/Open Source/ Build a social network
01/11/2007 | Filed under Develop > Open Source
With its swift installation and simple set-up, Elgg provides you with all the tools you need to become the next MySpace. Karl Hodge shows you how it’s done
The last few years have seen social networks become the internet’s most popular applications. Blogging is one thing, but blogging in like-minded communities gives you a much needed audience, and helps you to make friends at the same time.
Elgg is a PHP-powered script that helps you set up a fully featured social network in your own web space. You’ll need PHP support, and a spare MySQL database. Make sure you have a username and password for it before you begin your installation. The software’s still in beta, but the version I used is a robust and stable release.
Why set up a social network on your own site rather than on MySpace or LiveJournal? The answer is control. You maintain absolute control over the look and feel of the whole site, decide which modules to add and which to leave out. You can even change the entire layout of the page template with just a little HTML savvy. In short, why join MySpace when you can be MySpace?
About the author:
Name: Karl Hodge
Occupation: Journalist
Areas of expertise: Interface design and development
Clients: nerve.com
If I were a kitchen implement… I’d be a smoothie maker
Click here to download tutorial PDF
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Comments
gabs / 06/11/2007 / 16:57 / http://www.seohome.co.uk
Please no more..
Anyway google has just launch its open social API ...
Nicola D'Agostino / 07/11/2007 / 12:31 / http://www.nezmar.com
Yes, please, no more social networks, thank you.
nda
aaron / 07/11/2007 / 14:45 / http://www.gamecron.com/
I think companies are starting to embrace social networks for intranets. It's really a good idea, since some want to separate work from play, so friends at work might not be friends you see on the weekend.
Justin Meyer / 09/11/2007 / 10:24 / http://jupiterit.com
Can it support open social? That would be really cool.
LASRnet / 09/11/2007 / 16:04 / http://www.lasr.net
I have got the perfect site to add this too. Thanks for posting this article. I was looking to implement something and this could be the answer.
bubba / 10/11/2007 / 14:45
... neither your post nor elgg's site makes any reference of opensocial ...
bav / 12/11/2007 / 15:58
Why not Boonex Dolphin? It's free and makes Elgg look very 'Web 1.0' in comparison.
keven ages / 14/11/2007 / 19:39 / http://www.squad5.net
I started using ELGG about 2 years ago, thinking it was my answer to social networking/community building.
I am now of the opinion that this project shouldn't even be considered opensource. There is absolutely no documentation, answers to specific 'core' questions on their forums are vague at best. The program itself is about 14 megs and really doesn't do very much to justify that kind of file size (Drupal is 2.1 megs and does a lot more out of the box).
So if you want a pseudo social networking tool that you don't need to tweak or add-on anything to, this might be the perfect solution, however you will rip a lot of your own hair out.
Makes me wonder if the author of this article even bothered to install this themselves and actually TRY it before endorsing it.
Joel C. Yuvienco / 24/11/2007 / 06:31 / http://people.dlscanlubang.org
I guess it's just a matter of personal preference. It works fine with me as a community member in a school setting.
Dan / 27/11/2007 / 17:27
Would like to recommend 2 websites for people who are looking for free social network hosting
EveryVisitor.com
ColectiveX.com
Jason R / 30/11/2007 / 21:34 / http://www.littlebearmedia.com
I just found a site that seems to be open social.
What do u think this was built with: http://plugin.com/home.php
Such a clean design.
Keven Ages / 17/12/2007 / 14:37 / http://www.squad5.net
@Joel C. Yuvienco
I totally agree, I just think the author is misleading the audience by comparing 'elgg' to MySpace or Live Journal.
apples vs oranges.
Jeremy / 17/12/2007 / 20:23 / http://saintlouisconnect.com
I have been using PHPIzabi for a while. Works Perfect. I tried Dolphin and others with no where near the support.
Charlie / 28/12/2007 / 14:47 / http://www.opensocialnetwork.es
My team and I are creating a social network of open source and anyone who wants can help as developer or user. Although we are in the planning stage we want to be a great software to create your own social network.
In my opinion have control of your social network is necessary and further if you have the source code. Also is necessary support as a good documentation. And all this we are going to try do.
Jasper / 29/12/2007 / 11:41 / http://www.sameagain.net
If you want real absolute control, it's probably best to write your own
Cameron Inquiry / 03/06/2008 / 18:51 / http://www.cameroninquiry.ca
@ Michael / @ Jasper
While creating and coding your own has its advantages, the time that is required and the many nuances means that you cannot be quick to launch a site. Many of the "out of box" type software apps in this niche allow for a site to get up and running quickly, while they continue to work in the background on the issues of developing their own.
Bakoo / 10/06/2008 / 13:33 / http://www.bakoo.co.uk
Have used Boonex and think its along the right lines, but needs plenty more to get it to where i would want it to be...
I noticed that VBull has social networking in its latest forum offerings, even though i have to say i am not impressed...
Reading this tutorial now, so hope good...
Deepak Kumar / 20/06/2008 / 17:08 / http://www.livetechtalk.com
Hi,
Good to hear this. I will try to use the elgg software to develop our next social networking site. I think if we use the elgg we can make a very good Social Networking site.
Thanks for post the information
Cheers!
Mike / 21/06/2008 / 04:39 / http://www.makeasocialnetwork.com
Dolphin (from Boonex) is the way to go if you're trying to start your own site.. it has all the video, photo, and music stuff built in.
Al / 25/06/2008 / 08:45 / http://www.mindyourstreet.com
What's the best open source tool?
Todd / 26/06/2008 / 19:46 / http://autism-blog.com
I use Drupal to build social networking sites. Works like a charm, has all of the features you could ever want. It is a bit on the geeky side tho.
Rinku Cherian / 24/08/2008 / 16:37 / http://rinkucherian.we.bs
Hi all...
im a Student n im suppose to do a project in java or in asp.net...
i was lookin 4 developin a blog site or a social networkin site.....
so any out here...
give me or explain wat all is needed to make it (like stages, layouts or any thing which might help...)
n cud tell me
hw exactlly to make a working social networking purely in asp.net???
if any1 is willin to help or respond to dis comment....
plz do write it to rinkurc86@gmail.com
thx...
Rinku.
Tom / 29/08/2008 / 05:35 / http://charitii.com
There are already a million social networking sites out there. I think it'd be next to impossible to become the next facebook or myspace.
I'd like to know everyone using social networking sites for... Someone mentioned intranets for companies. That could be useful I guess. Anything else?
nick / 30/08/2008 / 10:26 / http://www.simpleservers.co.uk
We use Elgg all the time since 1.0. It is far better than dolphin. We install Elgg free of charge, the install can be a bit difficult if your host does not have the correct settings. http://www.simpleservers.co.uk/elgg_hosting.php
kris / 08/09/2008 / 13:43 / http://www.sumudra.co.uk
I have installed our servers, it is worked fine. I think, it's good to go, with what is available, but, if you try to customize, then you have hardtime.
Frank Levert / 26/09/2008 / 20:31 / http://www.levertmarketing.com/blog/
Wow! Elgg powered websites look great. I will have to give it a try and see what I can come up with. Thanks for sharing this. I never heard of Elgg before.
john / 05/10/2008 / 20:07 / http://www.codeweb.co.nz
Hi Karl, Thanks for a useful PDF tutorial. Although the PDF diagrams that the text references are quite difficult to read, I managed to get this up and running and can see a lot of potential for clients. Cheers
Jeremy / 07/11/2008 / 07:27 / http://www.dialme.com
Elgg is kind of interesting. Fairly simple and to me more like wordpress. If blogging is all you are after it might be a good choice. If you seek more integration audio video etc. last time I looked at elgg there wasn't many 3rd party addons or plugins. But overall it's a very small script, easy to install and free. So why not check it out.
Marcel Feenstra / 11/11/2008 / 23:11 / http://www.marcelfeenstra.com/about.html
Thanks for that tutorial! I have been planning to take Elgg for a test spin and I suspect your PDF will save me quite a bit of time! :-)
drako / 08/12/2008 / 12:09
so i can design any thing with that platform from effects links to colourful pages. i need explanation,i know nothing about social networking...please someone contact me
Victor Antofica / 11/02/2009 / 09:57 / http://victorantos.com
I also looking for social network dot net application , there is no any open source code
Web Design Ireland / 11/02/2009 / 14:27 / http://www.internetsolutionsireland.com
Thanks Karl,
Great article, I was looking for good Social Networking platform.
Staysure / 12/02/2009 / 15:55 / http://www.staysure.co.uk
I've heard Joomla also can be turned into a great social network with the right extensions. Elgg looks like it's come a long way in two years so maybe the author of this article got it right after all?
Havana / 19/02/2009 / 19:18 / http://stanged.ning.com
Use Ning. Its simple and easy to use. Believe me,as a user of many social networking platforms,Ning is definately the best.
Fred / 06/03/2009 / 14:24 / http://www.musiciansbook.com
I have one that I think is needed. www.musiciansbook.com I just launched it to serve as a music social network and also a place for fans to find music, musicians to find fans, also a directory and resource. I think social networks went up and will burn like bottle rockets unless its a good group need. Hopefully musiciansbook is a need or Im tanked. Ha ha
Lucky / 07/06/2009 / 03:43 / http://www.igames.us
elgg seems to be a light weighted, clean and simple framework. But its features are not so powerful. For example, its forums (group discussion) is not powerful and it is not easy to search etc.
dolphin is powerful, but it seems with too many restrictions. for example, it makes the date of birth, sex, profile as required. (I think it may be due to dophin was a dating site software originally.) I think I may be able to turn these fields to optional (anyone can advise on that?)
Rebecca / 06/07/2009 / 23:16 / http://www.contasta.co.uk
We built a social networking site for one of our customers.. at least, right up until the point they wanted the moon on a stick for next to nothing.
The problem with most social networking enterprises that are now able to sustain their staffing requirement is that they were built by people with time to spare - corporates attempting to hop on the bandwagon often don't have the stomach for the thousands of hours of coding required..
Dorien / 29/10/2009 / 13:59
A great tutorial on how to set up a social network with Drupal:
http://book.drupalfun.com
Dimple / 24/12/2009 / 06:51 / http://www.backgammon-gewinn.de/
Interesting post but CMS’s and social networks are slightly different beasts. Before you go down this route, compare it with Elgg (www.elgg.org) which is designed as an open source social network framework. I’ve had good results with it.
web design london / 29/01/2010 / 13:23 / http://www.m-w.co.uk
Cool post and interesting to see how easy it is too build a social network with this. We currently use drupal but I am now very interested in how this might work. Thanks for sharing.
Izu mou / 03/02/2010 / 12:09 / http://health.jobsngr.com
Dolphin is far better than elgg,PHPlazi is also good only it have many mode for sale.
Aurora Designs / 23/05/2010 / 11:31 / http://aurora-designs.com
This is very helpful, I havent started with drupal just yet but definetly will give it a try
thank you
