Alumni Network Management System

February 24, 2026 · View on GitHub

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A comprehensive alumni network management system for XOOPS 2.5.12 that enables educational institutions to maintain strong connections with their graduates through profiles, events, mentorship programs, and networking features.

Table of Contents

Features

🎓 Profile Management

  • Complete Alumni Profiles: Personal, academic, and professional information
  • Photo Uploads: Profile photos with automatic resizing
  • Privacy Controls: Granular privacy settings (public, alumni-only, private)
  • Skills Tracking: Tag and categorize professional skills
  • Social Integration: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and website links
  • View Counters: Track profile visibility and engagement

🤝 Networking & Connections

  • Connection System: Send and accept connection requests
  • Connection Management: View, accept, decline, and remove connections
  • Status Tracking: Pending, accepted, declined, and blocked states
  • Connection Limits: Configurable maximum connections per user
  • Privacy Aware: Respects user networking preferences

📅 Event Management

  • Event Types: Physical, online, and hybrid events
  • RSVP System: Attend, maybe, or decline with guest count
  • Event Categories: Organize by reunion, career fair, networking, etc.
  • Registration Deadlines: Automatic deadline enforcement
  • Capacity Management: Set maximum attendees
  • Featured Events: Highlight important events
  • Event Images: Visual event promotion
  • Attendee Lists: See who's attending events

👨‍🏫 Mentorship Program

  • Mentor Availability: Alumni can offer to mentor
  • Mentorship Requests: Students/alumni can request mentors
  • Status Tracking: Active, pending, completed, declined
  • Mentorship Area: Specify expertise areas
  • Request Management: Accept or decline mentorship requests
  • Multiple Filters: Name, year, industry, location, company, position
  • Skill Search: Find alumni by specific skills
  • Year Range: Search within graduation year ranges
  • Keyword Search: Full-text search across profiles
  • Mentor Search: Find available mentors
  • Location Search: City, state, country filters

📊 Dashboard & Analytics

  • User Dashboard: Personal stats, connections, upcoming events
  • Admin Dashboard: Comprehensive statistics and insights
  • Profile Views: Track engagement metrics
  • Connection Stats: Monitor network growth
  • Event Analytics: RSVP counts and attendance tracking

🧩 Blocks & Widgets

  • Recent Alumni Block: Display newest profiles
  • Upcoming Events Block: Show upcoming events
  • Quick Search Block: Fast profile search
  • Statistics Block: Alumni network stats

🔒 Security & Privacy

  • CSRF Protection: All forms secured with tokens
  • SQL Injection Prevention: Parameterized queries throughout
  • XSS Protection: Output sanitization everywhere
  • File Upload Validation: Secure image uploads
  • Permission Checks: Role-based access control
  • Privacy Settings: User-controlled visibility

📱 Modern Design

  • Bootstrap 5: Responsive, mobile-first design
  • Font Awesome 6: Professional iconography
  • Grid/List Views: Flexible display options
  • Accessibility: ARIA labels and semantic HTML
  • Mobile Responsive: Works on all devices

Requirements

System Requirements

ComponentMinimum VersionRecommended
XOOPS2.5.122.5.12
PHP8.2.08.2+
MySQL5.75.7+ / 8.0+
Web ServerApache 2.2 / Nginx 1.10Apache 2.4 / Nginx 1.18+
PHP Memory128M256M+
Upload Max8M16M+

PHP Extensions Required

  • mysqli or pdo_mysql
  • gd or imagick (for image processing)
  • mbstring (for multibyte strings)
  • json (for data handling)
  • fileinfo (for file uploads)

XOOPS Modules (Optional)

  • XMF Library: Module framework (recommended)
  • Publisher: Content publishing
  • System: Core system module

Installation

Step 1: Download and Extract

  1. Download the Alumni module package
  2. Extract to /modules/alumni/ in your XOOPS installation
cd /path/to/xoops/modules
unzip alumni-1.0.0.zip
# Should create: modules/alumni/

Step 2: Set Permissions

# Linux/Unix
chmod 755 modules/alumni
chmod -R 755 modules/alumni/uploads
chmod -R 755 uploads/alumni

# Create upload directories if they don't exist
mkdir -p uploads/alumni/photos
mkdir -p uploads/alumni/events
chmod 755 uploads/alumni/photos
chmod 755 uploads/alumni/events

Windows: Right-click folders → Properties → Security → Ensure IIS/Apache user has write permissions.

Step 3: Install via XOOPS Admin

  1. Login to XOOPS Administration
  2. Navigate to System → Modules
  3. Find Alumni Network in the uninstalled modules list
  4. Click Install icon
  5. Follow the installation wizard
  6. Installation will create:
    • 9 database tables
    • Sample data (10 profiles, 5 events, 5 categories)
    • Required directories

Step 4: Configure Permissions

  1. Go to System → Groups
  2. Set permissions for:
    • Anonymous Users: View public profiles, events
    • Registered Users: Create profile, connect, RSVP
    • Administrators: Full access

Step 5: Verify Installation

  1. Navigate to /modules/alumni/
  2. Check that sample alumni profiles display
  3. Verify admin panel: /modules/alumni/admin/
  4. Test block installation: System → Blocks

Configuration

Module Preferences

Access via: System → Modules → Alumni → Preferences

Display Settings

SettingDescriptionDefault
Profiles Per PageNumber of profiles per page20
Events Per PageNumber of events per page10

Approval Workflow

SettingDescriptionDefault
Enable ApprovalRequire admin approval for new profilesYes
Auto-Approve MembersAutomatically approve registered usersNo

Photo Settings

SettingDescriptionDefault
Max Photo SizeMaximum file size in bytes2 MB
Allowed ExtensionsPhoto file typesjpg, jpeg, png, gif
Max WidthMaximum image width800px
Max HeightMaximum image height800px

Event Image Settings

SettingDescriptionDefault
Max Image SizeMaximum file size for events3 MB
Allowed ExtensionsEvent image typesjpg, jpeg, png, gif

Feature Toggles

SettingDescriptionDefault
Enable MentorshipMentorship programOn
Enable ConnectionsConnection systemOn
Enable EventsEvent managementOn
Enable CommentsProfile commentsOn

Privacy Defaults

SettingOptionsDefault
Email PrivacyPublic / Alumni / PrivateAlumni
Phone PrivacyPublic / Alumni / PrivatePrivate
Profile PrivacyPublic / Alumni / PrivateAlumni

Limits

SettingDescriptionDefault
Max ConnectionsMaximum connections per user500
Max Event AttendeesMax attendees (0 = unlimited)0

Notification Settings

SettingDescriptionDefault
Notify Admin - New ProfileEmail admin on new profilesYes
Notify Admin - New EventEmail admin on new eventsYes
Notify - Connection RequestEmail on connection requestsYes
Notify - Mentorship RequestEmail on mentorship requestsYes
Notify - Event RSVPEmail event organizer on RSVPsYes

User Guide

Creating Your Profile

  1. Login to your XOOPS account
  2. Navigate to Alumni → My Profile
  3. Click Edit Profile
  4. Fill in information:
    • Personal: Name, photo, bio
    • Academic: Graduation year, degree, major
    • Professional: Job title, company, industry, skills
    • Contact: Email, phone, website, social links
    • Settings: Privacy controls, mentorship availability
  5. Click Save Changes
  6. Profile will be pending approval (if enabled)

Searching for Alumni

  1. Use the search block or go to Alumni → Search
  2. Enter keywords, graduation year, or location
  3. Click Search

Advanced Search

  1. Navigate to Alumni → Advanced Search
  2. Use multiple filters:
    • Name, graduation year range
    • Industry, company, position
    • Location (city, state, country)
    • Skills
    • Mentorship availability
  3. Click Search to see results

Connecting with Alumni

  1. Visit an alumni profile
  2. Click Connect button
  3. Wait for them to accept your request
  4. Manage connections in My Dashboard → Connections

Connection Actions

  • Accept: Approve a pending connection request
  • Decline: Reject a connection request
  • Remove: Disconnect from an existing connection
  • Cancel: Withdraw a pending sent request

Viewing Events

  1. Navigate to Alumni → Events
  2. Filter by:
    • Upcoming: Future events only
    • Past: Historical events
    • My Events: Events you've RSVP'd to
  3. Click event for details

RSVPing to Events

  1. Open event detail page
  2. Select RSVP status:
    • Attending
    • Maybe
    • Not Attending
  3. Enter number of guests (if allowed)
  4. Add optional notes
  5. Click Update RSVP
  6. Change or cancel anytime before event

Using the Dashboard

Access: Alumni → Dashboard

Dashboard Sections:

  • Quick Stats: Connections, events, views, mentorships
  • Connection Requests: Accept/decline pending requests
  • Upcoming Events: Your RSVP'd events
  • My Connections: Grid of connected alumni
  • Profile Summary: Your profile snapshot

Mentorship Program

Becoming a Mentor

  1. Edit your profile
  2. Check Available for Mentorship
  3. Save changes
  4. You'll appear in mentor listings

Finding a Mentor

  1. Navigate to Alumni → Mentorship
  2. Click Find Mentors tab
  3. Search by name, industry, or skills
  4. Click Request Mentor on desired profile
  5. Mentor will receive notification

Managing Mentorship

  • As Mentor: Accept/decline requests in Dashboard
  • As Mentee: Track your mentors in Mentorship page
  • Status: View active, pending, or completed mentorships

Administrator Guide

Accessing Admin Panel

  1. Login as administrator
  2. Navigate to /modules/alumni/admin/
  3. Or: System → Modules → Alumni → Administration

Admin Dashboard

Statistics Cards:

  • Total Alumni
  • Active Profiles
  • Upcoming Events
  • Pending Approvals

Recent Activity:

  • Latest 10 profiles
  • Latest 10 events
  • Connection statistics
  • Mentorship statistics

Managing Profiles

Access: Admin → Profiles

Operations

List View:

  • Filter by status (active, pending, inactive)
  • Filter by graduation year
  • Filter by featured status
  • Pagination support

Add/Edit Profile:

  1. Click Add Profile or Edit on existing
  2. Fill in all sections:
    • Personal information
    • Academic details
    • Professional information
    • Contact details
    • Privacy settings
  3. Click Save

Bulk Actions:

  • Approve: Activate pending profiles
  • Feature: Mark as featured alumni
  • Delete: Remove profiles (with confirmation)

Managing Events

Access: Admin → Events

Operations

List View:

  • Filter by status, category, featured
  • View RSVP counts
  • Quick status changes

Add/Edit Event:

  1. Click Add Event or Edit
  2. Complete form:
    • Title, description, image
    • Category, event type
    • Date/time, location/venue
    • Registration deadline
    • Max attendees
    • Contact information
    • Meeting URL (for online events)
  3. Set status (draft, active, cancelled, completed)
  4. Click Save

Additional Actions:

  • Duplicate: Clone event for recurring events
  • View RSVPs: See attendee list
  • Export: Download attendee list as CSV

Managing Categories

Access: Admin → Categories

Category Types

  • Event Categories: Reunion, career fair, networking, etc.
  • General Categories: For future content types

Operations

  1. Click Add Category
  2. Set name, description, type
  3. Set display order (for sorting)
  4. Save
  5. Note: Cannot delete categories with events

Managing RSVPs

Access: Admin → RSVPs

Features

  • Filter by event
  • Filter by RSVP status (attending, maybe, not attending)
  • View guest counts
  • Export attendee lists as CSV

CSV Export

  1. Select event
  2. Click Export CSV
  3. Downloads with columns:
    • Name, Email, Phone
    • RSVP Status, Guests
    • Notes, RSVP Date

Managing Connections

Access: Admin → Connections

View Options

  • All connections
  • Filter by status (accepted, pending, declined, blocked)
  • View connection details
  • Delete problematic connections

Statistics

  • Total connections
  • Active connections
  • Pending requests
  • Declined requests

Managing Mentorships

Access: Admin → Mentorship

Operations

  • View all mentorships
  • Filter by status (active, pending, completed, declined)
  • View mentorship details
  • Activate pending mentorships
  • Complete active mentorships
  • Delete mentorships if needed

Managing Skills

Access: Admin → Skills

Features

  • View all skills with usage counts
  • Add new skills
  • Edit skill names
  • Merge duplicate skills
  • Delete unused skills

Merging Skills

  1. Select source skill (to be removed)
  2. Select target skill (to keep)
  3. Click Merge
  4. All profile associations transfer to target skill

Module Statistics

Access: Admin → About

Information Displayed:

  • Module version and details
  • Total counts (profiles, events, connections, etc.)
  • System information (XOOPS, PHP, MySQL versions)
  • Feature list
  • Support links

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Profiles Not Displaying

Problem: Alumni directory shows empty or errors

Solutions:

  1. Check module is installed correctly
  2. Verify database tables exist (9 tables)
  3. Check profile approval settings
  4. Clear Smarty cache: 
    rm -rf xoops_data/caches/smarty_cache/*
rm -rf xoops_data/caches/smarty_compile/*

Photo Upload Fails

Problem: Cannot upload profile or event photos

Solutions:

  1. Check upload directory permissions: 
    chmod 755 uploads/alumni
chmod 755 uploads/alumni/photos
chmod 755 uploads/alumni/events
  2. Verify PHP upload limits in php.ini: 
    upload_max_filesize = 8M
post_max_size = 8M
  3. Check allowed extensions in module preferences
  4. Verify image dimensions don't exceed limits

Events Not Showing

Problem: Events page empty or events missing

Solutions:

  1. Check event status (must be "active")
  2. Verify event date is in future for "Upcoming" filter
  3. Check category assignment
  4. Clear module cache
  5. Verify event created_by user exists

Connection Requests Not Working

Problem: Cannot send or receive connection requests

Solutions:

  1. Verify both users have "allow networking" enabled
  2. Check for existing connection (no duplicates)
  3. Verify CSRF token in forms
  4. Check browser console for JavaScript errors
  5. Test with different browsers

RSVP Errors

Problem: RSVP submission fails

Solutions:

  1. Check event is "active" status
  2. Verify registration deadline hasn't passed
  3. Check event capacity (if set)
  4. Ensure user is logged in
  5. Check CSRF token validation

Search Returns No Results

Problem: Search always shows empty results

Solutions:

  1. Check profile privacy settings
  2. Verify profiles are "active" status
  3. Test with broader search terms
  4. Check FULLTEXT index on database: 
    SHOW INDEX FROM alumni_profiles WHERE Key_name = 'name_bio';
  5. Rebuild search index if needed

Admin Pages Access Denied

Problem: Cannot access admin panel

Solutions:

  1. Verify you're logged in as administrator
  2. Check XOOPS group permissions
  3. Check module admin permissions
  4. Clear browser cookies/cache
  5. Verify alumni_isUserAdmin() function works

Email Notifications Not Sending

Problem: No notification emails received

Solutions:

  1. Check notification settings in module preferences
  2. Verify XOOPS mail configuration
  3. Test with different email addresses
  4. Check server mail logs
  5. Verify PHP mail() function works

FAQ

General Questions

Q: Can anonymous visitors view alumni profiles? A: Yes, if profile privacy is set to "public". Alumni-only and private profiles are hidden.

Q: Can I import existing alumni data? A: Yes, you can use SQL INSERT statements or create a custom import script. Contact support for assistance.

Q: Is there a mobile app? A: No mobile app yet, but the website is fully responsive and mobile-friendly.

Q: Can alumni delete their own profiles? A: No, only administrators can delete profiles. Alumni can set their profile to inactive.

Profile Questions

Q: How do I change my privacy settings? A: Edit your profile → Privacy Settings section → Select public/alumni/private for each field.

Q: Can I have multiple graduation years? A: No, currently only one graduation year per profile. Future versions may support multiple degrees.

Q: What photo formats are supported? A: JPG, JPEG, PNG, and GIF up to 2MB by default (configurable by admin).

Q: How do I add skills to my profile? A: Edit profile → Skills section → Type skill names separated by commas.

Connection Questions

Q: How many connections can I have? A: Default limit is 500 connections (configurable by admin).

Q: Can I block someone? A: Currently no, but you can decline their connection request or contact admin.

Q: Will they know if I decline their connection? A: No notification is sent, their request just shows as declined on their end.

Event Questions

Q: Can I create my own events? A: Only administrators can create events. Submit requests through the contact form.

Q: Can I bring guests to events? A: If allowed by event organizer, you can specify guest count when RSVPing.

Q: What if an event is full? A: You cannot RSVP once capacity is reached. Contact event organizer for waitlist.

Q: Can I change my RSVP? A: Yes, you can update or cancel your RSVP anytime before the event.

Mentorship Questions

Q: How do I become a mentor? A: Edit profile → Check "Available for Mentorship" → Save.

Q: Can I have multiple mentors? A: Yes, you can request mentorship from multiple alumni.

Q: What happens after mentorship request is accepted? A: Contact information is shared, and you manage the relationship directly.

Q: Can I stop being a mentor? A: Yes, edit profile and uncheck "Available for Mentorship".

Support

Getting Help

Documentation

  • Developer Guide: See DEVELOPER_GUIDE.md for code patterns
  • Installation Guide: See INSTALL.txt for detailed steps
  • CLAUDE.md: For developers using Claude Code

Community Support

Professional Support

Reporting Bugs

When reporting bugs, please include:

  1. XOOPS version
  2. PHP version
  3. MySQL version
  4. Module version
  5. Steps to reproduce
  6. Expected behavior
  7. Actual behavior
  8. Screenshots if applicable
  9. Error messages from logs

Feature Requests

Submit feature requests with:

  1. Clear description of feature
  2. Use case / benefit
  3. How it should work
  4. Priority level (nice-to-have vs. essential)

Credits

Development Team

XOOPS Development Team

  • Module architecture and design
  • Security implementation
  • XOOPS integration

Special Thanks

  • XOOPS Community: For framework and support
  • Bootstrap Team: For responsive framework
  • Font Awesome: For iconography
  • Contributors: All testers and contributors

Built With

  • XOOPS 2.5.12: Content management system
  • PHP 8.2+: Server-side language
  • MySQL 5.5+: Database system
  • Bootstrap 5: Frontend framework
  • Font Awesome 6: Icon library
  • jQuery: JavaScript library (via XOOPS)
  • Smarty 3: Template engine

License

This module is released under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later.

Alumni Network Management System for XOOPS
Copyright (C) 2026 XOOPS Development Team

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

Full License: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.

Screenshots

Note: Add screenshots after deployment

  1. Alumni Directory - Grid view of alumni profiles
  2. Profile View - Detailed alumni profile page
  3. Event Listing - Upcoming events with RSVP
  4. Dashboard - User dashboard with stats
  5. Admin Panel - Administrative interface
  6. Search Results - Advanced search interface
  7. Mentorship - Mentor directory
  8. Mobile View - Responsive design

Module Version: 1.0.0 Last Updated: 2026-02-23 Compatibility: XOOPS 2.5.11+ | PHP 8.2+ | MySQL 5.5+