Open Encyclopedia System

Building and maintaining online encyclopedias.

Description

The Open Encyclopedia System (OES) is a modular and configurable software for creating, publishing and maintaining online encyclopedias in the humanities and social sciences that are accessible worldwide via Open Access. OES adds a web-based open source software for article-based publication formats to already available options for electronic publishing and thus closes existing gaps in the Open Access publishing landscape.

The development of the Open Encyclopedia System Software was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2016-2020 as part of the project From 1914-1918-online to the Open Encyclopedia System (see GEPRIS entry). For more information about the project and existing OES applications please visit our website.

Features

• Publish citable articles
• Manage version control for articles
• Define and edit relationships between entities
• Integrate Linked Open Data (LOD) APIs
• Manage users, posts, entities, access rights, and roles
• Customize article display via the configuration interface

Links

• Website

Dependencies

An OES installation typically includes:

• OES Core plugin – foundational functionality
• OES Project plugin – application-specific features
• OES Theme (optional) – for custom front-end display

Required Plugin:

• Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) – version 6.3.4 or later

Installation

1. Download the OES Core plugin from GitHub and add it to your WordPress plugin directory.
2. Install and activate required dependencies (e.g., ACF).
3. Activate the OES Core plugin.
4. Install a project-specific OES plugin or use the OES Demo plugin (see its documentation).
5. (Optional) Install and activate an OES-compatible theme.

Support

This repository is not suitable for support. Support is currently provided via our email help desk info@open-encyclopedia-system.org. We answer questions related to the OES plugin and its usage. For further information about online encyclopaedias and possible customization please visit our website.

Documentation

A user and technical manual for the Open Encyclopedia System is available online at:
https://manual.open-encyclopedia-system.org/

The manual is actively being expanded and updated.
If you have questions or need help with specific features, feel free to contact our help desk:
info@open-encyclopedia-system.org

Demo Version

You can experience the frontend and editorial layer of an exemplary application. This application includes a basic online encyclopedia and a WordPress theme. Download the OES Demo plugin and the OES theme from github (https://github.com/open-encyclopedia-system/). Activate plugin and theme and start creating content or import demo data.

Contributing

If you want to contribute to OES please contact the help desk info@open-encyclopedia-system.org.

Credits

Developed by the Digitale Infrastrukturen, Freie Universität Berlin FUB IT, with support from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Licencing

Copyright (C) 2025 Freie Universität Berlin, FUB IT, Digitale Infrastrukturen 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.