Take a tour of Aurora
Welcome to Aurora. We've put together this video training course to help you get familiar with key features and concepts about Khoros' re-imagined Community Experience. This 12-video series is grouped by four community roles: Managers Moderators Developers Members The entire course takes about 1 hour to complete. Note: We will be updating these videos and adding new ones as we continue to roll out new Aurora features. Subscribe to this article to be notified when new videos are available. Community Managers Community Overview Building your community structure Designing your site Configuring feature settings Roles and permissions Gamification Measuring success Community overview (3:49) Building your community structure (6:03) Designing your site (7:54) Configuring feature settings (4:52) Roles and permissions (4:51) Gamification (4:23) Measuring success (3:08) Community Moderators Moderating your community (9:14) Community Developers Getting Started as a Developer Getting Started with Handlebars Creating Handlebars GraphQL API Getting Started as a Developer (4:58) Getting Started with Handlebars (6:56) Creating Handlebars (4:20) GraphQL API (3:54) Community Members Personalize your community experience Getting around and finding the content you want Contributing to the community Using your inbox Personalize your community experience (3:45) Getting around and finding the content you want (1:54) Contributing to the community (4:55) Using your inbox (2:46) What to read next: Getting Started as an Administrator Getting Started as a Community Manager Getting Started as a Site DesignerAbout Khoros Community: Aurora
Aurora is Khoros’ re-imagined Community experience that leverages more than 20 years of experience and learnings in the digital community space. Aurora delivers a sleek, modern, high-performance UX framework that adheres to community best practices while still giving brands complete flexibility to make changes or updates to address their specific needs. While built on the same platform as Khoros Community: Classic, Aurora includes significant changes in the new framework.What's changed in Aurora from Community Classic
This article captures some of the high-level changes (terminology, features, and concepts) that have changed (or will be changing) in Aurora from Community Classic. Terminology changes For Aurora, we have updated several terms that were previously used in Community Classic. Kudos are now called Likes. Subscriptions are now called Follows. Discussion Styles are now called Content Types. Content Types is the collective term used to describe the different types of boards community supports (forums, knowledge bases, blogs, etc.). Group Hubs are now called Groups. Tags and labels have been combined are now just all called Tags. There are two types of tags (preset and freeform). Tool changes and enhancements The site-building tool Studio has been replaced with Designer and Dev Tools. In Aurora Designer, you can edit your site’s Theme and manage Page Templates. In a future release, you'll also use this area to manage Email Templates and text strings. In the Dev Tools, you will find the tools needed to develop and customize your site. The Content Editor has been enhanced with several new features and meets accessibility requirements. Auto-save is enabled by default for all content types. Members have access to full version history of content with the ability to Delete, Edit, Compare, and Restore versions. Integration with Unsplash image libraries for Blog cover images and Page Template sections. Community Analytics is no longer a separate tool and now is built into the Community application. Where did it go? Not sure where something moved to? Here’s a list of some of the bigger things that have moved to a new place in Aurora: Admin Settings: Several of the settings pages have been simplified (or removed) and grouped differently. Settings pages that used to be in the “Community Admin” or “Admin” area are now available under Settings. Each card (tab) groups related settings into a new page. As we continue to build out more Aurora features, more cards/tabs will be added to the Settings area. Content Management Areas: Most content-related management tasks (find and edit drafts, review and manage reported abusive content, Spam Quarantine, and Moderation) are now performed from the Manage Content space: Developer Experience Aurora is built on the philosophy that internal and external developers should have access to the same development tools, empowering everyone involved with your community's user experience while providing a seamless, simple, and powerful SDK to help you get the most our of Khoros Communities. Why React? We chose React to power the web layer of our technology stack because of its ubiquitous nature and powerful built-in toolset. React, coupled with React Bootstrap, offers developers the ability to create powerful customizations to the user interface without losing out on the popular Bootstrap DLS that has been a part of the success of Khoros Communities over the years. Add the powerful Apollo Client state management library makes takes the communication between your React components and your community's data to the next level. It provides GraphQL call management, a catchable data store that monitors and responds to data updates. This update gives developers a better toolkit without taking away some of the most popular time-saving capabilities our developer community has come to appreciate. Why GraphQL? GraphQL is the query language for all of Aurora's APIs. This solution is consistent across our entire user interface, giving external developers the same backend experience we use to create Aurora's built-in features. REST API served us well in Khoros Communities for many years, but in Aurora, we wanted to give developers access to a more precise, flexible, and capable API to make data more accessible across the board. Where communities once relied on custom REST endpoints or multiple individual calls to retrieve necessary data, GraphQL can handle multiple operations at one time, and return only the data you need when you need it.
Khoros Communities 25.9 - Release Notes
The Khoros Communities 25.9 release includes performance improvements, stability enhancements, and bug fixes across search, caching, authentication, and moderation features. Classic Fixed inbox search not returning results for partial word matches. Fixed an issue where the private notes page would error when performing an empty search. Fixed image URLs not being indexable by search engines due to incorrect robot headers. Fixed an issue where Salesforce user ranks were not updating after the initial sync. Fixed archive dashboard totals showing incorrect counts due to deleted boards being included. Fixed delete confirmation errors preventing content deletion. Fixed event pages showing errors after creating and publishing new events with optional livestream details. Aurora Fixed an issue where Salesforce user ranks were not updating after the initial sync. Fixed archive dashboard totals showing incorrect counts due to deleted boards being included. Fixed an error that occurred when viewing analytics for occasion reply messages. Fixed unread and view counts not updating without a page refresh. Fixed inbox search not returning results for partial word matches. Fixed an issue where the private notes page would error when performing an empty search. Fixed image URLs not being indexable by search engines due to incorrect robot headers. Fixed an authentication issue where cookies were not being properly echoed during login/logout flows. Fixed an issue where session cookies were being incorrectly cached for anonymous users. Improved page caching performance by moving from memory-based to filesystem-based storage. Fixed a page caching issue that was reusing parent frame IDs across different users. Fixed the 3-dot action menu not working properly in text key mode within Manage Content. Fixed the 3-dot action menu not appearing for reported private messages in Manage Abuse. Fixed message action menus not responding consistently across different content types. Fixed message preview pages reloading endlessly and preventing user actions. Fixed duplicate replies being created when responding to messages at deeper thread levels. Fixed pagination issues with archived messages where the cursor was not advancing properly. Fixed a null pointer exception occurring when deleting articles via API. Fixed an issue where followers were not consistently receiving edit notifications according to their preferences. Fixed subscribers receiving unnecessary emails for non-publish workflow actions. Fixed an infinite initialization loop occurring in SDK preview for custom components. Fixed an issue where component assets were not loading correctly when switching branches. Fixed database errors caused by custom field metadata keys exceeding the allowed size limit. Fixed an issue where pasted email addresses were being replaced with suggested users when pressing Enter in group/event invites. Fixed delete confirmation errors preventing content deletion. Fixed event pages showing errors after creating and publishing new events with optional livestream details. Staging and Pre-Prod rollout: September 15 Production rollout: September 29 The rollout will follow the standard maintenance windowsAurora Analytics Metric Definitions
This article provides definitions for all the metrics available in Aurora Analytics. Aurora Analytics approximates user behavior and therefore these metrics exclude almost all nonhuman requests (Web crawlers, robots, RSS feeds, REST API calls). About how Community visit metrics are calculated When viewing visits metrics, you might see small variants in the reported numbers. This is expected when you compare visits metric for a period within a month versus a sum of months in that period. The main reasons for these differences include: Overlapping visits across months "Visits" are defined as the number of unique user sessions. A session is defined as a group of interactions one user takes within a given time frame. Sessions time out in the case of 30-minute inactivity. Assume someone browsed through a community during the last hour of a month (Month-1) and continued browsing through the first hour of next month (Month-2). In this scenario: When we measure visits for Month 1, this session is counted as 1 visit. When we measure visits for Month 2, this session is counted as 1 visit. So, when you sum up visits for Month 1 and Month 2, you see 2 total visits, whereas, if you measure visits over the 2-month period, this session is counted as a single visit. Algorithm approximation "Visits" and "visitors" metrics are an approximation algorithm in their calculations. As such, there might be a 1-2% variance in the calculations. Elastic search documentation mentions that sometimes the variance could be up to 6%. Aurora Analytics metrics and definitions Widget/Metrics Definition Page Views A page view is counted each time a browser requests a page regardless of the device type or whether the page is cached. Page Views approximate user behavior and therefore exclude non-human requests (web crawlers, bots, RSS feeds, REST API calls). Page Views (Trend graph) Page Views trend graph is a line graph that shows how the Page Views are trending for the selected time frame. Visits A visit is one or more page views over time by a uniquely identified visitor. A cookie set in the browser identifies visitors (anonymous or registered), so if a visitor has cookies turned off, each page view counts as a new visit. The visit counter increments as soon as the visitor views any community page; the visit ends after 30 minutes of inactivity. After the 30-minute timeout, the next page view counts as a new visit. The Mobile Visits metric is a subset of the Visits metric and includes requests from mobile web browsers only. Unique Visitors The number of unique visitors over the specified time interval. When a visitor (registered or anonymous) views a page, the application looks for a visitor cookie. If no cookie is found, a new cookie is created, and the visitor counts as a new unique visitor. If a visitor cookie is found, the Unique Visitor counter is not incremented. If cookies are cleared after a visit, the next visit sets a new cookie and counts a new unique visitor. Since cookies are browser dependent, so are unique visitors. Users who access the community from different browsers count as a unique visitor. The Mobile Unique Visitors metric is a subset of the Unique Visitors metric and includes visitors who used mobile web browsers only over the specified time interval. Page Views/Visit The average number of Page Views per Visit for the time frame selected. Visits vs. Unique Visitors The trend of the number of visits to the community site against the number of unique visitors for the selected time frame. Visits by User Type The number of visits made by anonymous users and signed-in users. Anonymous users also refer to community members who have not logged in. Learn more about Visits by User Type. Visit Referrals The number of community visits that originated from specific URL domains. This metric helps you understand how much traffic is coming in from different search engines, social networks, or links on your company website. Completed Registrations The number of member registrations completed during the selected time period (excludes partial/abandoned registrations). A registration is considered complete when the visitor finishes the sign-up flow and is given a unique user ID. If the visitor leaves the sign-up flow before being granted their unique user ID, the registration is considered to be abandoned, and the completed registration counter is not incremented. If the community uses Single Sign On (SSO), Khoros increments the completed registration count the first time it receives an authentication token that contains a unique User ID. Partial Registrations The number of user registrations abandoned during the selected time period. Completed and Partial Registrations The line graph shows how the completed and partial registrations are trending over the selected time frame. DAU/MAU DAU (Daily Active Users) is the number of unique members who engage (at least one page view) with the community in a one-day window. MAU (Monthly Active Users) is the number of unique members who engage (at least one page view) with the community over a month or 30-day window. The ratio of DAU to MAU is the proportion of monthly active members who engage with the community in a single day window. Member Time on Site The Member Time metric indicates the total number of minutes from first page request to last page request for each visit of all registered members in your community during the date range of the report. Member time does not capture the time of actions, such as likes, unless the member requests a new page after the action. Nor does it include the last 30 minutes after the last page request before the session times out. Member time is calculated from the time of the first page request, such that a session that started at 11:50pm on day 1 and ending at 12:15am on day 2 is counted as member time for day 1. New vs. Returning Members New members are members who have never visited the community and are visiting for the first time. Returning members are members who have visited the community before. This line graph shows the trend of new and returning members over the selected time frame. Note that this widget will show data for the last 30 days only, irrespective of the selected date range. Depending on the time range you choose in the dashboard settings, you may get partial data or no data. New vs. Returning Anonymous Users When a user views the community without signing in, the community looks for cookies saved on their device. If there is no cookie present, then the user is treated as a New Anonymous User. If cookies are present, then the user is treated as a Returning Anonymous User. Since members can also view the community without signing in, they are also considered Anonymous. Note that this widget will show data for the last 30 days only, irrespective of the selected date range. Depending on the time range you choose in the dashboard settings, you may get partial data or no data. Forum This widget shows the engagement on the selected Place for the date range selected. Shows the number and trend line of the number of discussions created, number of likes received, number of replies for the time frame and selected Place. Click View Details for further insights. Blog This widget shows the engagement on the selected Blog for the date range selected. Shows the number and trend line of the number of posts created, number of likes received, and the number of comments for the time frame and selected Place. Click View Details for further insights. Knowledge Base This widget shows the engagement on the selected Knowledge Base for the date range selected. Shows the number and trend line of the number of articles created, number of likes received, and the number of comments for the time frame and selected Place. Click View Details for further insights. Places - Follows The total number of followers for the selected Place. Topics - Follows The total number of followers for the selected Content. Observing vs. Participating vs. Contributing This widget shows the engagement between members who are observing, participating and contributing in the community for the place and time frame selected. Observing members are those who have signed into the community and their engagement is limited only to viewing the contents. Participating members are those who reply or like posts in the community. Contributing members are those who create content or provide solutions in the community. Private Messages This widget shows the number of private messages sent, its trend line and the messages per conversation in the community for the time frame selected. Messages sent The number of private messages sent from the inbox by all the community members during the selected time frame. Messages sent (trend graph) The trend line graph showing the number of private messages sent from the inbox by all the community members during the selected time period. Discussions The number of Discussions in the selected Place during the selected time frame. Likes The number of likes received for the Discussions and replies in the selected Place during the selected time frame. Replies The number of replies received for the Discussions in the selected Place during the selected time frame. Engagement Shows the trend line for number of Discussions, likes, and replies in the Place during the selected time period in Forums Details. Shows the trend line for number of Blog posts, likes, and comments in the Place during the selected time period in Blogs Details. Shows the trend line for number of articles, likes, and replies in the Place during the selected time period in Knowledge Base Details. Shows the trend line for number of ideas, votes, and comments in the Place during the selected time period in Ideas Board Details. Time to First Reply The time taken (average) for Discussions in the selected Place to receive its first reply after it has been initially submitted. It is typically measured from the moment the Discussion is published to the moment someone replies to it. First Replies The total number of first comments on all the Discussions in the selected Place during the selected time frame. If for the selected time frame there are 10 Discussions in the selected Place, and only 4 have received a reply, then the total number of first replies is 4. If for the selected time frame there are 10 Discussions in the selected Place and only 1 Discussion has replies, even if that one Discussion has 5 total replies, the First Replies is 1. Marked As Solved The number of Discussion replies that are marked as an accepted solution for the selected Place and for the selected time frame. There is only 1 solution per Discussion. Marked As Solved Trend Shows the trend line for the number of replies that are marked as an accepted solution for the forums in the selected Place and for the selected time frame. Solutions Authored The number of solutions the member provided for a discussion Time to Solution The average time taken for the replies in Discussions for the selected Place to be marked as an accepted solution. It is measured from the moment the Discussion is posted until one of its replies is marked as an accepted solution. Solution Views A count of page views of Discussions with an accepted solution after the Discussion has had a reply marked as an accepted solution. Forum - Follows The total number of followers for the selected Forum during the time frame selected. Discussions - Follows The total number of followers for the Discussions in the selected Place during the time frame selected. New and Trending Discussions The total number of new Discussions and trending Discussions in the Forum selected during the selected time frame. The metric values for Trending Discussions depends on the minimum number of views set in the Engagement dashboard settings. Posts The number of blog posts in the selected Place during the selected time frame. Comments (for Blogs and Ideas) The number of comments the blog posts or Ideas in the selected Place received during the selected time frame. Articles The number of Knowledge Base articles in the selected Place during the selected time frame. Blog - Follows The total number of followers for the Blog in the selected Place during the time frame selected. Posts - Follows The total number of followers for the Blog posts in the selected Place during the time frame selected. Knowledge Base - Follows The total number of followers for the Knowledge Bases in the selected Place during the time frame selected. Article - Follows The total number of followers for the Knowledge Bases articles in the selected Place during the time frame selected. TTFR Time to First Reply TTFS Time to First Solution Helpful Votes The number of votes the Knowledge Base board or article received stating that they were helpful. Unhelpful Votes The number of votes the Knowledge Base board or article received stating that they were unhelpful. Members Joined The number of members who joined the Group. Members Left The number of members who left the Group. Invitations Sent The number of invitations sent to members to join the Group. Invitations Accepted The number of invitations that were accepted by members to join the Group. Ideas Snapshot (widget) This widget contains the metrics related to Ideas Board. The metrics are number of ideas, number of comments received, number of votes received during the selected time period for the Place selected. Ideas (Groups, Events and Members reports) Total number of ideas created during the selected time period for the selected Place. Votes Total number of votes received during the selected time period for the selected Place. Idea Votes (Members report) Total number of votes given by members during the selected time period for the selected Place. Idea Votes Given (Members report) Total number of votes given by members during the selected time period for the selected Place. Idea Votes Received (Members report) Total number of votes given to the member's ideas during the selected time period for the selected Place. Closed Total number of ideas closed during the selected time period for the selected Place. Completed Total number of ideas completed during the selected time period for the selected Place. Events (Groups, Events, and Members reports) The number of events in the selected Place during the selected time frame. RSVP-Attending (Groups, Events and Members reports) The number of members who RSVP'd 'yes' to the events in the selected Place during the selected time frame. RSVP-Interested (Groups, Events, and Members reports) The number of members who RSVP'd 'Interested' to the events in the selected Place during the selected time frame. Attended The number of members who attended the events in the selected Place during the selected time frame. Events Attendance (Members report) The number of members who attended the events in Groups for selected Place during the selected time frame. Events Attended (Members report) The number of events the member attended during the selected time frame. Events by type (widget) This widget shows engagement on events based on the event type (In-person, Online, and Hybrid). Lead-up to the Event (widget) This widget shows metrics on all the activities that occurred on the event before it started. Note: In Classic Analytics, a summation of all posts in the community (root topics and replies across discussion styles) is presented as the Posts metric in the Categories report. However, in Aurora Analytics, the root topics and replies across content types (Forums, KB, Blog, Ideas, and Events) are presented as specific/independent metrics, instead of adding them together and presenting as the Posts metric. Related topics: About Aurora Analytics Dashboard Settings Aurora Analytics Reports
Khoros Communities - Updated Release Process
Updates 13-Oct-2025: Added more details and clarified communication process To improve your experience and simplify our release process, we are updating how we handle Khoros Communities releases. This updated process will start to apply from Communities Release 25.10. What's Changing Communities will have two types of releases going ahead - Standard releases and Patch releases Standard releases happen on a regular cadence and include features and bug fixes. Opted-in customers are automatically upgraded with clear windows to change their decision throughout the process Patch releases address critical issues outside the regular release schedule and are automatically applied to all customers on the latest version Automated support tickets make it easy to manage your upgrade preferences, request immediate upgrades. Normal support tickets can be used to update your Upgrade Notification Contacts (and for all of the requests your account team is also available) Email notifications keep your Upgrade Notification Contacts informed at every stage: release notes publication, stage upgrade completion, and production upgrade completion Production releases are published as scheduled maintenances on our status page, providing real-time visibility and updates if anything changes Clear timelines provide transparency with defined windows to adjust your preferences Standard Releases We will have a standardized release process for both Aurora and Classic. In a standard release, opted-in customers will be auto-upgraded to the latest release. These releases will include features and bug fixes. Version numbers for the standard release will follow the existing version numbers. However, we will no longer be treating releases as major or minor - we will treat every release as a standard release. Throughout this process, you can manage your upgrade preferences using automated support tickets or by contacting your account team, who can assist with any of these requests. The process will begin when we publish the release notes. The release notes will announce the plan and scope of an upcoming release. After we post the release notes here on ATLAS Community, customers will be notified by email and will have six days to change their automatic upgrade preference (opt-in or opt-out). After this period, we will upgrade the stage environments. We will then open a testing window, where customers can test on their stage environments and report any issues through support tickets. Customers will have thirteen days to opt-out if needed, allowing you additional time to validate the release with your specific customizations and integrations, for example. At the end of the testing window, we will perform the upgrade in production for customers who have not opted out during this period. For both stage and production, we will use existing Maintenance windows, as we expect downtime. Production releases will also be published as scheduled maintenances on our status page, where you can find real-time updates if anything goes out of schedule or is delayed. If you are on an older version, you have the following options: Use the automated opt-in ticket to opt back into auto-upgrades (you will receive the next scheduled release) Use the automated upgrade request ticket to upgrade to the latest released version at any time Communication All email notifications for standard releases are sent to your Upgrade Notification Contacts for each instance. To add, remove, or change your Upgrade Notification Contacts, contact our support team or your account team. Release Notes Publication Email When we publish the release notes here on ATLAS Community, your Upgrade Notification Contacts will receive an email containing: Link to the release notes Your current upgrade decision (opt-in or opt-out) The upgrade timeline for this release All customers, regardless of their upgrade decision, can change their preferences at any time using the automated support tickets. Stage Upgrade Completion Email After your stage environment is successfully upgraded, your Upgrade Notification Contacts will receive an email confirming: Stage upgrade completion Your current upgrade decision (opt-in) The scheduled production upgrade date How and when you can opt-out if needed (anytime during the two-week testing window) Production Upgrade Completion Email After your production environment is successfully upgraded, your Upgrade Notification Contacts will receive a confirmation email. Example Timeline Here's a typical timeline for a standard release: Day 1: Release notes published here on ATLAS Community; Upgrade Notification Contacts receive email with release details, current upgrade decision, and timeline Days 1-6: Period to change automatic upgrade preference Day 7: Release preparation (not possible to change decision anymore) Day 8-9: Stage environments upgraded; Upgrade Notification Contacts receive email confirming stage completion, upgrade decision, and production upgrade date Days 10-22: Stage testing window (opt-out available anytime during this period) Day 23: Release preparation (not possible to change decision anymore) Day 24-25: Production upgrade for opted-in customers; Upgrade Notification Contacts receive confirmation email Patch Releases Patch releases address critical issues outside the regular release schedule. These include security vulnerabilities, bugs affecting multiple customers, or issues impacting release stability. Patches are automatically applied to all customers on the latest version and cannot be opted out of due to their critical nature. Our team will publish the release notes, notify customers, and apply patches in a three-day window. Upgrade Notification Contacts will receive email notification when patch release notes are published. Version numbering for patch releases will follow <standard release version number>.<number>, where number will be incremented for each patch and reset after a particular standard version. As an example, the first patch after 25.8 will be numbered 25.8.1, the second patch as 25.8.2 and so on. However, the first patch applied after 25.9 will be 25.9.1. We will use Change windows for non-downtime needs and maintenance windows timeslots for downtime needs. Patch releases will also be published as scheduled maintenances on our status page, where you can find real-time updates if anything changes. If a patch applies to customers on an older version, your account team will reach out to coordinate the upgrade. Tickets We provide two types of support tickets to help you manage your upgrades: Automated Support Tickets Opt-in ticket: For opted-out customers who want to opt back in for automatic upgrades Opt-out ticket: For customers who want to opt out of automatic upgrades Upgrade request ticket: To upgrade to the latest version immediately at any time For more information on managing your instance upgrade settings, see How to Manage Instance Upgrade Settings with the AI assistant. Regular Support Tickets Manage Upgrade Notification Contacts ticket: To add, remove, or change contacts who receive upgrade notifications [Khoros Classic can also use this guide] Use these to enquire about a release, report bugs, or any issues encountered during testing or in your environment: How to Make the Best Use of the Khoros AI Support Agent. You can go to our product-specific support portal here: Khoros Community Classic and Khoros Community Aurora. What to expect next Moving forward, based on feedback on the new release process, we will also be reviewing the cadence of releases, which is right now monthly. The intent is to provide high-quality releases, minimizing customer disruptions, and allowing customers time to provide feedback and adjust.Khoros Communities: Aurora 25.04 Release Notes
This release brings new tools to help you manage and protect your community. You can now move and merge content across types, mute inbox conversations, and view history for all content types. We've enhanced security checks for images and private messages, and admins can now prompt members for feedback and export their responses. Additionally, there are enhancements to GraphQL. Several bugs are also fixed.
