To UNA or not to UNA....

Used to build a fair few sites with Dolphin back in the day, moved to WP based platforms as Dolphin just seemed to get left behind when it came to the way it 'looks'... it just didnt keep up with other trends design wise compared to the many amazing templates available for platforms such as WP etc...

However, I am now looking at a couple of community / network based projects after this years covid mayhem, and the go to WP setups I would use dont offer the setup I know I used to get with the old Dolphin feature wise without a good deal of playing around with multiple plugins and adjustments.

BUT - do I want to build a future project on a platform (Dolphin) that has been left to gather virtual dust???

Or go UNA ....

Setup a playsite with UNA to check it out, first impressions....

WHY NO VIDEO OR PHOTO MODULES IN CORE??????

These are standard - basic basic basic core function modules for any community or social site... out of all the modules to move to paid section these two should not be there!!! - this is a biggie, especially for anyone looking to set up their first UNA site, being told its 'free' then having next to zero media content allowed unless you pay £150 a year for 2 basic modules. Strike 1....

PAGE BUILDER and other layout bits... what can I say, other than wtf? No offence but Ive built tons of sites and just cannot see how the new way of doing things is a step forwards. Maybe it offers a lot more technical options, but anyone looking to get there head round it who maybe isnt a coder, its just visually off putting. Stike 2?....

Ive not got further into it yet... but when there are so many other platforms available, its easy to jump to another if one keeps hitting those 'strike' points... it should be easy, should be simple, clean...

Feeling a bit dissapointed so far, even to the point of just setting up using the old Dolphin platform, use some of the 100 modules I spent out on... but for how long? How long will a community site last thats built on something that has been left to age?

Anyone else out there from the old Dolphin days move to Una and made it work???

Need some good news to wrap up this year!....

Realise that UNA is old code.  The studio was coded 14 years ago.  At the time it looked slicked but of course things have moved on.  I actually think the administration panel in Dolphin is much better than Studio.  Boonex was looking for a cash cow; all of the time spent on UNA should have been spent on Dolphin improving it.  UNA is slow as well, once a member logs in; the sql queries and php calls really slow down page load.  Then there is stupidity such as links in headers of blocks that just take you to the page you are on.  I will send you an email.

In my personal opinion dolphin is way better I think it would of been better to have improved Dolphin as a premium member said, In my personal opinion it was in a class of its own .... UNA in my opinion it's such a let down Plus I feel cheated as I have a permanent license for dolphin and now the Dolphin market has gone to waste and no one is updating there modules. This I feel is a total letdown to customers who have paid for a license in a trusted brand and now it's been pushed aside and it's customers. Bring back Dolphin before it's completely dead.

Powering more than 300,000 web communities, online dating sites and niche social networks, DolphinPro is the world most popular social networking software platform. By far....... so why change it to UNA?

 Hi geek_girl!

Have you any examples to prove this part?

 Just interesting to look on any investigations :-)

Here is my Opinion if it counts? I prefer Dolphin over UNA by a long shot. Having now produced sites from both platforms. UNA is taking forever to do tasks when it comes to repairs to code, content and just overall community support. It seems there more apt to adding to instead of of fixing what needs fixing already. UNA seems a little plastic on both admin side and face value. 

When it comes to content coding from module builders, it is a long and sometimes tedious production. I have had a UNA site now for over 8 months now, that is just now getting content geared towards a social platform. (Only because one coder Modzzz has come to UNA). Then there is the useless and unneeded modules such as "spaces". try explaining that to users and how to use it at all. 

Personally I am not impressed really. I to believe Boonex should have just spent the time on a new rollout of Dolphin. Dolphin still has so much to give in a platform. There was no reason to drop it like a bad potato. The cost and efforts people have invested in there Dolphin platforms is such a disappointment to now lose support soon, and modules that were so well written, and have not been updated at all by some coders. On UNA side, it is very desolate when it comes to seeing any new content or old names for coding.

I am actually going to build a Dolphin site again. I'll keep my UNA site as well, because I've spent much $$$.

 They were building upon the UNA platform back in 2009

 I do agree and back the whole statement made here. I have found that page loads are deathly slow. Because of this sometimes SQL error will show across screen loads sometimes.

 Sorry, but any examples? I see in Dolphin administration/index.php page the PHP code with HTML connections and don't see smth similar in UNA studio/launcher.php. So it's interesting to get more details about this claims :-)

All you need to do is to just search here on the Boonex forums and you can find it all.  UNA was started as Dolphin 8/Trident; then it was abandoned by Boonex for awhile.  Development on Dolphin continued with Dolphin 7 lineage.  Then Boonex got the idea to call Trident Dolphin Pro.  Then finally UNA was chosen.  The whole mess is in the forum.

I answered, you can search the forum here and find all the history of the UNA platform.  You can also search the Boonex blog section as well.  I think there is a blog post on the una studio back when it was first coded.

Sorry, you didn't. I know the evolution of Dolphin->Trident->Una projects and I see that the UNA code uses some ways of Dolphin but doesn't contain any obsolete realizations like mixed PHP and HTML code or PHP 4.x legacy like the predecessor + introduced features from the PHP 7.x. So I'm still interested in what do you mean under the old code in UNA?

An Una site is more mobile friendly than Dolphin will ever be.  80% of social network users, access the sites with a smart phone.  That's a huge factor.

If you have a Dolphin license you're not using, you can transfer it to una and get all the power apps.

Dolphin is a relic of days gone by. It will soon be ditched by Boonex... then what?

Then of course there is that little thing about Boonex forcing people to go from a stable release to a beta release with bugs that could end up destroying a person's site if they need to get an app/module (Boonex can't seem to make up their mind if they are apps or modules).

 Yes it's a bit annoying, but since when has any Boonex product been free of annoyances?

 didnt realise you could transfer license and get the power apps...

I have 9 Dolphin licenses! none are being used now....

Im still unsure about going back to building on dolphin though, been working with a few WP based social scripts more recently, so much slicker to use and far far far better looking for users...

With the hundred + plugins I've bought over the years for Dolphin though I know I can build pretty much what I want on this platform, however, there are usability issues that hold me back from doing so.

1 basic example, on the activity feed, if someone has posted a video or photo, in D when you click no it, it will re-direct to the individual page of that item losing where you were on the site.

In buddypress, buddyboss, peepso, youzify (all WP) it will open the media in a model or popup bit like a lightbox, with comments just like facebook etc... users then interact, close it and carry on scrolling through site activity. Big useability factor that streamlines a sites navigation.

If Dolphin could sort that, might make a difference.

also templates on Dolphin in general suck!

Not the template authors fault, just the layout they are working on.

Would have to completely re-do a basic template in order for me to be happy to use.

Still hanging in there just in case, but I've not returned to actually using this platform for several years now, just seem so dated in its navigation and appearance...

 80% of social media users, now access those sites with a smart phone... that makes Una the hands down winner over Dolphin.  An una site is fully functional on a smart phone, and you don't really need a mobile app.  Dolphin simply is not capable of working well within a smart phone web browser.

The Boonex team is ceasing development of Dolphin, and will no longer support it. Without a development team behind it at all times, it would be pretty hard to justify building new sites with Dolphin,  I emphasize the word team, because when you invest considerable time and money into developing a site, you need the peace of mind that product support and development is not dependent on any one individual.  The fact that this forum averages 2-3 new posts a week, is very telling... it's telling you to move away from Dolphin.

 That's true, unfortunately. One should leave Dolphin. But that doesn't mean that you should come to UNA. There are currently much better scripts than UNA on the market. And when I look at how Boonex treats its customers, I won't be a customer again. I can also spend a lot of money elsewhere.

Hello Amandus!

The things like that: And when I look at how Boonex treats its customers better to support with some real examples or it looks not so good.