I have two businesses, one is web design/hosting, the other is as a motorport instructor/coach...

As well as customer sites I run two sites in the motorsport industry; one is my own personal site and the other is for an association of instructors. Starting with the association site ( www.theapdi.co.uk ):

• It has been running for nearly 2 years and already has Community Builder installed and has nearly 100 members.
• We don't want the site to be 100% a social site, it must retain its current front page and information pages.

• Can the current database from CB be imported into Jomsocial, or in other words, can the CB installation be migrated to Jomsocial?
• We want a discussion area within the site (hidden from public view). CB currently has Kunena forum installed but members don't use it. They seem to prefer the format of Facebook and use the association's closed group on there. Is Jomsocial suitable for this application?
• The association has a closed group on Facebook, can Jomsocial intergrate with that?

• Like with the association site this has to retain its main front page and other information pages.
• I would like to have a members only area of the site which will contain information pages detailing driving techniques and vehicle dynamics for my personal clients and paying public members, and a discussion group.
• Can it be customised to reflect the general appearance/colour scheme of the existing site?

• Is Jomsocial the appropriate component to use for this?
• Can it be customised to reflect the general appearance/colour scheme of the existing site?

Hi Tim,

I'll answer your questions in the order that you asked them.

Business site
1.Community builder does not use the Joomla user table so you would need to import the users./ unfortunately we don't have any kind of migration tool for this soul you would need to talk to a developer about writing a script to migrate the data across into Joomla. Jomsocial simply users the Joomla user table
2. Groups has discussions and in discussions you can add files, if the group is private then the discussion is as well.
3. Jomsocial has private groups but we do not integrate with Facebook groups

Personal site
1. Jomsocial works like any Joomla extension where you have full Joomla functionality and our product adds to the so all non Jomsocial pages can be as you wish
2. Private members area may be able to be done using a component called payplans, but out of the box Jomsocial can't do this
www.jomsocial.com/addons/memberships/payplans
3. You can customize the look and feel of jomsocial by using Joomla site templates or customizing the code. In the next version of Jomsocial 3.3 due out in a few months there will be more user friendly customization possible

Please have a look at demo.jomsocial.com here you can try out all the features of the product

Thanks Paul

I'm going to have to give it some thought. With Jomsocial being a paid for extension I need to be absolutely sure it's right for my sites before I commit to it.

One point though - our CB configuration on the association's site syncs the user tables of Joomla and Community Builder, so all the users are in the Joomla table as well as the CB table. I'm guessing the Joomla table will retain this data even if CB is uninstalled?

On the association's site we don't need a payment/subscription facility. It's a very exclusive association with currently no membership fee, but membership is by invitation/strict vetting. Members can apply via the website but acceptance (or rejection) follows discussion by the association's committee and is done manually.

Similarly my personal site doesn't require payment at the moment (although a public, paid membership may be added in the future) as the members will mostly be driver coaching clients who will get free membership of the site for simply being my driving clients. The point of this membership site and discussion area is to provide information to my existing driving clients who pay me from £350 (GBP) per day to teach them performance/competitive motorsport driving, while hiding this information from the non-paying public. For example, a client may have employed me for 4 days to work with him/her in car at a particular race track to teach them race driving techniques and specific details about that circuit. That client may then want to revise the driving techniques and learn a new track that I am not accompanying them to. In the members section of the site they will be able to access:

• Information pages about race track driving techniques.
• Track guides for other race tracks (also downloadable as PDF).
• Onboard/in-car videos.
• Discussion with me and other members for tips about driving technique and guides to other tracks.
• Etc. etc.