What is Community Server? - Forums Help - vBulletin, IPB, phpBB, SMF skins and community

ForumsHelp · 03-09-2007, 02:11 AM

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 2.1 SP2.

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. The developers behind those projects (Scott Watermasysk, Jason Alexander, and Rob Howard) joined together as Telligent Systems and along with several other developers created Community Server.
Past Release Dates:

Community Server 1.0 - February 20, 2005
Community Server 1.1 - June 16, 2005
Community Server 2.0 - February 20, 2006
Community Server 2.0 SP1 - May 26, 2006
Community Server 2.1 - August 9, 2006
Community Server 2.1 SP1 - October 30, 2006
Community Server 2.1 SP2 - December 5, 2006

Current Beta Release:

Community Server 2007 Beta 1 - February 15, 2007

Next Stable Release:

Community Server 2007 - April 15, 2007

Features:

Robust forums system that can additionally integrate with email discussion lists and news servers
Publishing system that can manage thousands of 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
Easy WYSIWYG HTML editing
Control panel with consistent tools for managing your community
Single sign-on authentication modules available for forms auth, cookies, Active Directory, and Windows Live ID
Source code for all core components available in the free SDK download
...more features

Criticism:

One of the single sign-on authentication modules available in Community Server is Microsoft's Windows Live ID. However it can take weeks for the average programmer to integrate a CS site with the Live ID service.
The licensing terms for Community Server have changed for the upcoming 2007 version. The free non-commercial license is now restricted to 10 Blogs, 15 Forums, 10 Photo Galleries, and 100 Shared Files. An unlimited non-commercial license is $99.

- Website: Community Server
- Support: Community Server

Arizona · 09-25-2007, 02:19 PM

There is actually an open source version of Community Server. They must have forked the project a long time ago, but you can find it at Community (Advanced) Starter Kit (C# .NET) w/ AJAX - Home.

I think Community Server is a great product, but the license fees are killer. It is hard to justify spending that much money. The open source version is really coming along and I hope will give the commercial version a run for their money.

03-09-2007, 02:11 AM	#1 (permalink)
User Profile ForumsHelp Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Age: 32 Posts: 968 Total Points: 294,374 Donate My Zoints Profile My Photos: (1) My Mood:	What is Community Server? 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 2.1 SP2. 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. The developers behind those projects (Scott Watermasysk, Jason Alexander, and Rob Howard) joined together as Telligent Systems and along with several other developers created Community Server. Past Release Dates: Community Server 1.0 - February 20, 2005 Community Server 1.1 - June 16, 2005 Community Server 2.0 - February 20, 2006 Community Server 2.0 SP1 - May 26, 2006 Community Server 2.1 - August 9, 2006 Community Server 2.1 SP1 - October 30, 2006 Community Server 2.1 SP2 - December 5, 2006 Current Beta Release: Community Server 2007 Beta 1 - February 15, 2007 Next Stable Release: Community Server 2007 - April 15, 2007 Features: Robust forums system that can additionally integrate with email discussion lists and news servers Publishing system that can manage thousands of 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 Easy WYSIWYG HTML editing Control panel with consistent tools for managing your community Single sign-on authentication modules available for forms auth, cookies, Active Directory, and Windows Live ID Source code for all core components available in the free SDK download ...more features Criticism: One of the single sign-on authentication modules available in Community Server is Microsoft's Windows Live ID. However it can take weeks for the average programmer to integrate a CS site with the Live ID service. The licensing terms for Community Server have changed for the upcoming 2007 version. The free non-commercial license is now restricted to 10 Blogs, 15 Forums, 10 Photo Galleries, and 100 Shared Files. An unlimited non-commercial license is $99. - Website: Community Server - Support: Community Server __________________ vB Alien Custom vBulletin Skin Design & vBulletin Services

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09-25-2007, 02:19 PM	#2 (permalink)
User Profile Arizona Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 25 Total Points: 470 Donate My Zoints Profile My Photos: (0)	There is actually an open source version of Community Server. They must have forked the project a long time ago, but you can find it at Community (Advanced) Starter Kit (C# .NET) w/ AJAX - Home. I think Community Server is a great product, but the license fees are killer. It is hard to justify spending that much money. The open source version is really coming along and I hope will give the commercial version a run for their money.