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Introduction

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What is UNA CMS

UNA (Unified Networking Application) CMS (Community Management System) is the full-stack software platform for creating social networking apps and online communities.

UNA can function as a web application and as a headless server application. UNA provides all the essential software components for the development of a new social website, web app, or native app, including:

  • MySQL for data storage, providing a robust database management system for handling large datasets typical in social networking environments.
  • A PHP-based application server, enabling complex data manipulation and business logic execution.
  • A REST API using JSON for frontend-backend data exchange, external integrations and microservices.
  • Authentication system with registration, verification, login, SSO for user identity management.
  • Customizable data structures managed via Forms, Navigation, and Pages builders, allowing tailored content organization and presentation.
  • Access control defined through a Permissions builder, ensuring granular management of user rights and access levels.
  • A storage engine compatible with both local and remote (S3) storage solutions, addressing various data storage and retrieval needs.
  • UNA Studio, a no-code environment for platform configuration, enabling operators to adjust settings and features without direct coding.

What does Community Management System mean?

Most traditional CMSs are Content Management Systems, providing tools to generate static content pages or serving content dynamically. Content publishing and management tools are designed for admins editors, often mixed with site configuration features. Content Management Systems work well for marketing websites, personal blogs, e-commence sites and other apps where end-users primarily interact with content. UNA is different.

UNA is a Community Management System, developed for websites and applications which allow users to interact with each other. While UNA can be used as a dynamic content management system, the main focus is on facilitating user communication and networking.

In UNA administration and configuration layers are separated and tied to user roles and permissions. All configuration is done in UNA Studio, while administration is integrated into user interface. With UNA it is possible to create custom administration dashboards and assign admin/moderator actions to specified roles. As a result UNA provides the base framework for building a large-scale community, which typically required separation of concerns for various site management groups or departments.

Out of the box UNA comes with an extensive set of features commonly found in social networking applications as well as configuration settings built specifically with a multi-role communities in mind, such as:

  • Reactions, Votes, Comments, Reposts and Sharing
  • Subscriptions feed, public feed, context feed and Smart Feed
  • Multiple profiles per account with persona switching
  • Personal and Organisation profile types
  • Context modules like Groups, Events and Spaces
  • Tagging and aggregation via Labels, Channels and Hashtags
  • Content publishing via Posts, Videos, Albums and Photos
  • Communication tools like Messenger and Discussions
  • Education modules like Classes and Courses
  • Content sharing and micro-blogging via Timeline Updates
  • Service apps like Notifications, Massmailer and Invitations

Why UNA CMS

The team behind UNA has been building community software since Y2K. We know what works and what doesn't for all kinds of social networks, and we continue to improve the system, leveraging feedback from thousands of community operators using UNA in production.

We believe that a Community Management System should be:

  • Independent. Operators should have full control of the software and full ownership of the data.
  • Intuitive. Operators shouldn’t have to be developers to manage, configure, and customize their community platforms.
  • Scalable. Communities start small, but they grow large and often they grow rapidly. It should be possible to scale from hundreds to millions of users with minimal overhead.
  • Customizable. No one needs cookie-cutter solutions. The system should allow for unique implementations and rapid adjustments.
  • Secure. Social apps handle private data, which must be proactively protected and secured.
  • Open-Source. Community operators must have full access to all the source code and the right to modify it without limitations.

UNA is our all-in-one community software solution. Over the years, we have blended the best parts of our experience with building social networking tools, doing tailored implementations, and processing community feedback. We've created a system that gives community creators the freedom to implement their ideas without compromising on performance or ownership.