Getting Support #

This guide is about getting a problem solved, from the first look in your own installation to hiring the people who maintain Exponential. Many problems that show up in Exponential are not Exponential problems at all: they belong to PHP, Composer, the database, the web server, the operating system or the browser, and each of those has large, long-lived communities that have answered the same question many times. So the guide first shows how to help yourself, then how to turn an Exponential problem into an ecosystem problem that any of those communities can answer, then the Exponential community and its volunteers, the wider PHP ecosystem, the Exponential Foundation, and finally 7x, for the fastest result with one partner responsible for the whole stack.

Every channel named here was checked to exist and answer (4 November 2026). Where another page of this help explains a subject in depth, this guide links it instead of repeating it. Security problems never go to a public channel: see Security issues.

Contents #

1. The fastest path to an answer
2. Help yourself first
3. Abstraction: turn an Exponential problem into an ecosystem problem
4. Exponential community support: the volunteers
5. The wider Exponential and PHP ecosystem
6. The Exponential Foundation
7. 7x: the fastest results, with total product responsibility
8. Security issues
9. Questions

1. The fastest path to an answer #

2. Help yourself first #

Look it up #

• This help. Search it from the help dashboard, or press the "?" button on any page of the administration for the help about that page (Help system).
• The troubleshooting sections of the books. Installing, Configuring, Updating, Extending, Integrating and Distributions each end with a table of symptoms and answers.
• When something goes wrong: is it an error at all, what to check first, and how to file a bug.
• The other documentation sites, the community wiki eZpedia and the articles on Share Exponential: Documentation sources.

Look at the installation #

• The logs. Setup > Log files (setup/logs) and ./console exp:logs follow the log files live, search them with their rotations and mask secrets by default (The log viewer).
• The debug output. Switch it on for your own address only, never for everyone (Debug bar, and Configuring, Debugging and logs).
• The system card. ./console exp:info lists the versions, extensions, siteaccesses, settings, cronjobs and caches; Setup > System information shows a summary to copy (The system card).
• The upgrade check. Setup > Upgrade check (setup/systemupgrade) and ./console exp:upgrade:status show changed files and pending upgrade steps (Updating, the upgrade check).

Collect the facts a helper needs #

Whoever helps you, in a forum or at 7x, needs the same facts. Write them down once:

Before you post anything #

• Remove passwords, keys, tokens, session cookies, database addresses and server paths. The log viewer and the system card mask the common ones; check the rest yourself.
• Remove the personal data of your users and customers: names, e-mail addresses, IP addresses, order details.
• Post the smallest piece that shows the problem, not a whole log file.

3. Abstraction: turn an Exponential problem into an ecosystem problem #

Exponential runs on a stack of other software, and every layer of that stack has its own community, often far larger than any one application's. When a problem lives in one of those layers, the fastest helpers are the people who know that layer, and they do not need to know Exponential at all. The trick is to take Exponential out of the question.

Find the layer #

When the quick test fails too, you have found the layer. When it works, the problem is in Exponential, and section 4 is the place.

Ask where that layer is answered #

Phrase the question without Exponential #

• Describe the layer, not the application: "PHP 8.4 with PHP-FPM behind Apache returns 502 for uploads over 8 MB", not "Exponential cannot upload images".
• Include the versions of that layer, the minimal test that shows the problem, and what you already tried.
• Leave out what the helpers do not need: the content classes, the templates, the extension names.
• When you get the answer, bring it back: apply it to Exponential, and tell the community where you asked (section 4) what solved it, so the next person finds it.

Search what was already answered #

• Search the issue trackers of the layer and of Exponential's upstream libraries before asking; closed issues often hold the answer and the workaround.
• Much of the Exponential kernel continues the code of eZ Publish, a content management system that its creator discontinued. Answers written in the eZ Publish years about the kernel, the template language, content classes, INI settings and extensions often still apply. Read them as history: check the setting or function still exists in your version (History of Exponential), and prefer this help when the two disagree. Old pages are often reachable through the Internet Archive and are collected on eZpedia.

AI assistants as a first pass #

An AI assistant can explain an error message, suggest where to look and draft a minimal test. Treat its answer as a suggestion: check it against the documentation and in a copy of the site before you change production, and never paste passwords, keys, tokens, customer data or whole configuration files into one.

4. Exponential community support: the volunteers #

The community answers questions in its free time. Nobody promises an answer time, and good questions get answered faster (section 2).

Every place the community meets is listed in Community channels, and the community itself, with all of its websites, is described in Exponential Community. For a bug, the Report an error page of this help prepares the issue with a safe summary of the installation (When something goes wrong).

Etiquette with volunteers

• Ask in one place at a time, and link the question if you move it.
• Answer the follow-up questions; a thread without them usually dies.
• Say what solved it, and mark the issue or thread as solved.
• Give back when you can: answer someone else's question, improve a page of this help, or report a bug well (Helping others, Contributing to the project).

5. The wider Exponential and PHP ecosystem #

Exponential shares code and history with other projects, and their communities can help with the parts they share.

• Exponential Layouts continues Netgen Layouts. Questions about the layout engine itself, rather than how Exponential uses it, belong to the Netgen Layouts repositories and their documentation.
• The Symfony based distributions (Exponential Platform Legacy, Nexus, DXP) run on Symfony, so the Symfony community answers everything that is plain Symfony (Distributions of Exponential).
• The eZ Publish and Ibexa years. eZ Systems, now Ibexa, publishes the documentation of its current products at doc.ibexa.co. It covers Ibexa's products, not Exponential, but its explanations of shared concepts can help; the eZ Publish era pages are history (History of Exponential).
• PHP communities in general. Local PHP user groups (php.ug) and the conferences listed on php.net/conferences are good places to meet people who run PHP in production.

6. The Exponential Foundation #

The Exponential Foundation is the nonprofit that operates the Exponential project (foundation.exponential.earth). Its stated mission includes the funding, adoption, support, direction, education, development, promotion and documentation of the project, and it supports the community directly, putting the support needs of community users first (the project's README). It does not sell support contracts; it funds the work that every user benefits from: the core libraries, the documentation and the community infrastructure.

How the Foundation helps you get support:

• It keeps the free channels and the documentation running (section 4).
• You can direct its work by sponsoring it: https://github.com/sponsors/exponentialcms.
• The details, with every source, are in Who is the Exponential Foundation? and in Give and donate.

7. 7x: the fastest results, with total product responsibility #

7x is the company that leads the development of Exponential and supports its customers (Who is 7x?). When a site is down, a deadline is close, the environment is regulated, or the work is large (a major upgrade, a migration from an old eZ Publish installation, a move between databases), hiring 7x is the fastest route available today: the people who maintain the code do the work.

Total product responsibility. Most problems in production sit between the layers: the hosting, PHP, the database, Exponential, the extensions and the integrations each belong to someone else, and each vendor can show that its own part works. 7x takes the whole business software stack as one responsibility: hosting, PHP, the database, Exponential and its extensions, integrations with other systems, upgrades and security. One partner, with experts for every layer, owns the result, so nothing falls between vendors.

What 7x offers, as its own pages describe it:

• managed hosting, including Exponential hosting (se7enx.com/services);
• support, maintenance and feature development for Exponential sites (support.exponential.earth);
• custom business solutions such as CRM integration, API development and business process automation, plus web design, performance work, payment integration and training (se7enx.com/services).

Prices and terms are those on se7enx.com/services or the ones you agree with 7x; this guide promises none.

How to reach 7x: the contact page se7enx.com/contact, with a contact form, or e-mail to [email protected]. Bring the facts from section 2; they save the first hour.

8. Security issues #

A security vulnerability is never posted in a forum, a chat or a public issue. Report it privately as SECURITY.md explains; the project promises a first answer within one business day. To harden an installation, see Security hardening and Configuring, Security.

9. Questions #

Related pages #

• Getting support: free help and paid help, Community channels
• Exponential Community, History of Exponential
• When something goes wrong, The log viewer
• Installing Exponential 6.0, Configuring Exponential 6.0