Articles - Page 113

Bland Brands Beware: Optimizely’s New Identity Brings Human Creativity to its Agentic AI and AEO Ambitions

matt-garrepy

The Factor CMS framework is starting to get quite a bit of attention. While it doesn’t launch until March of this year, there is already a lot of information available (thanks to early dev releases) to go along with the hype. For those who don’t already know, Factor is designed specifically for front-end developers who want an easy, yet powerful, option for creating websites, web apps, and more. The system is build using Javascript VENM Stack, and is coded in Typescript, which offers developers many exciting benefits. Let’s take some time to summarize what we already know of this system to prepare for its upcoming launch.
<h3>A Look Under the Hood</h3>
Factor is powered by Javascript VENM Stack, which is made up of the following:
<ul>
<li>VueJs – VueJS allows you to extend HTML with attributes (directives), expand functionality, and take advantage of built-in directives as well as user defined directives.</li>
<li>Express – Express is known as a ‘minimalist’ framework that is set up to support NodeJS.</li>
<li>NodeJS – NodeJS is an open source server environment that is platform independent. It is among the most popular options for web servers because it eliminates the need for waiting while tasks are completed.</li>
<li>MangoDB – This is a very popular database that has been proven to be very reliable. It functions well even on very large databases, which makes it a great option for this CMS.</li>
</ul>
The fact that it is a universal Typescript platform will allow you to make changes dynamically, so your live website is updated in real time.
<h3>No Need to Reinvent the Wheel</h3>
One of the biggest advantages of Factor is that just about everything can be done using plugins. While plugins are certainly nothing new in the CMS world, Factor is looking to make them easier and more powerful than ever. The big claim is that with Factor, plugins ‘Just Work.’ There is no mandatory customization or need to code things in yourself. Instead, if one piece of your website or web app puzzle has been done in the past, it can be incorporated using a plugin. This will help to minimize the amount of coding (especially repeat coding) needed for a given project, which is obviously something that developers will absolutely love.
There are already quite a few plugins available to download from their site, and many more are undoubtedly being developed. This is on top of any custom plugins that developers create for their own libraries.
<h3>Getting Started with Factor</h3>
Anyone who has worked with Javascript apps in the past will have no trouble getting this system set up right away. They claim that it can be up and running within three minutes, and that actually seems quite realistic. Once installed, Factor will allow you to create and publish apps quickly and easily thanks to the ability to use both Javascript and Typescript natively.
<h3>Factor Dashboard</h3>
Once everything is installed, the Factor Dashboard is where most developers will spend their time. This is a very simple layout that appears to be extremely intuitive. As you add in additional plugins and features, the layout will evolve, but at its core it remains one of the easiest CMS dashboards we’ve seen to date.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image-1.png" alt="Factor.dev admin dashboard" /><figcaption>Factor CMS Dashboard</figcaption></figure>
While there is undoubtedly still a lot to learn about the<a href="https://factor.dev/"> Factor CMS</a> between now and when it is launched, we are already quite excited about it. Baring any major changes or problems between now and launch date, we expect this to quickly become one of the more popular options for web-app developers in 2020.

Factor CMS Sneak Preview

michael-levanduski

Perfection is always in your approach. It’s in the manner that you move toward an untouchable ideal. This is what I believe A/B testing is all about, the pursuit of perfection. In the case of A/B testing, perfection would be a conversion rate of 100% — a metric that is completely impossible to achieve.
Any optimization expert’s dream would be to get that rate for the stuff they promote. However, be it <a href="http://medium.com/matter/">longform articles</a>, <a href="/">CMS news</a> or <a href="http://templatemonster.com">ways to create a mesmerizing website look</a> it’s hard to even approach that ideal.
In order to achieve success with A/B testing, one needs to know what to look for. It’s easy to start — what matters, however, is how you decide to continue. Today, we are going to reveal some of the finer points in achieving statistical validity.
It’s A/B testing to the max. Even if that maximum is so miserably unachievable, we’re set on winning anyway.
<h2>The Not-So-Simple Process</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab1700x0.jpg" />
Running an A/B test effectively requires you to:
1. Define a specific test subject 2. Define testing groups 3. Perform a P&amp;L analysis 4. Design backend environment to support testing (or use an A/B testing tool) 5. Execute the test 6. Analyze data 7. Interpret findings 8. Implement changes 9. Repeat
Each of those steps is very important. A closer inspection is required.
<h2>Being a Control Freak</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab2.jpg" />
The first and most important aspect of A/B testing is the control group. You’ve got to keep a baseline result in mind to mark any improvement from your test subjects. Pretesting, therefore, becomes vital. This consists of gathering information about your users. Controlling the criteria of your subjects so that they have greater statistical validity.
To begin with, you need to define your ideal test subject based on the data you’ve gathered. Put together a profile of whose personal leanings you want to gauge. Doing so will help you draw meaningful conclusions from the results of your testing.
Next, you need to gather as much data on your test subjects as possible. Such data can be gathered through your site analytics or purchased from a third party data vendor.
The kind of data that you’re looking depends on who you’re dealing with.
B2C environment
<ul>
<li>Age</li>
<li>Geo Location</li>
<li>Race</li>
<li>Gender</li>
<li>Household income</li>
<li>CPC</li>
</ul>
B2B environment
<ul>
<li>Size of business</li>
<li>Geo Location</li>
<li>Industry</li>
<li>Estimated Annual Spend</li>
</ul>
The list goes on, and this kind of info is just the tip of the iceberg. Ideally, you want a profile that consists of between 10 and 20 separate criteria.The more specific you are, the better your results will be. You’ll build your customer profile based on certain criteria, and anyone who doesn’t meet those criteria won’t be included in your test results.
<h2>I’d Love to Change the World</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab3.jpg" />
Now assuming that you’ve ran the numbers and determined that the potential windfall from testing for conversion improvement is greater than the cost of testing (the P&amp;L analysis), you’ll need to think about what aspect of your site should be altered in your test.
You only want to change one feature of your web page at a time. If you test more than one variable, then you don’t know what’s responsible for the difference in visitor behavior. In other words, the test result you’vegeneratedwon’t be as valid. A/B tests undoubtedly provide the best answers to your questions, but they do take longer because you’re only manipulating one variable at a time.
So what should you change? The most common subjects of scrutiny are as follows:
<ul>
<li>Copy</li>
<li>Color scheme</li>
<li>CTA text</li>
<li>Typography</li>
<li>Security logos</li>
<li>Imagery</li>
<li>Pricing</li>
<li>Etc.</li>
</ul>
Again, the items you’re testing should be subjective to your service offering and to your customer profile. Use the data at your disposal to determine what’s most important to your customers and test your hypothesis. And <a href="http://blog.templatemonster.com/2014/07/09/overlooked-web-elements-that-make-visitors-love-your-site/">don’t forget about the details</a>.
<h2>Running the Test</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab5.jpg" />
Now you just need to speak to your developers and have them implement the test. Make sure they’re sending 50% of the subjects to either the control version of the site, or the variable. More importantly, make sure they’re tracking thecontrol and testing groups so you can gather data for a statistically valid summary/finding.
Run the test for a significant period of time, enough to gather your preferred test size. The greater the number of subjects, the more accurate your data. So be patient.
<h2>Reading the Data</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ab4700x0.jpg" />
Interpreting results isn’t as simple as picking the winner. The better performer has to reach a level of statistical validity—at least 95%. Beyond that, you need to let the test run its course. Nothing ruins results like impatience.
Interpreting the data is, in all honesty, the arena of experts. It’s easy to pick a winner between the control and the variable, all you have to do is see which converted the most users at a faster rate. What’s not so easy? Determining what you’ve learned about your users. Finding out requires <a href="https://vwo.com/blog/what-you-really-need-to-know-about-mathematics-of-ab-split-testing/">a good deal of math</a>.
The most important thing to remember, however, is that A/B testing is a slow process that results in incremental improvement. Each test is useful, even the hypotheses that fail can still teach you something about your customer’s psychology.
What best practices have you implemented in you’re A/B tests? Share your experiences in the comments.
Image Copyright <a href="http://www.123rf.com/profile_timbrk">timbrk / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

Advanced Guide to A/B Testing: Take Your Site from Professional to Elite

mike-johnston

Textpattern has often been heralded as one of the most flexible open source CMS available. With it's small footprint and straight forward interface, it's also a favorite of designers and developers around the world.  Today, we're going to take a look at Textpattern and what makes it so agile in this Textpattern review.
To start off with, the typical size (of this writing) of the Textpattern download is approximately half a meg. This is incredibly small for a CMS with such power and flexibility. Installation is pretty standard and there's not much to really show there that isn't typical to most CMS. You'll get prompted to enter your database credentials, create a config file and enter user details.
Once complete, you'll be taken to the login screen for the back end. Enter your credentials to log in and you'll see the Textpattern dashboard:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/relationships_gy8dce.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />
Note that the CMS defaults to the Write tab. This is due to the fact that this is likely the first thing most people will want to do when logging in. A simple but smart decision by the Textpattern development team. You may also note that there are no typical post buttons for bold, italics and the like. That's because by default, Textpattern uses textile syntax for formatting.
For those use to Wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editors, this may be a bit of a shock. Textile is a very easy to use syntax and personally, I prefer it. You can see more about what textile syntax looks like here: <a href="http://textile.thresholdstate.com/">Textile Syntax</a>. Once you've used it, you may begin to prefer it over standard HTML.
Textpattern is all about flexibility, however, so should you prefer to use a Wysiwyg editor, you can simply install a plugin to do so.
For testing purposes and to show how the plugin installation process works, let's go ahead and install a plugin to add a new editor to the system.
First, you would search for the appropriate plugin on the <a href="http://textpattern.org/plugins/">Textpattern Resources</a> site. For this test, we'll use the <a href="http://textpattern.org/plugins/505/hak_tinymce">hak_tinymce plugin</a>.
Once downloaded and extracted, you will see three files:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/history_zqk3do.png" alt="Textpattern Review" /> 
The plugin itself is a simple txt file. This is standard for all Textpattern plugins and, as you'll soon see, one of the reasons why plugin installation is so easy to do for anyone. For this plugin, we need to upload the tiny_mce folder to our /textpattern directory on our web host, so we'll go ahead and do that.
Once we've uploaded the tiny_mce folder, we simply open the hak_tinymce.txt file in your favorite text editor and copy the contents. Then navigate to your Admin – Plugins tab in Textpattern and you'll see a box like this:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/online-reputation_qxgqbm.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />Simply paste the contents of the hak_tinymce.txt file in this box and click upload. You'll be shown a plugin preview page that looks like this:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2011-06-26-at-7_52_33-am-580x307.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />
Simply scroll down and underneath the Plugin Help: section, you'll see an Install button. Clicking on this will install the plugin. Now, as per instructions in the plugin zip file, you need to initialize the plugin. Navigate to Extensions, hak_tinymce and click the install button (Note that this process is usually not required for most plugin installs and is exclusive to this particular plugin. Most of the time, this step is not present / required at all.)
Once you click install, you'll be given a list of options to choose from for the editor. You can either modify these settings or ignore them and click update.
Head back to Admin/Plugins and you'll now see the plugin listed in the screen below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/google_200x0_ugwxeo.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />To enable, simply click on the “No” under active.
Head back to Content, Write and on the left, you'll see a new toggle:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2011-06-26-at-8_06_36-am-580x267.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />
Place a checkmark in the Article box to turn on the editor. The result:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2011-06-26-at-8_07_16-am-580x272.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />
That's it. You now have a Wysiwyg editor.
As I mentioned during this process, the typical plugin install does not require anything to be actually uploaded, nor does it require navigating to the Extensions tab. Most of the time, you simply paste the text file contents in the plugin box and click install, then activate it and you are done.
Let's take a look at some more pieces of the admin interface, shall we?
There are two levels of tabs available. The top level represents the main tabs, while the bottom level represents sub tabs. For example, clicking on the Content tab at the top enables the following sub tabs (Category, Write, Articles, etc):
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wpi-overview-hero-splash_feta5e.jpg" alt="Textpattern Review" />
These are all quite straight forward. Let's take a look at the Images tab. Uploading images is simple, just select and upload. Once it's been uploaded, you'll be given the opportunity to crop into a thumbnail, add to a category and modify the alt text as required.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2011-06-26-at-8_16_29-am.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />Now let's take a look at the Presentation tab. Under here, you can modify your Sections, Pages, Forms and Styles. In the Sections tab, you have the opportunity to assign templates and styles to individual sections. For instance, the Articles section uses a different template and style sheet than the the About section (more about sections <a href="http://textpattern.net/wiki/index.php?title=Sections">here</a>).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/setseed8logo_aqxl58.jpg" alt="Textpattern Review" />
As you can see, you can also determine where sections are shown and whether or not they are included in the site search. The Pages tab is next. This is where you can create and modify the templates for each page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2011-06-26-at-8_48_15-am-580x314.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />
A very cool feature of the Pages tab is the Tag builder (shown on the left of the screenshot above). This allows you to make selections form the list on the left and it will show you which code to insert into the template to accomplish that task. This is a great feature to help you get familiar with the system.
Next are Forms.
This is one of Textpattern's key strengths. Using forms, you can separate your code into reusable chunks (more about forms <a href="http://textpattern.net/wiki/index.php?title=Forms_Explained">here</a>).
On this install, for instance, I've created a form which contains nothing more than my <a href="http://piwik.org">Piwik</a> analytics code from my Statistics system.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jfw-foundation_fvgn9u.jpg" alt="Textpattern Review" />
Now, I simply call the form in my Page template wherever I wish using this code:
<pre>&lt;txp:output_form form="analytics" /&gt;</pre>
It's as simple as that. Now, should I need to include this analytics code on multiple pages or in more than one place, I can do so with the code above. The advantage to this style of coding is that if I need to change the code for whatever reason in the future, I simply change the code in the form as opposed to having to edit each template in multiple places. Developers love this feature, for obvious reasons.
The styles tab provides an interface to edit the stylesheets or create new ones as needed.
Under the admin section, the following sub tabs exist:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2011-06-26-at-9_10_09-am-580x37.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />Clicking on the Diagnostics tab will run a quick series of tests and provide you with either an “Al l checks passed” message, or give you some suggestions.
The Preferences tab provides you with access to the settings of the CMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2011-06-26-at-9_13_58-am.png" alt="Textpattern Review" />
To manage users, simply head to the Users tab.  Here, you can modify privileges and details for your users. On the Visitors log tab, you can see all of the latest visitors to your site if you have logging enabled. For the most part, it's better to use an Analytics program such as Piwik or Google Analytics.
We've already seen the Plugins section, so we'll skip over that. On the Import tab, you can choose to import content from a variety of other systems and CMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/colors_pbpwjq.jpg" alt="Textpattern Review" />
That, ladies and gentleman, covers pretty much the entire Admin interface for Textpattern. From a usage standpoint, there's definitely a bit of a learning curve to get used to the way that Textpattern handles itself, but once you do, you'll discover the true power of this system.
For me, what draws me to use it is the minimalist nature of the CMS. I love the speed of the interface (it's lightning fast compared to other CMS such as WordPress) and I find Textile for article writing to be intuitive and produce cleaner content.
There is an active community and plenty of plugins to accomplish pretty much anything you might need. If you are looking for a system that's powerful, fast and has plenty of options, Textpattern is a great choice. If you are a developer, it's even better given the flexibility of the forms system. I highly recommend checking out Textpattern.
Website: <a href="http://textpattern.com">Textpattern</a>

Textpattern Review

Recently, we spoke with Byrne Reese, Chairman of the Open Melody Software Group. For those who are unaware, Melody is a publishing platform based off of Movable Type 4 code that has recently <a href="/melody-cms-sees-first-stable-release/">announced</a> their first official release.
CC: Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be involved with Movable Type and finally, Melody? 

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1084612_300.jpg" alt="Byrne Reese" />
BR: My first exposure to Movable Type came way back when Movable Type was still in its infancy eight or nine years ago. Up until then, I maintained my own personal web site by hand – which was a fun for a time, but as I created more and more content, it started to become unwieldy. And when that happened, what was once fun, was starting to become a burden. To be honest, I am not sure what breadcrumb trail I followed that led me to Movable Type, all I remember is the “ah-ha” moment I had once I had found it.
And sure enough it changed how I conceptualized and how I went about building web sites overnight. But more than that, Movable Type was an application I enjoyed using. Its design really drew me in. I felt like I was using something really modern, really forward thinking, and yes, even ground breaking. I was apart of something that was big, and getting bigger. It was exciting.
Long story short, my love for the product, and my admiration and respect of TypePad, ultimately took me on a journey where I became a Product Manager at Six Apart in charge of TypePad and ultimately Movable Type. Being the Product Manager of Movable Type was a dream come true in many respects because it afforded me an opportunity to help lead the product in directions I had always wished it had taken. I helped architect and launch Movable Type Open Source, a devoted a great deal of time to fostering its community, and helped launch one of Six Apart’s most successful products ever: MT4.
When it finally was time for me to leave Six Apart, I did what I had counseled many aspiring bloggers and entrepenuers to do: build a business around what you love. And for me, that never stopped being helping people to build great products; and as you might guess my tool of choice was Movable Type.
However what I found, having thrust myself into the Movable Type Professional Community, was one challenge after another in trying to interface as professional with my former employer. Six Apart was in the midst of redefining itself, it was reorganizing itself, in the midst of all that, it simply didn’t have the resources to devote to the community to ensure that the patches and contributions being made by the outside world made their way into the product.
What I found was that the feelings of disappointment, turned frustration, were not unique to me, and in fact, many members of the community had felt the same way. So we started talking, and eventually the idea for Melody was hatched.
CC: What is your ultimate hope for Melody as a CMS?
BR: My sincerest hope is that we build a great product that people enjoy using. That’s it. Nothing grand, nor anything as ambitious as building a product that dominates an industry. We just know that there are lots of people out in the world who see a value in the publishing model that Movable Type and Melody excel at, and for those people we want to provide them with a product that elicits the same kind of thrill that I had when I saw Movable Type for the first time 8 years ago. We want to build a product that honors Movable Type’s legacy and reputation as being one of the most secure and scalable publishing systems around. And if in the process, more and more people come to the platform and select it to power their web site, then great.
CC: How well received has the project been since its first release of version 1.0 not too long ago?
BR: I think the product has been very well received, but I also think a lot of people still don’t know about it. We made a very conscious decision to break with Movable Type, and its name, because we wanted to free ourselves of certain legacies of its brand. That has helped the product a great deal, because it allows our users’ impressions of the product to be shaped more prominently by their direct experience with it, rather than by the FUD perpetuated by it predecessor’s competitors.
CC: Do you have any major customers running it as of yet that you’d like to share?
BR: The most recent site to have launched on top of Melody is The Morton Report, a site that was launched in concert with the Royal Wedding – by acclaimed biographer Andrew Morton.
What is interesting however in my opinion is not exclusively who has built a site on top of Melody itself, but how many Movable Type users have built websites and products that rely on Melody technology. When we started Melody, it was always our desire not just to create a CMS, but to infuse the Movable Type community as large with tools, resources, plugins, and themes of all kinds.
And because Melody’s design centers around a more modular approach to feature development, many of Melody’s primary underpinnings, like Config Assistant, Theme Manager, and more, power many Movable Type blogs and web sites today as well, and are considered indispensable in every Movable Type professional’s tool belt.
And in that way, Melody has been a huge success.
CC: What is your position with regards to static publishing (Melody) versus dynamic publishing (WordPress)?
BR: It is hard to argue that there is a technology that scales more effortlessly and cost effectively than static publishing. And if you are operating a high traffic web site, no matter what platform you use, be it WordPress, Drupal or anything else, the technology involved in making it scale is exactly what Melody has been designed from the ground up to do: cache site content in order to minimize its load on the database and deliver content quickly and efficiently. So in the Melody community, we don’t think of it as “static publishing,” we think of it as pre-emptive caching. It’s a subtle but important rhetorical difference that we think more accurately portrays static publishing’s value.
That being said, we understand the importance of dynamic publishing, especially as it relates to the process of designing and building a web site. When you are in the throws of pulling a site together, nothing is more annoying than editing your site’s templates, and then having to republish a page prior to being able to see your change in a browser. Ideally, one should simply: edit template, refresh browser, repeat. That is why we are working hard at rebuilding Melody’s legacy dynamic publishing backend and optimizing it around the designer’s and developer’s workflows. Then when a site is ready for production, to provide a seamless transition to the site owner for a more scalable model of publishing and pre-emptive caching.
CC: What was it about Movable Type 4 that made your team decide to branch out from it to form Melody? Were there significant changes in MT5 that you didn’t/don’t agree with?
BR: Early in Melody’s history the community was faced with this decision. We had already begun development of Melody based upon MT4, when Six Apart announced that MT5 was being developed. They did not however tell us when MT5 was going to be released, nor were they open to sharing their source code with us at the time. So our decision was simple: wait for Six Apart to make MT5 available in a form so that we could collaborate or work with what we had. We chose to work with what we had so that we could keep the momentum we were building, rather than reset the clock on Melody’s development.
Movable Type 5 is a great product, no doubt, but I feel that it is a product to meet the needs of a market more unique to the Japanese market, where its current company is headquartered. In the Japanese market, the largest user of Movable Type are hosting companies who host tens, if not hundreds of different sites for their customers. This led Six Apart to develop the notion of “web sites” or a more hierarchical approach to web site and blog design and architecture.
Personally, I think this is a very cool feature, but I also feel that its implementation lacked polish, and made for many users Movable Type far more complicated than it needed to be. One day I hope to fold in the web site feature of MT5 into Melody, as we have done for many of MT5’s features; but when we do, I hope to do it in a way that allows simple systems to remain simple, without introducing undo complexity.
CC: Where do you see Melody fitting in best in the CMS landscape? News publications, schools, universities, etc?
BR: To be honest, I don’t think about Melody in this way. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about Movable Type in this back when I was its Product Manager. Now, I just focus on making Melody a great product, one that embodies the values of its community more closely, and one that continues to build upon those aspects that made Movable Type so great: scalability, reliability and security. I trust, that if we just focus on that, then those who share our values, values we feel transcend markets and industries, will find a welcome home in Melody.
CC: Any plans to offer commercial support or a commercial edition of the product as adoption increases?
BR: As far as developing fee-based commercial software packaged distributed through the Melody web site? Then no, we are not planning on that. Doing so would violate our community’s core principals around open source and providing a software solution free of a commercial interest.
Now, if anyone in our professional community wants to pursue a commercial software or service offering, then we would welcome it, and in fact encourage it. We see commercial software as having an indispensable role to play in virtually every successful open source project. WordPress for example succeeded in part because of a vibrant economy that was built by designers selling proprietary themes. That economy directly and indirectly fueled WordPress’ growth because every designer building and selling themes became a salesman for the platform itself. These designers were in part motivated by the love they had for WordPress, for sure, but they were also motivated by their need to sustain a living.
Speaking for myself, I love open source, and I believe Melody’s success will ultimately stem from the values embodied by the open source software movement. But for me, the GPL is just a license. It is not a religion. And while I am a staunch supporter of the GPL, and of open source licenses in general, I do not see myself as its standard bearer. I am just a guy who likes to build cool products, and who likes to help others do the same.
CC: Where do you see Melody in the next 3-5 years?
BR: I believe Melody will continue to grow, and continue to prove itself a worthy successor to Movable Type. As it does so, I believe its community will continue to grow, and with it the number of contributions received by the community. And as more and more people contribute, I see greater and greater potential for Melody to once again be the kind of indisputable leader that Movable Type once was.
CC: Are there ways in which users or would be developers can assist the Melody project?
BR: Always! Contributing though is not limited to developers, in fact, the most valuable forms of contribution rarely come in the form of code. So how does one get started on the path of becoming a contributor? The first step is easy: use the product. Then begin to imagine ways you could make your experience with the product better. Perhaps there was a piece of documentation you searched for that would have helped you in some way, but you couldn’t find it – if so, endeavor to write it. Or perhaps you appreciated the help someone gave you in the forums – if so, aim to repay the favor by becoming a contributor to the forums yourself. Or perhaps you have the opportunity to influence someone’s choice of CMS – if so, encourage them to give Melody a shot. There are literally countless ways one can contribute to any open source project, but behind every contribution is a love for the project that compels them to participate in more active and hands-on way. And every time you share your passion for the project with another, in whatever form that may take, you are contributing.
CC: Are you financially backed by any specific sources or purely self funded?
BR: Right now Melody receives absolutely no funding from any source. All work on the project is done on a volunteer basis. That being said, a number of professionals, including my own company Endevver, have begun offering services on top of the platform, and have begun channelling their clients toward building and supporting the development of software that is compatible with both Movable Type and Melody. So in that way, Melody is funded indirectly by those individuals and companies who have selected to use Melody as their CMS and who have in turn paid a professional to augment the platform to address their unique needs and requirements.
CC: Do you still contribute to or assist with Movable Type development or is your time fully devoted to Melody as of yet?
BR: Strictly speaking, all of my time is devoted to Melody. But then again, I don’t fully disambiguate between the two, given that much of the software we develop for Melody, also works with Movable Type. One day in Melody’s future, it may diverge so stridently from Movable Type that the two become distinct from one another, but for the time being  I see Melody community and all that it creates as playing an important role in not only in Melody’s development, but also Movable Type. In fact, nothing is more representative of that fact than MT 5.1 recently release notes in which is acknowledges a number of community contributors, many of whom are also contributors to Melody.
CC: Are there any major upcoming enhancements or features that you are working on for the next release that you’d like to share with us?
BR: Melody 1.1 development is already in full swing. With every release we focus on improving both the core architecture of the product as well as building new features that users would find both exciting and valuable.
On the backend we are working to create a cleaner separation between our templates and the javascript that powers much of the user interface. This paves the way for us to shed the highly proprietary javascript that powered Movable Type, and in turn embrace a more robust and well supported framework like jQuery.
We are also looking to completely retool Melody’s dynamic publishing engine so that designers can more easily take advantage of it when building and designing web sites.
We are also working to backport more of MT5’s more popular features, like its new listing framework that provides a much richer, and more flexible way of managing content within the admin UI. It also makes it much easier for plugin developers to build their own custom listing screens and further reduces the amount of Perl one has to know in order to build a plugin.
And lastly, my company, Endevver, has spear headed a project to incubate a new design for the Melody user interface. Our desire is to release the new UI as a stand alone and optional plugin alongside Melody 1.1. This will give the new UI time to mature and stabilize, and give the community time to get used to the new design… and if they like it, hopefully fold it into the core distribution at a later date.
CC: What do you see as the future for Movable Type as a publishing platform?
BR: Personally I think that never before has Movable Type and Melody been a better platform for site development, especially as products like js-Kit, Disqus and Facebook prove that they are far more effective at delivering richer, more valuable experiences around commenting and social networking then the CMS itself. The role of the CMS therefore is being refocused around its intended core competency: the management and publication of content.
CC: Thank you Byrne.
 
You can learn more about Melody on their website: <a href="http://openmelody.org/">Melody CMS</a>

Interview with Byrne Reese, Chairman of the Open Melody Software Group

A flat–file CMS is a platform that  does not require a database but rather, saves it's data to a set of text  files. There are many advantages to using flat-file CMS as opposed to  database driving systems, read on to find out what we consider to be the  best flat file CMS on the market.
Most content management systems tend to use databases to store their  content but lately, there's been a trend of flat file CMS coming to  market. With solid state drives and increased internet access speeds,  database driven solutions may not always be the best choice. Today, I'm  going to share with you a selection of actively developed and popular  flat file CMS systems to explore.
As a side note, there are many more solutions out there, I'm aiming  to only list ones that have been updated within the last year as there  are numerous that still have websites but have seen no activity or  updates in quite some time.
<h2>Grav</h2>
Website: <a href="https://getgrav.org/">https://getgrav.org/</a>
A recent winner of our CMS Critic award for <a href="/awards/">Best Open Source CMS</a>,  Grav is a popular flat file CMS developed by the folks from  RocketTheme. It's fast, has a very sweet looking admin plugin and has a  nice selection of available themes to choose from.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---1.png" alt="Grav - Flat File CMS Dashboard" /><figcaption>Grav Dashboard</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Kirby</h2>
Website: <a href="https://getkirby.com/">https://getkirby.com/</a>
Kirby offers a nice looking interface that should feel familiar to  those accustomed to WordPress and the like and is another great choice  for flat-file CMS. The difference between this and the others on this  list is that Kirby is a commercial product that is available for  purchase for a one time fee of less than $20 (US pricing). It's well  worth the investment if you want an easy to use CMS for basic websites.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---2.png" alt="Kirby - Flat File CMS - Admin" /><figcaption>Kirby Admin</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Monstra</h2>
Website: <a href="http://monstra.org/">http://monstra.org/</a>
Monstra is an XML based flat file CMS that is fast, extensible and  has a nice selection of plugins to extend the system. Monstra is  multi-user and very customizable as well. You can also check out their  website for a free demo of the interface to see if it's right for you.  From my testing, it was very responsive and has a well designed  administrative interface.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---3.png" alt="Monstra - Flat File CMS - Dashboard" /><figcaption>Monstra Dashboard</figcaption></figure>
<h2>razorCMS</h2>
Website: <a href="http://www.razorcms.co.uk/">http://www.razorcms.co.uk/</a>
razorCMS is an easy to use flat file CMS that provides you with easy  in-page editing as opposed to having to modify your content from within  an admin panel. It's been around for many years and has forums you can  use to get support should you need it, although at last check, they  didn't appear to be very active in the last year.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---4.png" alt="Razor - Flat File CMS - Admin" /><figcaption>Razor CMS Admin</figcaption></figure>
<h2>GetSimple</h2>
Website: <a href="http://get-simple.info/">http://get-simple.info/</a>
GetSimple has been around for many years and is another great option  to consider. It is a flat file XML based CMS that has plenty of plugins,  themes available for you to use. With an easy to use admin interface  and content editor (as well as a demo on their website for you to try)  it's a good option to consider.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---5.png" alt="GetSimple - Flat File CMS - Admin" /><figcaption>GetSimple Admin</figcaption></figure>
<h2>HTMLy</h2>
Website: <a href="https://www.htmly.com/">https://www.htmly.com/</a>
HTMLy is an open source blogging platform that focuses on simplicity  and speed. It's a great option to consider if you are looking to start a  blog or simple CMS and is easy to install and set up. Unfortunately, I  wasn't able to find a screenshot of the admin interface so I'm sharing a  screenshot of a theme instead.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---7.png" alt="HTMLy Flat File CMS - Admin" /><figcaption>HTMLy Admin</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Automad</h2>
Website: <a href="http://automad.org/">http://automad.org/</a>
Automad is a file-based flat CMS that offers a two step caching  system makes your site extremely fast. A web-based user interface makes  it easy – even for beginners – to manage a website. The template engine  enables designers to build custom themes and templates without PHP  knowledge. The extension interface allows developers to create plugins  for all kind of functionality. It is also possible to put a whole site  under version control using Git or Mercurial.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---8.jpg" alt="Automad Flat File CMS Admin" /><figcaption>Automad Admin</figcaption></figure>
<h2>WonderCMS</h2>
Website: <a href="https://www.wondercms.com/">https://www.wondercms.com/</a>
WonderCMS is an open source CMS (Content Management System) built  with PHP, jQuery, HTML and CSS. It doesn't require any configuration and  can be simply unzipped and uploaded to your hosting provider. The  database is a text file which is easily copied, moved, backed up and  restored.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---9.png" alt="Wonder CMS - Flat File CMS Admin" /><figcaption>WonderCMS Admin</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Typesetter</h2>
Website: <a href="http://www.typesettercms.com/">http://www.typesettercms.com/</a>
Typesetter is another flat file content management system that lets  users create rich and flexible Web sites with a simple and easy-to-use  interface. True WYSIWYG takes the guesswork out of editing page content  while auto-saving makes sure none of your work is lost.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---10.png" alt="Typesetter Flat File CMS Admin" /><figcaption>Typesetter Admin</figcaption></figure>
<h2>BatFlat</h2>
Website: <a href="https://batflat.org/">https://batflat.org/</a>
Batflat is a Polish content management system that is simple, light  and fast. It was first released in May 2016. It requires no  installation, is chock full of features to make your website fast and  efficient and uses no database, like other flat file CMS.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---11.png" alt="BatFlat Flat File CMS" /><figcaption>BatFlat</figcaption></figure>
<h2>FlexType</h2>
Website: <a href="https://flextype.org/">https://flextype.org</a>
Flextype is an open source flat file CMS that was developed in 2018 by Sergey Romanenko.  It's purpose is to provide a lean, open source solution without the  complexities found in many other content management systems. You can read more about it over on our <a href="/flextype-review/">FlexType review.</a>
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/flat-file-cms---12.png" alt="FlexType Flat File CMS - Admin" /><figcaption>FlexType Admin</figcaption></figure>
Are you aware of any that I am missing in this list? If they are  actively maintained (meaning updates within the last year), please feel  free to point them out in the comments below.

A List of the Best Flat File CMS

<a href="https://www.prestashop.com/en/">Prestashop</a> is an industry leader in the ecomerce solutions sector, with over 230,000 stores hosted online. This popular platform completely took over the ecommerce space with the launch of Prestashop Cloud in 2014 and has been thriving ever since.
Prestashop Cloud is the only free, cloud-based ecommerce platform in the world. Yep, that’s right, it’s free.
So what’s the catch?
Whilst I’d love to join the Prestashop Cloud fanclub solely on the basis of its incredible pricing (i.e. the pricing that doesn’t exist), I had to suss it out for myself. Read on for my review of the popular ecommerce platform.
<h2>The Initial Setup</h2>
This was a doddle. To get set up with Prestashop Cloud, you simply have to select the ‘cloud’ option on the homepage and a window will pop up with 3 sections.
In the first section, you type in your email address and a name for your site. In the second section, you’ll be asked to create a domain, select your home country, and select your reason for joining the site. The final section then asks for your first and last name, and a password.
The whole process takes about 60 seconds.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_16_14_55522x0-is.png" />
When you’ve completed this, an email will be sent to your inbox with a link to verify your account. Easy.
Oh, and if you don’t want to receive any Prestashop news emails from these guys, remember to untick the little box beside the fine print before confirming your details. I’ve previously expressed how much that default tick irks me on these sites and I’m sure a few of you feel the same.
<h2>The Dashboard</h2>
After signing up, you’ll be redirected on the admin dashboard. Here, you’ll find access to domain configuration, settings, support/help. There is also a link to bring you to the management panel for your online store.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_16_17_52.png" />
<h2>Help/Support</h2>
The Help section offers assistance via tickets, and each user is assigned 10 of these for free to start with. If you require more assistance, though, you’ll have to pay for it. (aha, catch number 1?).
$179.00 for some customer support? Seriously?
That said, it is a free platform – so I can't get too peeved on this one.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_17_57_03705x0-is.png" />
With the support that's available on the website itself, you may not need to access this extra help at all. There’s plenty of information available on the Prestashop Cloud forums (probably because no-one else wants to pay for it either).
The forums are packed with insider info and tips and definitely worth a look before you send off a ticket, as you’ll probably find the answer to your query there instead.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_16_16_50932x0-is.png" />
<h2>The Back Office</h2>
To get to this part of the platform, you have to select the ‘Manage My Store’ tab and log-in again to be brought to the back office of your site. I’m not sure why you have to log-in again, though, seems a bit pointless and time-consuming. Once you get there, however, you’ll be impressed enough to get over it.
In the back office, you’ll find the admin panel for each store. The layout here is easy to navigate, sleek, modern, and designed with the user in mind.
The first thing that pops up here is the PrestaShop tour, which has 4 sections to work through: Customize Your Shop, Add Products, Configure Payments, and Choose Your Shipping Options. It stays on the page every time you log in until you complete it. I’ll come back to these later.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_18_23_341076x0-is.png" />
The top menu and left-hand sidebar both provide easy access to all of the tools you need to manage your site, from latest orders to registrations, and the activity overview section is unbelievably comprehensive – considering that it’s free.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_18_19_42891x0-is.png" />
Here, you can monitor online visitors, orders, visits, product reviews, and many more relevant notifications/statistics.
<h2>Customizing Your Store</h2>
This is Step 1 in the Prestashop tour. Once you click the link, you’ll be brought to page where you can adjust the settings on your default theme or choose a new theme for your store.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_18_34_23872x0-is.png" />
Clicking on the ‘Theme Configurator’ will present you with a number of options, depending on the theme you’re using.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_18_37_13511x0-is.png" />
If you want a new theme, it’ll cost you – as these fall under the ‘add ons’ section in Prestashop. These add ons are basically how the site makes money, since there’s no sign up fee. However, there’s still a lot you can do to make the default theme ‘your own’ and it is free after all.
<h2>Adding Products</h2>
To get here, go to the ‘click access’ menu on select ‘new product’. This process can be as simple or as technical as you want it to be. The left side of the screen, there are a range of options including SEO, attachments, and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_18_41_38735x0-is.png" />
<h2> </h2>
<h2>Configure Payments</h2>
Prestashop's official payment solution is High Pay, and the 2 other default options are Bank Wire and Payment by check. Prestashop also supports and recommends further options such as <a href="http://www.skrill.com">Skrill</a>, <a href="https://www.realexpayments.com">Realex</a>, and Cash on delivery.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_18_46_26858x0-is.png" />
<h2> </h2>
<h2>Shipping Options</h2>
Prestashop allows users to set up different shipping carriers. Users can also set default carriers, handling charges, and configure where order free shipping value starts at.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_18_41_38735x0-is.png" />
To organize taxes, you have to head over to the ‘Localisation’ page and go to ‘Taxes’, where you can add the name of the tax and give it a percentage value. To determine ‘Tax Rules’, you have to go to select this in the sidebar and go to a third page. It’s not a massive hassle, but it’s all a bit messy and could be laid out more intuitively.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_19_16_33844x0-is.png" />
<h2> </h2>
<h2>Front Office</h2>
Once you’re finished in the back office of the site, you can head over to the front office to preview the fruits of your labor. Here, you can also adjust your theme color and the fonts used in your store. There could be more done with this section, but it works fine as a simple preview tool for now.
<h2>PrestaShop Apps and Addons</h2>
This is the main revenue stream for Prestashop and there are bucket loads of apps and extensions to choose from. If you’re the type to pay $10 for a flight on a budget airline, and then spend 5 times that on ‘in-flight purchases’, then you’ll probably end up with a few PrestaShop addons in your pocket too. And I don’t blame you – sometimes you just need to indulge and Prestashop offer a number of tempting online treats.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2016-03-02_at_19_16_33844x0-is.png" />
Whether you need help with marketing or web design, Prestashop has your back. You do have to re-register for it though, which is a little annoying. Plus, when there’s effort required, you’ll probably think twice.
<h2>Pros:</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Completely free, cloud-based ecommerce platform
</li>
<li>
Easy to navigate
</li>
<li>
Extensive customer forums for support
</li>
<li>
Incredibly comprehensive range of features available including forecasting and analytics
</li>
<li>
Excellent ‘add-on’ options
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Cons:</h2>
<ul>
<li>
Customer Support gets a little pricey after you use up your free allowance
</li>
<li>
The add-ons are great, but they’re paid extras
</li>
<li>
Front Office section could be utilized more, it’s a little bare
</li>
<li>Taxes section is a little bothersome to navigate</li>
</ul>
<h2>The Final Verdict</h2>
Overall, Prestashop Cloud is a powerful ecommerce platform that outperforms a number of similar platforms on the market at the moment. And, it’s free – which makes it a seriously attractive option. It includes all of the core features you’d expect in an ecommerce platform and it throws in a few quality extras too.
Is there a catch? Kind of. The add-ons will set you back a bit and the payment for support is a little steep once you go over your initial 10 tickets. But who’s going to complain about that when it’s completely free in every other way? Not me.
This is an incredible ecommerce hosting platform with a strong community, an impressive design, and an array of quality features – especially in terms of forecasting and analytics.
Just <a href="http://www.prestashop.com" target="_blank">click here</a> to check it out for yourself.
Have you tried Prestashop Cloud out yet? We would love to hear about your experience in the comments section below.

Prestashop Cloud Review 2016

grainne-logue

Contegro has launched an innovative online Discovery Room that lets people experience the power of Contegro first hand.  Visitors to the site are able to interact with the Web CMS, watch online training videos and participate in live chat discussions. To celebrate the launch, all CMS Critic Readers are invited to trial Contegro by simply visiting <a href="http://www.contegro.com/discover">http://www.contegro.com/discover</a> and entering this special access code: cmscritic
The founder of Contegro Vaughan Reed developed the Discovery Room to showcase Contegro and its benefits.
<blockquote>“We’ve continually stated how Contegro is both easy-to-use and hassle-free. Now customers and potential Partners can experience this via our website without the need to contact us first – it makes things so simple.”</blockquote>
Reed explains that visitors to the Discovery Room are lead to a demonstration site where they can delve into the heart of Contegro.
<blockquote>“This presents users with an opportunity to play and experience Contegro’s innovative Window’s style desktop and vast functionality.”</blockquote>
Reed believes that the Discovery Room will be of interest to web designers in particular.
<blockquote>“We hope web designers will instantly discover just how hassle-free Website Content Management can be for them and their clients. What’s more, there’s no need to compromise on functionality, says Reed. “Anyone who wants to see a smart and easy-to-use web CMS in action should check it out.”</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/contegrodiscoveryroom_c-online-580x320.jpg" />
Interested in checking out Contegro? Visit <a href="http://www.contegro.com/discover">http://www.contegro.com/discover</a> and enter this special access code: cmscritic

Contegro offers Free Trials through new Discovery Room

As a heavy internet user and a bit of a gadget geek, I’ve been accused of being one of those people who’s always glued to some kind of interactive screen. This is part of my life, as well as hundreds of individuals across the world. Gone are the days when you would wake up, check the morning paper and head out to go to work. These days, the first thing you’d check upon waking up is your email using your phone, and then probably flick through a couple of websites on your iPad or android tablet while sipping your coffee.
<img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/responsive-design-hero.png" />
This presents an interesting challenge for web designers who have, for the longest time, been creating websites for laptops and personal computers. This challenge is in the form of responsive web design, and something that can make web pages adapt to different screens to accommodate the numerous handheld devices that are currently being used by a large segment of the world’s population.
It is estimated that more that by 2014, the number of mobile devices will exceed the world’s population. This means that web designers simply can’t afford to ignore mobile users anymore given the incredible demand for mobile-based services and websites. At the same time, continents such as Asia and Africa lead the pack in having the most number of mobile phone users. This peculiar statistic is due to the cheapness or easy availability of internet-based mobile devices compared to that of laptops or tablets.
If you’re a savvy business looking to gain more exposure, the best thing you can do for yourself is to ensure that your customers can navigate through your website on any device that’s currently being used by many people within your target market. This means that you need to know of some basic web design tenets to help you build a responsive site. What follows is a list of tips that can help you come up with a versatile and easily adaptable website.
<h2>Keep It Simple, Stupid</h2>
The KISS acronym is like a cactus tree for most web designers. This group of people likes to play around with code and design template in their quest to come up with a website that has all the bells and whistles you can cram into it without causing a server crash. The problem with this kind of overzealousness is that most of these design principles don’t translate when you try to view these sites on smartphones or tablets. The idea here is to exercise some self control and simple but classic design aspects. For example, the designer might want to use a simple HTML5 doctype and guidelines, as well as a simple and semantic core layout which can go a long way in helping the website make a smooth transition from laptop to mobile screens. Another way of simplifying web design is to get rid of all inline styles.
<h2>Content Matters</h2>
One of the most ignored aspects of web design has to be content. This is because there might not be clear collaboration during website design between copywriters and web designers. The result is often a clunky website with chunks of text that can only be read with a magnifying glass. Jokes aside, this is something that may drive away potential clients to your website. You want to have a marriage between content and web design that is complementary. You can do this by ensuring that your content is ready for uploading during the early design phases so you can see how the puzzle pieces fit. Waiting until you’re done will be like completing a huge puzzle game and realizing that you have an extra puzzle piece remaining.
<h2>Media Queries to the Rescue</h2>
Media queries let you specify width, height, orientation and color conditions, helping you create websites that can shrink down to fit different screen sizes and resolutions. These are easy to use, and can be set once without you having to reset them over and over again. You can come up with a media query via an external stylesheet as well as writing directly inside a stylesheet. It’s worth noting that media queries aren’t only made for smaller screen, as it’s not uncommon to have gaming devices that connect to the internet via browsers splashed on huge LED screen. The fact is that media queries can be manipulated to fit either small or large screens, making them infinitely versatile.
Lastly, other tips such as having a fluid layout to enable you to have flexible sites can go a long way in making your brand visible on handheld devices. Lastly, use breakpoints for alternate pictures if you have enough bandwidth to pull it off. There are so many things you can do to create a responsive website, and the best way to approach the whole thing it to test and retest, whittling down to what works for you in the end. Do you have any responsive web design tips you’d like to share with our readers? Please leave a comment with your suggestions in the text box below.

A Quick, Easy and Basic Guide to Responsive Web Design

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

Be an SEO hero with Semrush

#ffffff

With 2015 well and truly behind us, it's time to look forward to another year of activity from all corners of the vast CMS world.Content management systems across the world are constantly being born, updated, exchanged and even <a href="/900dpi-set-to-shut-its-doors/">declared dead</a>.In the midst of all that drama, it's sometimes hard to look past the biggest players on the market.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigstock-white-conceptual-keyboard--cm-111546596614x0-is.jpg" />Names such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, PrestaShop, Magento, Shopify, Squarespace, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a>, Wix and a host of other big names make up the glossy outer layer of the CMS industry, each one battling for niche domination. And although those battles are exciting, they are to be expected.However, beneath that surface, the rest of the CMS world buzzes away. The the budding platforms, the smaller startups and the vendors that have been carving out a name for themselves for years are all making their own moves – and I, for one, don't want to miss a single bit of it.So, without any further ado, here's a list of twenty-five CMS to watch in 2016.<h2>1. <a target="_blank" href="http://link.sitey.com/56a8f107d0d96/click">Sitey</a></h2>Everybody loves a good website builder, mainly because they do the basics so simply. Sitey is one such platform.It's free, boasts over a hundred responsive templates, and can host blogs as well as online stores. What most impresses me though, are the templates. The quality doesn't seem to fade, no matter how deep you delve into their template library. That's rare to find with a website builder that already offers up a solid feature set.I'll be keeping tabs, and I hope to get my hands on it for a full review sooner rather than later.<h2>2. <a target="_blank" href="http://format.com/">Format</a></h2>It's designed for creative minds, according to the website. Format is built to handle the online presences of photographers, illustrators, designers and artists.They too have a healthy selection of themes to choose from, each one with a focus on presenting imagery. There's no long-term free plan, but its prices are reasonable.To find out more about Format, you can check out our <a href="/format-review/">Format Review</a>.<h2>3. <a target="_blank" href="http://siftr.co/">Siftr</a></h2>Siftr is another portfolio website builder, but it comes with a twist of “artificial intelligence”.Once you connect up your Facebook, Instagram and Flickr profiles, Siftr sifts through your galleries, curating your best work as it goes. It then automatically creates galleries on your Siftr powered website.You can then make edits to the way your images and content is displayed, in order to bring the best out of your work.<h2>4. LightCMS</h2>LightCMS is a website builder with a slightly more technical focus – which it seems to be focusing on more and more lately.Voted as the <a href="/the-winner-of-the-2014-peoples-choice-cms-award-for-best-cloud-cms-for-smb/">Best Cloud CMS for SMBs 2014</a>, LightCMS competes in terms of simplicity and approachability with the likes of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> and Wix, but it also boasts a Developer Program, which empowers web designers and agencies to white label and re-sell the platform to their customers.Thanks to this blend of website building and white labeling, LightCMS finds itself in a relatively unique position, making it one to watch out for,You can find out more about LightCMS by checking out our recent LightCMS featured week.<h2>5. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.django-cms.org/en/">Django CMS</a></h2>Django CMS was recently voted in as the <a href="/announcing-the-2015-winner-for-best-open-source-cms/">Best Open Source CMS 2015</a>, which is reason enough to keep tabs on them this year.Built upon Django, a Python web framework, Django CMS is proven in the enterprise market, although its app-esque interfaces make it brilliantly approachable.If you'd like to understand the inner-workings of Django CMS a little further, check out my recent <a href="/django-cms-review/">Django CMS Review</a>.<h2>6. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.strikingly.com/">Strikingly</a></h2><a target="_blank" href="https://www.strikingly.com/">Strikingly</a> is another website builder that captured my attention on a few occasions in 2015. I found myself recommending it to people who needed small, manageable one-page style websites on more than one occasion. Probably because that”s exactly what its built to produce,I don”t expect too many new groundbreaking features from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.strikingly.com/">Strikingly</a> in 2016 (after all, how functional can a one-pager really get?) but I do expect it to continue being a one-pager specialist, and at a fair price, too.<h2>7. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.phpfox.com/">PHPFox</a></h2>The social network builder market has been stale for the last few years (to say the least), but a handful of products are starting to re-emerge as worthy platforms for small, medium, and large sized online communities. PHPFox is one such product.PHPFox “Neutron” was initially launched alongside Nebula, PHPFox's original, older platform. Now, though, Neutron has become the sole offering, meaning that the old PHPFox is gone – leaving one core product.It's not a hosted solution, although in my eyes, that should be the next step for this promising community building solution.<h2>8. <a target="_blank" href="http://pulsecms.com/">PulseCMS</a></h2>PulseCMS is a flat-file CMS, meaning that it can be quickly downloaded and uploaded to any server with no database setup process to worry about.Founded in 2009, PulseCMS isn't exactly new to the market. Unfortunately though, it doesn't have the broad feature set to match its age.However, it's under new management since December 2015, which I learned when PulseCMS responded to my recent review by mentioning that more themes and plugins were in development. They also liked my idea to bring WYSIWYG editing into the fray, so here's hoping 2016 is a big year for PulseCMS.To learn more about how PulseCMS works, <a href="/pulse-cms-review/">check out my PulseCMS Review</a>.<h2>9. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.motocms.com/">MotoCMS</a></h2>Another website builder trying to reinvent the wheel, some might quip. But MotoCMS is a genuinely good product with a lot to offer.In 2015, MotoCMS 3.0 was launched, and it came with a bunch of features to complement its impressive themes. The hosted platform can be set up in two minutes, and is super easy to edit with, even from a mobile device.The word I used to describe it in my <a href="/motocms-review/">MotoCMS Review</a> was “crisp”. Take a read of it to find out why.<h2>10. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.concrete5.org/">Concrete5</a></h2>Concrete5 has long been a trusted content management system. The open source platform is available for download, although it also offers a hosted solution, catering to personal projects, enterprises and everybody in between.Japan's biggest website hosting provider, Sakura, recently started offering Concrete5 as an auto-install option – a bit of a coup considering that they valued it before the likes of Drupal and Joomla.Plus, they recently revamped their website, bringing in a more modern look, and I'm sure they will continue to improve internally as the year goes on.<h2>11. <a target="_blank" href="https://socialengine.com/">SocialEngine</a></h2>2015 was a positive year for SocialEngine. Updates came regularly, and they seem to have emerged from a period of uncertainty.As previously mentioned, only a handful of community building products are worth talking about at the moment, and I think SocialEngine is a product with a bright future.With SocialEngine PHP and SocialEngine Cloud, I consider SocialEngine to be an online community builder with real potential. It has a good range of features, although I've never been too convinced by its theme library. Hopefully 2016 will have some better themes in store for us.<h2>12. <a target="_blank" href="https://mobirise.com/">Mobirise</a></h2>A website builder should be all about accessibility. Mobirise is a fairly new solution that allows you to build a relatively well-rounded website, offline.So, you can roll into your client's office, fire up Mobirise, and thrash out some website design ideas without ever having to ask for their WIFI password.Features are few and far between at the moment, but since my Mobirise Review, updates have already started to trickle in. I expect that to continue into 2016.To learn more about how Mobirise can help you put a website together offline, check out my recently published Mobirise Review.<h2>13. <a target="_blank" href="http://pagecloud.com/">PageCloud</a></h2>Before launch, they claimed that their product would be “the world's most advanced website editor”.Today, PageCloud is looking very promising indeed. Despite being cloud-based, PageCloud integrates with popular desktop apps like PhotoShop and Illustrator, while also playing nice with online platforms like MailChimp and Shopify. In-line editing is a big part of its identity, although it also offers up functionality like copy and pasting across apps.CMS Critic Founder <a href="/interview-with-pagecloud-ceo-founder-craig-fitzpatrick/">Mike Johnston recently interviewed PageCloud CEO Craig Fitzpatrick</a>, so be sure to check that out for a deeper understanding of the platform.<h2>14. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.online.me/">Trident</a></h2>Boonex has been proudly pushing Dolphin.Pro as its flagship community website builder. Trident, though, is the company's latest downloadable venture.Officially launched right at the very end of 2015, Trident has been in development for over 5 years. But it's now operating as a fully fledged SCMS (Social Content Management System).It boasts a full set of CMS features, such as; custom page builders, navigation builders, a database builder, multiple-languages, content publishing modules, a media uploader, permissions control and more. Plus, it offers “unprecedented core tools” for social networking projects.<h2>15. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.silverstripe.org/">SilverStripe</a></h2>I sat down with SilverStripe CeO Sam Minnée and discussed SilverStripe's future over coffee in London a few months back. He was preparing for StripeCon Europe 2015, but he had time to show plenty of enthusiasm for the next big step – SilverStripe 4.He mentioned that, “[With SilverStripe 4, we want to] allow for more flexible authoring via intuitive interfaces for block-based designs, without locking [the user] into that. Instead, we want to say that this is just one of the tools you can use.”He told me the first beta would be released in “early 2016”, so I'm hoping to see that any day now.<h2>16. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.subbly.co/">Subbly</a></h2>The subscription box niche has been hotting up for a while, and <a href="/cratejoy-vs-subbly-battle-for-the-subscription-box-niche/">I summarised the battle going on between two dedicated subscription box eCommerce solutions a few months back</a>; one of which was Subbly.Subbly was launched half-way through 2014 by Stefan Pretty and his small, passionate team. Their platform is healthily stocked with features, and their pricing relates to how many subscribers you have, rather than actual transaction fees.Stefan Pretty personally informed me that 2016 would be a year with, “more features and themes”, so I'll be keeping a look out for those.<h2>17. <a target="_blank" href="http://start.cratejoy.com/">CrateJoy</a></h2>CrateJoy is the other combatant in the fight for subscription box eCommerce solution battle. CrateJoy boasts a larger presence, a larger team, and more funding, although with Subbly putting up a valiant fight, both of these products are worth keeping up with during 2016.Unlike Subbly, though, CrateJoy opts to charge transaction fees along with its monthly bill. This is one of the core differences between the two platforms, as I mentioned in my coverage of the “<a href="/cratejoy-vs-subbly-battle-for-the-subscription-box-niche/">Battle for the Subscription Box Niche</a>“.CrateJoy is the biggest player in the growing subscription box market, so you'd be missing out if you didn't keep tabs.<h2>18. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.myportfolio.com/">Adobe Portfolio</a></h2>It's in the name, but Adobe Portfolio helps you build an online portfolio. And it does it with a snazzy style that only Adobe can pull off.You simply choose a layout, upload your images, and get editing. The entire layout is editable, with a simple interface which ensures anybody can make their work look great. Oh, and it also syncs with Behance, allowing you to publish once across the two mediums. That's an integration that will grab the attention of many designers.I'm a fan of the platform already, but with only five layouts on offer, I'm hoping 2016 will bring a few more.<h2>19. <a target="_blank" href="https://ghost.org/">Ghost</a></h2>Ghost has excited me ever since it burst on to the blogging scene in late 2013.For a while, it was hailed as the blogging solution that might best WordPress. Although it's nowhere near doing that in terms of sheer numbers (with WordPress accounting for over 20% of websites with known content management systems),, Ghost does offer up a refreshingly crisp blogging platform, with features that many prefer over WordPress.It's still a relatively young platform, and I'm hoping 2016 will be a big year for this little gem.<h2>20. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boonex.com/">Boonex Dolphin.Pro</a></h2>I mentioned Boonex Dolphin.Pro when I discussed Trident (number 14 on the list). so, Boonex is behind two of the products I'll be keeping a close eye on this year.Dolphin.Pro is their flagship product, powering over 300,000 online communities world wide. It's already jam packed with features, but with other social network softwares upping their game, I expect to see Boonex follow up on their recent <a href="/dolphin-pro-7-2-released/">Dolphin.Pro 7.2 release</a> with more goodies for their community throughout the year.I got my hands dirty with the platform not too long ago, so be sure to read my <a href="/boonex-dolphin-pro-review/">Boonex Dolphin.Pro review</a> to find out more about how it works.<h2>21. <a target="_blank" href="https://thegrid.io/">The Grid</a></h2>The Grid is a website builder that”s aiming to change the way we experience website building. It brings artificial intelligence into the fray, making each of its websites smart enough to adapt to content changes, automatically apply design tweaks, and so forth.Despite its potential, <a href="/the-grid-artificial-intelligence-meets-web-design-or-does-it/">I personally have my reservations about Grid</a>, but that's only more of a reason to watch out for any progress.<h2>22. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nopcommerce.com/">nopCommerce</a></h2>nopCommerce surprised a few people when it pipped industry leaders to the <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic/status/689124383390961666">award for Best eCommerce Solution for SMB 2015</a>.The free and open source ASP.NET solution is trusted by over 25,000 stores, boasting themes, plugins and a user friendly admin panel.With their first award win here at CM Critic, there's no doubtng the strength of their community (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.nopcommerce.com/boards/">which thrives within the nopCommerce communiy forums</a>). But i'm confident that their product will go from strength to strength this year, too.<h2>23. <a target="_blank" href="http://pligg.com/">Pligg</a></h2>Pligg drifted into dark waters throughout 2015, with updates drying up completely. Why, you ask? Well, <a href="/pligg-cms-goes-up-for-sale/">the owner's decision to sell the online community builder may have had something to do with it</a>.And in December 2015, that sale went through on Flippa, for $56,000. In other words, Pligg is under new management – and I'm hoping that those in charge will revitalise the platform this year. It's already gone through a website re-design, so Pligg's future is once again looking bright.<h2>24. <a target="_blank" href="http://lemonstand.com/">LemonStand</a></h2>LemonStand is another eCommerce solution worth keeping tabs on this year. The snazzily designed platform is geared towards medium and large scale businesses, rather than to one-man-bands.It has everything a standard eCommerce solution should have, plus powerful extras like; A/B testing, subscriptions, wholesale products, email marketing and advanced analytics, all built into the platform.Why watch them in 2016? Well, <a target="_blank" href="https://lemonstand.com/roadmap">their roadmap looks very interesting</a>, with features like blogging and “advanced CMS” functionality already in the works.<h2>25. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.blackmonk.com/">BlackMonk CMS</a></h2>Last but not least, is BlackMonk CMS. <a href="/blackmonk-cms-review/">I first got my hands on this product back in 2014</a>, and their Banglore-based team has steadily improved the product ever since.BlackMonk CMS took heed of some of the advice within my review, <a href="/blackmonk-v3-2-released/">by introducing rich formatting and multimedia support when creating pages</a>. I highlighted how the product lacked such features, and pointed out that it was an issue. To BlackMonk's credit, they saw to it very quickly indeed.They have been updating the platform regularly, and even rolled out a <a href="/blackmonk-small-business-edition-released/">small business edition</a> a few months back.<h2>Who Are You Watching?</h2>That's my list of content management systems to watch in 2016. I'm looking forward to seeing how they all develop, alongside the bigger players, of course.Think I missed out a platform worth watching? Let me know what CMS you'll be keeping your eye on this year in the comments below.

Top 25 CMS to Watch in 2016

Anyone who runs a website knows the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, most site owners spend quite a large portion of their time and budget on SEO. While there is no doubt that SEO is important, there is another type of search that really shouldn’t be neglected. That is on-page search. Just about all sites today will have an on-site search function that allows users to quickly search for something that they know is on the page, but they aren’t sure where (and any sites that don’t have this functionality should really implement it right away).
On-page search is a key tool that allows visitors to remain on the site longer, which can build brand awareness, drive more sales, get more sign-ups, and even help to improve search rankings on Google. It also leads to a greater overall visitor experience since they won’t get frustrated looking for something they need. There are additional proven benefits of high-quality search functions, including <a href="https://www.invespcro.com/blog/six-tips-to-optimize-your-websites-internal-search-function/">these</a>:
<ul>
<li>About 50% of eCommerce Visitors Say they Prefer Using On-Page Search to Find Products</li>
<li>Total Order Value Rises when Visitors Use On-Page Search</li>
<li>Visitors who Leave a Site to Search for Information they Need Often Never Return</li>
<li>Customers Convert 4 Times More Often when they Use Native Search Functions</li>
</ul>
There is really no doubt that having an on-page search function is critical for the success of any website. Finding and installing a simple on-page search function is an important first step, but there are additional things that webmasters can do to improve the effectiveness of this tool.
<h3>Make it Easy to Find</h3>
When choosing the location on your page where the search bar should appear, you will have several basic options. The first option is to put it in the upper right corner, which has become the standard for websites today. This is familiar for visitors, so they aren’t likely to have to spend much time looking for it. The other option is to make it a much larger and more conspicuous search bar that is more toward the middle of the page. This will really help it to stand out and encourage it to be used by visitors. The second option is more popular on eCommerce sites such as Amazon.
With either option, you want to make sure the search function is extremely easy to see. It should not be in the upper right, but buried in a menu, for example. If you don’t have a search box that is always available, it should be quickly accessible by clicking on a magnifying glass such as you will find here on CMSCritic:
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image-10.png" alt="CMS Critic Magnifying glass icon" /></figure>
<h3>Implement Auto-Complete Functionality</h3>
Auto-complete is great feature for traditional search, and it can be just as effective on your page. As visitors are typing in their search query, this function will actively attempt to figure out what it is they are going to search for. Since normal websites don’t have the millions of results that you’ll find on Google, auto-complete can often recommend exactly what people are searching for after just a few letters.
Another great perk of the auto-complete feature is that it can help to put additional ideas into the minds of visitors. They may see something in the search recommendations that they weren’t looking for previously, but now their interest has been peaked. These types of experiences are great for visitors, and will keep them on your site even longer. You can see an example of the auto-complete feature from CMS Critic here:
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image-7.png" alt="CMS Critic Auto Complete Features" /></figure>
<h3>Bring Customers to the Page They Want</h3>
Traditional search engines (and most on-page search engines) bring people to a results page after each search. With Google, this page will have millions of results to choose from. For on-page search options, there will be far fewer. When a customer searches for something that will return just one result (such as a model number, part number, or article title) have the search function bring them directly to that page rather than a results page. This will eliminate one click for the visitor, which slightly improves their experience. It is this type of small, but often noticeable, customer experience improvements that can really help to build brand loyalty.
<h3>Finding the Right On-Page Search</h3>
It is clear that a good on-page search tool will bring any site a lot of great benefits. Whether you are running a blog, a news site, an eCommerce platform, or any other type of website, you should consider adding this feature. Finding the right on-page search tool for your site will take some research and will be based largely on what type of CMS you are using. Once installed and configured, however, you’ll enjoy the benefits for years to come.

Keep Customers on Your Site with Effective On-Page Search

We are proud to announce our latest addition to the site! Our new CMS Directory which is now available for use. When we decided to start putting this together, we wanted to ensure it offered value to our readers so we incorporated some very cool functionality and data that should be able to help you in your CMS selection process.
Here's how the directory looks when you first visit it (and we encourage you to do so):
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cms_directory1010x0.jpg" alt="cms directory" />
As you can see, we have a list of featured vendors in a slideshow, followed by a number of ways you can sort the directory to help find the products you need. For instance, you can sort by directory (or click on one in the right-hand column) and in the instances where you don't know what an acronym means, we've also listed the definition underneath it. You can filter the list by items such as Free, Hosted, On-Premise and Commercial. You can filter based on programming language and you can sort by a number of items such as specific ratings, number of likes, date added and more!
We're really worked hard to give you as many options as possible as you can tell.
The ratings you'll find on each CMS are assigned by CMS Critic based on our impressions of the product and may change as new versions are released. These are here to give you an idea as to which areas the software is strongest. We've also got a new “Like” system which doubles as a means to create a shortlist. For example, if you browse the directory and click like on a few products, you'll see a link appear on the right sidebar that looks like this:<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cms-likes.jpg" alt="cms directory - likes" />
Clicking on the CMS Products you liked link will take you to a page that allows you to view your likes and also email yourself a list of them.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2013-08-23_at_7_32_14_am.png" alt="cms directory - likes" />
This is super handy for creating a shortlist of products as you browse the directory and then emailing them to yourself for further research. Pretty cool isn't it?
Here's what a directory page looks like (keep in mind that some will not contain all of this data as not all companies offer screenshots or videos but we did our best to catch as much as we could and are continually improving the listings):
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2013-08-23_at_7_34_30_am.png" alt="cms directory - listing" />
As you can see, it's chock full of information. We've included social links, RSS feeds automatically pulled from the company and displayed in the right column, screenshots of the product (where we were able to find them anyway), videos of the product from Youtube or Vimeo, full ratings in a number of areas, likes, links to product demos on the companies website and much more!
You can also comment on each page and leave your thoughts and see all related posts (and reviews!) we've written about the products!
We hope you love it as much as we do and if there's anything you think we can add that would help make it better, please let us know. If we've missed something that should be listed, use the Add a new CMS link, fill out the form and we'll have it up as soon as possible.
Thanks everyone and enjoy the brand new <a href="/products/">CMS directory</a>!

Announcing our latest addition to the site, our CMS Directory!

<a href="https://www.magnolia-cms.com/">Magnolia</a> is an open source company that produces the popular enterprise content management system, Magnolia CMS. Recently, we were given an opportunity to interview Magnolia co-founder and CTO, Boris Kraft. For those unfamiliar with Magnolia CMS, <a href="http://www.betterfasterbigger.com/2007/03/magnolia-not-so-brief-history.html">this brief history</a> of the product (and company) will get you up to speed.
<h2>Who is Boris Kraft?</h2>
<img style="max-width:200px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/363f874.jpg" alt="Boris Kraft" />
Cofounder of Magnolia International Ltd., the Swiss company that develops Magnolia CMS, a commercial open-source Content Management System used by leading organizations around the world.
His goals are simply to develop the world's best Content Management System by building a company that attracts world-class talent and focuses on people first, technology second.
In summer 2007 he launched the New-York-based Magnolia Americas, Inc., to establish a stronger presence for Magnolia in the American market. He has won new clients like Sony Latin America, Johnson &amp; Johnson, J2 Global (efax) and the US Navy.
At Magnolia International, his current responsibilities include product management, business strategy, and marketing.
His experience as a speaker include the keynote speech at Magnolia Conference 2009, 2010, and 2012, talks about Magnolia for the Web Content Mavens, Washington, 2008, the Server Side Java Symposium in Barcelona 2006, Innovation &amp; Transformation, Washington DC, 2006, at OSCOM 2004 and at LOTS (Lets open the source) in 2004 and 2005. Earlier experiences include teaching computer science at the University of Cooperative Education Loerrach and presenting his parallel real-time simulation environment at the 8th Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Simulation in Edinburgh.
His career in IT includes object-oriented software development under NeXTSTEP, several years of active involvement in a leading Internet security company, the development of a distributed real-time simulation environment, the use of Oracle web technology, databases and CASE tools as well as programming the first ever intranet solution for Roche Vitamins AG.
Since 2002 he has been focusing on the development of Magnolia from a strategic and marketing perspective.
He likes to blog about all things Magnolia and regularly publishes articles in print magazines as well.
He lives in Switzerland with his wife and three kids.
<h2>The Interview</h2>
What do you think makes Magnolia unique in the industry?
That depends on the direction from which you look at us. From a business perspective, I think it is interesting to see that the company is led by its two founders (Pascal Mangold &amp; Boris Kraft), who make all strategic decisions jointly. It is also amazing to see that Magnolia has had no outside funding, no VC, no debt. Magnolia is independent in its best sense. We have found a business model that is sustainable: software licenses subscriptions – which in turn means that we can execute on our vision of building the worlds best CMS. This is no small endeavor, but given that that is no VC breathing down our necks, and that the business model works, we can move forward one step at a time and produce a product that is second to none in its quality, usability and focus.
Magnolia doesn’t compete with its partners. We don’t do project implementations – they do. That is why we have a rapidly growing partner network and a lot of trust between the implementation partner, us and our clients. It is a nice separation of concerns that is beneficial for our customers and our partners.
Technically, Magnolia 5 is the world’s first major CMS that has been rethought from the ground up to work on tablets as well as desktops. This opens up new horizons for its deployment for our customers, like its use for field services and intranet apps. We also happen to sport the world’s best Spring framework integration, something our high end customers benefit greatly from in their need to bring business logic &amp; applications to the web, for instance in the travel, finance or telecoms industry.
Magnolia also has a technological advantage by providing a sophisticated best practice templating framework called STK (<a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/stk" target="_blank">http://www.magnolia-cms.com/stk</a>) which reduces project risk and speeds up implementation time. It allows pixel-perfect sites both on mobile and desktop and is the reason many large enterprises see a very low TCO in their projects.
There is also the aspect that Magnolia is open source but vendor-driven, so you get the best of the proprietary support &amp; sales bundles with the quality and transparency of open source software.
What made you, as a company, choose to be an open source product?
Pragmatic decision, see <a href="http://www.betterfasterbigger.com/2007/03/magnolia-not-so-brief-history.html">history</a>. No ideology behind it. We originally wrote Magnolia because we wanted a product that focuses on usability and scales to enterprise requirements. There was no intention to sell the product, so why not open source it. In 2006 we started selling an Enterprise Edition, which at the time was a novum for an application. It changed our future.
What is the biggest advantage to using Magnolia over other products?
Our customers would say its flexibility and ease-of-use. Indeed given our history as a service provider and personal interest in usability, design &amp; architecture, this is understandable. When we started out we were clear in our ambition: write the world’s best CMS. Build something that is user-friendly and enterprise-grade. This has resulted in a highly flexible, usable and focused content management product, which is starting to be rare these days.
With the latest release of Magnolia, there seems to be a heavy focus on the user experience, can you address that?
Magnolia 5 has been on our minds for years, and when the mobile revolution and the rise of tablets came to the equation, we knew we had to drop how user interfaces of enterprise software are usually done and take a radical new approach. In our case, we were starting from the question “What would software (a CMS…) look like if we would write it for a tablet computer?”. This was an almost heretical approach. We started from scratch and did more than 3000 mock-ups for Magnolia 5. The result is an enterprise software unlike any other, which fulfills all our wishes regarding usability and extensibility. It is a platform for years to come, and in fact I believe that all enterprise software will  eventually take a similar path. At the core is its reduction to task focused apps – like on your smartphone. We have added to it a way to communicate between the system, apps, and users (called “the Pulse”) and a smart way to create custom task lists called “Favorites”. The result is outstanding and blows our customers away in its simplicity, flexibility, and usability.
With many vendors shifting their focus to online marketing, what changes are you making to stay competitive?
Vendors have always been shifting their focus. That is part of the problem. If you try to build the world’s best limousine and then realize that people are now starting to spend money on private planes, will you buy a wing manufacturer, attach the wings to your car and call it a plane? That is pretty much what the competition does. Except they wouldn’t call it a plane, they’d call it “airborne transportation vehicle” or “ATC”?
But back to us. Content Management is hard to do right. We have been on it for more than 10 years now. The web has developed rapidly, and so have our clients’ needs. You rightly point out a shift to marketing – that is understandable because much of the business now happens on the web. But what about the business part of it? How can you integrate those back end applications and bring them to the web and mobile?  You still need to pull that off. So I think the heart of your infrastructure should be able to do the right things right. That is what we work on with Magnolia.
There are a myriad of tools available for online marketing, and every day we see new ones pop up. Our approach to deal with that is what we call “open suite” – with Magnolia at the core, customers have the ability to plug in any new tool for marketing or business needs using Magnolia’s integration capabilities. With Magnolia 5, these third party tools can then be exposed as an app. This approach is unlike your typical “customer experience management” lock-in suite. Magnolia allows you to take one step at a time and add whatever is most relevant for your next digital endeavors.
Over the years our customers have added pretty much any marketing tool on the planet to Magnolia, and thus proven that it is great to have such an open platform.
If you were to choose the ideal target customer for a Magnolia deployment, who would it be, what industry would they be in and why?
Well, customers chose us, not the other way around. We are strong in the financial industry, travel, retail etc. Typically, our customers create considerable revenue from their online offerings. They have a strong java team in place which is valued and respected by business (and marketing) because they understand that these are the guys that provide their online offering with unique advantages. Whenever technicians with a need for Java evaluate the CMS space, Magnolia will be on their shortlist.
What do you consider your biggest accomplishment as a company?
Having survived for 16 years now, attracting great talent, making our customers happy.
Your biggest failure?
To educate more people out there why Magnolia really is the better choice.
What are your favorite Magnolia CMS-based websites that are still running it today and why?
The Ticket websites (Ticket.se and Ticket.no), which are the largest online travel retailer in Scandinavia. This is not our largest customer by any means, but the innovation that went into developing these sites, the work with the implementation partners, and the customers, shows the true strength of open source and collaboration.
By working with the customer to integrate Magnolia with the Spring Java Framework, we found one of our most talented new developers and created a new product, Blossom, which is currently one of our strongest selling points.
With Blossom, customers that have back-end systems created using the Spring Framework (and there are a lot at the high-end) can now just drag this code into Magnolia to expose them as secure services on the web and mobile devices.
What is the most under-rated feature of Magnolia CMS?
Simplicity. People confuse simplicity with a lack of power, but it is about delivering powerful features, efficiently, where and when they are needed. The effect this has on creativity and efficiency can be astounding.
Our customers typically are well aware of all the benefits Magnolia brings. One feature that is often overlooked by prospects and implementation partners are Magnolia's on-demand image manipulation capabilities. This is a very powerful feature referred to as image variations, and is asset management functionality to generate different format images for different use cases, e.g. From one base image we automatically generate a smaller one for a teaser and yet other formats for mobile devices. This saves editors a lot of time because they can simply rely on Magnolia to generate all formats requested by the various output channels.
What can we expect to see from Magnolia in the coming 1-2 years?
Several commerce engine integrations; the productizing of personalization and content pool functionality. We also expect a lot of interesting apps to come out of our partner’s development efforts. In fact, some will already be presented at this year’s Magnolia Conference in September.
Do you have any parting comments?
With the launch of Magnolia 5, we are at the start of a new era for Magnolia. The whole app-based approach, has opened up the user experience to new levels of input and innovation. As an open source community, we cannot wait to see where our customers and partners take this new platform. We certainly have our own vision, but the joy is in combining this with the ideas and real-world needs of our customers and partners.
<h2>Want to learn more about Magnolia?</h2>
Check out <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com">their website</a> or read our related articles (see the right sidebar on this site) to learn more.

Interview with Boris Kraft, CTO of Magnolia

Elxis is an interesting cms that expands upon traditional mambo code by adding an amazing set of SEO features (something sorely lacking in Joomla and Mambo by default) and enhanced security among other improvements. In this Elxis review, let's examine their latest edition and see how it looks.
As you can see from the picture below, they feature an attractive installer with several options such as quick links to their help forums, the ability to click ONCE and restart the installation (which is a very sweet addition.. thank you Elxis team).. as well as a percentage complete and tons of quick notes to make sure you are well informed as you proceed through the installation.
I'm one for appreciating tips and stuff that not just expand the knowledge of the user doing the install… but helps them understand what and why they are entering the data they are entering.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis1.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
Once you've passed this stage, you will get the screen below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis2.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
Accepting this license agreement will allow you to proceed:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis3.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
Fill in your database details, select a sample data package and you are ready to proceed. Elxis has a very solid selection of database options as well.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis4.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
Select your language, site name, timezone offset.. and continue:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis5.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
Enter in your admin settings on this screen. I like the fact that it auto generates a very secure password for you.. you are of course not forced to use it but it's nice to have the option (although admittedly with my memory, there'd be no way I'd manage with something as obscure.. )
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis6.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
Configure FTP access if you like, the only reason I can see doing this.. is to allow file attributes to be changed by the installer instead of having to do them yourself.. Personally, I prefer to maintain control.. but I like the fact that I have the choice.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis7.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
Now we are ready to get to the test site and see how she looks:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis8.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
What I like about the default page is that it covers each of their major features such as SEO Pro and serves as a nice set of instructions and documentation for making the most out of their package. It's a nice looking default template and works well with typical expectations.
There currently aren't a huge amount of themes and templates available but it wouldn't be tough to port over a Joomla or Mambo one as they are basically the same framework. I haven't tested to see if they work by default but if someone knows, please let me know.
Plugin wise, I do know that I tried a few Joomla plugins and they worked fine so I suspect it's a trial and error situation there as well. Again, if someone has more detail, please advise.
On the topic of plugins though.. I admittedly don't think you would need much. The fact is, Elxis has pretty much everything I'd need from the get go without the need to install third party apps… a fact that I think is one of it's strengths for sure.
The admin panel is a redesigned mambo one with a few additions.. not much of a surprise and very usable and clean:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis10.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
This new version also boasts the addition of eBlog component.. which is very nice! Here is a screenshot of it's configuration page:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis11.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
One other thing before our rating that I wanted to point out and that's this nice little addition that I just noticed in the content section.. When you choose to add a new content item, it gives you the choice to have an SEO Page Title or SEO Post title generated and also gives you a Validate link:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elxis12.png" alt="Elxis Content Management System" />
That is a brilliant addition and something that may have been present in 2008.0 but I certainly don't recall it. I'll have to ask the developers about that..
On with the ratings:
Community 7/10 – Not super active yet, but maybe after this review things will improve ? 
Expandability 8.5/10 -Not alot of expansion required, but several options available if needed.
Themability 8/10 – Needs more but I love the ones it has.. for instance, there is a CNN clone!
Useability 9/10 – Very usable, very well thought out and easily outclasses Joomla and Mambo in my eyes.
<h2>Overall Score: 8/10</h2>

Elxis Review - a look at Elxis CMS 2008 series

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 113