Awaiting More Details Article Management System or User Blogs System?

[Luca_]

Hi, I want to put a homepage on my site.. with linked articles. what is best for me? articles or blogs? what is the difference between the two? the important thing is that I can give permissions to a certain group of users who can write and post articles/blogs. what do I buy?

 

[Bob]

Hi, I want to put a homepage on my site.. with linked articles.

There are literally dozens of ways to do that, the most popular way is via adding widgets to a blank page (which there are again, several ways to do this). You can do this without the need of an addon. There are threads on how to do this posted at XenForo.com. Also Bassman has a very nice addon that also uses the Blank Slate concept to create a home page made out of Widgets (again, any widget that is created via the XF Widget System can be added).

Article Management System and User Blogs System both come with an OPTION to set the main index page to "Modular", which is basically a blank slate that you add Widgets to, not just AMS widgets, but ANY widgets created via the XF Widget System). You can set ANY addon to be the sites HOME PAGE, via the Core XenForo option "Index page route". So fro example, you could set AMS Index page type to "Modular" and then set the Index page route to ams/, which would then make your home page, the Modular Index of AMS (very popular feature that is in all of my addons).

As far as which one to use is to understand the main use case for each addon.

Article Management System: This is a Article System that is designed for Drafting and Publishing Articles (not threads, but actual ARTICLES).

AMS is a feature packed system that has its own Hierarchical Category System (Core XF system designed for Addons to use), its own Prefix System, its own Custom Article Fields system, its own Custom Review Fields System, an optional light weight comments system, optional associated discussion threads, rating and reviews system, Series (for a collection of articles), Implements all of the Core XF Content Types Handlers (alerts, attachments, approval queue, bookmarks, content vote, edit history, moderator logging, newsfeeds, notifiers, polls, reactions, reports, searcher, search, sitemap, spam, tags, warnings).

Article Management System comes with several Widget Definitions allowing Admins to create 100's of unique AMS content widgets (several layout types, carousels and blocks). Unlike XenForo Article Threads that only has 1 layout types, AMS has List View, Grid View, Tile View, Article View, Carousel Full, Carousel Simple, Grid Block and simple).


User Blogs System: This is a member blogs system for forum communities. It allows members with appropriate permission to create their own blog(s) and post blog entries in their own blogs. There are 2 types of Blogs, Personal Blogs in which only the Blog Owner can post Blog Entries in and Community Blogs, which the Blog Owner can configure to allow specific members or all members from specific user groups to also be able to post blog entries in (popular for Staff Blogs).

UBS is not designed as an Articles System persay, but some UBS license holders do customize and use UBS as an articles type system (they only have a single blog, which is configured as a Community blog, allowing all members to create Blog Entries (which they call articles) and then set UBS to use Modular Index, set UBS as the Home Page and then add dozens of Widgets to the Home page.

UBS is a feature packed system that has its own Hierarchical Category System (Core XF system designed for Addons to use), its own Prefix System, its own Custom Blog Entry Fields system, its own Custom Review Fields System, an optional light weight comments system, optional associated discussion threads, rating and reviews system, Series (for a collection of blog entries), Implements all of the Core XF Content Types Handlers (alerts, attachments, approval queue, bookmarks, content vote, edit history, moderator logging, newsfeeds, notifiers, polls, reactions, reports, searcher, search, sitemap, spam, tags, warnings).

User Blogs System comes with several Widget Definitions allowing Admins to create 100's of unique UBS content widgets (several layout types, carousels and blocks). Unlike XenForo Article Threads that only has 1 layout types, UBS has List View, Grid View, Tile View, Blog Entry View, Carousel Full, Carousel Simple, Grid Block and simple).


If your goal is ARTICLES, then AMS would be the best choice.

If you goal is to offer Member Blogs to your members, but you also want an Article System, then UBS might be the way to go as you can create a Blog, set it as a community blog and only allow specific members to create Blog Entries in that blog, which would be Articles vs a typical blog entry, which is usually not in article format.

Hope that helps

btw, before spending any MONEY, I'd do a deep dive into XF's Article Threads to make sure that what you are trying to accomplish, can not be done with Article Threads. I hate seeing people spend money on systems that they do not need. Article Threads is a nice concept that with a little thinking outside the box can make for a really nice Articles System!

 

[Luca_]

There are literally dozens of ways to do that, the most popular way is via adding widgets to a blank page (which there are again, several ways to do this). You can do this without the need of an addon. There are threads on how to do this posted at XenForo.com. Also Bassman has a very nice addon that also uses the Blank Slate concept to create a home page made out of Widgets (again, any widget that is created via the XF Widget System can be added).

Article Management System and User Blogs System both come with an OPTION to set the main index page to "Modular", which is basically a blank slate that you add Widgets to, not just AMS widgets, but ANY widgets created via the XF Widget System). You can set ANY addon to be the sites HOME PAGE, via the Core XenForo option "Index page route". So fro example, you could set AMS Index page type to "Modular" and then set the Index page route to ams/, which would then make your home page, the Modular Index of AMS (very popular feature that is in all of my addons).

As far as which one to use is to understand the main use case for each addon.

Article Management System: This is a Article System that is designed for Drafting and Publishing Articles (not threads, but actual ARTICLES).

AMS is a feature packed system that has its own Hierarchical Category System (Core XF system designed for Addons to use), its own Prefix System, its own Custom Article Fields system, its own Custom Review Fields System, an optional light weight comments system, optional associated discussion threads, rating and reviews system, Series (for a collection of articles), Implements all of the Core XF Content Types Handlers (alerts, attachments, approval queue, bookmarks, content vote, edit history, moderator logging, newsfeeds, notifiers, polls, reactions, reports, searcher, search, sitemap, spam, tags, warnings).

Article Management System comes with several Widget Definitions allowing Admins to create 100's of unique AMS content widgets (several layout types, carousels and blocks). Unlike XenForo Article Threads that only has 1 layout types, AMS has List View, Grid View, Tile View, Article View, Carousel Full, Carousel Simple, Grid Block and simple).


User Blogs System: This is a member blogs system for forum communities. It allows members with appropriate permission to create their own blog(s) and post blog entries in their own blogs. There are 2 types of Blogs, Personal Blogs in which only the Blog Owner can post Blog Entries in and Community Blogs, which the Blog Owner can configure to allow specific members or all members from specific user groups to also be able to post blog entries in (popular for Staff Blogs).

UBS is not designed as an Articles System persay, but some UBS license holders do customize and use UBS as an articles type system (they only have a single blog, which is configured as a Community blog, allowing all members to create Blog Entries (which they call articles) and then set UBS to use Modular Index, set UBS as the Home Page and then add dozens of Widgets to the Home page.

UBS is a feature packed system that has its own Hierarchical Category System (Core XF system designed for Addons to use), its own Prefix System, its own Custom Blog Entry Fields system, its own Custom Review Fields System, an optional light weight comments system, optional associated discussion threads, rating and reviews system, Series (for a collection of blog entries), Implements all of the Core XF Content Types Handlers (alerts, attachments, approval queue, bookmarks, content vote, edit history, moderator logging, newsfeeds, notifiers, polls, reactions, reports, searcher, search, sitemap, spam, tags, warnings).

User Blogs System comes with several Widget Definitions allowing Admins to create 100's of unique UBS content widgets (several layout types, carousels and blocks). Unlike XenForo Article Threads that only has 1 layout types, UBS has List View, Grid View, Tile View, Blog Entry View, Carousel Full, Carousel Simple, Grid Block and simple).


If your goal is ARTICLES, then AMS would be the best choice.

If you goal is to offer Member Blogs to your members, but you also want an Article System, then UBS might be the way to go as you can create a Blog, set it as a community blog and only allow specific members to create Blog Entries in that blog, which would be Articles vs a typical blog entry, which is usually not in article format.

Hope that helps

btw, before spending any MONEY, I'd do a deep dive into XF's Article Threads to make sure that what you are trying to accomplish, can not be done with Article Threads. I hate seeing people spend money on systems that they do not need. Article Threads is a nice concept that with a little thinking outside the box can make for a really nice Articles System!

first of all, thank you for your FANTASTIC RESPONSE, you seem like a person who thinks well, so.. what I need is to create a homepage with widgets on the right, and with articles that authorized users can write in the right categories.. e.g. category smartphone--> we will put all the news on recent smartphones, PC category --> all the news articles and reviews of mouse and keyboard cases, subcategory PC-Case---> all the news regarding the latest generation cases and so Street. I FIND IT ABSURD that a 200+ dollar board doesn't have a paid homepage. I were the owner of xenforo LTD I would implement your default AMS in the xenforo tunnel it's an amazing job.
I think ams is my final choice.. this is what I would like to get

 

[Bob]

That screen shot is of AMS standard Index out of the box displaying Articles in Grid View layout type If that is what you want to use for your home page, then it would be as simple as setting the Core XF Option "Index page route" from 'forums/' to 'ams/'

 

[Luca_]

That screen shot is of AMS standard Index out of the box displaying Articles in Grid View layout type If that is what you want to use for your home page, then it would be as simple as setting the Core XF Option "Index page route" from 'forums/' to 'ams/'

thank goodness I use few plugins on my project, I mostly use css and html.. I think next month I will buy your plugin. I'm scared of the "long-term" issue with updates to xenforo and your plugin... it's risky to have incompatibilities. they should pay you the rights and implement it as default in the board on xenforo.com

 

[Luca_]

what changes in the premium version?

 

[Bob]

I'm scared of the "long-term" issue with updates to xenforo and your plugin... it's risky to have incompatibilities.

There has never been any incompatibilities between 2nd point releases with any of my addons in the past 15+ years. This is due to strict following XF Standards and being a Professional Developer by trade (not some amature hack).

There has only been one 1st point release and I took that opportunity to do complete rewrites of all my addons. All my addons improved and included new features. There were NO ISSUES upgrading my XF1 Addons to XF2 Addons.

what changes in the premium version?

There is no such thing as a premium version of the addon. Premium is in reference to one of two License Types (tiers).

There are 2 License Types (tiers). Standard License and Premium License. Those don't have anything to do with features in the Addon, those are just benefits of the license.

Standard License ($55): includes 1 year support/updates (can purchase 1 year support/updates extensions when needed), basic form support and access to Stable/Supported versions of the addon.

Premium License ($75): includes 1 year support/updates (can purchase 1 year support/updates extensions when needed), advanced support, access to all versions (Preview, Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate and Stable/Supported), early access to new releases (before standard license holders), multi-license discounts, bulk license discounts, special offers, the ability to purchase new addons years before standard license are available for them, discounts on custom development, phone support (if in the US).... I am sure I am missing a few, but you can see the major differences.

 

[Luca_]

There has never been any incompatibilities between 2nd point releases with any of my addons in the past 15+ years. This is due to strict following XF Standards and being a Professional Developer by trade (not some amature hack).

There has only been one 1st point release and I took that opportunity to do complete rewrites of all my addons. All my addons improved and included new features. There were NO ISSUES upgrading my XF1 Addons to XF2 Addons.


There is no such thing as a premium version of the addon. Premium is in reference to one of two License Types (tiers).

There are 2 License Types (tiers). Standard License and Premium License. Those don't have anything to do with features in the Addon, those are just benefits of the license.

Standard License ($55): includes 1 year support/updates (can purchase 1 year support/updates extensions when needed), basic form support and access to Stable/Supported versions of the addon.

Premium License ($75): includes 1 year support/updates (can purchase 1 year support/updates extensions when needed), advanced support, access to all versions (Preview, Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate and Stable/Supported), early access to new releases (before standard license holders), multi-license discounts, bulk license discounts, special offers, the ability to purchase new addons years before standard license are available for them, discounts on custom development, phone support (if in the US).... I am sure I am missing a few, but you can see the major differences.

ok bob, around December 1/10 I will purchase the product

 

[Abhean]

ok bob, around December 1/10 I will purchase the product

It's well worth it.

 

[cdub]

first of all, thank you for your FANTASTIC RESPONSE, you seem like a person who thinks well, so..

Bob is extremely detailed and thorough. Just like his add-ons.

Also Bassman has a very nice addon that also uses the Blank Slate concept to create a home page made out of Widgets (again, any widget that is created via the XF Widget System can be added).

I have no idea how this addon flew under the radar for me until today. Lol. I might have to look into it although my page node home is working fine so far. The two columns feature is nice.

The two columns feature is nice.

Although that looks like it's also a separate addon.

 

[Luca_]

There has never been any incompatibilities between 2nd point releases with any of my addons in the past 15+ years. This is due to strict following XF Standards and being a Professional Developer by trade (not some amature hack).

There has only been one 1st point release and I took that opportunity to do complete rewrites of all my addons. All my addons improved and included new features. There were NO ISSUES upgrading my XF1 Addons to XF2 Addons.


There is no such thing as a premium version of the addon. Premium is in reference to one of two License Types (tiers).

There are 2 License Types (tiers). Standard License and Premium License. Those don't have anything to do with features in the Addon, those are just benefits of the license.

Standard License ($55): includes 1 year support/updates (can purchase 1 year support/updates extensions when needed), basic form support and access to Stable/Supported versions of the addon.

Premium License ($75): includes 1 year support/updates (can purchase 1 year support/updates extensions when needed), advanced support, access to all versions (Preview, Alpha, Beta, Release Candidate and Stable/Supported), early access to new releases (before standard license holders), multi-license discounts, bulk license discounts, special offers, the ability to purchase new addons years before standard license are available for them, discounts on custom development, phone support (if in the US).... I am sure I am missing a few, but you can see the major differences.

Bob is extremely detailed and thorough. Just like his add-ons.

I have no idea how this addon flew under the radar for me until today. Lol. I might have to look into it although my page node home is working fine so far. The two columns feature is nice.


Although that looks like it's also a separate addon.

I'm about to purchase the product, last question, in the articles system, you can see a slider at the top with the latest entries, can this also be inserted on the forum homepage?

 

[Bob]

I'm about to purchase the product, last question, in the articles system, you can see a slider at the top with the latest entries

AMS Index page has an option to display Featured Articles. One of the sub options is display type. You have a choice between Featured Carousel or Featured Grid Block. Featured Carousel uses the Core XF Carousel JS and LESS (same as both XFRM and XFMG use). Grid Block is a custom design by @Russ from Pixel Exit.

AMS Categories have an option to display Featured Articles. One of the sub options is display type. You have a choice between Featured Carousel or Featured Grid Block. This is configured/managed on a per category basis.

You can see the Featured Carousel on AMS Index at the Demo's site: Articles
You can see the Featured Carousel on AMS Index at the Demo's site: Science & Technology
You can see the Featured Grid Block on Forum Home at the Demo's site: XenAddons Demos

Note: There are style properties to allow you to display 1 or 2 items at a time for the Featured Items Carousel. I have it set to 1 at the demo.

can this also be inserted on the forum homepage?

AMS uses the XenForo Widget System extensively including several (12) Widget Definitions for creating various type of widgets to display AMS related content.

If you look at the Demo's site, you can see that there are both AMS and UBS related content being displayed. That is done through the XF Widget System by using AMS and UBS Widget Definitions.




The Featured Articles Widget Definition and Latest Articles Widget Definition have a Display style option that lets you set the way that the content will be displayed for each specific widget that you create with this definition.

As you can see, there are plenty of different display styles to choose from. The Featured Articles Widget on Forum Home at the Demo site uses "Full - Grid block".

Note: You can change the style of a widget at any time and it only effects THAT widget, not all the others that are created with the Widget Definition. You could create 100's of "Featured Articles" Widget with this one Widget Definition, all with different settings (something that a lot of XF Admins just do not get ,they think only 1 widget can be created from a widget definition).

 

[Luca_]

AMS Index page has an option to display Featured Articles. One of the sub options is display type. You have a choice between Featured Carousel or Featured Grid Block. Featured Carousel uses the Core XF Carousel JS and LESS (same as both XFRM and XFMG use). Grid Block is a custom design by @Russ from Pixel Exit.

AMS Categories have an option to display Featured Articles. One of the sub options is display type. You have a choice between Featured Carousel or Featured Grid Block. This is configured/managed on a per category basis.

You can see the Featured Carousel on AMS Index at the Demo's site: Articles
You can see the Featured Carousel on AMS Index at the Demo's site: Science & Technology
You can see the Featured Grid Block on Forum Home at the Demo's site: XenAddons Demos

Note: There are style properties to allow you to display 1 or 2 items at a time for the Featured Items Carousel. I have it set to 1 at the demo.

View attachment 8748



AMS uses the XenForo Widget System extensively including several (12) Widget Definitions for creating various type of widgets to display AMS related content.

If you look at the Demo's site, you can see that there are both AMS and UBS related content being displayed. That is done through the XF Widget System by using AMS and UBS Widget Definitions.

View attachment 8745


The Featured Articles Widget Definition and Latest Articles Widget Definition have a Display style option that lets you set the way that the content will be displayed for each specific widget that you create with this definition.

As you can see, there are plenty of different display styles to choose from. The Featured Articles Widget on Forum Home at the Demo site uses "Full - Grid block".

Note: You can change the style of a widget at any time and it only effects THAT widget, not all the others that are created with the Widget Definition. You could create 100's of "Featured Articles" Widget with this one Widget Definition, all with different settings (something that a lot of XF Admins just do not get ,they think only 1 widget can be created from a widget definition).

View attachment 8747

so I didn't understand. Can you put a carousel of articles, for example: Latest article insertions, on the forum homepage? ps: I want to buy the product where is the market? please don't increase the price @Bob

 

[Bob]

so I didn't understand. Can you put a carousel of articles, for example: Latest article insertions, on the forum homepage

Yes, you can create a WIDGET that contains Articles from AMS and are displayed in one of 8 different display types, one being FULL - CAROUSEL.

AS I've mentioned multiple times now, my XF2 Demos site is displaying some AMS and UBS content on Forum Home via the XF Widget System.

This block in red is a WIDGET that was created from the Widget Definition AMS Featured Articles and is using the display type Grid Block (there are 8 display types to choose from as mentioned in the above post).




In this shot, I've edited the widget and change the display type from Full - Grid Block to Full - Carousel. The AMS Carousel style properties for this style is set to 1 (meaning 1 piece of content at a time vs 2 like the XFRM does).

This is LIVE right now at the XF2 Demos site (will revert back to Grid Block in a few hours).

I want to buy the product where is the market?

While the store is being upgraded and configured, you'd simply need to start a conversation with me (here, not XenForo.com)

 

[Abhean]

so I didn't understand. Can you put a carousel of articles, for example: Latest article insertions, on the forum homepage? ps: I want to buy the product where is the market? please don't increase the price @Bob

This is the forum homepage for my site, it has a carousel of my articles at the top. There are some different layouts other than the one you see on my site.

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