Question Is Community Builder Worth Installing?

Could somebody give me a few examples of the improvements community builder adds to their website? I have also got kunena 1.08 installed on my website and would like to see what it can do for that as well.

I think Community Builder is a better alternative to the built-in Joomla user management processes. It's better than some of its competitors - it's certainly a cheaper! - but it may not be as good as some.

Insofar as CB's user profile tying-in with Kunena, we've had a discussion about that (see "Extra" information about forum user ) although I'm still waiting to hear the experiences of other CB-Kunena users about whether it's worth the effort to adopt the CB user profile (instead of the Kunena user profile) when your users are working with the Kunena product.

We're currently discussing whether to use the Kunena login form (about which I know nothing) or the CB login as opposed to the standard Joomla login - see CB-Login instead Kunena-Login . Again, opinions are sharply divided on this subject.

We've had several discussions here at www.kunena.com about CB's extensible user profiling capabilities. For instance, the ability to add additional fields to store extra information about a user. However, most of these additional fields don't mesh with other products ... but that doesn't mean the ability to manage additional information about your users isn't a handy feature.

Some people have wondered if it's currently possible to use Community Builder with Kunena. The answer is yes. See Community Builder: the right option? . The choice is yours. If you read my comments in that discussion, you'll see I've summarised my reasons for using CB as:

I still think there's a use for Community Builder on my website. Other developers, like Acajoom and JoomGallery, have successfully integrated their products so that users can access them directly from their CB profile. Likewise, registered users can see the last n messages posted to the "Forum" on the CB profile tab.

In other words, CB could provide an umbrella for many additional services that your site provides.

As you probably know, CB 1.2 provides the means for users to update their individual timezones from the front-end; although this is quite important in a Joomla sense, I don't know if this is yet relevant in a Kunena context.

I hope that helps, although I wonder why we're having another discussion about the merits of Community Builder ... :S These kinds of questions should really be asked at www.joomlapolis.com .

Has anybody else had problems obtaining their username/password of the Joomlapolis website if they have lost it? For some reason, my normal pass word and username isn't working so I want to doublecheck what I used. However, I'm putting in all the information but the button you press to have the information sent to you is not active. It even acknowledges that my e-mail address is in their system.

I'm very reluctant to go through the process of registering again because of the amount of information you are required to enter into the registration section. It's like the third-degree, is it really necessary that they ask you all those questions? I think it's just an excuse to use the information because it's built into the software. A real turnoff for me.

Obviously they've got you over a barrel because you have to register before you can download. If I put that amount of required fields on my website, nobody would join because registering on a website is the most boring part of the whole process, you want to do it quickly and easily and then get on with things.

Oscarfishlover wrote:

I'm very reluctant to go through the process of registering again because of the amount of information you are required to enter into the registration section. It's like the third-degree, is it really necessary that they ask you all those questions? I think it's just an excuse to use the information because it's built into the software. A real turnoff for me.

I suppose it's quite legitimate for them to demonstrate the extra fields that CB can handle; that surely is much of the point of the Joomlapolis site.

I suppose it's quite legitimate for them to demonstrate the extra fields that CB can handle; that surely is much of the point of the Joomlapolis site.

yes I can understand they want to show off what the software does, but this could be easily be shown in a demo.

What I think is totally unnecessary is when you get to the "Community Builder Statistics Survey" they ask you how many users on your community board website. I'm installing it for the first time, what a stupid question. Number of community board websites, need I go on?

Anyway, I like the look of the whole system but I just don't like all the fiddly bits in between before you can download it.

Does anybody know if the joomlapolis website is having problems? I'm certainly having problems. First of all I can't retrieve my password/username. So I tried registering again. I have several e-mail addresses luckily, however their website suggested that the e-mails were already in their system, or they were not valid. That is ridiculous because they are quite valid are now used on a regular basis. I have also not used any of the other e-mail addresses for registration on the website.

I've got no idea what's going on with their website but I'm running out of patience

Oscarfishlover,

If you experience any problems with our site, please use the contact form to contact me with private details (e.g. username, email which isn't working) so I can look into it. Thanks.

(Yes, our registration form is for live demo purpose).

@oscarfishlover: I've lost my patience with this discussion.

You originally asked for a list of the merits (or benefits) of using Community Builder; I did that. Furthermore, if you had read my reply, you would discover several working examples/demonstrations of Community Builder in action.

Not only did you not fail to acknowledge my contribution, you completely switched the subject to a belligerent complaint of CB software, namely a "lost password", and Joomlapolis service. Not only does this not have any place in a Kunena discussion forum, it is (as three of us have already said) something you need to follow at Joomlapolis.

sozzled wrote:

@oscarfishlover: I'm lost my patience with this discussion.

You originally asked for a list of the merits (or benefits) of using Community Builder; I did that. Furthermore, if you had read my reply, you would discover found several working examples/demonstrations of Community Builder in action.

Not only did you not fail to acknowledge my contribution, you completely switched the subject to a belligerent complaint of CB software, namely a "lost password", and Joomlapolis service. Not only does this not have any place in a Kunena discussion forum, it is (as three of us have already said) something you need to follow at Joomlapolis.

I do apologise if I have upset or angered you in some way, that certainly wasn't my intention. Put my frustration and comments down to sitting in front of my computer for the whole day trying over and over again to register on the website. Finally I have managed to download the software in the last half an hour after the forum finally acknowledged one of my e-mails. I tried six e-mail addresses and it kept saying they were not valid. I did send an e-mail via the Joomlapolis to somebody in Greece but I've had no acknowledgement of it. That didn't really bother me because people do have holidays occasionally.

Anyway, I appreciate your contribution to this thread even if I didn't acknowledge you. To be quite honest I haven't really looked at it yet. I posted the initial question last night before I had problems downloading. Now I have it installed on my website I can now relax and start learning how to set it up.

Thanks again and hopefully we can put this matter behind us

Apology accepted

While I sympathise with your frustration about Joomlapolis, if you had read through the various discussions I made reference to, you would also have seen what else I wrote ( #6656 )

Overall, I think that CB is a good option to use. I don't want this forum to become a back-door way of airing complaints or criticisms about Community Builder, but I think several contributors have already expressed a certain "frustration" with the feedback model used at Joomlapolis, and maybe that matter needs to be taken on board.

There's a danger in starting a topic "Is someone else's product any good?" because it can invite a free-for-all bashing of the product, simply because one person's experience wasn't a 100% happy one.