Community Server

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Community Server

CommunityServer.com home page
Developed by Telligent Systems
Latest release Community Server 2008 / April 15, 2008
Platform ASP.NET / Microsoft SQL Server
Genre CMS, Blog software, Forum Software, Photo Gallery
Website http://communityserver.com

Community Server is a community collaboration platform that consists of a core blog, forums, photo gallery, and file sharing system. It has additional add-ons that add support for news server access (NNTP), email server, virtualized file system, and single sign-on modules. Community Server is developed by Telligent Systems and built with ASP.NET, C#, and Microsoft SQL Server. It is available as downloadable software that can be installed on a web server or via a hosting provider such as CommunityServer.com. The most recent stable version is Community Server 2008.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

Community Server was created in 2004 from the merger of three widely-used open source ASP.NET projects: the .Text blog engine, the nGallery photo gallery, and the ASP.NET Forums.[2] The people behind those projects (Scott Watermasysk, Jason Alexander, and Rob Howard) joined together as Telligent Systems and along with several other developers created Community Server. As of 2007 Community Server is the platform behind many large community sites on the internet, including the MySpace forums.[3]

The first annual Community Server Developers Conference was held on October 20-21, 2007 in Frisco, Texas[4]. It was attended by over 100 developers.[5]

[edit] Releases

  • Community Server 1.0 - February 20, 2005[6]
  • Community Server 1.1 - June 16, 2005[7]
  • Community Server 2.0 - February 20, 2006[8]
  • Community Server 2.0 SP1 - May 26, 2006[9]
  • Community Server 2.1 - August 9, 2006[10]
  • Community Server 2.1 SP1 - October 30, 2006[11]
  • Community Server 2.1 SP2 - December 5, 2006[12]
  • Community Server 2007 - April 16, 2007[13]
  • Community Server 2007 SP1 - May 11, 2007[14]
  • Community Server 2007 SP2 - June 12, 2007[15]
  • Community Server 2007.1 - September 18, 2007[16]
  • Community Server 2007.1 SP1 - April 16, 2008[17]
  • Community Server 2008 - April 15, 2008[18]

Next Stable Release: TBD

[edit] Features

  • Forums system which can integrate with email discussion lists and news servers
  • Publishing system that manages single and multi-user blogs
  • File and photo sharing integrated with forums and blogs
  • Content mirroring to enable content syndication and republishing
  • Integrated search across blogs, forums, photos, and files in one consistent UI
  • Integrated tagging support throughout all applications
  • Search engine-friendly permalink structure
  • Extensible with support for plug-in modules, scheduled jobs, and spam rules
  • Automatic TrackBacks and Pingback
  • WYSIWYG HTML editing
  • Control panel with consistent tools for community management
  • Single sign-on authentication modules available for forms authentication, cookies, Active Directory, and Windows Live ID
  • Source code for all core components available in the free SDK download under Shared Source licensing[19]
  • ...more features

[edit] Criticism

  • The licensing terms for Community Server have changed for the 2007 version. The Personal and Business licenses are no longer available. Only the free express, professional, and enterprise licenses remain, along with a hosted edition. However the free express edition's limits were increased to 15 Blogs, 15 Forums, 10 Photo Galleries, and 250 Shared Files.[20] The pricing for the 2008 version has doubled in some cases, continuing concerns among users, mostly small businesses, that the software is becoming less affordable.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Community Server Downloads
  2. ^ Scott Watermasysk and Community Server - Rob Howard's Blog
  3. ^ Showcase - Community Server
  4. ^ Community Server Developers Conference
  5. ^ 2007 Community Server Developer Conference - Rob Howard's Blog
  6. ^ Community Server 1.0 - Community Server
  7. ^ CS 1.1 Goes RTM (or RTW) - Community Server
  8. ^ Community Server 2.0 Now Available! - Announcements
  9. ^ Community Server Critical Security Patch Released - Announcements
  10. ^ Community Server 2.1 Now Available - Announcements
  11. ^ Community Server 2.1 Service Pack 1 Now Available - Announcements
  12. ^ Community Server 2.1, Service Pack 2 - Announcements
  13. ^ Community Server 2007 - RELEASED - Announcements
  14. ^ Community Server 2007 SP1 - Available - Announcements
  15. ^ Community Server 2007 SP2 - Announcements
  16. ^ Community Server 2007.1 - Announcements
  17. ^ Community Server Downloads - Service Packs
  18. ^ Community Server 2008 Now Available!
  19. ^ Community Server 2008 Support
  20. ^ Customer support announcement - Announcements
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