What is ViperNET?
ViperNET is the home of the Viper Community Management System Project. This site will be used to keep you up-to date on the progress of the project, changes, code updates, and eventual live versions of the software. The site may look bare now, but that is only because the project is just now starting. Watch for other pages to appear as development continues.
What is the Viper Community Management System?
Viper Community Management System (ViperCMS or Viper) is a new type of CMS/Forum program that will be written using the .NET 2.0 Framework (specifically VB.NET). It will contain uniform tools for maintaining users, articles, links, contacts, forums, discussions, and so on. It will be written to be highly modularized to allow for ease of creating new modules, skins, etc, with little to no need for rewriting of existing code.
Why are you creating Viper when there are other solutions out there?
Yes, there are other solutions available for use. There are a number of reasons for my desire to create a new solution. First, I have found it extremely difficult to find a flexible enough system that includes both a CMS and a Forum specifically for community related sites. For Comic Book Review, I was forced to use Mambo for the CMS and phpBB for the Forums. The two had completely separate user authentication databases, as well as different ways of handling posting articles/messages. As I researched other options, I found the same limitations. In addition, the two systems I'm most familiar with are very difficult to customize if you don't have a thorough knowledge of PHP. By creating a modular .NET system, the goal is to provide a complete tool without needing to edit existing code, unless that is the desire.
What modules are planned to be included in the base install of Viper?
I'm going to be working around features that I currently have implemented on Comic Book Review. This includes Article Publishing, Web Comic Administration, Link Administration, Banner Ads, Forums, Role Playing Games, Private Messaging, Global Administration, Moderated Administration. Other modules will be considered as necessary. It will be written initially to be connected to the SQL 2005 Express Database. The exact modules that will be included in the base install will be determined after the modules are written.
How much will Viper cost?
Viper will be written under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This means that it will be a free distribution. I will be relying on the support of whatever community becomes interested in the project and donations of those who like the functionality. I thought about making it a paid system, but since I'm working on this in my spare time, I don't have time to figure out how to make a modular system secure and still be flexible. Besides, I want the user community to be able to add new modules for things I may not have thought about.
Last Updated: Wednesday, December 14, 2005
