# XenForo

## Overview

[XenForo](https://xenforo.com/) is a popular, paid forum. This guide will assume that you already have XenForo installed with a valid license (please keep in mind that XenForo is not free nor open-source, therefore, you need to purchase a license first). If you come across any problems related with the installation of XenForo please contact their support service.

## Setup Auth

### Prepare Your Settings

In your auth project's settings file, do the following:

- Add `'allianceauth.services.modules.xenforo',` to `INSTALLED_APPS` in your `local.py`
- Append the following to your `local.py` settings file:

```python
# XenForo Configuration
XENFORO_ENDPOINT = 'example.com/api.php'
XENFORO_DEFAULT_GROUP = 0
XENFORO_APIKEY   = 'yourapikey'
```

### Preparing Auth

Before continuing, it is essential to perform Django Maintenance and restart our Web Service and Workers.

::::{tabs}
:::{group-tab} Bare Metal

```shell
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
supervisorctl restart myauth:
```

:::
:::{group-tab} Containerized

```shell
docker compose --env-file=.env up -d
docker compose exec allianceauth_gunicorn bash
auth migrate
auth collectstatic
```

:::
::::

## XenAPI

By default, XenForo does not support any kind of API, however, there is a third-party package called [XenAPI](https://github.com/Contex/XenAPI) which provides a simple REST interface by which we can access XenForo's functions to create and edit users.

The installation of XenAPI is pretty straight forward. The only thing you need to do is to download the `api.php` from the official repository and upload it in the root folder of your XenForo installation. The final result should look like this:
*forumswebsite.com/***api.php**

Now that XenAPI is installed, the only thing left to do is to provide a key.

```php
$restAPI = new RestAPI('REPLACE_THIS_WITH_AN_API_KEY');
```

## Configuration

The settings you created earlier now need to be filled out.

`XENFORO_ENDPOINT` is the address to the API you added. No leading `http://`, but be sure to include the `/api.php` at the end.

`XENFORO_DEFAULT_GROUP` is the ID of the group in XenForo auth users will be added to. Unfortunately, XenAPI **cannot create new groups**, therefore, you have to create a group manually and then get its ID.

`XENFORO_API_KEY` is the API key value you set earlier.

Once these are entered, run migrations and restart Gunicorn and Celery.

## Permissions

To use this service, users will require some of the following.

```{eval-rst}
+---------------------------------------+------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Permission                            | Admin Site       | Auth Site                                                                |
+=======================================+==================+==========================================================================+
| xenforo.access_xenforo                | None             | Can Access the XenForo Service                                           |
+---------------------------------------+------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
```