Elgg is an open source rapid development framework for socially aware web applications.
- Well-documented core API that allows developers to kick start their new project with a simple learning curve
- Composer is the package manager of choice that greatly simplifes installation and maintenance of Elgg core and plugins
- Flexible system of hooks and events that allows plugins to extend and modify most aspects of application's functionality and behavior
- Extendable system of views that allows plugins to collaborate on application's presentation layer and built out complex custom themes
- Cacheable system of static assets that allows themes and plugins to serve images, stylesheets, fonts and scripts bypassing the engine
- User authentication is powered by pluggable auth modules, which allow applications to implement custom authentication protocols
- Security is ensured by built-in anti CSRF validation, strict XSS filters, HMAC signatures, latest cryptographic approaches to password hashing
- Client-side API powered by asynchronous JavaScript modules via RequireJS and a build-in Ajax service for easy communication with the server
- Flexible entity system that allows applications to prototype new types of content and user interactions
- Opinionated data model with a consolidated API layer that allows the developers to easily interface with the database
- Access control system that allows applications to build granular content access policies, as well as create private networks and intranets
- Groups - out of the box support for user groups
- File storage powered by flexible API that allows plugins to store user-generated files and serve/stream them without booting the engine
- Notifications service that allows applications to subscribe users to on-site and email notifications and implement integrations with other their-party services
- RPC web services that can be used for complex integrations with external applications and mobile clients
- Internationalization and localization of Elgg applications is simple and can be integrated with third-party services such as Transifex
- Elgg community that can help with any arising issues and hosts a repository of 1000+ open source plugins
Under the hood:
- Elgg is a modular OOP framework that is driven by DI services
- NGINX or Apache compatible
- Symfony2 HTTP Foundation handles requests and responses
- RequireJS handles AMD
- Laminas Mail handles outgoing email
- htmLawed XSS filters
- DBAL
- Phinx database migrations
- CSS-Crush for CSS preprocessing
- Imagine for image manipulation
- Persistent caching with Memcached and/or Redis
- Error handling with Monolog
Elgg is managed by the Elgg Foundation, a nonprofit organization that was founded to govern, protect, and promote the Elgg open source social network engine. The Foundation aims to provide a stable, commercially and individually independent organization that operates in the best interest of Elgg as an open source project.
The Elgg project was started in 2004 by
- Ben Werdmuller (ben@benwerd.com, http://benwerd.com)
- Dave Tosh (https://twitter.com/davetosh).
Copyright (c) 2008-2020, see COPYRIGHT.txt
Elgg is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-X11) License.
See LICENSE.txt in the root of the package you downloaded.
For installation instructions, see http://learn.elgg.org/en/stable/intro/install.html.
For upgrade instructions, see http://learn.elgg.org/en/stable/admin/upgrading.html.
The project site can be found at https://elgg.org/.
Visit http://learn.elgg.org for more information about Elgg.
For development credits, see CONTRIBUTORS.txt.