XenForo [How To] Installing XenMoods for XenForo

Recently I have started working on a new site for Mrs. Kevin and one of the add-ons being used is XenMoods. XenMoods is a fun little add-on for XenForo that allows your uses to add small "mood" icons under their avatar.

Below are the steps on how to duplicate the instance of XenMoods that we are using at GGD Fans without having to do XenForo template edits.

• Download XenMoods. (Be sure to give a 'Like' to Dismounted.)
• Upload the files to your server but do not do the template edits.
• Visit this post within the XenMoods thread and download the attachment & follow the installation instructions. (Be sure to give a 'Like' to EasyTarge.)
• Visit this post within the XenMoods thread and change the template as per the instruction. This is not a XenForo template but rather a XenMoods template. Updating it will make it look a little nicer. (Be sure to give a 'Like' to EasyTarget.)
• Download Shelley's updated mood pack. This will give you twice as many mood images to use with XenMoods and are a bit nicer looking. (Be sure to give a 'Like' to Shelley.)
• Visit this post within Shelley's updated mood pack thread for instructions on how to run a SQL command to update your XenMoods to use the new images. Be very careful! As part of the instructions you will delete one of your SQL tables. If you are not comfortable with this, stop! It is better to ask for help or do the changes manually rather than risk you deleting the wrong table. (Be sure to give a 'Like' to Vodkaholic.)
• Go into your ACP and check out the various mood images. Some of them are not kid friendly so you may want to make sure you give all of them a good look if you are running an all-ages site.
• Go into your ACP and edit the usergroup permissions so that your users can view & use the new XenMoods.

That's it! It will take you a few steps but you will end up with a nice add-on for your users to have some fun with.

I liked vMoods on vBulletin (with Shelley's updated mood pack) but had to removed it because it was adding 2 or 3 seconds to the page load times.

For some reason, like most things, it looks much better on XF.

Performance with these types of add-ons is one of my concerns as well. They really should be using some type of caching mechanism to avoid having to do real-time queries when a page loads (caching, for example, is used with v3A for the postbit awards).

For the most part I think it is because most XF sites are currently going with really minimum light-weight styles without a whole lot of extras being shown. I've seen a few XF styles out there that look almost identical to the heavy styles of vB & IPB and, at least for me, I really don't think they look that good.

XenMoods is now installed here at CinVin as well. Followed the instructions above, no problems.