Blog

We all know you are busy with all the works and plans as only two months away to say Goodbye to 2018.However, November still comes upon us with a festive spirit. Are you ready for the Holiday season?Let's stock up and be prepared for the coming pleasure time, but don't forget to take a look at what's new in phpFox Store during last month. 1. Content Visitors by cespiritual This simple app displays a block to show the last visitors of 8 popular modules of your Social Network: Blog, Music, Listing, Photo, Video, Event, Quiz, Poll. It will also show the time of each visit. Learn More...   2. Donate/Fundraising App Visitors by FoxExpertGot a business idea? Great! Now, thinking about its funding. With a huge number of user-friendly features and customizations, this app is everything your users could want from Crowdfunding and Donations on your social network. Also, this plugin very suitably if you just want to add a donation for your website, describe your needed and put it as Site campaign. Learn More...   3. Easy Slider Block by FoxerThe app offers an easy-to-use slider that can be set up from AdminCP using drag-n-drop. Block displays on Member's Home Page by default. Learn More...   4. Rewrite Rules by FoxExpertURL of your internal pages is very important to users interface and more important for search engines, so you need carefully manage each URL, which explains the best section where the user in. FoxExpert offers this app for these requirements, so you may use it along with FoxExpert's Advanced apps or Core apps. Spent 2 minutes and have better URLs for all your modules. Learn More...   5. Wasabi CDN by Scheinwelt-MediaWith this app, your site is able to store and retrieve content through wasabi CDN. Wasabi uses Amazon S3 technology but is much cheaper and faster than Amazon. Give your user only the best experience using your Social network by providing fast page display and huge storage plans. You can even monetize that storage. Learn More...   6. Subscriptions Comparement by FoxerSubscriptions Comparement is accessible for any phpFox license type and allows you to earn money from your users by offering them subscription packages compared with your specific features. With Subscriptions Comparement you will get a better option of presenting your packages in an advanced way. Learn More...   7. Message by phpFoxSending and receiving messages among users are MUST-HAVE activities in any Social Network. And surely Message app will quench the thirst of phpFox users for a modern and full-featured Messaging app. By analyzing user experience and applying to app layout design, users now can send, receive, view, compose and reply messages in the most convenient way with Message app. Additionally, many user-oriented features such as Custom List and Conversation Management definitely will level up the user experience and speed up messaging tasks for users. Learn More...   8. Activity Point by phpFoxActivity Point is one of the gamification tools on your social network to encourage members to have more interaction in the community. With this app, you reward members by giving "virtual points" for each of their activities. Activity Point app also enables developers to take advantage on pointing system and use it to develop many features which related to Activity Point. Learn More...   9. Maxfoxer Template by suresh choudhary  MaxFoxer comes packed with all module design and the best features for you to customize it the way to need. The theme is high-quality with a unique style and clean code. Using modern designs and subtle animation effects, animation banner. Additionally, the template opts to a fully responsive design with the color theme, layouts, images, buttons, and menus were completely re-designed. The template is designed for people to share their music, profile, pages, groups, menus, members page, and video. Learn More...   10. Coyonet Template by Scheinwelt-MediaCoyonet template is for everyone who wants a modern and simple theme with a side menu that looks just different than all the others. Try something new and show your users that the Social Network is just starting a new trend. Learn More...   11. ThemeX Template by Codemake SoftwareThemeX gives you the best sense of everything you want to accomplish. It is a banging phpFox template for social network sites. ThemeX uses all the latest web trends and technologies, like HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap for a stable and responsive experience. Learn More...   That's all for now.   If you want to learn more about the functions and features of these new products, you can contact directly to our third-party vendors for inquiries. Or you can let us know your thoughts on these products by writing to hello@phpfox.com Also, in case you want to customize these apps to your own needs, you can ask our Experts to assist you on your tasks.  That's it for a busy October, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest news and deals on upcoming Thanksgiving & Black Friday.  

Since the release of phpFox 4.7.0 last week, we are delighted by all the love and support through loads of feedback and suggestions from you. As committed to completed satisfaction from clients, we truly appreciate and welcome all your constructive opinions and inputs, as these greatly inspire and help us in the process of perfecting the platform. On top of many positive feedbacks, we also received some reports about issues while upgrading to 4.7.0 and this may make you have concerns. To make sure the upgrade process goes smoothly on your side, we will now cover some frequent problems in common scenarios so you can prepare in advance and have a successful upgrade.  1. Should I upgrade when my site has only Core apps? → All Core default apps are fully compatible with phpFox 4.7.0 now, indeed all Core apps are already upgraded to work well on this new versions. Therefore, you can just go ahead and upgrade immediately. However, it is important to note that some apps such as Pages, Group, Activity Point, Messages, etc. are only compatible with phpFox 4.7.0. Please don't forget to upgrade all phpFox apps to their latest versions along with phpFox Core upgrade to prevent any compatible issues.  2. Should I upgrade when my site has only Core apps and some were customized? → When it comes to customization, the situation turns to a little bit complicated. The customized apps may need to be merged with the newest source code manually to avoid any missing or bug. If your site was launched, then you shouldn't apply the codes directly to your production site as it might cause unexpected malfunctions and conflicts which potentially crash your site. We recommend you to build up a development environment for this upgrade then perform the upgrade on this so you can test and fix bugs first. Once the development environment works smoothly without any issue, it's time to deploy source code to the live site.  3. Should I upgrade when my site has 3rd-party apps? → First of all, please make sure that all 3rd-party apps you wish to use on your site have to be compatible with phpFox 4.7.0. The risk of applying and using an incompatible app may cause your site down. So even you really want to use the apps, we recommend you to wait until all apps are checked and fully compatible. In case you are in rush, please contact 3rd party providers/experts to schedule the upgrading plan for the apps.  4. Should I upgrade when my site has customized 3rd-party apps? → This situation is the same to above, we recommend you to check for app compatible first regardless it's customized or not. Again, in case you are in rush, you can always contact 3rd party providers/experts to schedule the upgrading plan for the apps. Third-party experts can have good advices for you to upgrade customized apps as well as merge old custom work then. Moreover, it is always the best practice that you should have full backup your site before proceeding upgrade. When starting the phpFox upgrade, it is highly recommended to temporarily disable all 3rd-party apps to avoid compatibility issues. After upgrading your phpFox Core and default apps successfully, you can move to upgrade and enable 3rd-party apps. Upgrading your Production site should be taken place during low traffic time. Ideally, it's around midnight and 5 AM, but it's not right to all industries and you have to adjust accordingly. Hopefully, these walkthroughs on scenarios above will clear up of your concerns and help you in the process upgrading your site to phpFox 4.7.0. Feel free to let us know if you have any inquiry about the upgrading process and also about the platform so we can improve phpFox better through future releases.  Let contribute your thoughts and ideas by emailing us at hello@phpfox.com.

Today the long wait is finally over. Let's upgrade to phpFox 4.7.0 today!From the beginning, we always dream to provide the best platform for everyone to build Niche Social Network sites. And with this version, phpFox surely solidifies this statement by bringing you the most impact and finest release than ever.This version ultimately not only redefines the current structure of the Core system to improve functionalities and performance but also introduces several new features. Let's take a look at what's new on phpFox 4.7.0. What to expect in phpFox 4.7.0? In this update, we mainly set our focus on enhancing user experience with phpFox. Therefore, we spent our effort to modify and optimize several Core components of the system to ensure a fast, responsive yet stable platform.Additionally, bolstering up the scalability of phpFox is our another target in version 4.7.0. The platform is now flexible and applicable to the expansion on server and database to deal with the large scale of requests from users.Aside from technical improvements, we also introduce you Template Skin, the pre-defined color sets for your template. This new feature brings you a completely new experience and exceptionally change the way you manage your social network appearance. phpFox 4.7.0 Highlights - Compelling Improvements on Performance. - Revamp Cache System. - Optimize Database Structure. - Improve Database Queries. - Revise Codes. - Improve Scalability. - Support multiple App servers. - Support multiple Database servers. - Template Skin.You can check out the full features and improvement of phpFox 4.7.0 in our Documentation. Installation & Upgrade We encourage you to back up your site and database before performing the upgrade. Make sure to check with 3rd-party experts about the compatibility of all the apps/templates you are using.Also, take advantages on useful guides below if you want to upgrade the site yourself.- Download - Upgrade Instructions - Installation Guide Important Note The phpFox 4.7.0 requires PHP 5.6 or later. If your server is using older PHP version, please contact your hosting provider for help to upgrade PHP version first. PHP 7.2 is highly recommended. Change Log You can refer to Changelog for phpFox 4.7.0 here. New to phpFox? If you are new and looking for a solution to build up your own Social Network, then phpFox is the right platform for you. phpFox is the ultimate solution for your social network. Thriving to be the best platform for Social Network, phpFox has everything you can expect from a social network: Full-featured, fast, responsive, stable, easy to customize, easy to scale up, Mobile-ready, several extensions from 3rd-party developers...You can build up your own Social Network within minutes with our best Support service. Ask us how and get your own license at phpfox.com Purchase New License You can purchase phpFox right now to enjoy these above perks just by clicking on the button below. We also have an exclusive 14-day Free Trial for you to try the platform before making any decision, and you can visit our Demo site anytime. Make phpFox Even Better After months of hard work and dedication, we hope phpFox 4.7.0 will be your best experience with the platform.As we committed for your total satisfaction, we welcome any feedback to make phpFox better and better every day, so feel free to let us know your thoughts on this release by emailing us at hello@phpfox.com.Also if you found any issues with this version, please let us know by submitting tickets or reporting immediately to our GitHub Tracker. We also encourage you to join and stay connected with the Community Forum.

As a turning point and ultimate proof to re-affirm mobile-ready feature of phpFox, today we are pleased to announce the launch of Developer Release for phpFox Mobile iOS app, a stepping stone to release our powerful Mobile app package.Note that the Developer Release will be limited to all 3rd-party experts for testing and experimental purposes only.A little bit about phpFox iOS app, our target is to deliver you a completed native app solution. Your phpFox app will be not only fast and responsive but also robust and interactive to any task on iOS. Let's talk about user experience first. We expect to bring a progressive mobile experience to users on your social network. Conveniently now right on the app, you can register, login, make friends, post status, view posts, and comment... Or in short, just imagine it's a portable solution for your network. In term of functionalities and features, definitely, all Core components such as Page/Group, Forum, Event, Photo/Video, Marketplace, and so many more... are also available in the app with well-designed and logic interfaces. Users can manage and control their profiles and many other personal settings right on the app. Indeed, the app is an almost full replication of your social network on the desktop version. You can bring Apple devices with the app installed and access your social network anywhere. Let's take a quick look now! [gallery size="large" link="file" columns="2" ids="6640,6683,6642,6638,6639,6643"]We hope you can found a fresh experience of your social network with our iOS app by testing this Developer Release.Let's try the app and give us your thoughts by email us at hello@phpfox.com or via Ticket System. PS: the Android app is expected to be available in November. Please stay tuned to receive our latest updates.

Halloween is coming up! Children will be marching up and down your block in costumes asking for trick or treat within next week. Are You Ready To Get Spooky?Hold up as the spooktacular Halloween bargain from phpFox might daze you more than any scary story you have ever heard.Get a screaming deal with phpFox on any purchase with 13% Off Discount + FREE Installation Service when checking out from Oct 24th, 2018 to Oct 31st, 2018 (PST). Promo Code: SCARY13You know what's the scariest of all? Halloween without sweet treats.So hurry up! Please order now and treat yourself kindly with our monster Halloween promotion. Have a wicked Halloween!

We delightedly announce that the phpFox 4.7.0 Developer Release is available now. It is necessary to note that The Development Release is for testing purpose and specially delivered to 3rd-party experts only. Experts who are having products on phpFox Store can check and tweak their products for compatibility in the meantime. phpFox 4.7.0 which is the biggest upgrade in 2018 is expected to be officially released to the public in October. In this version, phpFox takes a big stride with several improvements in performance, scalability, and features to reassure that it is the best platform for Social Network. Please don't forgot to check its Sneak Peek blog for more info. For Experts You can now download the package of phpFox 4.7.0 Development Release in the Client Area. In order to help you update your products conveniently, we also prepared developer note and changelog. Please feel free to contribute your thoughts and findings on this Development Release via Ticket System. We appreciate and love to hear feedback and suggestions so we can place finishing touches to phpFox 4.7.0 before launching the official release.

All of us are counting down day by day to the official release of our Native Mobile app. However, we don't talk about Mobile app today. Instead, we are having another interesting update for you about new phpFox 4.7.0.It has been a few months since we released phpFox 4.6.0. Since then, we have been hard at work for the next version with many important updates. The long wait will soon be over as phpFox 4.7.0 is on the way to you for experiencing.Let us show you a little bit on what we have achieved in this new version! Significant enhancements on Performance Performance is always one of the key factors of websites to bring the best user experience. It is about how fast your web pages are loaded, or how quick your content can be delivered. In the beginning, when having low data volume and traffic, websites can be loaded quickly. However, when your site grows up with more user engagements, high traffic, and big data volume, your site will become slower and slower. Several surveys have shown that the page loading directly impacts the ratings, user retention rate, conversions, number of usages, and revenue from social network sites. You will get into trouble with slow performance site.Understanding the importance of high performance on social network sites, we have spent much effort to optimize the Core system in version 4.7.0. This will make phpFox performance outstanding from other social network platforms.Renovate Cache System Our team revamped phpFox Core Caching Library with a brand new system to guarantee a swift user experience on caching and loading your site. Optimize Database Structure A well-designed database provides quick access to essential information, phpFox 4.7.0 applies best practices in data modeling techniques and redefine a solid yet powerful database architecture. Improve Database Queries By analyzing and selecting the most efficient query evaluation plan from among various strategies, phpFox 4.7.0 accelerated the whole data manipulation process in term of execution time, complexity and server resources. Revise Codes Code quality is a significant element which we primarily focus on phpFox 4.7.0. Strong code requires less maintenance and reach the highest standard from load speed to user experience. We also did experiments to measure the performance of phpFox 4.7.0 in many simulated environments. The result is really amazing. And let's provide you detailed result in another blog soon.  Improve Scalability  Scalability reflects how well your social network site can adapt to a rapidly growing number of users. In particular, when there are significant changes in user accesses to your site and server reaches its limitation quickly, you will need to expand or add more servers to handle. The frequent question is given that how ease to do that without any modifications to the web application or platform. At this time, you have to care of the scalability of the website. Scalability is much more important to a social network site where a number of users grow up very fast. By understanding environmental workload conditions that your phpFox system is designed for, in version 4.7.0, phpFox ultimately targets on scalability. We take a further step to make phpFox scale well either on a cluster of dedicated servers or cloud services such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. With the support of the latest MySQL Group Replication technology, high-load phpFox social networks now can easily split the burden to multiple database servers.New App Releases Activity Point With Activity Point app, users can easily and smoothly manage settings and configurations of pointing system on both backend and frontend. As a stand-alone app, there will be no boundary or limit from the Core system. Additionally, Activity Point app opens a door for developers to take advantage on pointing system and use it in developing, modifying and adjusting features on their apps.Message Packed with a brand new design and various newly developed features, we understand your need for a modern and full-featured messaging app on phpFox. Therefore, in this ported app version, we conclusively work on not only perfecting current features but also developing new features. Message app will bring totally new Chatting experience to your users.And, along with new apps, we also upgraded several components of Core apps such as Photo & Material template to fix bugs, improve features and user experiences...  Support Skins on templates Template skins are simply available variations with pre-defined color set supported within certain templates. All of us love to have skins of templates which can save us much time when modifying the template. Upon selecting, the color styles of template skin will be automatically applied without the need of adjusting each and every theme component manually. Since phpFox 4.7.0, template creators will be able to design and create multiple skins for their phpFox themes.Certainly, we will have additional skins in the Material template on top of the blue one.That's all about main points of phpFox 4.7.0. What do you think about this release? Please share with us on Community or Ticket system. Have a good day and please stay tuned with us. We will be back very soon.

Welcome, October! As soon as September rolls around, Fall has the best of summer, with a little bit of spring, and winter tossed in. We know it is the time of the year again when we are on the edge of all end year activities. Let's explore very new and fascinating products on phpFox Store last month now.  1. Autumn Leaves by Foxer There is a saying – Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all. phpFoxer releases new free app called Autumn Leaves. Just a bit more of autumn mood for your users. Learn More →2. Movies System - Light Version by cespiritual This app will allow your members to add movies to your network and be informed of the new upcoming releases in their countries in a daily basis. They can also review the movies and add them to their favorite or watch list. The Light version is free and has some limitation compared to the Full version with trial purpose. See the Full Version here.Learn More →3. Color Feed by Codemake Software This app gives possibilities to put a background on a phpFox post with different colors or picture as on a Facebook. Your post will be more meaningful and surely catch more attention. Learn More →4. Material Landing by Fox Expert Unique Landing Page for the popular phpFox Material template. The app makes your social network well designed and increase registration count. Landing page based on the newest web design trends such as moving background, skew lines… Several back-end settings allow you to manage all components on the Landing page. Learn More →That's all for now. If you want to learn more about the functions and features of these new products, you can contact directly to our third-party vendors for inquiries.Or you can let us know your thoughts on these products by writing to hello@phpfox.com Also, in case you want to customize these apps to your own needs, you can ask our Experts to assist you on your tasks.  

Nowaday Marketing, building Customer Community is the Key to Create Value. That's the statement written by Bill Lee - president of the Customer Reference Forum, on HBR Blog. Let's check that out:What are your customers telling their friends and colleagues about your business? Your prospective customers and buyers increasingly learn about you from their peers — including your current customers — while tending more and more to ignore traditional sales and marketing communications from corporate. Companies are now taking advantage of this new marketing reality, becoming more skilled at getting their customers to advocate for them, create peer influence in their markets, and make important contributions in areas like product development and services.Creating and capturing such value from customer relationships doesn’t just happen, no matter how stellar your products and services are. It requires an enhanced value proposition, what I call a Level 4 customer value proposition. At Level 1, buyers perceive you as the supplier of a commodity. They’re entirely price sensitive. And more companies are at this level than think they are. Think PC makers, who load their computers with features and functionality believing they’re adding value and creating differentiation. In fact, the vast majority of their customers not only don’t care about such features, but find that all the clutter detracts from the user experience. At Level 2, Buyers perceive you as helping them get a job done. They associate your product or service with their desired outcome and the fact that you help them achieve that in some way that makes you stand out. Significantly (and ironically) companies that reach Level 2 often remove features or functionality that competitors provide. Think Apple, or Southwest Airlines, or for a more recent example, Zipcar. At Level 3, You engage the customer emotionally, which strengthens loyalty and retention. And here’s where it gets interesting. Some firms have such great offerings (at least, great compared to the competition) that their products or services alone are enough to create significant emotional attachment, again, such as Apple and Southwest (when I fly Southwest, I can actually feel my blood pressure drop as I interact with their friendly people.)But not everyone can create such awesome products or services — and even when you do, maintaining that emotional connection through your products and services may be fleeting. (With TiVo, for instance, customers have come to rely on the service so much, they don’t even think about it.) Firms that excel in the new world are discovering that they can create strong emotional attachment by moving to the next level… At Level 4, You’re helping customers build their social capital — that is, helping them to build and expand valuable support groups and communities.Helping customers build social capital may seem far removed from the concerns a competitive business should occupy itself with. But think about it: These days, buyers and prospects are open to receiving and are even seeking, information from your customers &#8212 their peers. Helping your customers build social capital is the way to make it attractive to them to provide this information. This is an area of tremendous creativity. Here are some specific ways that companies are doing this: Help customers build their reputationWhen Jeff Bezos made the controversial decision to allow customers to post reviews of the books they bought on Amazon’s site — a seminal event ushering customer-based marketing into the online world — he reasoned simply that ordinary reader reviews were what buyers wanted. To encourage more of this, Amazon now designates top reviewers on the site and a reviewer Hall of Fame (based in part on ratings from readers), lets reviewers set up their own pages showing their reviews of other books, provides them with a distinctive badge for their pen names, and more — all of which builds their reputation in the book buying community. Top Amazon reviewers are often more powerful than traditional media reviewers. Help customers build their affiliation networksCustomer advisory boards — in which a firm’s customers provide input and guidance on products and strategy — have been around for years and are often an effective way to gain “buy-in” from customers. Firms like Microsoft are taking this up a notch, with industry councils. These are groups that focus not on Microsoft’s products, services, and strategy, but rather on a compelling industry issue that is top-of-mind with people in the industry — a significant difference with great appeal to buyers. In particular, Microsoft formed a council that focused on one of the most vexing of all business technology issues: interoperability (the council is called the Interoperability Executive Council or IEC). Once people were convinced that this was a serious attempt to address the issue (and not a vehicle to push marketing), Microsoft was able to attract a marquee list of senior technology executives from around the world. At times, the IEC will address issues that Microsoft can’t help with — and the firm will go so far as to bring competitors into the discussion who can.What’s in it for Microsoft? Over time, the discussions and work performed by the IEC have given the firm insider access to the best thinking on this issue, which informs its product decisions, helps it establish thought leadership, and burnishes its standing as a constructive force for the industry. Help customers build status in the communityWhen marketing services and software firm, Eloqua, for example, decided to start recognizing outstanding work and results achieved by firms in its industry with awards, it decided to go the whole hog. And for good reason: helping customers build status is an exceptionally valued aspect of one’s social capital. Eloqua patterned the awards ceremony after the Emmy awards (it even hired the firm that designs the Emmy statues — calling it the “Markie“). They’re awarded at a lavish black-tie ceremony at a posh location, where some 20 awards are handed out over the course of the evening. The event attracts substantial media attention, in part because the firm is very careful to make sure that winners really are the best. And note — awards are not limited to Eloqua clients. They go the best in the industry, as determined by an independent industry council. Give them a sayHigh glamour isn’t the only way to help customers build social capital. CSC, which creates financial services software, has built a tier of for-customer communities that allow customers to exchange ideas and best practices, and have a say in new releases. As products or updates are being developed, customers can subscribe to RSS feeds keeping them apprised of new release progress, and provide input — which CSC takes seriously. This can slow the process down, but it creates enthusiasm, as borne out by the numbers. After implementing the process, request rates for new software releases increased by 50%.What do all of these efforts have in common? They build communities that exert positive peer influence across all the relevant companies’ markets. The ability to create this kind of Level 4 customer value proposition is the key skill set that companies will need in the new world of marketing.  Bottom line: Customer Community powered by phpFox is your right choice of building your own Customer Community in days, not weeks. Our Marketing and Technical experts is ready to help at your click http://biz.phpfox.com or email biz@phpfox.com   

In the developed world today, most likely you will own a smartphone, and of course mobile apps are daily essentials. Therefore, it wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that mobile app is the present and future of any Social Network.  (more…)