Glossary for journalists
This page is for journalists and their readers. Each term is explained in one or two plain sentences, with a link to the page that goes deeper. The project's own glossaries are the glossary for technical terms and the Foundation's glossary for the family and the history.
Contents
- Products and organizations
- History
- Content and editing
- Running a site
- Open source and licenses
- Security
- Releases and development
Products and organizations
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Exponential | A free, open source PHP content management system and application framework. Exponential in brief |
| Exponential 6, 6.0.x | The current major line, since 1 January 2024 |
| 7x | The company that leads Exponential; formerly Brookins Consulting. 7x for reporters |
| se7enxweb | 7x's name on GitHub and Packagist |
| the Exponential Foundation | The nonprofit that operates and funds the project, founded 19 March 2026. The Exponential Foundation for reporters |
| Exponential Velocity (vc) | A web server written in PHP that keeps the application loaded between requests. Story: Exponential Velocity |
| Exponential Intelligence (expai) | A writing assistant in the administration that writes drafts only. Story: Exponential Intelligence |
| Exponential Layouts (explayouts) | A visual page builder: layouts, zones, blocks and rules. Story: Exponential Layouts, the page builder |
| Exponential Platform | The Symfony-based line: 3.2.9, Legacy, Nexus and DXP. The product family for reporters |
| Legacy | Exponential 6 running beside a Symfony platform; not "old" |
| DXP | Digital experience platform; here the Symfony-only Exponential Platform DXP |
| AdminUI | An alternative administration, a port of the Netgen AdminUI |
| admin4 | The newest administration design, with light and dark themes |
History
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| eZ Publish | The software's name while eZ Systems developed it; a product its creator discontinued after almost 18 years. History only. Writing about the eZ Publish years |
| eZ Systems, Ibexa | The original developer and its successor company; not associated with Exponential. Not associated with eZ Systems or Ibexa |
| eZ Platform, Ibexa DXP OSS | The Symfony-based successors of eZ Publish |
| Fork | A copy of a code base continued separately; Exponential's repository is a GitHub fork |
| Stewardship | The project's word for 7x's care of the code base since December 2023 |
| LoveStack | Mugo Web's distribution of the legacy kernel, whose features 6.0.15 rebuilt with credit |
Content and editing
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Content model | The types of content a site defines and their fields |
| Content class, object | A type of content (class) and one item of it (object) |
| Version, draft | Every edit is a new version; a draft is one not yet published. Story: editing content |
| Section, state | Ways to group content for permissions and workflow |
| Siteaccess | One way into an installation: a site, a language or the administration |
| Multisite | Several sites from one installation |
| Extension | A package that adds features. Story: the extension ecosystem |
Running a site
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Web server | The program that answers browser requests: Apache, Nginx, Velocity |
| PHP-FPM | The classic way to run PHP behind a web server |
| FrankenPHP | Caddy with PHP built in, an alternative engine |
| SQLite | A database in a file, needing no server; Exponential's default. Story: SQLite by default |
| Composer, Packagist | PHP's package manager and its public directory |
| Git | The version control system the project uses; "Git first" installs with full history |
Open source and licenses
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open source, free software | Software anyone may use, study, change and share |
| GPL | GNU General Public License; the software's license, version 2 or later |
| GFDL | GNU Free Documentation License; the documentation's license, 1.3 or later |
| MIT | A short permissive license; Velocity's license |
| More | Licenses explained for reporters |
Security
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CSP | Content Security Policy: tells the browser which scripts a page may run. Story: the Content Security Policy |
| Audit trail | A tamper-evident record of what happened in the administration |
| Two-step sign-in (2FA) | A second factor, such as a code from an app, at login |
| Private disclosure | Reporting a vulnerability privately so it is fixed before details are public. Covering security fixes |
Releases and development
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Tag | A named, fixed point in the code history; a release |
| Changelog | The list of changes of a release. Reading a changelog |
| Main branch | Where development happens; public at all times |
| Pull request | A proposed change; the project merges every pull request |
| CLA | Contributor Licensing Agreement: what a kernel contributor signs once before the first merge; by signing and submitting, the contributor assigns the copyright to the Exponential Foundation and 7x and gives up control: the Exponential Foundation and 7x may use, change, relicense and distribute the contribution in any way, without asking or paying, and the contributor cannot withdraw it. Users' own extensions are not affected. Copyright assignment (CLA) |
| In development | Not released yet, such as 6.0.15 on 18 October 2026 |
Related pages
- Reporter FAQ
- The glossary
- Glossary for advocates
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
Become an Exponential Partner
Partners share their information, provide funding, contribute back and develop the products with us, and that is how Exponential grows. A partner website and dashboard are planned for mid-2027: please become a partner today to speed up our growth rate and land new features faster.