extension.):

http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php

4. vBulletin uses a MySQL database on your hosting package - you have full access to this and we do not provide restrictions on this data

5. Yes

6. Yes, you should choose this before installing the software

7. No, we do not provide hosting services. vBulletin requires a web server that includes PHP (minimum version 5.2) and MySQL (minimum 4.1.0) installed. As long as you choose a host that meets these requirements you will be able to install and run our software.

Most credible hosts now support both PHP and MySQL, and can run our software. We do not make official recommendations, but we do have a hosting review forum here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=11

You can also look at http://www.webhostingtalk.com, an independent review site. Sometimes you will find hosting specials there that aren't available elsewhere on the web.

8. Yes, you have full access to the code and templates to enable you to customise both the functionality and the look and feel of your site. We also have a modification site (www.vbulletin.org) which features many pre-written modifications that you can install once you own a license.

9. You can do anything you like with the style! Please see these sites for examples of what can be done:

http://forums.digitalpoint.com

http://www.maxconsole.net/

http://www.minatica.be/content/

http://www.monocleonthemouse.com/

10. No, beginning with vB4 there is no longer any expiration date or annual renewal on licenses. Once you purchase a license you will have the right to download and use all new versions of vB4 for life.

I hope this helps.

[merav]

Thanks Trevor, this was very helpful.

as for point 2, what i mean is to get an csv or xls doc with all the data, but I guess that if we have full access to the DB, then this is good enough.

[Trevor Hannant]

Yes, we don't have any claim or restrict access to any data in your database

[merav]

i have few more questions:
1. Permissions – does vbulletin forum cover the following requirements?
a. Each user will be able to view only specific forums, does the search will be done only for the data in the allowed forums.
b. Is it possible to make the permission on thread level?
2. What kind of search operators does the forum support?
a. Does it supports AND, OR and NOT?
b. Can we search by an exact phrase (by using quotes)?
3. Thread statuses:
a. What are the available statuses for threads? Can we define new statuses like – Answered, cancelled etc?
b. Can we manually mark status for thread? (i.e. – close thread)?
c. Can we control these actions per group of users? Meaning, only some users will be able to close thread etc…
d. What is the logic behind the statuses – what statuses are updated automatically, and which manually?
e. Is there a way to automatically close list of open threads (after X days)?
4. Does the system have a rating system? (e.g. "this helped me" link for every thread)?
5. Does the system has any export function (except for exporting data from the DB)?
6. Are there any statistics made?
thanks alot,
Merav

[Trevor Hannant]

1. Permissions

a - Yes, you can restrict individual usergroups to have access to only certain forums. If they search, they will only see results from forums they have permission to access
b - Yes, you can set usergroups so that they can see thread titles but not the content.

2. Search

a - Yes, it does if your usergroup is allowed to use Boolean Search

3. Thread Statuses

a - Yes, you can set prefixes which can be changed to make a thread as answered etc.
b - You can close threads by simply double clicking on the icon beside it on the threads list or within the thread itself from a dropdown.
c - Yes, this can be set within permissions however they can only close their own threads unless you give a user Moderation rights in which case they can then close others' also
d - Only the 'read' marker will be updated automatically
e - No, there is no function to do this without a modification however I believe one exists at our modification site, www.vbulletin.org

4. Ratings

Yes, there is a rating system for threads based on a 1-5 stars system. Again, I believe a modification exists for a 'thanks' option within posts/threads

5. Export

What specifically are you looking to export?

6. Statistics

Yes, there is a limited amount of statistics available within the AdminCP.

We have a live demo of vBulletin 4 Publishing Suite, including full access to the admin control panel to allow you to see this all in action. You can set one up for your own use from this page (The demo is active for 24 hours. If you feel you need more time, send an email to [email protected] with the DemoID and ask for an extension.):

http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo.php