What’s new in XFtoWP 1.5

Table of Contents

  • 1. Introducing Bulk Actions
  • 2. Streamlined Admin Logs
  • 3. User Syncing Tools
  • 1. Redirect and login to XenForo from WordPress
  • 2. Login with XF user credentials
  • 3. Generate auto-login URLs
  • 4. Introducing the Register XF to WP companion addon
  • Try out XFtoWP 1.5 today
  • XFtoWP 1.5 Upgrade Guide

The long-awaited XFtoWP 1.5 is finally ready for use on live websites! This major new release brings powerful new user syncing tools and the ability to perform bulk actions across your websites.

1. Introducing Bulk Actions

Import XenForo Users to WordPress

The star of the show in XFtoWP 1.5 is the new Bulk actions panel which is your new portal to conducting mass syncing actions across your websites.

Whether starting your site from scratch, or bridging together existing sites, you can now perform the following bulk actions to get your sites in-sync from the convenience of your WordPress dashboard:

  • Import WP users to XF
  • Import XF users to WP
  • Refresh connected users
  • Disconnect users
  • …more coming soon

The job of bulk syncing can be a performance headache, especially when you are dealing with two separate site databases across a REST API!

With this in mind, the Bulk actions tool has been designed to only make cross-site requests when necessary and never waste potentially expensive API requests for users that already meet the criteria of any given action.

This new tool will make managing cross-site content the easiest its ever been, and is the perfect complement to the battle-tested user syncing and thread creation tools that have been introduced to XFtoWP over the years.

2. Streamlined Admin Logs

User syncing logs with pagination.

When you are linking content together across sites it can be useful to have an at-a-glance view of which content is linked together for easy management.

XFtoWP logs syncing has been available since version 1.2, but for sites with thousands of linked content the data format of these many logs just wasn’t working well at scale.

In version 1.5 the Logs system has been migrated to the new xfwp_logs database table, which will save and access your logs data in a far more scalable and efficient way.

If you are one of those sites with thousands of connected users or threads, you will find it far easier to browse through your sync logs and can even use fancy pagination links to jump across pages:

3. User Syncing Tools

As you’ve just seen, it is no longer an impossible task to sync your users across WordPress and XenForo! Now, the next challenge is to create a seamless login experience once those users are connected.

Why login twice when you should only do it once? That’s the next biggest problem XFtoWP solves with its Login actions tools.

Based on your ideal user low, you have three helpful options to create a seamless login experience without relying on unreliable cookies and session storage:

1. Redirect and login to XenForo from WordPress

A new way to sync and login users to XenForo has been released in XFtoWP 1.5.

Simply enable this option from XFtoWP > User syncing > Redirect to XenForo after login and users will auto-login and redirect to your forum after successfully logging in as a WordPress user account.

If you do not wish to redirect the user every time, you can now set an option to only do so once every 30 days, or another number to your liking:

2. Login with XF user credentials

XFtoWP 1.5 introduces a powerful feature that allows your users to enter their XF login credentials to a WP login screen. If the login is a success, an associated WP user can now be registered and synced to this XF account.

This feature is especially helpful to websites starting from a XenForo-first setup, and want an invisible way for users to sync into the new system.

3. Generate auto-login URLs

As of XFtoWP 1.5 you can create a special page that redirects to an auto-login authorization link securely generated after successfully logging into WordPress.

Clicking this link will redirect the user to your forum and auto logged-in with the synced XenForo user account, no additional login details required!

If a user is already logged-in, this link will safely just redirect to the forum index.

To create this page, go to WP admin > Pages > Add new and create an empty page with your preferred permalink. After you publish this new page, copy the page ID from the URL.

Example URL from WP admin:

https://xftowp.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=9999&action=edit

Next, go to WP admin > XenForo > User sync > Settings > Forum login page ID and paste the page ID into this text field.

After, save the XFtoWP settings.

It is recommended you link to this page anywhere you would normally link to your forums URL in WordPress—even your nav menus.

Try it! Follow these steps to setup a test auto-login link:

  1. Add the new redirect page as the “Forums” URL in your menu
  2. Find a WP user who is already synced to an XF user
  3. Log out of WP and XF
  4. Login to WP and click the “Forums” URL
  5. Success – you should be redirected and logged in to your XenForo forum!

4. Introducing the Register XF to WP companion addon

Depending on the needs of your site setup, you may still want to accept user registrations from XenForo.

As a bonus to the XFtoWP 1.5 release you can now download a new companion addon that ensures all users who register to XenForo will also be registered to WordPress.

Download this free XenForo addon here.

Paired with XFtoWP 1.5, all users who register from XenForo will be synced to your WordPress website automatically. This includes syncing custom user fields and filling out the XenForo profile options in WordPress, like so:

Sync users from XenForo to WordPress.

Try out XFtoWP 1.5 today

XFtoWP 1.5 Upgrade Guide

To upgrade websites running XFtoWP 1.4.x to the now stable XFtoWP 1.5 release, follow this guide to import existing site data for full support for the plugin’s powerful new features and a more streamlined logging system.

Read XFtoWP 1.5 upgrade guide →

Forum replies (6)Comments (0)

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JBS

Member

12 messages 3 likes

Is there a timeline for XPtoWP 1.5 full release?

Just trying to make plans for my website for 2023.

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JBS

Member

12 messages 3 likes

XPtoWP

Sorry... that was supposed to say XFtoWP.

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Alex

MD developer

6,918 messages 1,949 likes

Very close, and I am determined to beat the New Year's clock!

Reply 1 Like

Alex

MD developer

6,918 messages 1,949 likes

Progress: the current dev version of XFtoWP 1.5 has a huge round of stability and far more consistent results when using the bulk actions tool. Through a lot of test imports on different user bases (new and old), the plugin is now far better at troubleshooting any potential syncing issues and helps ensure as many users get synced as possible when running an action.

With these smarter checks in place, the plugin is able to benefit in other areas as seen with two new checkboxes in the Login actions section of the User syncing settings:

View image at the forums

You will now be able to limit the auto-login and redirect feature to only one login every 30 days, which can make a big difference for the user experience. With the "Redirect to XF after login" checkbox active, a synced user who logs into WordPress will auto-login and redirect to your forum seamlessly without entering a password again.

This feature is awesome, but always created a redirect after login which may not be desirable. With the new setting enabled, your login form will return to normal and you can setup a custom login redirect by other means, or just continue to the normal WP admin as expected.

The other new feature here is the "Register and sync user in WP if no account is found", and it is mighty powerful! But we will get back to that in a moment...

By first checking the "Enable XF user login's from WordPress", a user coming from your XenForo forum will be able to enter their login credentials from a WP login form and will login if the details are correct! This is great for sites coming from an XF-first site and want to help onboard users to a new WordPress portal.

Now, by enabling the new setting XFtoWP will not only login the XF user, but create a new or sync an existing WP user to that XenForo account! This all happens in the background and all the user has to do is enter their login details like normal.

The possibilities the final version of XFtoWP makes are truly exciting, and with how smoothly the last stint of development has been going I am debating on whether to make the next release the final release candidate, or mark it stable.

Another couple of days will tell us the answer here, but I wanted to share this important progress update towards the finish line of the exceedingly powerful XFtoWP 1.5 plugin.

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JBS

Member

12 messages 3 likes

It is great to read all of this... your plugin is awesome... keep up the great work!

Reply 1 Like

Alex

MD developer

6,918 messages 1,949 likes

Notice: XFtoWP.com will be offline for a brief period for a redesign and preparation for the launch of XFtoWP 1.5. Stay tuned and see you for New Years!

Reply 1 Like

Alex

MD developer

6,918 messages 1,949 likes

There's something about the New Year that ignites either a passion for completion or a burning last chance reminder to finish what you started.

In other words, XFtoWP 1.5 is now complete and available for download!

Click here for an entirely new XenForo to WordPress experience...

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