Starting to evaluate SocialEngine I was positively surprised how technically open and well programmed it was. It’s expandable with plug-ins and uses Smarty to customize its look and feel.

After the trial download I had Groups, Blog and Photo Album plug-ins included and their website says that Events plug-in is currently available which I was able to look from their website. Social Engine was developed by innovative Californian software company Webligo whose business mission is to brainstorm new innovative ideas to be profitable at early stage and sell those to larger companies who can fully realize their potential. Webligo previous project BlogHoster was sold UK based Splashpress media in 2007 and since 2006 they have worked with SocialEngine (www.socialengine.net). Webligo was founded by Alex Benzer and Charlotte Genevier, who met as Pasadena Polytechnic high school in 2000.

Installation

The installation comes as downloadable compressed file which you should decompress to your server. Files will be extracted starting “files” subdirectory which was little bit odd as I would expect to run my program from the virtual root I created for it.
You will get an email which contains your installation key and attached license.txt file. You should copy this file also to your server application files directory before starting files/admin/install.php otherwise it complains and does not start. That was an odd thing to do but I assume that when purchasing you will get just new license file and not an installation key. The license file was encrypted anyway so I assume they will send me a new license.txt file after a purchase.

After your installation was successful you should delete the install.php and installsql.php for security reasons files otherwise the admin module will start complain each time you log in to that module.
You should setup full rights (777) for uploads directories listed in installation instructions.
URL’s can be specified as normal filenames or subdirectory URL’s. The server requirements are php 4.3 or higher, My Sql 4.1 or higher and when image thumbnail creation feature is necessary the GD 2.0 support. Their professional installation service will cost $30.

Usability

The signup was extremely simple. First page will ask your e-mail, password, username, second page will ask some personal information like date of birth, home address and time zone which all are customisable by administrator. The next step is to upload your photo or skip this step and as final step you are able to invite your friends by sending an email to them.

System includes several security features like email verification and verification code images which can be switched on/off from administration module. Also features like “generate random passwords for users” and “users must agree terms of service” can be switched on and off using the administration module.
The login procedure is using email address instead of the username.
The main page includes recent system activities, online members, administrator notifications and news; user can update his profile, view friends, browse other people and change your status line.

In your settings besides changing your email, password, username and time zone you can setup what kind of activities you want to be shown in your recent activities list. The options are: When I log in, When I update my profile photo, When I update my profile, When I post comment to somebody’s profile, When I add a friend, When I update my status, When I create new album, When I upload new photos, When I post comment about a photo, When I write a blog entry, When I post a comment about blog entry, When I create a group, When I join a group, When I leave a group, When I post a comment to group, and When I post a group photo so there will be plenty to choose.

Exact message texts where customizable using the administration module.
Users are able to block other users and delete the account when deciding to leave the community.
Removing from online communities should be required feature by law as some of the software products are not allowing it and it’s very complicated to get yourself out of their mailing lists once signed up.

Other profile questions and features are fully customisable from administration module so the system can be setup to any specific community. This customisation feature was extremely powerful allowing creating new tabs and all types of HTML fields (including a date field), CSS style, search ability options, field parameters and even what kind of HTML tags are allowed in text fields or is it a link and even including the possibility to use field content validation functions.

Other users where able to post comments to the profile which owner can delete when necessary, send friend requests, report inappropriate person profile to the administrator or block this person.

Friendship setting where also very customizable allowing to setup parameters like who can invite users to become friends, should friendships very verified and how, administrator or users can setup their friendship categories and should the friendship explanation field be used.
I was able to send messages only to friends and didn’t find any way to configure it from administration module. So maybe this kind of SPAM protection was already programmed into the system.
Administration module allows you to specify subnetworks based on up to two required fields from membership profiles. Subnetworks are handy to limit mostly any action using the system.
The administration module allows also user levels creation with their usage rights.

User can subscribe email notifications for new messages and comment other profiles.
Groups, Blog and Photos become as additional plug-ins and needed to be installed one by one before they can be used.

From the administration module you can setup groups to be visible for public, setup group messaging templates, create new group fields and categories. Messages can be sent for group invitation, group comments and membership requests which can be set on in Group Settings by group owner. Inappropriate groups can be reported to the system administrator. Groups will have members and comments. When posting a comment you will be always asked verification code, a feature that I wasn’t able to switch off. Again this was the SPAM protection feature already built to the system.

When creating a group you can specify the group website, does membership require the owner approval, will this group included to search results, who can view this group and who can post group comments. You can also upload the group photo, create group photo album, send out group invitations and if you are familiar with CSS, you can create your own group style. Interestingly the group website field does not show as link on group page. Maybe it’s a bug or feature not yet implemented.

The Blogging plug-in was using fckEditor written in JavaScript which had some problems when I was playing with fonts, their sizes and colours to show my entries properly. It supports links, images, flash, smiles and special characters. Table tags support for proper page formatting has been always a feature what I had missed in those. I even was able to find a bug when clicking to Tab “Blog Settings” from Editor Tab it asks “user_blog_style.php” instead of “user_blog_settings.php”.

You can change your blog colors, fonts and styles from there by writing a CSS code. For average users less technical look and feel setup features could be more convenient for their blogs.
Members can comment your blog entries and it was a feature I wasn’t able to switch off but was able to delete inappropriate comments. The administration module allows specifying are all blogs visible to non members and the default e-mail text sent to blog owner when new comment is posted. Inappropriate blog content can be reported to the system administrator.

From the administration module you can setup are blogs visible to general public until they have made private and template to the blog comment email notification.

Photos are stored in photo albums and again you are able to customise your album look and feel with your CSS programming skills.
For each album you can specify who can view it, is it included to search results and who can comment it including “only me” options. So you can use the system to store and manage your personal pictures.

After uploading photos to your album you are able to specify which one is used as album cover picture.
Photos can be commented, but not rated and as the album owner you are able to setup who can comment your photos and delete inappropriate comments. Users can report inappropriate photos to the system administrator.

Photos main page will give you statistics including how many times it have been viewed and you can switch to your friends albums from there.
From the administration module you can setup are photo pages visible to general public and new photo comment email notification template.

The Events page starts from calendar monthly view showing events you created or signed to participate. When clicking on event there the pop up window will open with event details which was a new feature not previously used on other modules. Each event can have a picture, confirmed quests and comments. You can browse quest list, register to the event or report inappropriate events to the administrator. When event creator, you can also cancel the event.
When creating an event you are able to specify event category, when and where it takes place, who is hosting this event, is it invitation only based event, will it show up on search results, who can view this event, who can post event comments and upload the event photo. As a creator of event you are able to delete inappropriate comments.

You can also send out the invitations, create event photo album and again customize the event page view with your CSS programming skills.
Administration module allows specifying email and activity field templates, post announcements, invite users, and viewing system log and site statistics.
Somehow I wasn’t able to setup banner campaigns using their evaluation version. I assume it was the restriction rather than a bug and somehow my installed version missed the logout possibility even it was showing in the upper menu line when using the demo in their website.

Conclusion
SocialEngine has been most flexible and well programmed Social Networking platforms I have seen so far. Their website does not specify any clients or recommendations, but shows a sample of their program code so I assume their tactics is sell the product only to those who will value their skills. Their license costs $300 per domain (discounts for multiple domains available) and they are asking $40 extra for each plug-in.

Technical support has been implemented thru tickets and FAQ system however I had no need to use those as everything worked as expected. I would recommend it as a core to anyone and besides their continuing development on new plug-ins hopefully there will be also third party developers for those until somebody will purchase the project from the creators.
Social Engine does not have any membership subscription based billing functionalities built in.
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Veiko Herne is lifetime entrepreneur, currently working as Independent Consultant with over 30 years experience in IT and starting his activities in Internet since 1993. After establishing and managing one of the most successful IT companies in Estonia after the collapse of Soviet Union, he later managed worldwide interest to his analytical financial accounting and HR management software packages from New York until September 11th. He is currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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