Dolphin 7 Editor's Review

Editor's rating

The editor's rating is calculated based on the average of the following criteria, rated on a
scale of 1 of 5:

• Installation: 5
• Features: 5
• Interface: 4
• Customization: 4
• Help and support: 4

Bottom line

"Dolphin shines as a top-notch application with terrific and thoughtful features and great social and community interaction at its heart." - Ahmad Permessur, Editor - HotScripts.com

Pros and cons

Pros

• Highly modular and versatile.
• Lots of built-in, free, and commercial modules available.
• Great community support forum.
• Drag-and-drop menu, fields, and page editor.
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android are available.
• Integrates nicely with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
• Can be used to create different types of community or social networking websites.
• Extensive documentation on developing custom Dolphin extensions.
• Full open source code available.

Cons

• Only one theme is included, but several third-party themes are available.
• Lack of complete documentation for modules.

Detailed review

BoonEx's Dolphin is a PHP-based social networking application aimed at creating all sorts of online communities. Its installation is straightforward — a wizard guided me nicely through the entire process, all the while doing some server and file permission checks. This application does require your server to be configured with certain Apache/PHP settings and extensions enabled, and I'd caution you to ensure that your hosting environment meets the recommended server set-up for an optimal performance.

After installation, the application brings you the core of Dolphin — a powerful member-based networking platform. Dolphin's foundation is based on the concept of modules that provide add-ons to extend that core functionality. It is shipped with over 35 modules, including platform-specific modules like payments and registration, together with modules that brings added functionalities like a blog, forum, chat, videos, photos, and even an e-commerce store. Dolphin’s modular approach takes you beyond merely creating a networking site, opening a wide range of possibilities. Modules let you create a multimedia sharing community (think Flickr or YouTube), a match-making site, or even a community-powered blogging or news portal.

Once a module is installed and enabled, it sits in the admin console to provide its own set of configuration options. But there is far more — each module integrates seamlessly with some of Dolphin’s core functionality (such as the menu builder, page editor, and permission level), paving the way to even more flexibility.

I was particularly interested in trying out the paid membership module. Dolphin allows you to create different membership levels, with each featuring its own set of privileges or pricing scheme. The payment module takes care of all billing hassles and works with either PayPal or 2CheckOut. I must admit that it required some back-and-forth to get this module working properly. Overall with Dolphin, I wish there were a more straightforward handholding walkthrough that details the configuration of each module. The documentation wiki is a good place to start, but doesn't cover everything. Consequently, I found myself spending a lot of time drilling down into threads in the support forum for answers to my questions.

The administrative area offers a healthy dose of features — these and other little extras makes Dolphin a pleasure to customize. The “Builders” option, for example, is simply breathtaking, combining an elegant database field management system where you can create different membership profile field types and arrange them using a drag-and-drop interface.

The “Page Blocks” section offers the possibility of changing the placement of your content or module blocks or to add additional blocks from modules that you've enabled. It goes the extra mile by allowing you to change the width of these blocks on a per-page basis.

Virtually all the pages on the site can be customized right through the Builders section. You also have the option of adding new pages or editing your CSS styles and email templates. As far as customization is concerned, Dolphin exceeded my expectations by being simple enough for novices, yet offering plenty of flexibility for those who crave more options.

The front-end of the site is intuitive and feels very responsive. Most of the modules that you'll switch on enable social interaction in one way or another, with real-time notifications and activity streams aplenty. Users are able to subscribe to most of the sections via the built-in subscription feature or RSS. Each item can also be commented upon using either text or video recording. I like the toolbar that sits in the footer to provide omnipresent links to frequently accessed sections like email notification, status update, online buddies list, etc. Registered users also have total control of their privacy and each section can be tweaked to be private, public, or viewed by friends or members only.

Dolphin offers an incredible number of different elements and features, and it's virtually impossible to cover all of them in this review. Most competing social media applications are similar to Dolphin, but Dolphin’s developers successfully managed to add a social feel to the different components to promote interaction and help a community coalesce. This is something that the competition doesn’t have. Whether you're looking to start a small networking site with a couple of users or a large community with thousands of members, Dolphin deserves your consideration. You can download a free copy and test-drive it at any time.

Screenshots