We are evaluating an application called SocialEngine (http://www.socialengine.net - a Facebook clone) as a way to roll out a social community within our organization and have also evaluated Ning.com and a few other services.
I have done extensive development in Umbraco 3x and would prefer to use Umbraco to develop the application instead, but won't be able to get it on our projects list (for internal development of custom controls, etc...) prior to the deadline.
I am preparing to present umbraco as an alternative to the SocialEngine platform, but wondered if anyone has any examples of social applications built on the umbraco platform - preferably pieced together from existing controls/macros/services (as I am going to have to avoid custom development for now).
I plan to use our.umbraco.org as an example, but also need to demonstrate the possibility of other features:
User created groups Internal status updates User created photo and/or video galleries (photo tagging, etc) Internal messaging between users
I know that all of these things can be developed without too much effort, but I don't think I will be able to get it in this years project queue, which would prohibit its use as we have a deadline looming.
It seems that Umbraco is not exactly the platform of choice for a social community site. At least.. not without quite extensive customization.
During Codegarden '09 we had a long discussion about different CMS' out there and one thing I took away from it is that Umbraco is definately not suitable for everything. As an example, Niels specifically mentioned that Umbraco is not meant for social networking purposes. This is actually quite correct, Umbraco is a superb content management system, but needs quite some work to make it do the social stuff.
Another example would be a shop, Umbraco is not meant to be a shop system. However, Commerce4Umbraco uses the solid basis of DashCommerce, integrated into Umbraco to enable a commerce system in Umbraco.
So the preferred method of turning an Umbraco site into a social networking site would actually be to integrate a social networking system into Umbraco.
Hope this makes sense, it's late and I'm quite tired. :-)
You must use what umbraco is best at, which is managing content. Having said that, I should shamelessly admit I've also gone against this rule, as it took me less time to develop such a site than building it from scratch.
Bottom line: I'd use umbraco for all content related stuff, and build a social networking app that coexists happily with umbraco.
I am wondering whether you are able to highlight why you are choosing SocialEngine over Ning? Is it due to the available features, ease of integration, or other reasons? I am trying to get ideas how best to integrate a password restricted social community within a Umbraco solution.
Social network examples
We are evaluating an application called SocialEngine (http://www.socialengine.net - a Facebook clone) as a way to roll out a social community within our organization and have also evaluated Ning.com and a few other services.
I have done extensive development in Umbraco 3x and would prefer to use Umbraco to develop the application instead, but won't be able to get it on our projects list (for internal development of custom controls, etc...) prior to the deadline.
I am preparing to present umbraco as an alternative to the SocialEngine platform, but wondered if anyone has any examples of social applications built on the umbraco platform - preferably pieced together from existing controls/macros/services (as I am going to have to avoid custom development for now).
I plan to use our.umbraco.org as an example, but also need to demonstrate the possibility of other features:
User created groups
Internal status updates
User created photo and/or video galleries (photo tagging, etc)
Internal messaging between users
I know that all of these things can be developed without too much effort, but I don't think I will be able to get it in this years project queue, which would prohibit its use as we have a deadline looming.
Any examples would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Hal
It seems that Umbraco is not exactly the platform of choice for a social community site. At least.. not without quite extensive customization.
During Codegarden '09 we had a long discussion about different CMS' out there and one thing I took away from it is that Umbraco is definately not suitable for everything.
As an example, Niels specifically mentioned that Umbraco is not meant for social networking purposes.
This is actually quite correct, Umbraco is a superb content management system, but needs quite some work to make it do the social stuff.
Another example would be a shop, Umbraco is not meant to be a shop system. However, Commerce4Umbraco uses the solid basis of DashCommerce, integrated into Umbraco to enable a commerce system in Umbraco.
So the preferred method of turning an Umbraco site into a social networking site would actually be to integrate a social networking system into Umbraco.
Hope this makes sense, it's late and I'm quite tired. :-)
I agree with Sebastiaan,
You must use what umbraco is best at, which is managing content. Having said that, I should shamelessly admit I've also gone against this rule, as it took me less time to develop such a site than building it from scratch.
Bottom line: I'd use umbraco for all content related stuff, and build a social networking app that coexists happily with umbraco.
Cheers,
Dirk
Hi Sebastiaan,
I am wondering whether you are able to highlight why you are choosing SocialEngine over Ning? Is it due to the available features, ease of integration, or other reasons? I am trying to get ideas how best to integrate a password restricted social community within a Umbraco solution.
All the best, Andreas
My apologies Sebastiaan and Hal.
My post should naturally have been addressed to Hal. Sorry. Hal, I hope you are still open give your input?
All the best, Andreas
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