EGroupware is free

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

groupware collaboration software intended for businesses from small to enterprise. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects and to-do lists. The project releases its software under the terms of GNU General Public License (GPL). It is used either via its native web-interface, making access platform-independent, or by using different supported groupware clients, such as Kontact, Novell Evolution, or

Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager software system from Microsoft, available as a part of the Microsoft 365 software suites. Primarily popular as an email client for businesses, Outlook also includes functions such as Calendari ...

. It can also be used by

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

or PDA via

SyncML SyncML, or Synchronization Markup Language, was originally developed as a platform-independent standard for information synchronization. Established by the SyncML Initiative, this project has evolved to become a key component in data synchroniza ...

. It has translations for more than 25 languages, including right-to-left language support.

History

EGroupware is the most current manifestation of a chain of projects. The original project was called webdistro. In 2000 development on the project phpgroupware began, which was based on webdistro; and in 2003 the EGroupware fork was born. EGroupware has a very pronounced community character compared with its predecessors. There is an EGroupware constitution, adopted in 2005, which guarantees freedom and security to the community and establishes admin elections. For a short time Tine 2.0 was an official subproject of EGroupware. The goal of the subproject was the development of future technologies for the EGroupware project. Due to internal disagreements, the projects EGroupware and Tine 2.0 had separated from each other in February 2008. In July 2009 the first professional Version of EGroupware was made available. It was being sold as a software subscription. This product line, called "EGroupware Premium Line" (EPL) includes a maintenance agreement for the source code and corresponding RPMs, that enables automatic updates. Version 14.2 ist became available in December 2014. E-Share-Option: Since version 14.2 EGroupware Filemanager offers a filesharing option for an data exchange. It includes, for example, the option to send links to read or edit files to persons that do not use EGroupware. Beside that, files can be moved via

drag and drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user (computing), user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, i ...

. Filemanager is used as an alternative to the filehosting service

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropbox w ...

. Home Screen: The Home Screen is a virtual pinboard, that makes important contacts, projects or tasks always available for the user. Mobile Template: The third update in 14.2 is the mobile template, that has been optimized for small screens and touch handling. It enables the usage of EGroupware on tablets and supports swipe gestures and an adaptation of the format while turning the device. Version 16.1 was released in 2016. It included a new calendar and further improvements of the mobile template. Version 20.1 was released on 12 August 2020. It integrated a new ''smallPART'' application for video-based learning & teaching. A push server was implemented and the source code was converted to

TypeScript TypeScript (abbreviated as TS) is a high-level programming language that adds static typing with optional type annotations to JavaScript. It is designed for developing large applications and transpiles to JavaScript. It is developed by Micr ...

. Even before the release of version 20.1, the video conferencing solution

Jitsi Jitsi (from — "wires") is a collection of free and open-source software, free and open-source multiplatform Voice over IP, voice (VoIP), Video conference, video conferencing and instant messaging applications for the Web platform, Windows, Li ...

and the web remote desktop solution Apache Guacamole were integrated due to the Corona pandemic. Version 21.1 was released on 25 May 2021. The module ''smallPART'' (video-based learning tool) now supported tests and exams with single-choice,

Multiple choice Multiple choice (MC), objective response or MCQ (for multiple choice question) is a form of an objective assessment in which respondents are asked to select only the correct answer from the choices offered as a list. The multiple choice format i ...

and open text questions. New additions include an integrated Kanban board and cloud telephone system integration ( CTI). Further innovations included EGroupware

Firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...

, Dark Mode,

File sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

for internal users, and EGroupware

Mail server Within the Internet email system, a message transfer agent (MTA), mail transfer agent, or mail relay is software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. In some contexts, the a ...

Technology

EGroupware is developed in the script language

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

and is therefore platform-independent (Linux, Windows). Open source databases (MariaDB, PostgreSQL or also MySQL) can be used as databases. Authentication can be done against the own user accounts in SQL as well as LDAP, mail server, Active Directory (AD), CAS, SAML 2.0/Shibboleth/SimpleSAMLphp and others. Comparable programs are proprietary groupware servers such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino. EGroupware can manage mail servers ( Dovecot, Cyrus). User administration, e-mail accounts, absence notes/filters(via

Sieve A sieve (), fine mesh strainer, or sift is a tool used for separating wanted elements from unwanted material or for controlling the particle size distribution of a sample, using a screen such as a woven mesh or net or perforated sheet m ...

), mail aliases, quotas and forwardings are directly administrable in EGroupware or can be set by the user. A suitable e-mail server is offered as an installation package. EGroupware can be synchronised with Apple- and Android devices. Appointments, addressbook entries and tasks from Infolog application can be synchronised. ESync and CalDAV are thereby used as protocols.

Applications and functions

* Contact-manager using an SQL database or LDAP * Calendar (including support for scheduling of groups, resources and contacts) * Integrated IMAP webmail client (FelaMiMail) * Infolog, an application for tasks and notes * File manager * File sharing * Kanban board * Knowledge base * Element based project manager highly integrated with all other apps * Resources management (inventory) and booking tool integrated into EGroupware calendar * Wiki * SiteMgr: web based authoring system with fine granulated access control lists *

CalDAV Calendaring Extensions to WebDAV, or CalDAV, is an Internet standard allowing a client to access and manage calendar data along with the ability to schedule meetings with users on the same or on remote servers. It lets multiple users in differe ...

and CardDAV server * News * Time-tracker application * Bookmarks * Tracking system Other included/connected applications: *

Chat Chat or chats may refer to: Communication * Conversation, particularly casual * Online chat, text message communication over the Internet in real-time * Synchronous conferencing, a formal term for online chat * SMS chat, a form of text messagi ...

(Rocket.chat) *

Video conference Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

(

/ BigBlueButton) *

Remote desktop In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely from one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a sma ...

( Apache Guacamole) * Online office suite (

Collabora Online Collabora Online is an open source online office suite based on LibreOffice, enabling web-based collaborative real-time editing of word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and vector graphics. Optional apps are available for deskto ...

) * smallPART

Screenshots

File:EGroupware Calendar 01.png, alt=EGroupware Calendar in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware Calendar in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware Calendar 02.png, alt=EGroupware Calendar in desktop webbrowser - planner by user, EGroupware Calendar in the desktop web browser - planner by user with tooltip File:EGroupware Address book.png, alt=EGroupware Address book in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware Address book in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware InfoLog.png, alt=EGroupware InfoLog in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware InfoLog (tasks, notes, ...) in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware E-mail.png, alt=EGroupware E-mail client in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware E-mail client in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware Kanban.png, alt=EGroupware Kanban in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware Kanban in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware File Manager 01.png, alt=EGroupware File Manager list view in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware File Manager (list view) in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware File Manager 02.png, alt=EGroupware File Manager tile view in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware File Manager (tile view) in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware Project Manager 02.png, alt=EGroupware Project Manager (Gantt view) in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware Project Manager (Gantt view) in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware smallPART.png, alt=EGroupware smallPART in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware smallPART in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware Timesheet.png, alt=EGroupware Timesheet in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware Timesheet in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware Ressources.png, alt=EGroupware Ressources in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware Ressources in the desktop web browser with context menu File:EGroupware CRM view.png, alt=EGroupware CRM view InfoLog (tasks) in desktop webbrowser, EGroupware CRM view (tasks) in the desktop web browser with context menu

Literature

* Ralf Becker, Birgit Becker, Michaela Knotte, Ingo Kreißelmeyer: ''Manual EGroupware 1.4'', English, Outdoor Unlimited Training GmbH, 1.Edition, January 2008, * Ralf Becker, Birgit Becker, M. Knotte, I. Kreißelmeyer: ''Benutzerhandbuch EGroupware 1.4'', German, Outdoor Unlimited Training GmbH, 1. Edition, August 2007,

References

External links

*
EGroupware Community Edition
* {{FreeCollabManageSoftware Groupware Free groupware Business software for Linux