Greg Allard

I was learning python and django earlier to build a social network. So far, I have created the ability for users to

• create an account with e-mail activation
• login/out
• add other users as friends and confirm friendship that other users requested
• send/reply/forward messages

This was the base for a niche social network to be built upon.

Soon after completing those features, I discovered elgg. It’s an open source social network written in php. It can do all of those features and more. I am now looking into using that and modifying it for the original goal.

We’ve gone back to django since elgg wasn’t the easiest thing to modify. I was hoping they might have used a common php framework like cake or code igniter. More on the django developments in another post soon. On CodeSpatter I have posted about what I learned about Python, PIL, and Django working together.

Update November 12, 2008

If you are looking for an Open Source Social Network written in Django, Pinax is looking really good right now. They have combined many reusable django apps into one slick project. Cloud27 is set up as an example of all the features included in Pinax. The contact importing feature is one that I will be adding to my social app that I built before having knowledge of Pinax.