Citadel Groupware

 v 0.22

24 May 12

Citadel is different - on first glance, it looks like a BBS with aspirations above its station.  I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this Groupware from the first time I saw it in the Debian repository and read about it.  

It has history … extensive history.  It grew out of the old BBS systems of Dial-up modem times, and still has a text mode that replicates that, although normal interaction is through a web browser and the “Webcit” server application.

Citadel looks, at first, a little dated and I’ve found user documentation a little sparse, however I’m slowly “getting” it and starting to really like it.  One thing I especially like is that it has several security advantages over other packages, notably immunity to PHP and SQL attacks.  It has its own inbuilt servers and it does not use PHP or MySQL.

So, how does Citadel qualify for the compliments I’ve seen about it?

Whilst it may seem a little “clunky” at first glance (it can be modified), its power lies in its simplicity of concept and gentle learning curve.  It is easy to set up, and you can start out with a very simple configuration and expand as you become familiar with how to use it.  It is like being given a pile of different lego blocks and discovering how to assemble them into ever more complex objects.

It is probably time for a screenshot (from the Citadel website), and then a discussion of how the setup works.  Once logged in to the application, this is how it generally looks, with a menu on the left and the subject of whatever you have selected in the main window.  Note:

• login and viewing details in the top right
• selection options for the current viewing window along the top menu-bar

Of the “Menu Selection Buttons” on the left, the private “rooms” for each user are:

• Mail
• Calendar
• Contacts
• Notes
• Tasks

 

• The “ +Rooms “ selection expands to the current “room” matrix.  These can be public or private, hidden or password protected, as determined when they are created.
• “Advanced” is allocated on a per-user basis, depending on what permissions a user gets.
• “Administration” is, obviously, allocated to an Administrator.
• The menu is tailored to each user and setup.

At its core, Citadel is an old-style BBS.  Forums use the paradigm of “Floors and Rooms” of a building.  Each “Floor” has a broad subject, with each room being a more specific subject.  Where this differs from a standard BBS is that each room can take several forms.  The “room” could be a standard message topic discussion, or it could be a task list or a Blog.  So, in the case of a company project, there could be one floor named “Project” with separate rooms for message discussions, task lists, a blog talking of progress on issues and even perhaps a calendar.

Communication.  

• Out of the box, Citadel offers email between registered users, with only the username required.  After it is configured, then conventional email is available.
• There is an IM facility between logged in members.  There is more. Put a “Jabber” client such as Pidgin on your desktop and tell it about Citadel, and Citadel can act as a Jabber server connecting users.

Office Documents

• Blog and Wikis.  Any room can be configured to act as it says.  I have to say though that I’ve yet to get the Wiki feature to work as I’d like (upgrade to 8.11 fixed that problem).
• Calendars and Notes and Tasklists.  As it says, you can also nominate any room for these.  The “Notes” are sticky notes, and the Tasklists, while basic, can be categorised quite finely.

Networking

• Citadel servers can be configured to network together simply by telling them about each other.  Users, rooms etc can be shared and a quite complex “social network” of sorts can be constructed.  These building blocks can link together to construct quite a complex system.  Impressive.

One final thing for the moment.  FLOSS Weekly Episode 209 is all about Citadel.  Worth the look.


Later...