Articles - Page 119

Agentic AI Is Coming. Is Your DXP Ready?

dsfaltudo

One year ago, Sitecore and Microsoft announced a partnership with the goal of offering the best of experience marketing and commerce in the same package. That goal has now been met, with the release of Sitecore Commerce 8 powered by Microsoft Dynamics.
<a href="http://s.bl-1.com/h/lMcnXgM?url=http://www.sitecore.net/" target="_blank">Sitecore</a>, the global leader in customer experience management, has officially announced the availability of the new Sitecore Commerce 8 powered by Microsoft Dynamics, which integrates the leading experience management capabilities of the <a href="http://s.bl-1.com/h/lMcohSR?url=http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Resources-Library/Brochures/Sitecore-Experience-Platform.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore Experience Platform</a> with the omni-channel commerce capabilities of <a href="http://s.bl-1.com/h/lMconrT?url=http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/retail.aspx" target="_blank">Microsoft Dynamics for Retail</a>,
Sitecore Commerce 8 powered by Microsoft Dynamics aims to enable enterprises to bridge the gap between in-store and digital experiences.
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitecore_logo_400x0.gif" />
<h2>Omni-Channel, Synchronization &amp; Publishing Capabilities Enhanced</h2>
Key features of Sitecore Commerce 8 powered by Microsoft Dynamics include:
●   Shared Services Between Online and Brick-and-Mortar: All aspects of order capture (like pricing, tax &amp; discounts) are shared between digital and brick and mortar channels, supporting a consistent experience regardless of channel.
●   Additional Omni-Channel Capabilities: Microsoft Dynamics’ comprehensive features in the areas of loyalty programs; store location with real-time inventory; buy online, pickup in store; order management, including returns; customer service and call center are all enabled in digital experiences built using Sitecore.
●   Synchronization and Publishing: Synchronization service to aggregate catalog data from Dynamics and Sitecore’s Commerce Catalog to facilitate very high traffic digital experiences.
●   Storefront Solutions: Support for multiple storefronts representing different countries and legal entities in the same deployment. A reference storefront is provided to accelerate customer deployments.
Sitecore and Microsoft have developed this new version of Sitecore Commerce over the last year. They co-designed its architecture to capitalize on the strengths of both Sitecore and Microsoft Dynamics. The combined solution allows businesses to create seamlessly connected customer experiences optimized for visitors’ digital behaviors, devices and preferences, complete with real-time order management across any channel.
Darren Guarnaccia, the Chief Strategy Officer at Sitecore, made these comments:
<blockquote>“Businesses, until now, haven’t had a unified way to connect the customer experience between the worlds of online and brick-and-mortar. This partnership fills a real customer need by marrying the expertise and technology of two trusted global enterprise solutions. You can expect to hear more about the success of significant implementations over the coming months.”</blockquote>
The new solution further diversifies Sitecore’s commerce offering. The release offers significant opportunities for customers with a retail presence to aggregate their content across all sales channels, particularly for those customers already using or evaluating Microsoft Dynamics for Retail.
Microsoft's General Manager of Commerce &amp; Retail Solutions, Ashvin Mathew, also shared his take:
<blockquote>“Retailers want to create a connected experience as they look to extend engagement beyond point-of-sale. The new solution combines the rich commerce capabilities of Dynamics with Sitecore’s experience platform and represents a significant step in our partnership and commitment to deliver innovative and personalized solutions for our mutual customers.”</blockquote>
To find out more about Sitecore Commerce 8 powered by Microsoft Dynamics, <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/commerce" target="_blank">check out the Sitecore website</a>.
Furthermore, you can explore <a href="/products/sitecore/" target="_blank">Sitecore via our CMS Directory</a>.

Sitecore & Microsoft Team Up to Improve In-store and Digital Customer Experiences

mike-johnston

The UK-based startup <a target="_blank" href="https://pressidium.com/">Pressidium</a> has launched the first ever WordPress hosting platform and management portal with enterprise-grade architecture. According to Pressidium, their “Pressidium Pinnacle Platform” is, “Built with webscale technologies and systems specifically optimized to deliver incredible speed, unparalleled availability and uptime for WordPress.”Let's take a closer look at what's on offer, and what it means to WordPress users.<h2>Web Hosting Powerhouse</h2>With features like clustered master-master replicated databases and parallel file-systems on offer, Pressidium are serving up a powerhouse hosting solution. Further features include parallel file-systems, managed auto-updates and backups. Pinnacle users can also deploy a websites in less than 45 seconds.Pinnacle also gives users reliability and up-time, Highly-Available Architecture on every layer, Automatic Scalability, Full server management, and Automated backups among many other features.Such features are only ever seen in large and costly enterprise environments, and now WordPress users have access. Andrew Georges, Co-founder of Pressidium, and former Systems Engineering &amp; Design Director at Southeast Europe’s Media and Telecom giant Forthnet, made these comments upon the release of Pinnacle:<blockquote>“We all had the vision of creating a boutique-managed web hosting service that offers ALL WordPress users access to technology that provides the very top levels of safety, reliability and security. Every member of our team wanted to engineer a hosting service that would take the managed web hosting industry by storm.”</blockquote>Furthermore, the Pressidium network currently includes two main origin data-centers in London and Amsterdam with more planned ahead and edge delivery servers located in data-centers at another 22 locations across the globe.<h2>“A Technological Work of Art”</h2>Amazingly,  Pressidium’s monthly plans start from just $17.90 — including all enterprise-grade features and expert support — and are built to seamlessly scale depending on site traffic. That's almost as impressive as the platform itself.Co-founder Filip Slavik also chimed in with an interesting quote:<blockquote>“We consider the Pressidium Pinnacle Platform a technological work of art that offers a safe and secure home for the “creative masterpieces” of our clients. Protecting their hard work and making it reliably and readily available for their visitors is as important for us as it is for them.”</blockquote>As the first of its kind, it will be very interesting to see just how sought after the Pressidium's Pinnacle Platform is. Moreover, it will be interesting to see if the availability of such a high-level hosting solution sparks a trend of much larger WordPress websites being built on a more regular basis.To find out more, <a target="_blank" href="https://pressidium.com/">check out the Pressidium website</a>.

Pressidium Launches First WordPress Hosting Platform With Enterprise-grade Architecture

In the open source world, there are primarily three content management systems that hold the top spot when it comes to word of mouth, popularity and implementations. While WordPress far outpaces the other two; Joomla and Drupal; when it comes to installs and user base, they still maintain a pretty hefty following. Just because these systems are at the top, however, does not mean they are always the best option (see my previous post entitled <a href="/wordpress-joomla-and-drupal-are-not-the-best-cms/">WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are NOT the best CMS</a>.Today, I'm going to  outline the top 7 mistakes people make when choosing WordPress, Drupal or Joomla for their CMS.<h2>7. “Someone recommended it, so I chose to use it.”</h2>A very common mistake I see being made on websites nowadays are blanket recommendations of products from people with experience using only that product or, even worse, people who just want to offer an opinion for the sake of doing so. Take a look on Q &amp; A websites like Quora for instance and you'll see tons of foolish recommendations to people that offer little to no information.Here is a typical question on Quora asking for CMS recommendations with a fantastic response from someone who is smart enough to not recommend a product without more information:<figure class="image"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/snapshot1.png" /></figure>What I didn't show you is the list of answers with responses such as “The best one is WordPress” from someone who has no idea what the requirements are. Sadly, there are tons of people throwing out these types of recommendations. I appreciate when people like Mr. Memud above step up to try to put some clarity to the questions.You should never just choose to go with a CMS because someone recommended it, regardless of whether that person is someone with experience or not. Make sure you explore the product fully, try it out in a demo environment and see if it suits your needs BEFORE implementing it as your CMS of choice. Most people wouldn't buy a car without a test drive and you shouldn't get a CMS without one either.<h2>6. It's one of the top three open source CMS.</h2>Never choose something just because of word of mouth because honestly, it doesn't mean much. Popularity of a product has nothing to do with whether it's the right product for your job. Always make sure you take the time to explore the product and get a run through from someone in the know before you make a selection. There's a reason why the typical RFP process for CMS selection takes several weeks to several months.<h2>5. They have a plugin that I want to use.</h2>Never, ever, ever choose a CMS just because it works with your favorite plugin. Believe it or not, it's not that expensive to hire a freelancer to code you an integration if you really need it and you'll not be forced to make a compromise in usability.<h2>4. I found a pretty theme!</h2>There are theme developers all over the world that can hash out beautiful designs for minimal cost. Don't choose a CMS just because someone developed a pretty theme you like.<h2>3. It's free.</h2>Never choose a product JUST because it's free. If cost is a factor and you absolutely have no budget, that's fine but do make sure you take the time to explore ALL of the free products on the market that fit your requirements. Use resources like our CMS directory to find a number of great products.<h2>2. It's open source.</h2>Are you an open source promoter? Do you prefer open source products? Fantastic. Is that a reason to choose a product for your business? No, it's not. You should be responsible and take the time to make sure you explore the products that best suit your projects needs first. If an open source solution happens to be one of them and it comes down to that being a deciding factor AFTER vetting out that it fits your base requirements and needs then perfect but never make it a primary factor in your decision.<h2>1. A website I like is using it, so I should.</h2>No. Just no. As with every other point I've made above, make sure you always test out each product thoroughly and that it first your requirements first and foremost.—In a nutshell, in case you haven't figured out my point by now… don't choose a CMS just due to a single reason. Always make sure you explore all of the available options out there. If you aren't sure what options there are, use tools like our <a href="/products/">CMS directory</a> or ask us in the forums. If you need more in-depth assistance, <a href="/contact/">drop me a line</a> and I'd be more than happy to give you a hand. We offer top notch <a href="/contact">CMS consulting</a> based on our many years of experience using the many products on the market. When it comes to consulting, no other group can offer as much insight into the products on the market than we can.

The Top 7 Mistakes People Make when Choosing WordPress, Drupal or Joomla

In keeping with <a href="/kentico-8-2-release-date-set/">Kentico's announcement last year</a> pointing to an early 2015 release, Kentico 8.2 has now officially arrived.With its headquarters in the Czech Republic, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">Kentico</a> is a respected Enterprise Web Content Management System and Customer Experience Management solution, available on-premise or via the cloud. Founded in 2004, Kentico offers solutions for website building, intranets, community sites, and e-commerce websites.<a href="/kentico-8-1-release-date-revealed/">Kentico 8.1 was recently released</a> back in August 2014, and that version brought about its own set of features, including SharePoint integration and social marketing improvements. Kentico 8.2 has built upon those marketing features somewhat.<h2>Kentico 8.2 Enhances eCommerce, Marketing &amp; Collaboration</h2>Kentico 8.2 allows marketers to quickly deliver the right marketing message, at the right time, via the right digital channel. Here's an overview of what's new.Bi-Directional SharePoint Synchronization: Kentico’s new SharePoint Integration module streamlines collaboration while facilitating better file sharing. Kentico’s new bi-directional SharePoint synchronization feature means that all changes made in Kentico will be made automatically on the SharePoint server. So, your files are always up to date, and everyone has the latest versions.Easy Shipping Calculations: With shipping costs affected by order value, size, weight, geography, shipping provider, and customer, providing shipping discounts and free delivery to certain customers can be difficult to calculate. One-size-fits-all solutions are not for everybody, so Kentico has made it easy to create a shipping module that presents all the tools you need to calculate shipping costs in your own custom user interface.Enhanced Contact Management: The newly introduced Kentico Contact Management module provides a 360-degree view of all your website visitors and customers as well as their behavior across all channels and devices. If you are using multiple tools to manage your leads, contacts and recipients, it can be a headache to sync them, import them and reuse them across all the platforms in use. With Kentico 8.2, you can easily import Contacts from a CSV file, segment them, and leverage them in the system.Upon the release of version 8.2, Kentico's CEO and Founder Petr Palas made the following comments.<blockquote>“With the new features contained in Kentico 8.2, we continue to show we not only listen to our customers, we respond to their needs.We are constantly working to enhance our product to bring our customers the easy-to-use and affordable set of tools they need to launch and manage integrated digital marketing activities that are highly personalized, dynamic, and effective.”</blockquote>To find out more about Kentico, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">visit their website</a>, or check out their <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/Company/Press-Center/2014/Kentico-8-2-Features-New-Collaboration-and-Ecommer">Kentico 8.2 announcement</a>.Plus, you can explore more of <a href="/products/kentico/">Kentico via our CMS Directory</a>.

Kentico 8.2 Released With eCommerce & Marketing Improvements

<a href="http://liferay.com/" target="_blank">Liferay, Inc.</a>, has announced the release of its Audience Targeting app for Liferay Portal.
Liferay offers <a href="http://liferay.com">open source portals</a> fit for enterprising companies and orgnizations, including Fortune 500 companies such as Allianz, Siemens, Toyota and the United Nations.
Through Liferay's new Audicence Targeting app, companies can show the right content at the right time to their visitors to create the most relevant, engaging web experience for the people they want to reach.
<h2>The Big Three Audience Engagement Questions</h2>
Marketers across the world are constantly in search of ways to connect with their audiences and have online conversations through valuable, interesting content. Using Liferay's Audience Targeting app, businesses can make authentic connections with their customers, partners, employees and any other individuals visiting their sites.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/liferay_-_audience_targeting_config_admin700x0.png" />
The app, which is now <a href="https://www.liferay.com/marketplace/-/mp/application/43707691">available on the Liferay Marketplace</a>, offers the ability to tailor specific content for audiences based on user behavior on the site, user information such as age and gender, social media attributes, and more. Marketers can also create targeted campaigns, track user actions and generate reports on the effectiveness of the campaigns.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/liferay_-_audience_targeting_user_rules700x0.png" />
Edwin Chung, VP of Product Development for Liferay, made these comments:
<blockquote>“Getting audience engagement right comes down to solving three questions. Who are you trying to engage, what information is important to that person, and what is the best way to display the targeted content on your site? Whether it’s your customers, your partners, or your employees, personalized audience engagement is quickly becoming an expected part of their interactions with your company.
We recognize this and continue to evolve our solutions for audience engagement and content targeting to give our customers the tools they need to provide better, more customized user experiences across the board.”</blockquote>
According to Liferay, their position as a portal provider gives them a uniquely advantageous position to serve the entire customer lifecycle, from prospecting to deal closing to ongoing customer service interaction.
To learn more about how you can use Liferay Portal to engage audiences, visit <a href="http://www.liferay.com/engage">www.liferay.com/engage</a>. You can also find out more about Liferay's new Audience Targeting app via their recent blog post.
Additionally, be sure to check out <a href="/products/liferay/" target="_blank">Liferay through our CMS Directory</a>.

Liferay Unveils Audience Targeting App For Liferay Portal

Drupal has always been promoted as the tool for developers by developers.
While we at <a href="http://www.DrupalPartners.com" target="_blank">Drupal Partners</a> fully embrace this mantra, there is a whole community that often gets left out of this conversation – the creative community.
<img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/drupal700x0.png" />
Sure, there’s the development part of Drupal, but there’s also the incredibly important “using that development” in interesting and beautiful ways. And that’s where the creatives come in: They run with the development and make the theme/idea their own.
That leads to the question, “How is Drupal a good fit for artists/designers/photographers (aka creatives)?” If you are a creative person looking for the best tool to showcase your work, we think Drupal is a strong and really fantastic choice. In fact, here are 6 reasons Drupal is a great fit for creatives
<h2>1. Drupal Themes are Flexible, Adaptable &amp; Look Wonderful</h2>
As a creative, you work really hard on your project/idea to make it look fantastic. When you’re ready to put it on the web, you want your work to be displayed/optimized/showcased in the best way possible, reflecting all the time you’ve put into it.
When Drupal 7 hit the market, the myth that, “Drupal isn’t designer-friendly” vanished. Proof: Drupal 7 alone is packed with over 450 downloadable themes and 20,000 modules/plug-ins. Many of these themes are perfect for the creative: The themes are feature-rich with responsive layouts, smart content administration, image optimization and much more. In fact, here’s a <a href="http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/drupal-themes-6133264"> list of free themes </a> , many made with the creative in mind.
But what if you can’t find a theme that’s just right? Drupal’s flexible nature and open source architecture have created a <a href="http://www.drupical.com/"> huge community </a> of developers and users. These people live, eat and breathe Drupal and are more than happy to help you realize your creative vison for your website.
<h2>2. Drupal Themes Make Managing Your Site Easy</h2>
So. You’ve scoured potential <a href="http://visionwidget.com/free-drupal-7-themes.html"> Drupal Themes </a> and found the perfect fit. You, the creative, are very excited about your new, classy looking website that reflects your personal style. What’s left now? Managing the site. AKA – The boring part.
No worries – Drupal is known for its simple content administration and the flexibility to modify, extend and scale your requirements as your site traffic grows. With astonishing levels of customization, you won’t have to spend hours making things fit here, then do that over there, and then connect this to that, etc. 
 With Drupal, you just add a module, make a few custom changes and you’re done. One of our favorite modules: Static page caching. This makes for quick photo and large file load times. Ideal for the photographer.
<h2>3. Drupal Manages User-generated Content Intelligently</h2>
If you thrive on <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/UGC.html"> user-generated content </a> (think user submitted blogs, videos, polls), then this one’s for you. Drupal comes with an intelligent architecture that helps establish relationships among differing types of content and then categorizes them. 
 This saves you the time and energy of making sure everything fits and makes sense. Drupal makes managing your content fast and simple, giving you more time to do what you love: create!
<h2>4. Want your Designs to go International? Drupal Does That</h2>
Fun fact: The  <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/are-we-really-monolingual.html?_r=0"> average number of languages </a> spoken per person is 1.58. Another fun fact: There are over 6,500 different spoken languages on earth. Unless you plan on learning all 6,000+ languages, Drupal has you covered with its Internationalization plug-in for multilingual support. Showcase your art in different languages simultaneously and save money on translation services. 
 That means your photo journal, blog entry or graphic design could go viral in several languages!
<h2>5. Drupal Sites are Spacious</h2>
In Drupal, you can have thousands of pages and subpages. And then some. On top of that, you can add as many users as you want to help you edit/maintain those pages. If you have a site limitation and space issue, Drupal is a great fit. 
 Also, to get more space, moving from your old content management system to Drupal is 100% possible. We call this “Drupal Migration.” When you migrate, all your content, comments, media and files are transferred without losing any data.
<h2>6. Jump the Training Curve Quick – Drupal is Easy and Fun to Learn</h2>
We get it – you’re a creative and that means your time is always valuable. On top of that, the idea of learning a new system might give you the jitters. Rest easy! If done right, managing a Drupal site is very simple and intuitive. Also, as mentioned before, there is a big community of Drupal users and groups that love helping newbies learn the ropes.
And there you have it – our six reasons why Drupal is a great fit for creatives. If you’re looking for a content/website managing system that is flexible to your needs and makes your creative work look fabulous, then Drupal is right for you.

6 Reasons Why Drupal Is A Great Fit For Creatives

<a href="http://www.sitecore.net/" target="_blank">Sitecore</a> have made their Experience Platform 8 available for general release.
<a href="/the-keynote-sitecore-north-american-symposium-symna/" target="_blank">Revealed at Sitecore's 2014 Symposium</a>, this latest version of the Sitecore Experience Platform enables marketers to create, deliver and optimize unique digital experiences throughout the customer lifecycle.
Also known as Sitecore XP 8, the new platform shortens the time it takes to gain insights, make marketing decisions, and then put them into action.
Data analytics are built in, giving marketers constant feedback on content effectiveness and performance, while recommending actions accordingly. Automatic testing and continuous content optimization ensures that everything can be constantly refined if necessary.
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitecore_logo_400x0.gif" />
<h2>New Interface, Intelligent Insights &amp; More</h2>
Sitecore 8 is undoubtedly going to empower the marketing teams around the world, and in turn the enterprising entities they work for. Here's a break down of what's new.
Brand New Interface: Sitecore XP 8 has a completely new user interface, providing a clean, consistent user experience for every Sitecore user. All features still work like they did in previous versions, too. This all makes learning to use Sitecore much quicker and easier, and lowers training and support costs.
Single Customer View: The Sitecore Experience 8 Profile provides a single view of each individual customer, used for real time personalization, segmentation and analytics. Sitecore collects and connects data about the whole customer experience, making it immediately available to marketers to continue ongoing conversations and provide highly relevant and personalized experiences for their customers.
Intelligent Analytics &amp; Insights: Sitecore XP 8 shortens the time it takes to gain insights, make a decision and take action. Sitecore uses Engagement Value to measure what’s working, what’s not, and recommends what action to take, throughout Sitecore’s Experience Marketing tools. Sitecore’s Experience Analytics help marketers understand what is performing, and with whom. Sitecore also harnesses and analyzes data from non-Sitecore sites, CRM, ERP, and POS systems.
Non-stop Testing &amp; Optimization: With Sitecore XP 8, everything can be optimized. All content changes can now be automatically A/B tested, by any content creator. Personalized content can be tested against its default control base content. Advanced optimization experts also have all the tools they need to set up sophisticated test scenarios, like multi-variate tests, built into the platform. So every component and every channel can be fine-tuned for performance, continuously.
Dynamic Segmentation &amp; Automation: Sitecore enables target segments to be created based on any information in the Experience Profile – like demographic data and behavior – for real-time content personalization, email communication, and automated nurturing campaigns. Segments are directly usable with Sitecore’s automation and email marketing capabilities.
Cross-channel Experience Delivery: Sitecore customers can now use Sitecore as a central hub to manage all of their digital properties, even non-Sitecore sites.  New customers can start to leverage Sitecore functionality immediately on existing sites, and marketers inheriting legacy sites can rapidly bring them under the brand umbrella.
Michael Seifert, the CEO of Sitecore, made the following comments.
<blockquote>“The goal with Sitecore XP 8 was to give time back to marketers and free them up to be marketers again. Sitecore makes it simple for all marketers to create unique customer experiences – by knowing every customer, and shaping each experience.”</blockquote>
To learn more about Sitecore 8, check out the <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/About/Press-and-Media/Press-Releases/2014/12/Sitecore-8-GA.aspx" target="_blank">official press release</a>, <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Platform/Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore's overview</a>, as well as their informative <a href="http://www.sitecore.net/Learn/Resources-Library/White-Papers/Introducing-Sitecore-8.aspx" target="_blank">Sitecore 8 white paper</a>.
Also, make sure you explore more of <a href="/products/sitecore/" target="_blank">Sitecore through our CMS Directory</a>.

Sitecore Launches Sitecore Experience Platform 8

Power your CMS on AWS

Manage your websites & apps in the most trusted cloud.

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<a href="https://www.cubecart.com/" target="_blank">CubeCart</a> has announced that all previous, current and future versions of its software will be under GPL 3.0 licence. Put simply, CubeCart is now open source.
Plus, the popular eCommerce platform has released its first beta for CubeCart version 6, along with a brand new <a href="https://www.cubecart.com/extensions" target="_blank">Extensions Marketplace</a>. It's fair to say that the CubeCart team has been hard at work over the last few weeks and months. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1634_1634_37_37_cubecart_logo210.jpg" />
<h2>Going Open Source</h2>
Now that CubeCart is fully open source, developers can start to really get their hands dirty with some CubeCart coding, building extensions and designig templates. The move should guarantee a much brighter future for CubeCart as far as flexibility and extendability is concerned.
Developers wishing to sell or distribute their CubeCart extensions and templates can do so via the <a href="https://www.cubecart.com/extensions/seller/login" target="_blank">Sellers log in page</a> for the Extensions Marketplace. 
CubeCart's open source future does come with a price though, for technical support anyway. Enterprise Support is what's being offered, and it starts from £21 per month, which is roughly  $32.
<h2>CubeCart 6: The Details</h2>
CubeCart have called version 6 of their product, “a whole new philosophy for online commerce.”
Of course, CubeCart 6 is still in its early stages, but let's take a look at what's on offer anyway.
<ul>
<li>Strictly no bloatware. CubeCart v6 ships with no extensions with the aim to make it as lightweight and as optimized as possible. Extensions can be easily installed, upgraded or downgraded by copying and pasting a “token” generated from the extensions marketplace.</li>
<li>Extensions such as payment gateways, shipping rate calculators, skins etc now have individual version releases which means updates can get to you faster than having to wait and upgrade your store entirely.</li>
<li>CubeCart v6 ships with one (intentionally basic looking) responsive theme powered by the brilliant <a href="http://foundation.zurb.com/">Foundation Framework</a>. Users are encouraged to customise it themselves or to grab an off the shelf skin from the marketplace.</li>
<li>Performance enhancements like improved caching is enabled by default and the homepage should have just three lightweight MySQL queries after the cache is built.</li>
<li>Tweaks have been made to existing features such as dynamic product options on the manual order builder and improvements to the product import tool.</li>
<li>All templates &amp; extensions for v5 are forward compatible with CubeCart version 6.</li>
</ul>
To find out more about CubeCart's recent announcements, <a href="http://forums.cubecart.com/topic/49092-cubecart-v6-beta-launched-all-versions-now-open-source/" target="_blank">check out theri official announcement, made via their community forum</a>.

CubeCart Goes Open Source, Launches V6 Beta & Extensions Marketplace

<a href="http://sageframe.com/">Sageframe</a> is a free and open source ASP.NET CMS.
Founded in 2008 by <a href="http://www.braindigit.com/">Braindigit</a>, Sageframe aims to cater for novice personnel as well as seasoned developers, offering up a user friendly experience paired with some amazingly diverse functionality.
Sageframe promises to deliver scalable website solutions based on modular architectural design, enabling you to drag-and-drop and live-edit your way to a beautiful enterprise website.
The recent release of <a href="/sageframe-3.0-community-version-released/?utm_content=buffer83a70&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=app.net&amp;utm_campaign=buffer#.UzTG_PldVyg" target="_blank">Sageframe 3.0</a> brought about a number of new features, including automatically responsive templates, to-do lists, and personalized dashboards. 
It's also worth noting that Sagreframe was recently crowned winner of the <a href="/2014-best-open-source-net-cms/">People’s Choice CMS Award 2014 for Best Open Source .NET CMS</a>. It fought off some stiff competition, too.
I will now delve into Sageframe and ascertain just how fitting this recent award is. I’ll be exploring the good bits, the bad bits and everything in between, with the aim of producing an accurate verdict. 
<h2>Initial Thoughts</h2>
All my reviews begin at the vendor website, and this review is no different. It’s a solid way to gauge how the quality of the product, even before you get your hands on it.
Thankfully, <a href="http://sageframe.com/">Sageframe’s website</a> is sleek and informative – which is always a good sign.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.png" />
After a quick browse through the different pages, I could begin to see that Sageframe were claiming to offer more than just a free CMS:
<blockquote>
“Along with the software, you get our forum support, a list of free modules and get to be a part of a dedicated Sageframe community. This will definitely get you started for a whole new experience of creating all purpose websites using SageFrame.”
</blockquote>
Sageframe’s website copy boasts that the framework is “highly extensible”, pushing its open source nature and custom application creation as key features.
Sageframe comes in three flavours. Sageframe (The Community Edition, which is what this review focuses on), Sagever. and SageCMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2700x0.png" />
The community edition is lightweight and perhaps easier for developers to adjust to and work with, whilst Sagever comes bundled with premium Sageframe modules, and is geared towards seasoned web developers. SageCMS is even further advanced.
Sageframe Community Edition 3.0 is the edition I will be focusing on in this review.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
If you've never tried Sageframe before, you'll be glad to know that it's easy to test it out. Simply visit <a href="http://sageframe.com/" target="_blank">Sageframe.com</a> and click the demo link to thrust yourself into the demo environment, which allows you to test out Sageframe's administrative interface.
Signing into Sageframe will give you access to the admin dashboard, which is easy enough on the eyes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-31079x0.png" />
The dashboard is well designed and laid out, boasting a welcome message which includes some instructional videos and links to relevant documentation. 
You will find a grid menu displaying quick links to things like pages, templates, files, users and messages. Plus, there's a small analytics module showing the total number of visitors that your website has had, categorised by country. It's a nice little feature, but it's a shame you can't customise what this widget shows. Instead, you'll have to visit the analytics pages directly to find other stats. 
The dashboard also comes loaded with a To-do list, which I will touch on later in this review. 
Two more widgets make up the dashboard, with the “Portal Snapshot” showing some general information, while the To-do List widget awaits some tasks — another feature I'll be detailing later on.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-41079x0.png" />
As far as customization goes, clicking the small gear icon at the top of the dashboard reveals some basic appearance options, 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-51079x0.png" />
You can choose between three different colour schemes and adjust the sidebar position. Nothing amazing, but it's nice to have the choice. 
<h3>Live Editing</h3>
When it comes to the front end of your Sageframe project, you can edit the website in a “live” environment by simply visiting the website while signed in as an admin.
Whenever you do this, small pencil icons will appear next to each page section and element, including the site title, navigation menu, and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-61079x0.png" />
Clicking on a pencil brings up a window containing relevant editor. For example, a section containing text will bring up a text editor, whereas a section containing a slider will present you with options and settings concerning the slides.
<img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7.png" />
The point is, thanks to this live editing interface, almost anybody can make changes to content and design in a way which doesn’t require much technical knowledge. In fact, it doesn’t require any technical knowledge to edit in this way.
Of course, the live editing isn’t entirely comprehensive, but it’s definitely a useful feature. It makes quickly refining some copy or swapping an image a lot easier, and a lot faster.
But — and there is a big but — Sageframe’s live editor isn’t as smooth as it should be. The window that pops up simply needs to look and work a little better.
It isn’t centered on the screen, it isn’t the right size, and the window itself doesn’t display everything in one screen, forcing you to scroll down to find the “Save” button.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-8.png" />
You can move the window around and make it full-screen, but that shouldn’t be the only way to make it look presentable. It would be far better to see some more effort go into the design of this feature
<h3>Adding Pages</h3>
To add a new page, you’ll need to visit the dashboard, and navigate over to “Manage Site” and then “Pages”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-91079x0.png" />
Here, you will find a nifty drag-and-drop page creation interface. Depending on the setup of yout template, which I will come to later, you can choose between page layouts, and then move modules into place. These include logos, banners, text and so on.
You can also edit all of the modules by clicking the pencil icon, bringing up a similar window found when live-editing from the front end.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-10.png" /> Again, this is a very user friendly way to go about building a page. It's easy, it makes sense, and you can even switch to mobile view.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-11.png" /> The mobile view enables you to customize the page's appearance on mobile devices with the same drag-and-drop interface. A truly awesome feature. 
You can also preview pages before they go live, but for some reason there is no “Save as Draft” option. The pages are probably auto-saved, but still, it would be nice to have that feeling of safety when building a page. 
Also, a button for extra page editing options pertaining to SEO, link structure and so forth should also be here, but it isn't. Instead, you need to right-click on the page you want to edit, and then click “Edit Page”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-12.png" /> Only then will these options appear. They include designating parent pages, captions, META keywords, and so forth.
<h2>Templates &amp; Design</h2>
Sageframe offers templates through the Sageframe Extensions page. They all look good, but there aren’t many. Six, to be precise. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-14.png" />
There’s no way to live preview themes before you download and install them either. A screen shot is the best you’ll get.
Six isn’t many templates at all, and although this is probably meant to encourage the community to go out and build upon existing templates, or build their own from scratch (which they undoubtedly would have done), it would still be beneficial for more ready-made templates to be provided. After all, Sageframe is supposed to be for novices, too.
Thankfully though, for the small number of templates on offer, Sageframe does a very good job when it comes to customization.
<h3>Customization</h3>
You can edit existing templates by heading over to “Manage Site” and then “Templates”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15.png" /> Here, you can click click “Customize” on any of the uploaded templates you have. This allows you to edit Pages (as previously described), Presets and Layouts. as far as Presets are concerned, you can configure the default layouts for different pages, devices and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16.png" />
Via the Layout Manager, you can edit existing layouts and create brand news ones using a drag-and-drop editor. It's similar to building a page, except these are the structures which you can later build you pages with. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-171079x0.png" /> It all works quite nicely, and it's pretty easy to use, too.
If you need to edit the code directly, you can do so by heading back to the templates page, and clicking “Edit Files”. this brings you to the Template File Manager, where you can download all of your files. There is no built-in editor though, unfortunately. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-181079x0.png" />
<h2>Addons &amp; Extras</h2>
There are a number of free Sageframe extensions, available via the Sageframe Extensions page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-131079x0.png" />
Such extensions include modules like FAQs, table builders, galleries, mega menus, and so forth. There's a healthy range, to be fair.
But the number of extensions is less healthy. There are forty different extensions in total, which isn't too bad of a number, but there certainly could be more. In fact, there certainly should be more. 
<h3>Search Engine Optimization (SEO)</h3>
By clicking “Settings” on the sidebar, and then “SEO”, some (rather limited) SEO options are displayed.
The page allows you to insert Google Analytics tracking code, which is something better suited for the “Site Analytics” section. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-191079x0.png" /> You can also configure which pages you want search engine robots to leave out when they crawl your website, in case you have any pages that are under construction. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-201079x0.png" />
It also allows you to generate a sitemap and submit it to Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask, which is a nice touch.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-211079x0.png" />
I kind of expected to find more though. There's no area to enter META data or tags, for example.
<h3>To-do Lists</h3>
Sageframe displays To-do lists on the dashboard, albeit quite far down the page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-22.png" />
To add to the list, you just have to click the “Add” button above it. you can also search through the list by keyword, and categorise it by date. It's a very handy widget to have on the homepage, especially for teams of writers and developers trying to communicate.
The only problem is, you have to scroll down to see it. I'd much prefer it if the to-do list widget and analytics widget swapped places. Or better yet, if I was able to move these widgets around freely. 
<h3>Analytics</h3>
If you head over to “Site Analytics” on the sidebar, you will find a range of neatly presented charts and data tables. 
<img style="display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-23.png" />These built-in analytics report on visits, page views, country, and monthly accumulated visits. A list of referring website can also be found under the “Data” section of the page.  <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-24.png" /> You can view all stats by date, and export them via PDF or Excel, which means creating monthly or weekly reports would be pretty easy. Combined with Sageframe's support for Google analytics tracking codes, I'd say it does a pretty stellar job on the analytics front.
On another note, it's worth mentioning that Braindigit, the company behind SageFrame, also provide further functionality through another one of their products, AspxCommerce. The eCommerce platform can be combined with Sageframe to add eCommerce functionality, although the process behind this is unclear and not well documented. Nonetheless, the option is there.
<h2>Getting Help</h2>
Support is Sageframe’s Achilles' Heel.
Surprisingly, users wishing to use a simple support ticket will need to shell out $5 for the privilege each time they run into an issue. It’s not a large amount of money, but charging people per ticket is pretty outlandish. Oh, and if you want “Premium Support”, you'll need to have a spare $2,799 lying around.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-27.png" />
Sageframe does serve up a rather detailed documentation library, full with guides to do with working with Sageframe's settings, analytics, users, and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-251079x0.png" />
The categories are listed down the left hand side, with further options appearing when you click on one. But, I noticed that not all categories well populated. “Working with SEO” and “Working with Files” for example, were empty.
Furthermore, the video tutorial section was populated with helpful videos, but they were all out of date, focusing on Sageframe 2.0. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-261079x0.png" />
The only other free support solution though, is the Sageframe community forum. It’s there, it’s relatively active, but I wouldn’t call it a busy support hub. At the time of writing, it has been almost two weeks since the last post.
So once again, if you’re not an experienced web developer, Sageframe could cause issues for you. Because a novice will almost certainly run into a few issues along their way, and unless that issue is covered by the documentation, the only other real solution is to pay up for a support ticket.
<h2>The Verdict</h2>
There's a lot to like about Sageframe. For a free and open source product, one can have a lot of fun tinkering and experimenting with existing templates and modules, as well as creating some new ones.
The dashboard is professionally designed and easy to use. Live-editing is also a handy feature for any CMS to have in its arsenal. Furthermore, features pertaining to users, roles, CDNs, multiple portal creation and management, language localization and backend job scheduling make it possible to create anything from one pagers to large enterprise websites with multiple users collaborating and contributing. 
But, as an open source product, I feel that Sageframe needs more support from its community to excel. Templates are scarce, and the extensions library is hardly overflowing. There is work to be done, and if Sageframe can't inspire their community to take part, then they need to lead the way themselves. 
So, as far as flexibility goes, each individual user will need to put some extra effort in to bring their project into being, depending on how ambitious their project is of course. This is unfortunately down to the lack of templates, extensions and support at Sageframe.
<h3>Pros</h3>
<ul>
<li>Sageframe has a clean, user friendly and customizable dashboard.</li>
<li>Live-editing makes it easy to edit websites quickly fron the front end.</li>
<li>Very powerful customization editor when it comes to page and website layout.</li>
<li>Sageframe websites are always responsive, and a mobile-view template editor helps you customize the appearance on mobile devices.</li>
<li>Pages and Portals are easy to set up and manage.</li>
<li>User and role types are easy to set up and manage.</li>
<li>Easy to access and manage event logs, CDNs, SQL and cache maintenance.</li>
<li>Fairly detailed documentation.</li>
<li>Handy to-do-list widget.</li>
<li>Built-in analytics.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Cons</h3>
<ul>
<li>The live-editing feature needs attention in terms of design and presentation.</li>
<li>Sageframe doesn't have very strong support solutions. Support tickets cost $5 each.</li>
<li>Not enough documentation on how to integrate with AspxCommerce. Perhaps future versions of Sageframe should come with AspxCommerce extensions built-in. </li>
<li>Not enough Templates.</li>
<li>No code-less design customization (colour palettes, backgrounds, and so forth).</li>
<li>Not enough Addons.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Final Remarks</h2>
Sagreframe is undoubtedly a powerful platform.
It’s capable of building all sorts of websites, and it’s true that even a web development novice could make it work — although I wouldn’t recommend it.
Sure, Sageframe is relatively simple for such a dynamic CMS, but it’s fair to say that simplicity isn’t Sageframe’s strongest suit. There are countless platforms out there that offer a more friendly approach to the less experienced.
Also, Sageframe's claim to offer a users a dedicated community seems to be lacking somewhat. An open source project like this needs a thriving community, and I think Sageframe need to invest more time and effort into building a solid fanbase, rather than a client base. 
Having said that though, if you do know what you’re doing when it comes to code, web development and web design, Sageframe is worthy of your consideration.

Sageframe 3.0 Review

<a href="http://www.kajona.de/" target="_blank">Kajona</a>, the PHP5 based content management framework, has just released version 4.6.
This new Kajona release introduces simplified workflows — particularly for the portal editor. Also, many modules which are vital for building the foundation of Kajona have been modernized and enriched with new functionality.
Here are some highlights of Kajona 4.6.
<h2>Improved Installer &amp; Revamped Editor</h2>
<img style="max-width:399px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image.jpg" />
Both of Kajona's installer and backend-skin are based on Twitters' Bootstrap, but now their installer is the first component to be fully updated to Bootstrap 3. While updating the installer, they removed some redundant options, making installation a lot smoother and faster than before.
Also, now with Kajona 4.6, an autocomplete-supported input box helps to find and to select the desired page even faster when creating or changing a link using the integrated WYSIWYG editor.
<img style="max-width:399px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image_1.jpg" />
When working with the portal editor, operations like creating, editing or deleting elements on a page is now integrated more seamlessly. Plus, these changes are reflected immediately, without the need to reload the page. Obviously, this speeds up the maintenance of websites significantly.
Other modules, like news, search, and charts have also received updates. The Kajona system and framework has also been tweaked for better performance.
To find out more about Kajona 4.6, <a href="https://www.kajona.de/en/News/newsdetails.Kajona-V4-6-nimmersatt-available.newsDetail.972e9575491df1a0e9f4.html" target="_blank">check out their blog announcement.</a>

Kajona 4.6 Released

<a href="https://www.ecwid.com/" target="_blank">Ecwid</a>, the popular eCommerce solution, has just made order management a whole lot easier for merchants.
Powering over 500,000 online stores, Ecwid is a shopping cart that seamlessly integrates with existing websites and platforms.
With this update, online merchants using Ecwid can re-visit existing orders and make changes quickly and easily. So, there's no more stressing when a customer wants to amend or add to their order.
<h2>Powerful Order Management</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/edit-orders-cp.jpg" />
Ecwid users can now do the following with ease:
<ul>
<li> Add new items to an order</li>
<li> Remove items</li>
<li> Edit existing items: product name, SKU, options, quantity</li>
<li> Edit customer’s address, name and email</li>
<li> Add or remove a discount</li>
<li> Edit names of payment and shipping methods</li>
<li> Edit order total or shipping fee</li>
</ul>
All you need to do is install the “Order Editor” Ecwid app from this page: <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/ecwid-rolls-out-order-editor-feature/" target="_blank">order-editor.ecwid.com</a>. The Order Editor app is available at no charge for all users on <a href="https://www.ecwid.com/pricing">Business and Unlimited plans</a>.
To find out more about Ecwid's new order editor, <a href="https://www.ecwid.com/blog/improve-customer-service-with-ecwid-new-order-editor-feature.html" target="_blank">check out their blog announcement</a>.

Ecwid Rolls Out “Order Editor” Feature

To cap off what many would call a highly successful 2014, <a href="http://www.jahia.com/products/digital-factory" target="_blank">Jahia</a> has released its eagerly anticipated <a href="http://www.jahia.com/products/form-factory#ff-video" target="_blank">Forms Factory</a>.
With Forms Factory, marketers can create forms at will without depending on development teams. Plus, marketers can monitor the effectiveness of their forms thanks to the Form Center: a finely tuned engagement tool based on real performance.
Jahia is a popular and rapidly developing enterprise-level Java CMS. Recently, Jahia were crowned the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-java-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best Enterprise Java CMS</a>.
<h2>Powerful Forms Management Simplified</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jahia-form-factory-builder1700x0.png" alt="Jahia Forms Factory" />
According to Jahia's <a href="http://www.jahia.com/company/news/form-factory-launch" target="_blank">original press release</a>, “Forms management is the single most essential tool for digital marketing engagement With Form Factory, Jahia gives it back to whom it belongs: the marketing team.”
Here's an overview of the benefits Form Factory brings:
<ul>
<li>Create multi-step, multi-language, multi-conditions and validation-ruled forms super easily through drag-and-drops</li>
<li>Manage all forms created from a central interface (the Form Center)</li>
<li>Monitor collected data, measure engagement (by form, field completion, period, etc.), export data etc.</li>
<li>Connect each/all/selected forms to external business app such as CRM, marketing automation tools, etc.</li>
<li>Unmatched extensibility and versatility: developers can extend the Form Factory with their own fields, groups of fields, validation, logic and custom consequences.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jahia-form-factory-builder2700x0.png" alt="Jahia Forms Factory" />
Jahia's CEO, Elie Auvray, made these comments:
<blockquote>“This new addition to our content and user experience platform and suite of products is another expression of our Digital Industrialization vision. Our goal is to allow each digital team within companies to produce what they know best in full autonomy, thanks to the most powerful and easy-to-use data collection tools without putting any of the architecture and IT security processes at risk.”</blockquote>
To find out more about Jahia Form Factory, <a href="http://www.jahia.com/company/news/form-factory-launch" target="_blank">check out their official announcement</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/jahia/" target="_blank">Jahia via our CMS Directory</a>.

Jahia Launches Forms Factory

<a href="http://www.pikock.com/" target="_blank">Pikock</a>, a website builder which makes user of a <a href="/the-first-of-its-kind-pikock-launch-layout-slider-to-simplify-website-building/" target="_blank">rather interesting “Layout Slider”</a>, has released a new update.
Pikock was founded in Paris in 2012. The user friendly drag-and-drop website building platform, is designed to make website creation as easy as possible.  
Here's what's new with Pikock.
<h2>Smart Blocks, Beautiful Backgrounds &amp; More</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/size_3_new-system-blocs700x0.jpg" />
<ul>
<li>Smart Blocks Editor: Build your page in minutes thanks to our 100 pre-designed with structured content blocks based on your essential needs. </li>
<li>New image uploader: Import your images twice faster and sublime them when you want with our in house Photo editor.</li>
<li>Beautiful background images: Create beautiful pages with our designer selection of background images.</li>
</ul>
Furthermore, Pikock's new update brings about a cleaner interface, favicons, archived versions, Google and Pinterest site verification, and more.
You can find out more about the latest version of Pikock <a href="http://www.pikock.com/30/new-pikock-a-radical-new-way-to-build-websites" target="_blank">right here</a>.

Pikock Releases New Smart Blocks Editor

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Spot what confuses your users with Hotjar & AI

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