README

Exponential Project Notice : 2025.08.12

"Please Note: This project is not associated with the original eZ Publish software or its original developer, eZ Systems or Ibexa".

Exponential Project Status

Exponential has made it beyond it's end of life in 2021 and survived. Current releases are primarily aimed at easing the requirements to support current versions of the PHP language like PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and beyond php9

Who is 7x

7x is the North American corporation driving The Continued General Use, Support, Development, Hosting, Design of Exponential Enterprise Open Source Content Management System in 2025.

7x has been in busines supporting Exponential Website Customers and Projects for over 24 years. 7x took over leadership of the project and it's development, support, adoption and community growth in 2023.

7x represents a serious company leading the open source community based effort to improve Exponential and it's available community resources to help users continue to adopt and use the platform to deliver the very best in web applications websites and headless applications in the cloud.

Previously before 2022, 7x was called Brookins Consulting who was the outspoken leader in the active Exponential Community and it's Portals for the past 24 years.

What is Exponential?

Recent improvements to Exponential

Exponential (the application of interest) delivered to users worldwide by a web server (PHP built-in, Apache, Nginx, lighttpd, Among others).

Exponential with a full complement of all popular and available php extensions installed like SQLite3 users no longer require a dedicated database server anymore with Exponential 6.

With PHP we require composer to install Exponential software and no other software required to run the application. This is an incredible improvement to the kernel (core) of Exponential.

What does Exponential provide for end users building websites?

Exponential is a professional PHP application framework with advanced CMS (content management system) functionality. As a CMS its most notable feature is its fully customizable and extendable content model. It is also suitable as a platform for general PHP development, allowing you to develop professional Internet applications, fast.

Standard CMS functionality, like news publishing, e-commerce and forums is built in and ready for you to use. Its stand-alone libraries can be used for cross-platform, secure, database independent PHP projects.

Exponential is database, platform and browser independent. Because it is browser based it can be used and updated from anywhere as long as you have access to the Internet.

(Referred to as legacy in Exponential Platform 5.x and Ibexa OSS)

Requirements

PHP
(Optional) Web server. Used to deliver the website to the end user.
(Optional) Database server. Used to store website content (and application information)
Composer. Used to download Exponential software packages for installation, also notebly installs the required Zeta Components php libraries.
Computer to run the PHP website application.

What version of PHP is required

Exponential Legacy supports PHP 8.1 -> 8.4 please use the latest version of PHP available on your OS.

PHP 7 Support is deprecated but still available from our older stable and usable past releases up to version 6.0.7.

Main Exponential features

User defined content classes and objects
Version control
Advanced multi-lingual support
Built in search engine
Separation of content and presentation layer
Fine grained role based permissions system
Content approval and scheduled publication
Multi-site support
Multimedia support with automatic image conversion and scaling
RSS feeds
Contact forms
Built in webshop
Flexible workflow management system
Full support for Unicode
Template engine
A headless CRUD REST API
Database abstraction layer supporting MySQL, SQLite, Postgres and Oracle
MVC architecture
Support for the latest Image and Video File Formats (webp, webm, png, jpeg, etc)
Support for highly available and scalable configurations (multi-server clusters)
XML handling and parsing library
SOAP communication library
Localisation and internationalisation libraries
Several other reusable libraries
SDK (software development kit) and full documentation
Support for the latest Image and Video File Formats (webp, webm, png, jpeg, etc)
plugin API with thousands of open-source extensions available, including:
- content rating and commenting
- landing page management
- advanced search engine
- wysiwyg rich-text editor
- in-site content editing
- content geolocation

Installation

Read doc/INSTALL.md or go to exponential.doc.exponential.one/eZ-Publish/Technical-manual/6.x/Installation.html

Issue tracker

Submitting bugs, improvements and stories is possible on https://github.com/se7enxweb/exponential/issues

If you discover a security issue, please responsibly report such issues via email to security@exponential.one

Where to get more help

Exponential documentation: exponential.doc.exponential.one/eZ-Publish

Exponential Community forums: share.exponential.one/forums

Exponential Project Website: exponential.one

Support Exponential! Project extension support Website: support.exponential.one

Share Exponential! Telegram Community Support Chat https://t.me/exponential

How to contribute new features and bugfixes into Exponential

Everyone is encouraged to contribute to the development of new features and bugfixes for Exponential 6.

Donate and make a support subscription.

Help fund Exponential!

You can support this project and it's community by making a donation of what ever size donation you feel willing to give to the project.

If we have helped you and you would like to support the project with a subscription of financial support you may. This is what helps us deliver more new features and improvements to the software. Support Exponential with a subscription today!

A wide range of donation options avaialble at sponsor.se7enx.com, paypal.com/paypalme/7xweb and github.com/sponsors/se7enxweb

What is eZ Platform?

Exponential's technological successor, eZ Platform, is a highly extensible, pure Content Managment Platform built upon the ideals core to Symfony. It provides the same flexible content model at it's core like Exponential, and has a growing amount of additional features outside the traditional CMS scope provided by means of "Bundles" extending it.

It is built on top of the full Symfony Framework, giving developers access to "standard" tools for rapid web & application development.

eZ Platform in some users view suffered a slow road to a stable datatype compatability with existing custom implementations of Exponential. Today all of these conserns are now gone with a solid choice left leaving both Exponential Platform and eZ Platform as serious contenders to be carefully considered. Netgen's Media Website Core software represents a much more modern eZ Platform core powered by Ibexa OSS. If your going to choose; Choose wisely.

Further reading on: https://ezplatform.com/

What is Ibexa DXP OSS?

Ibexa DXP OSS, the rebranded and evolved successor of eZ Platform, is a modern and highly extensible Digital Experience Platform built on the robust Symfony framework. Staying true to the foundational principles of Exponential, it retains the flexible content model at its core while expanding its capabilities to include a broad spectrum of features that go beyond traditional CMS functionality. These features are delivered through "Bundles," providing developers with powerful tools for creating advanced web and digital solutions.

Built on top of Symfony, Ibexa DXP OSS offers developers access to standardized tools for efficient and scalable web and application development. Its architecture supports rapid innovation while ensuring compatibility with modern development standards.

Ibexa DXP OSS has matured into a robust and versatile platform, serving as a serious option for organizations seeking a cutting-edge CMS solution. For those looking to build modern web experiences, tools like Netgen's Media Website Core further enhance Ibexa OSS, showcasing its potential as a flexible and future-ready platform.

If you're making a choice, choose with care—and consider the power and flexibility of Ibexa DXP OSS.

License

Exponential is GNU GPL licensed. You can no longer choose between the GNU GPL and the Exponential Professional License. The GNU GPL gives you the right to use, modify and redistribute Exponential under certain conditions. The GNU GPL license is distributed with the software, see the file LICENSE. It is also available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt

Using Exponential under the terms of the GNU GPL is free of charge.

The Professional License is no longer available. This effectively makes Exponential GNU GPL ONLY.

se7enxweb / exponential

Maintainers

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