Organize the forum content as you need, in any hierarchical arrangement, with any level of folders and discussions organized in unlimited configurations. With WebCrossing Core you can have unlimited folders to any depth, to organize your site. Folders can contain other folders, discussions, chat rooms, links - and items of your own creation. There are no organizational restrictions, unlike other systems with pre-determined, rigid structures. And via the web interface, hosts can move forum content around - folders, discussions, messages.
Customize the layout and appearance completely - including separate appearances for different folder hierarchies - for branding and different groups of users. Each WebCrossing Core folder, discussion, message, banner, toolbar - every single component on every page served - can be customized separately, in any configuration you can imagine.
There is a complete Customization Manager in WebCrossing Core that lets you select from a variety of standard themes with almost unlimited customization through web panels. You can set up navigation menus, special cells, use scripting language and HTML throughout your customization.
You can even override the standard templates and create any appearance or modification you want.
And as described in the For Developers section, WebCrossing Core includes powerful server-side scripting and communications capabilities.
There is a complete Customization Manager in WebCrossing Core that lets you select from a variety of standard themes with almost unlimited customization through web panels. You can set up navigation menus, special cells, use scripting language and HTML throughout your customization.
You can even override the standard templates and create any appearance or modification you want.
And as described in the For Developers section, WebCrossing Core includes powerful server-side scripting and communications capabilities.
The same content can be shared with different look and feel to different users - for localization, text only interfaces, cell browser interfaces, etc. With WebCrossing Core you can create customized look-and-feel templates and then link existing content to your new templates. Thus different users accessing different ways can share content, in any way you need, without restrictions! And you can localize your system so that each user can view the user interface in their own language, even while sharing common content with other participants.
The server is natively scriptable with a built-in object oriented scripting language. In WebCrossing Core you can write complex, rich, object-oriented full web applications, add and modify existing features and have complete control over the object-oriented database through powerful scripting commands and methods. You can even override existing functionality and modify default behaviors to accomplish what you want.
The WebCrossing Core server can run without external database software. WebCrossing Core includes a native object-oriented database optimized for collaboration and online education. The database is completely accessible and scriptable. This solution does not require separate licensing of an expensive external database.
The WebCrossing Core server can run without external server software, such as a web server or email server. WebCrossing Core is a complete stand-alone solution that avoids the "CGI neck" - data does not need to pass through an external web server to reach the client browsers. No other server software is required. Complete web services are built-in. This is a complete, industrial strength Email server, including private mailboxes.
WebCrossing Core can run without an external FTP server. WebCrossing Core also includes a built-in FTP server allowing an easy way to upload and download home pages and other files. Since this a built-in server feature, the integrated user database is used and no accounts needs to be set up separately at the server machine's OS level. Access lists apply to all folder areas, allowing you to create secure web pages.
In addition to FTP, members can access their files, edit them and upload new files on the web. WebCrossing Core's unique WebFiles feature mirrors the underlying file system via the web interface. This means that site members can upload, download - even edit their files from any terminal that has a browser. In addition, Web Crossing WebFiles lets you set access lists and even objects and properties for all files!
The built-in WebCrossing Core email server includes everything and is managed completely via a Web interface, supports multiple domain and multiple user email aliases. Users can set their own Rules for filtering. Spam and relay protection is built-in. And Webmail accounts are available to all your users. As is SMTP, POP3 and IMAP4 service.
Most versions of Unix (including Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD and OS X) are supported; Windows and OS X. With WebCrossing Core you never need to purchase the more expensive "Server version" of an OS. Your license is good on any platform. Your database and scripts can be moved between platforms with no conversion.
You can run any number of WebCrossing Core mirrored servers you like, using the same license. Synchronization takes place in milliseconds. When looking into other server software, ask about the costs of setting up extra servers - machine resources, licenses, and the maximum possible number of mirrored servers.
With WebCrossing Core you can share the user directory across multiple distributed servers for linear scaling of size and load sharing. You can also combine mirrored and distributed servers in any kind of topology you need. For instance, you can break up a huge database and run it across multiple servers for size scaling of huge amounts of data.
With WebCrossing Core's special Plug-in Architecture you can check for software updates, via your browser, and bring your system up-to-date with a single click. In addition, you can also browser the Web Crossing Store for new features and plug-in applications and install them via your browser - without having to manually download or handle any files!
WebCrossing Core allows you to add Chat rooms to any folder. Even if you are running WebCrossing Core on a single server, you can elect to distribute your Chat serving over multiple servers to support thousands of users. The Chat supports more than just simple chat rooms. You can hold Live Events and Internet Tours and push live content into participants' frames for synchronous classroom events and office hours. Each course and each module can have separate Live Event rooms.
You can connect to your WebCrossing Core server using any newsreader, such as Outlook Express, Netscape News, NewsWatcher, etc., and participate offline, with full user authentication and permissions intact. It is convenient for users to download messages and read and reply offline when they are traveling or away from their office.
WebCrossing Core includes a full NNTP news server - and client - which can both push and pull news with your ISP. You can mirror existing newsgroups for your users, and publish your own private or public newsgroups. You can also gate with other Web Crossing servers to share folder content.
Each WebCrossing Core folder can subscribe to any email list anywhere, check incoming messages for the list (with a built-in email client) and then post the messages to WebCrossing Core web forums. Messages are even sorted automatically into new discussions depending on thread or title. You can subscribe to email lists of interest to your users and provide them with a searchable web archive of the lists.
WebCrossing Core provides three different kinds of email notifications: (1) Full email notification of entire messages posted; (2) Email digests - with user-settable schedules and (3) URL notifications - which send links back to the forums, and then wait for the user to return before sending new notices, so users know there are pending messages, but don't get bombarded with email.
It is easy for the end user to find new postings in areas where they are members. In addition to notifications, WebCrossing Core lets users "subscribe" to any folder, folder hierarchy - even to any discussion separately. Users are tracked so that unread messages in subscribed areas can be shown at the click of a button.
Database content can be exported in a text-readable format that can be modified and imported. WebCrossing Core lets you export the entire site, or any sub-hiearchy of the site in an SGML format that can be viewed and edited and re-imported to any part of the site - or to another site.
You can localize the entire user interface so that members accessing can select an interface in their own language. WebCrossing Core's Localization Manager lets you edit all the string resources - via the web, or offline in a spreadsheet - and lets you add new supported languages to the site so members can comfortably access in their own language.