# Introduction
# About this documentation
This documentation is the starting point for developers looking to start a project with eXo Platform. It describes how to run eXo locally, how to sep up a developer environment and start developing with eXo. It also documents eXo Platform extension points, APIs and more.
The documentation focuses primarily on developers. Administrator and User guides are packaged within the platform. eXo platform website, resource center and blog also provide end-user oriented content about the product.
# About eXo Platform
eXo Platform is a digital workplace platform, providing a number of interconnected features and tools :
- facilitating internal communications
- collaboration and remote work
- knowledge management
- employee productivity and recognition.
The platform allows to create modern intranets, social networks, community management platforms, collaboration platforms and employee centered digital workplaces.
Moreover, the platform is a great way to organize and centralize your employee tools in one place, thanks to its existing connectors, its many API REST exposed services and the use of modern frameworks.
# Licencing
eXo Platform is distributed under two editions - eXo Platform CE (community edition) and eXo Platform EE (enterprise edition). The present documentation applies to both editions.
eXo Platform Community Edition is distributed for free, under the open source AGPL license. eXo Platform Enterprise Edition is distributed under a commercial license, using a subscription model.
In terms of product functionalities, both editions are based on the same core and include the same features. There are however a few notable exceptions :
- Connectors to paid third party software (Microsoft, Google) are excluded from the community edition
- OnlyOffice and Jitsi modules are not distributed with the community edition. However, connectors are included and can be used to package open source versions of those tools
- Advanced administration and security features are excluded from the community edition Moreover, eXo Platform CE does not benefit from professional grade support and maintenance programs, included in the subscription, nor from our enterprise on demand services.
# Third-Party Software
eXo Platform includes several third party open-source modules to power up some user facing features. In particular these features are based on integrations with third party tools :
- eXo Platform unified search module is based on Elastic Search
- eXo Chat module on MongoDB
- eXo videoconferencing is based on Jitsi
- eXo co-editing is based on OnlyOffice Regarding Jitsi and OnlyOffice, those tools are distributed under their own licensing conditions. Depending on the edition, open-source licensing or commercial licensing may apply. For that reason, we do not package and distribute them with the eXo Platform CE.
However, connectors developed for eXo Platform EE (which packages both OnlyOffice and Jitsi) can be used to package open-source distributions of those tools. In this documentation, we include a guide as to how to do so (in progress).
# Architecture
eXo Platform is based on modern frameworks, making it easy to customize, connect to your systems and extend.
# eXo Trial
If you want to see what eXo Platform looks like, you can check our hosted trial (opens new window).
The trial runs on eXo Platform Enterprise Edition. The trial is under continuous deployment and is based on the latest version in development.
The trial stages a sample environment with content examples. It is a shared trial - shared by multiple users. The trial also limits what any user can do. However, it provides a good first introduction as to what eXo Platform is and how it can be used.
The trial is reset regularly and ALL DATA erased permanently.