SocialEngine version 4.0 Tips and Tutorial SocialEngine Features | Getting Started with SocialEngine

SocialEngine version 4.0 has been released, and has been built on an entirely different architecture than previous versions, Zend Framework. This was intended to provide scalability and new feature sets. SocialEngine most recently announced that the newest features to be added will be built in membership billing as well a simple package manager

The SocialEngine team has been carefully planning the upcoming version of SocialEngine, SE4, since April. With planning now nearly complete and development already underway, we aim to roll out SE4 by early winter.This new version will involve a complete rewrite of the platform itself, leveraging the Zend framework to make it almost perfectly modular and extensible. The frontend will be W3C-standards compliant and more accessible for mobile devices. Not to mention a million times sexier.

Features:

1)Flexibility to implement your community concepts.

SocialEngine makes diverse styles of social networking possible. You decide how your community members will connect, share, and interact with each other on your site.

2)Multiple social frameworks to choose from

Choose from two-way friendships (e.g. Facebook), one-way followers (e.g. Twitter), verified/unverified friendships, and more. Add sub-networks to group your members by university, workplace, location, age, gender, or anything else.

3)Drag-and-drop Content Management

Use SocialEngine's built-in, visual drag-and-drop CMS to arrange content, customize widgets, create whole new pages, and place advertisements. Import new widgets or develop your own with our guides.

4)Membership levels and moderators

Create multiple levels of membership in your community to give some members access to special content or extra privileges. You can also assign moderators to help you maintain your community and remove unwanted content for you.

5)Membership billing: This is one of the most frequently requested features so we're glad to announce it will be offered as a free upgrade to all SE4 clients. Utilizing the existing "Member Levels" feature of your site, you'll now have the ability to bill members and provide them with access to premium content and functionality. This adds a whole new method of monetizing your social network and monetizing is key to a website's success. The billing is handled by 2checkout.com, an excellent payment processor which handles debit/credit payments from all parts of the world and even allows for Paypal payments.

6) Automatic package downloader: We're working on making SE upgrades simpler. With SE 4.0, we started by adding a new package manager that simplifies installing mods and plugins. Now, we've added an optional automatic package installer that will let you pull packages and most upgrades directly from our servers, drastically simplifying the process. Of course, you can still optionally use the old method of installing packages yourself if you prefer.