Community Server Quickly: A Concise and Practical Guide to Installation, Administration, and Customization

By Anand Narayanaswamy and Narayanaswamy Anand

With this book in hand, you will be able to set up and manage a Community Server solution. You will learn how to create blogs, forums, photo galleries, and file galleries, and use tools such as the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1847190871
• ISBN13: 9781847190871
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Perfect for webmaster/sysadmins and non-technical decisionmakers

The Community Server platform is an out-of-the-box server software product that makes it possible to create online communities quickly. The book, Community Server Quickly, helps the system administrator or webmaster that is new to this product, to get a quick start. It must be noted that the book focuses on the 2.1 version of the server. The 3.0 version is at the moment of this review in beta 2, and the book features a small chapter on this release. The first section is a good introduction to what community server is. It presents the five main functionalities: Blog, forums, photo galleries, file galleries and reader/roller. Next it explains in detail how to install the server followed by a very detailed description of the five functionalities. I don't think there is a feature in Community Server that isn't described in this book. The next three chapters is about the administration of users and customizing and setting up the server. This is all described in relation to what the out of-the-box product is capable of. Last the book goes into the more advanced features of Community Server as reporting, ads, spam blocker, URL redirects etc. This is not need-to-know knowledge for everyone that works with the server, but shows that this book describes what Community Server can do from A to Z. I think it is a good book for new admins and developers that need an overview of what features the product contains. If you have already worked a lot with Community Server and wants to develop against it, this is not the book for you. Overall its a well-written book for webmasters or non-technical people that want insight in the wonders of CS.

Your very own online community with Community Server

The Community Server by Telligent System is a suite of applications for running an online community. It includes a blog, a forum, and photo and file sharing galleries. This book by Anand Narayanaswamy will help you install, customize, license and administer your very own online community with Community Server Express Edition. The author walks you through everything you need to do to get up and running. He begins by helping you choose the version of Community Server that is best for your needs. Then he walks you through downloading and installing the application on your development machine. He explains the control panel and how to set up the program's options. Next, you work on the Community Server's blog application. Narayanaswamy covers how to set up a sample blog. You will learn how to register and manage users to the blog and how to perform other administrative tasks. A discussion forum is one way to keep visitors returning to your community site. The author shows you how to start up a sample forum, how to set up multiple forum groups and how to manage the forum on a daily basis. Next, he does the same by showing you how to set up and manage the sample photo and file sharing applications. Finally, he helps you work with RSS to track content from other blogs. Now that you have your Community Server site set up, the author walks you through the general management tasks such as registering and managing members, password protection, cookie settings, and working with member profiles and avatars. He also covers IP tracking, email setup and other administrative duties. Next he shows you how to work with blog and forum activity reports, how to manage your license, how to set up and maintain word filters and spam blockers. He also shows you how to set up RSS to get the word out about your new community site. Community Server is a theme and modular based suite of applications. Narayanaswamy helps you customize your community site by changing the look and feel of the themes and customizing the modules to meet your specific needs. Finally, you are ready to find a server and go interact with your community. Anand Narayanaswamy is an independent consultant and runs NetAns Technologies. He is also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Visual C#. He has worked as a Technical Editor for several publishers.

Great User Guide

I work for Telligent (the writers of Community Server) as a developer, so it was interesting to see what Anand had written about our product. It's a great book for beginners and will get you going quickly with CS. Many questions will be answered by the book without having to search online or post in the forums. It also gives you a good "10,000 feet" overview of the many options available. Others have said it too - there's not much detail in some sections, but that's a good thing in a book aimed at admins or users who want to concentrate on getting their site working as quickly as possible.

A Must Read for Community Server Site Owners and Administrators

If you are a Community Server site admin, owner or even a user then this is the book for you! Written in very easy to understand sections that covers everything from the installation and hosting all the way to using and customizing your Community Server site, includes many screen shots, tips and warnings along the way. This book will get you up to speed fast with Community Server and answer almost any question and is written in a non technical manner that everyone will be able to understand and will make Community Server much more accessible.

A comprehensive manual for new and prospective CS Site Administrators

For the sake of full disclosure, I was given a copy of this book by the publisher Packt and have a professional relationship with Telligent Systems. With that out of the way, Anand Narayanaswamy created a very comprehensive manual for new Community Server site administrators and those considering Community Server as their online community building platform. I was very impressed with the thoroughness of the content and the accessibility of important points within each subject area. The book has only @280 pages and is loaded with screen excerpts to clarify topics. I was able to start and finish Anand's book during a single session on a nordic track ski machine. It was a long exercise session, but even if read while in a stationary position, you'll find this book to be a very quick read. Thus the appropriate title, Community Server Quickly. For those new to Community Server administration, those considering Community Server to build an online community, or those who want a quick overview of most of Community Server's features to compare with other online community-building packages, this book is a valuable resource.