Hi,

I had tried out the online demo of Jomsocial, and it looks like something that we could use for our upcoming project to setup an online social network for travelers.

I have a couple of questions that I hope to seek clarifications from you to speed up our evaluation of Jomsocial for our project. For each of our questions below, I hope you can tell us directly if our requirement (A) can be fulfilled out-of-box, (B) can be fulfilled with non-coding customization (via system settings or configuration), or (C) can be fulfilled with custom programming.

1. If only need certain modules, i.e. Groups, Photos, etc. can we turn off the other modules that we don't need to reduce cluttering.

2. Under the Group module, can we only allow members to post there? (Non members can only view.)

3. Can the Group owner invite members who are not yet users of the site? How's the process like? Can the Group owner can only invite users who are their friends as members?

4. Will the Group updates viewable by public, i.e. non-members and non-users of the site as well as search engine.

5. Can the home page shows notifications related to events in a group, such as when a group is created, when a members join a group, when a members made a comment in a group, etc.

6. We need to display additional info under the user profile, i.e. number of groups user has created, number of followers, number of users he follows, etc.

7. Is there any built-in page analytics in the system track page visit stats, members interaction flow, etc. Can we install 3rd party analytics tools like Google Analytics or KISSmetrics, etc.?

8. Is the user interface mobile friendly, i.e. responsive design?

9. Is there a separation between user interface and backend coding? If so, what kind of template system or MVC framework that the system is built on?

10. What are the knowledge and skillset that are needed for modify the source code. (Besides PHP programming.)

I believe these are some of our key questions. Thank you in advance for your time to reply this.

Angela

Hi Angela,

Thanks for contacting Jomsocial the answers are below to your questions

1. If only need certain modules, i.e. Groups, Photos, etc. can we turn off the other modules that we don't need to reduce cluttering.

In groups, events videos there are modules that are coded into the pages Answer is C

2. Under the Group module, can we only allow members to post there? (Non members can only view.)

If you make a group private then users can only interact in that group if they are a member Answer is A

3. Can the Group owner invite members who are not yet users of the site? How's the process like? Can the Group owner can only invite users who are their friends as members?

If a group is private then you have to be a member before you can invite other users into the group so Answer is A

4. Will the Group updates viewable by public, i.e. non-members and non-users of the site as well as search engine.

What happens in the private group is only seen in the private group. No information from private groups shows on the stream unless you are a member of the private group Answer is A

5. Can the home page shows notifications related to events in a group, such as when a group is created, when a members join a group, when a members made a comment in a group, etc.

This depends on many settings, if the group is public yes. If not, then no. Depending on really detailed specifics the Answer could be A

6. We need to display additional info under the user profile, i.e. number of groups user has created, number of followers, number of users he follows, etc.

This is custom work and i see you mention followers. This is not a feature of jomsocial at the moment so this would be major customer work Answer is C

7. Is there any built-in page analytics in the system track page visit stats, members interaction flow, etc. Can we install 3rd party analytics tools like Google Analytics or KISSmetrics, etc.?

This is more a question related to Joomla we have a product called ISEO at Iseo.ijoomla.com and it integrates with Jomsocial but there are other 3rd party products as well so out of the box no not possible

8. Is the user interface mobile friendly, i.e. responsive design?

Yes it is responsive and works on a mobile, Version 3.3 which should be out by the end of the year is actually Mobile fist approach so its functionality will be like using it as an app on the device for your question though Answer is A

9. Is there a separation between user interface and backed coding? If so, what kind of template system or MVC framework that the system is built on?

All our code is based on Joomla MVC. It is written in open source php

10. What are the knowledge and skill set that are needed for modify the source code. (Besides PHP programming.)

Jomsocial is an extremely complex component to make minor modifications to basic things only low skill levels are required but making major changes would require a high level developer that understands javascript, ajax, compressed files and similar.

I hope this answers your questions

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply. I forgot to add one more questions in my previous message.

I was wondering if there is any developer support (paid and free) where we can get to speed up our development. Our team are experienced programmers with knowledge on PHP, JQuery, HTML5, and Ajax. What they are lacking is the specialist knowledge of JomSocial, such as the technical architecture, database design.

What would you recommend to bridge the knowledge gaps of my team so that they can quickly customize JomSocial to our requirements.

Hi Angela,

We don't have any proffered Jomsocial developers i'm sorry only our internal team. Please also be aware that we only support our code in an unmodified state so if changes are made to the code then be aware that support is for our original code only.

Thanks for the reply. A few more questions to wrap this up.

1. Sorry, I am still not quite clear on on how group owner invite users (who hasn't registered on the site) as group members. Can the owner invite them by entering their email address where they can sign up and join the group in one go?

2. When a user join as member to Group, can I configure so that it requires the Group owner to approve it first?

3. Can the user search for a group that matches the group title and contents based on keyword entered?

4. How is the search result sorted? Can I change the sort order, i.e. sort by number of group members, or no. of discussion, etc.

5. Is there a page that list all Groups / Forums?

Hi Angela,

1. Sorry, I am still not quite clear on on how group owner invite users (who hasn't registered on the site) as group members. Can the owner invite them by entering their email address where they can sign up and join the group in one go?

The user must be a member of the site to be invited to a group

2. When a user join as member to Group, can I configure so that it requires the Group owner to approve it first?

you can set a group to private. and then if a user wants to join then they need to be approved by admin.

3. Can the user search for a group that matches the group title and contents based on keyword entered?

you can search by group category and group name, not keywords of text in the group

4. How is the search result sorted? Can I change the sort order, i.e. sort by number of group members, or no. of discussion, etc.

for the main groups list you can sort by Latest Groups, Alphabetical, Most Active
for searching it is shown by created date in descending order and isnt configuirable unless you modify the code

5. Is there a page that list all Groups / Forums?

yes when you click on the groups menu it shows a sub menu with an all groups link