Articles - Page 119

What I Mean to Say: A Practitioner Perspective on AI, Semantics, and Content Evolution

msalvatierra

<a href="http://www.cs-cart.com/" target="_blank">CS-Cart</a>, an open source eCommerce solution, is giving away five 1-year licenses in exchange for bug reports on its latest Beta release, CS-Cart 4.3.1.
The platform comes in two editions; CS-Cart and CS-Cart Multi-Vendor. The latter is an extended version of the software, enabling larger outlets to manage and operate from different branches and departments via one website.
<h2>Speed Matters</h2>
This new release focuses a great deal on speed — almost exclusively in fact. CS-Cart have incorporated lazy image uploading, shifted all Javascript to the bottom of every page, and more. 
The results, which you can see below, speak for themselves.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pagespeed.png" />
Now, on to those free 1-year licenses!
There are five in total up for grabs, and here's how you can get yours, <a href="http://blog.cs-cart.com/2015/02/11/speed-boost-in-cs-cart-4-3-1-beta/" target="_blank">according to the CS-Cart blog</a>:
<blockquote>
The more reports you submit, the higher your chance to win a 1-year CS-Cart license. The more severe the found bugs, the more valuable they are, the higher your chance to get the prize. We’ll ignore duplicate bug reports. The tester who posts a bug first, scores.
In order to take part in the giveaway, register an account in our <a href="http://forum.cs-cart.com/tracker/project-10-cs-cart-v431-beta/">bug tracker</a>. Bug reports only from registered testers will have the value in our contest. This will guarantee fair play and help identify the winners.
</blockquote>
You don't even need to actually install CS-Cart 4.3.1, as the online demo version will suffice.
Get started on the CS-Cart 4.3.1 demo now.

CS-Cart Offering Five Free 1-year Licenses To Beta Testers

mike-johnston

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.onehippo.com&amp;esheet=51042117&amp;newsitemid=20150218005454&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Hippo&amp;index=1&amp;md5=8c25ba830bcb9f352242fdf61317f289" target="_blank">Hippo</a>, a leading Web Content Management System provider, has announced an enhanced working relationship with EMC® Documentum®, as part of its participation in the EMC Business Partner Program for Technology Connect Partners.
Hippo CMS is a big player in the world of open source software, and was recently awarded both the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-free-java-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award For Best Free Java CMS</a>, and the <a href="/2014-best-enterprise-java-cms/" target="_blank">2014 People's Choice CMS Award for Best Enterprise Java CMS</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/media_screenshots-login_cms7_9700x0.jpg" />
The aim of this integration between Hippo CMS and Documentum is to enable businesses to leverage the power of Hippo’s omnichannel web content management, alongside enterprise content management.
<h2>Seamless Integration Into Online Ecosystems</h2>
The combined power of Hippo’s Web Content Management System and Documentum deliver the following key benefits to end users:
<ul>
<li>Seamless integration into online business ecosystems with Hippo’s lightweight Java stack built for uptime, security and performance</li>
<li>Improved content performance through data driven content optimization and delivery that makes content a business driver</li>
<li>Editorial velocity across channels that seamlessly integrates Documentum content and publishes it to the web</li>
<li>Consistency of workflow that enables users to run content through a secure validation workflow, maintain versions, and serve approved content to external audiences</li>
<li>Ease of use with the freedom to integrate external data sources (such as Pivotal Big Data Suite) to drive personalized web experiences</li>
<li>Flexibility to run Hippo on premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid solution with <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.onehippo.com%2Fen%2Fondemand&amp;esheet=51042117&amp;newsitemid=20150218005454&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Hippo+OnDemand&amp;index=2&amp;md5=b626870cd724a0fdffeee7294ab9da08" target="_blank">Hippo OnDemand</a></li>
</ul>
Hippo's CTO,  Arjé Cahn, made these comments:
<blockquote>“We’re proud to be offering EMC’s customer base a best-in-class Web Content Management System solution.
There’s a strong technological alignment between Hippo and EMC. Hippo’s roots in the Apache Software Foundation and Open Source, and EMC’s ECM heritage and relationship with Spring and Pivotal, and our mutual belief in content as the backbone of online business make us a great fit to empower our joint customers to innovate through the creation of truly compelling web experiences.”</blockquote>
Mr Cahn's enthusiasm was echoed by Jeroen van Rotterdam, the CTO of the Enterprise Content Division at EMC:
<blockquote>“EMC is pleased that Hippo has achieved the Select tier level in the EMC Technology Connect track, demonstrating its commitment to excellence in technology innovation for Enterprise Content Management, Web Experience Management, Real-Time Analytics and Personalized Content Delivery.
Hippo validates our platform strategy by embedding EMC's open, extensible information infrastructure platform for managing information and expanding our combined solutions into new markets. We look forward to working with Hippo to ensure that our mutual customers have the highest level of support possible for their information infrastructure initiatives.”</blockquote>
To learn more about this new working relationship between Hippo CMS and EMC Documentum, <a href="http://www.onehippo.com/en/about/news/2015/hippo-partnership-emc-documentum.html" target="_blank">check out the official announcement</a>.
Also, you can explore more of Hippo via our CMS Directory.

Hippo & EMC Documentum Come Together To Enhance Web Content Management

All open source news is good news, right? Well, SiteSupra, the website builder and CMS designed for building small responsive websites, has just launched an open source edition.
SiteSupra Open Source Edition is a PHP-based free, GPL-licensed CMS that is available to download from <a href="http://www.sitesupra.org/" target="_blank">www.sitesupra.org</a> via GitHub. The product contributes to a hosted version of the product available under the same name at <a href="http://www.sitesupra.com/" target="_blank">www.sitesupra.com</a>. You can find out more about the original platform via our <a href="/sitesupra-review/" target="_blank">SiteSupra Review</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ss700x0.jpg" />
<h2>An “Elegant” CMS</h2>
According to the official announcement, “SiteSupra Open Source Edition, which was released today, brings a new dimension to the web development market, as a product that comprises an elegant CMS and a powerful web development framework.”
SiteSupra has designed a unique visual drag-and-drop interface, which allows website editors to easily complete sophisticated website management tasks without any coding skills.
The drag-and-drop interface includes page widgets, a site map, file storage, and the intuitive access and use of various internal applications. SiteSupra have dubbed it one of the most “comprehensive” drag-and-drop interfaces on the market.
Anton Sulsky, the CEO of SiteSupra, made these comments upon the announcement:
<blockquote>“Over ten years we tried to develop a sophisticated CMS, which is extremely powerful as a development framework and extremely easy to use as a website management tool. We are excited that our work is now released in open source. We hope it will allow developers to build sites fast, and win more clients because of the elegant CMS they will love.”</blockquote>
Eugene Kharkov, SiteSupra’s CTO, added the following statement:
<blockquote>“We welcome feedback and contributions from developers. We are working to enrich the product with widgets and modules, and so we need developers’ views on required components, and also their help in improving the product further.”</blockquote>
To find out more about SiteSupra's open source project, check out their <a href="http://sitesupra.org/" target="_blank">newly launched website</a>.
And of course, be sure to check out SiteSupra through our CMS Directory.

SiteSupra CMS Launches Open Source Edition

<a href="/social-engine" target="_blank">SocialEngine</a>, the CMS which enables you to build communities online, has gifted its Cloud users with responsive themes across the board.
The popular social network software comes in two editions; SocialEngine Cloud and SocialEngine PHP (non-hosted).
This new update sees all SocialEngine Cloud themes become responsive to mobile devices with immediate effect.
<a href="/social-engine" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/imagescan1lng8-1.jpg" /></a>As for the roadmap, SocialEngine is using Ramen.is to get their users involved, and are hoping to have it integrated into each user's admin dashboard within weeks.
In the meantime, SocialEngine has <a href="/socialengine-cloud-gets-responsive-themes-roadmap/" target="_blank">released some imagery that outlines their future plans</a>. The roadmap is categorized by, “Ideas, Planned, Being Developed, Deployed and Validated”, giving users an idea how how far along each new feature is in development.
<h2>SocialEngine PHP 4.8.7</h2>
Furthermore, the latest version of SocialEngine PHP is out, along with a long list of features and bug fixes.
Here are some highlights:
<ul>
<li>Speed enhancement achieved by not rendering CSS of disabled modules, and by resolving issues of translation performance (Converting language pack CSV files to a PHP array. This is a setting available in “Performance &amp; Caching” section of Admin Panel.).</li>
<li>“Browse Members” page is now available for editing in Layout Editor. You can now add desired widgets to this page from your website’s administration.</li>
<li>Enabled synchronization of likes and comments, for content posted as attachments from activity feed updates (photos, videos, music), between the content’s activity feed and the main content. Thus, when a like or comment is made on content from its activity feed, then that will also appear on the main content profile.</li>
</ul>
The update consists of lots of minor tweaks, which is exactly what the potential-filled platform needed (and perhaps still needs). Although, this is certainly a good start to 2015 from SocialEngine, and in line with what I was calling for in <a href="/cms-in-2015-what-we-want-to-see/" target="_blank">my recent article about what CMS should be doing this year</a>.
If you want to find out more about Social Engine PHP 4.8.7 (and there is indeed a lot more to it), <a href="http://blog.socialengine.com/2015/02/03/socialengine-php-4-8-7-released/" target="_blank">check out the SocialEngine blog</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/social-engine/" target="_blank">SocialEngine through our CMS Directory</a>.

SocialEngine Cloud Gets Responsive Themes & Roadmap

<a href="http://processwire.com/" target="_blank">ProcessWire</a>, the content management system currently powering CMS Critic, has released some very useful features pertaining to image editing.
ProcessWire is a free and open source PHP CMS, and was recently awarded the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-free-php-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award for Best Free PHP CMS</a>.
Here's a quick video demonstrating the new image editing power ProcessWire users now have.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vlWIjeukHvc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
In case you didn't catch it all from the video, here are the highlights:
<ul>
<li>New built-in image cropping feature (in addition to existing resize features), with ability to re-crop from original source image.</li>
<li>HiDPI/Retina image support for images inserted into rich text fields (via resolution doubling and increased compression).</li>
<li>New maximize (all pixels) and minimize (fit-to-window) image tools.</li>
<li>Simpler image alignment tools with live preview (align left, align right, align center).</li>
<li>New tool for viewing all variations of an image with ability to delete any or all of them.</li>
</ul>
So as you can see from the video and from the bullet points above, ProcessWire is now far more powerful when it comes to image editing.
Most of the new features are self-explanatory, and most users will immediately recognise the benefits. One feature though, might need some explaining.
<h2>ProcessWire Now Has HiDPI / Retina Image Support</h2>
HiDPI or Retina-ready images are now the default  option on most smartphones, tablets and notebook computers. So, being able to display them on your website is pretty important.
The best way to display such images is to use an image that's double the size you want to display it at, and then use width and/or height tags to scale it to 50% of its original size. Sound cumbersome, but that's the way it works.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2015-02-13_at_4_24_14_pm700x0.png" /> 
To make it easier, ProcessWire now enables user to check a “HiDPI/Retina” checkbox in the image editor before inserting an image into content. ProcessWire then resizes the image to double the resolution you specified, and then adds a width tag (but not a height tag) to the markup, at your specified size.
The reason it doesn't add a height tag is because this makes life a whole lot easier when it comes to handling these images in responsive layouts. So all in all, it's a pretty handy feature indeed.
As a regular user of ProcessWire here at CMS Critic, I'm personally looking forward to making the most of these new features!
To get all the details on this new batch of features, <a href="http://processwire.com/blog/posts/new-image-editing-features-2.5.19/#highlights-of-new-image-editing-features" target="_blank">check out the ProcessWire blog announcement</a>.
And of course, be sure to check out <a href="/products/processwire/" target="_blank">ProcessWire via our CMS Directory</a>.

ProcessWire Unveils New Image Editing Features

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.volusion.com/">Volusion</a>, the popular eCommerce solution, has revamped its mobile shopping experience.Thousands of online stores across the globe are powered by Volusion, and you can read more about the platform by checking out my <a href="/volusion-review/">Volusion review</a>.This update has focused on improving the general look and feel of Volusion on mobile devices, increasing sales, and improving search engine optimization. Let's take a look at what's new.<h2>New Product Display Grid &amp; Add To Cart Button</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/blog_responsivethemeimprovement-650x350.jpeg" alt="Volusion" />Thanks to Volusion's new product grid display, the products on each user's store will have larger images, paired with a simplified layout.There is now a better balance between text and images, with the aim of boosting engagement. This feature is applicable on homepage featured products, category pages, product pages and search results.Also, no matter what page of a store a customer is on, they can now quickly add their favorite products to the cart, leading to increased sales. This is thanks to a new feature which allows the Add-To-Cart button to be more visible while the customer browses.<h2>Customization &amp; Search Engine Optimization</h2>Volusion merchants can also customize the <a target="_blank" href="http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/add-to-cart-button-tips-and-best-practices/">Add-To-Cart button design</a> to match their site’s overall design. The Add-To-Cart button will now be available on category pages, product pages and search pages.Furthermore, Volusion claim that thanks to all product-related content now living “within one HTML wrapper”, search engines like Google can now crawl Volusion pages faster, making for a better SEO score.To read more about Volusion's new mobile features, <a target="_blank" href="http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/responsive-design-templates-update/">check out their blog announcement</a>.

Volusion Enhances Responsive Design & Mobile Shopping Experience

<a href="http://modx.com/" target="_blank">MODX</a>, the free and open source content management system, is taking steps towards making itself (and in turn, the Internet) more accessible for those who would usually struggle to get the most out of the world wide web.
A range of disabilities can and do impair people from experiencing content management systems as they are intended to be experienced. And that's a problem for everybody in the CMS world.
Thankfully, MODX are taking the initiative, shining a much needed light on the issue.
Here's a video detailing MODX's mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQlT5isC-2U
<a href="http://modx.com/blog/2015/02/06/help-us-bring-modx-to-everyone/" target="_blank"> </a>
<a href="http://modx.com/blog/2015/02/06/help-us-bring-modx-to-everyone/" target="_blank">In a recent blog post</a>, Ryan Thrash, the Co-Founder of MODX, said this:
<blockquote>“…For people who rely on assistive technologies, building in MODX has been marginal, and not a good user experience.
For example, try surfing the web with your eyes closed while someone reads the page to you, and you try to tab to the right links. What if you misplace your eyeglasses and need to enlarge your fonts 2- to 3-times their normal size? Or, crank down the contrast and brightness on your monitor, and only use your thumb on your non-dominant hand. For many users, there is effectively no alternate way to experience the web.”
Accessibility is for everyone and it’s time to make accessibility a top-priority in MODX.”</blockquote>
<h2>An Improved &amp; More Consistent UX</h2>
<a href="http://a11y.modx.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx700x0.jpg" alt="MODX " /></a>
It's worth noting that this project will enhance the MODX user experience for everybody, not just those who require assistive technology.
MODX say that their users will soon benefit from an improved and more consistent UX, thanks to a host of benefits including vastly improved keyboard navigation and other enhancements.
<a href="http://www.osu.edu/">The Ohio State University</a> also deserve credit for helping to fund the project.
Ken Petri, The Ohio State University Director of Web Accessibility, made this statement upon the announcement of the MODX initiative:
<blockquote>“MODX has a lot of traction on campus. For site administrators and content creators, the Manager interface is logical, intuitive, and simple to use. But there are a number of staff on campus who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers, or who have other vision impairments or need access by using the keyboard alone because of a motor disability.
To this point, MODX hasn’t been a practical solution for them. But Ohio State and others in the accessibility community are working with the MODX team over the next few months to help guide changes to the Manager interfaces so that they can be used effectively by everyone, including our staff with disabilities.”</blockquote>
I for one, commend MODX and The Ohio State university for this noble move.
In a world where every serial entrepreneur and enterprising organization is trying to reach more people in more ways, MODX are reaching out to those looking to do the simpler things, like build a website of their own.
Making technology more accessible in this sense is exactly the type of innovation needed in the world of CMS. Perhaps every vendor should now ask themselves about how accessible their products really are, especially to those with slightly and significantly different needs.
In my recent <a href="/cms-in-2015-what-we-want-to-see/" target="_blank">article about the future of CMS in 2015</a>, I mentioned the need to make products more accessible, and although I may not have originally meant accessibility in this particular sense, MODX are definitely showing us all the way forward when it comes to innovation in accessibility.
Check out the <a href="http://modx.com/blog/2015/02/06/help-us-bring-modx-to-everyone/" target="_blank">MODX blog</a> for more information on this project, and if you can, do your best to help <a href="http://a11y.modx.com/" target="_blank">by donating towards their $50,000 goal</a>.
Also, you can find out more about <a href="/products/modx/" target="_blank">MODX through out CMS Directory</a>.

MODX Makes Noble Move Towards True Accessibility

The third Beta for Joomla 3.4 has been released, indicating that the final version is edging closer, with a date currently set for February 24th 2015.
More than 3 percent of the Internet runs on <a href="http://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">Joomla</a>. It powers everything from websites to blogs to custom apps to Intranets.
The Joomla team has also been busy recently. The CMS giant greeted 2015 by <a href="/joomla-now-offers-free-hosted-websites-via-joomla.com/" target="_blank">unveiling Joomla.com</a>, providing the public with a quick and easy way to start a hosted Joomla website — for free.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla_logo_slogan_700x0.png" />
Version 3.4 will address the following areas.
<h3>Front-end Module Editing</h3>
Editing modules will be faster and easier in Joomla 3.4. Incorporating Font end Module editing allows you to to edit modules directly on the page without the need to use Joomla's admin dashboard. Naturally, this new feature simplifies the administration of websites, making them far easier to edit.
<h3>No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA</h3>
Google introduced a <a href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2014/12/are-you-robot-introducing-no-captcha.html">no CAPTCHA CAPTCHA API</a> in December 2014, and Joomla has now responded to stay up to date.
Version 3.4 brings about an updated reCAPTCHA plugin to protect your login and registration forms against spam. While still supporting the old reCAPTCHA 1.0, you can now also use it for the new reCAPTCHA version 2.0. A significant number of your users can now attest they are human without having to solve a CAPTCHA. Instead with just a single click they’ll confirm they are not a robot.
<h3>Core en-GB standardisation</h3>
The official language of Joomla is en-GB, and the goal is to standardise all the en-GB language strings in the core of Joomla based on the style guide. This will ensure consistency throughout Joomla. It will provide translation teams with an easy framework and guidelines to create their own style guides to ensure consistency throughout the project across the world.
To find out more about Joomla 3.4, <a href="http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5584-joomla-3-4-beta-3-released.html" target="_blank">check out Joomla's latest beta announcement</a>.
And of course, be sure to check out <a href="/products/joomla/" target="_blank">Joomla via our CMS Directory</a>.

Joomla 3.4 In Late Stages of Beta

Hotjar - Spot what confuses

Spot what confuses your users with Hotjar & AI

#ffffff

<a href="http://www.jahia.com/" target="_blank">Jahia</a>, one of the world's leading UXP (User Experience Platform) vendors, has announced the completion of a €20 million (circa $22.5 million) round of funding fully subscribed by <a href="http://invus.com/" target="_blank">Invus</a>, an equity investor focused on transformational opportunities.
The Swiss-based Jahia platform is an integral part of the online presence of major organizations, including the European Parliament, Samsung, Europcar, Abercrombie &amp; Fitch, and HomeAway.
Jahia was recently awarded the the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-java-cms-for-small-to-midsize-business/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award for Best JAVA CMS for Small to Midsize Business</a>, as well as the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-enterprise-java-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award for the Best Enterprise Java CMS</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jahia_preferred_partner-1700x0.png" alt="Jahia" />
<h2>“To Make Our Solution The Obvious Choice”</h2>
Jahia claims that the €20 million funding acquired from Invus will allow them to:
<ul>
<li>Develop their visibility through targeted marketing operations.</li>
<li>Accelerate distribution strategies and partnerships.</li>
<li>Strengthen their presence in several countries, especially in North America and Europe.</li>
<li>At least double their global workforce by the end of 2015.</li>
</ul>
Those are all major steps individually, and one giant leap collectively — to say the least.
Raymond Debbane, CEO and President of Invus, made these comments upon the funding completion:
<blockquote>“Jahia fits perfectly well with our motto: Equity investors in companies who seek to transform their industries. Not only do they have an incredibly strong technology and the proven ability to deliver complex yet versatile solutions to the most demanding organizations, but the vision of their management is – and has always been – firmly rooted into the will to transform a siloed industry into a user-driven one, beyond technology constraints.”</blockquote>
More optimism came from Elie Auvray, the CEO and President of Jahia, as he added:
<blockquote>“We are incredibly proud and honored to see Invus’ strong commitment and acknowledgment of our vision, our customers successes and our ambitions. This funding will allow us to reach our objective: to make our UXP solution the obvious choice for the Digital challenges of the modern Enterprise.”</blockquote>
To find out more about Jahia, <a href="http://www.jahia.com/" target="_blank">visit their website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/jahia/" target="_blank">Jahia through our CMS Directory</a>.

Growth & Expansion: Jahia Receives $22.5 million Round of Funding

Developers can now submit their plugins and themes to the e107 plugin and theme directory.
e107 is a free and open-source content management system powered by PHP and MySQL. Despite being maintained as a hobby project for most of its long life, e107 has accrued quite the user base, with well over <a href="http://trends.builtwith.com/cms/e107" target="_blank">8,000 websites running on it</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logo-1.png" />
e107 also detailed the best way to go about creating plugins and themes:
<blockquote>“The “Plugin Manager' and “Theme Manager” also have some tools to assist you in the creation of various files, such as theme.xml for theme developers and plugin.xml and admin_config.php for plugin developers. There's also a new language-file scanning tool in the Plugin Manager which can help with upgrading old plugins and finding unused LAN definitions.”</blockquote>
Developers wishing to contribute and struff their digital stuff will need a Github account to get going. It's not currently known is e107 will ever convert its them and plugin directories into marketplaces, enabling developers to sell their products as well as give them away, like they now can.
For more information, <a href="http://e107.org/blog/open-for-plugin-theme-contributions.html" target="_blank">check out the official announcement</a>.
And of course, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/e107/" target="_blank">e107 through our CMS Directory</a>.

e107 Now Welcomes Third Party Plugins & Themes

With the shift in shopping habits over the past few years from the standard brick and mortar stores (which still retain much of their popularity) to online shopping from the convenience of your home (or office), eCommerce solutions have become more and more an essential part of doing business online.  Today, I'm going to take share some simple rules for choosing the best solution.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bigstock-flat-design-vector-illustratio-62778259400x0.jpg" />To put things in perspective, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/amzn/financials">MarketWatch</a>, leading eCommerce retailer, Amazon Inc. saw a 19.5% increase in net income for 2014 with a total sales of 88.99 billion dollars. These figures don't lie, eCommerce is a booming market. But you already knew that. So now it's time to figure out what you can do to get your business into the fray. Let's look at how to get started.First there are a few rules that I think are important to stick to:<h2>Rule #1: Don't try to build it yourself.</h2>When it comes to eCommerce, my personal opinion is that custom coded solutions are the wrong way to go. It's much more intelligent and cost effective to implement a proven solution rather than to attempt to create your own from scratch. More often than not, you are simply duplicating effort and spending precious dollars attempting to overcome hurdles and red tape that have already been taken care of by a qualified eCommerce vendor.<h2>Rule #2: Create a needs and wants list.</h2>I'm all about saving money but when it comes to implementing an eCommerce solution for your business, you want to do it right the first time. With the huge number of competing vendors (in most marketplaces anyway), there's always someone else they can go to so be sure not to give them a reason to go elsewhere. Do it right the first time. You don't want to implement something that cannot handle the anticipated volume or does not offer the features you need from the beginning. Don't cheap out and go with a solution that offers only part of what your customers need, find one that fits as many of your needs as possible. One way I do things is to create a list with my clients where we break down expectations into two categories; Needs and Wants. Do your best to find a solution that fits as many of your needs as possible. These are items that you absolutely must have in order to be operational and competitive. Only then would you start to check off the Wants that are offered by the vendors you are considering. These are considered bonuses.<h2>Rule #3: Involve all Stakeholders in the Decision Making Process</h2>Once you are ready to start exploring solutions, make sure you involve all of the stakeholders in your business. I find that businesses that task one department (IT or Marketing for instance) to choose a solution more often than not miss out on picking the right product. The reason is simple, the needs differ for each department and as such, your marketing department may not be as concerned with the overall scalability of the product and could choose something based on features as opposed to worrying about whether it can scale properly to your needs. This is why involving all those who will be using or interacting with the solution of choice is critical. This may mean involving distribution, marketing, sales, management and IT, but in the end, you'll have a much more rounded solution than relying on one department to be the brain for all of the others.<h2>Rule #4: Choose a Proven and Scalable Solution</h2>Be careful when choosing a solution to go with. You'll want to make sure that it's a proven solution that is both scalable and well supported. Don't go with a solution that can't show solid, well performing customers running their platform. My personal solution of choice for enterprise solutions would be . While there certainly are other solutions on the market like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shift4shop.com/">3dcart</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.magento.com">Magento</a>, I personally have seen much smoother and more successful implementations when choosing <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce</a>. They have proven themselves to be competent and successful vendor in this arena and when it comes to your business, that's exactly what you want.A commenter below mentioned that he thinks that my recommending these systems is a mistake given that there are other large enterprise solutions like Oracle Commerce, IBM Websphere and SAP Hybris and that enterprise eCommerce means connecting to an ERP solution etc. Allow me to clarify here. I've had real world experience with these solutions and I'll say this simply. Show me a person who has not found any of these a headache and a massive money sink and I'll be pleasantly surprised. I've worked beside Websphere admins who've spent 95% of their time on the phone with support trying to fix broken B2B and B2C transactions over stupid config file issues more than you can imagine. Oracle solutions are a massive money pit driven to collectively get you to buy in to the full Oracle package (ERP, eCommerce, Database Licensing and so on) or pay through the nose to connect them with non-Oracle solutions. None of these are what I'd call “good recommendations”. Do they work? Yes. Do they do a better job than any of the cheaper ones out there? Not in my opinion.<a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce Enterprise</a> does have ERP connectors that can integrate with your solution of choice and offers just as broad a feature set as some of the bigger players but don't let me make the decision for you, explore your options and do your research before choosing your provider of choice. I simply want to make sure you don't get trapped buying in to the concept of “price tag = capability” because it's a complete misnomer.Now that you know how I do it, it's time to get out there and start the selection process. You may want to start by exploring some of my recommendations but in the end, it relies on following the rules I've laid out above first and foremost. Good luck in your search and of course, if you need assistance, I offer <a href="/contact">consulting services</a> as well.

In Search of the Best Enterprise ECommerce Solution

<a href="http://www.oxwall.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oxwall</a>, the popular social networking platform, has released a very interesting statement via their blog, identifying their, “key directions and objectives for this year”.
In my <a href="/cms-in-2015-what-we-want-to-see/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recent article regarding what the CMS world needs to see more of in 2015</a>, I discussed how a social networking CMS needed to step up. Perhaps, starting with this announcement, Oxwall will be the platform to do it.
Oxwall is free and open-source and available to anybody who wishes to self host. <a href="http://wall.fm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wall.fm</a> on the other hand, is the hosted version of the platform.
Here is what Oxwall will be paying close attention to throughout 2015, as seen on their blog:
<blockquote>
<h3>CMS &amp; Interface Changes</h3>
Content management has always been an underdeveloped part of Oxwall. We’ve been busy with making Oxwall better in social aspects (it’s a social network product after all), but because of that some basic tools that any website requires (like CMS) went overlooked.
Having received fair criticism for that, we’ve developed our vision for content management in Oxwall’s next iteration. Together with that we refine existing interfaces and rethink some basic assumptions in the product, and how they match real life usage patterns.
This is going to be a series of releases spreading the new paradigm across the product and leaving plenty of time for user and developer adoption. Details will be gradually introduced in our Dev Diary column and beta release announcements.
<h3>Mobile </h3>
Pocket version of Oxwall has been around for some time but it still lacks important features. We will be working on that front since a lot of people now use phones instead of desktops/tablets, even if Oxwall is not especially accommodating for that. We laid solid foundation for the small screen version of Oxwall but haven’t been active on feature development side yet. This will change.
To reiterate, we think that the “pocket” version of Oxwall (the one adapted for phones) differs from the desktop/tablet primarily by usage patterns, let alone obvious input/output characteristics. That’s why we made a decision to essentially build two products instead of one, so now we have to catch up in the mobile part.
<h3>Documentation &amp; Test Coverage</h3>
More news coming to the Oxwall developers camp. This year we finally start covering code with tests and we’ll be working on better documentation. Right now third party developers mostly rely on the existing plugins to build their own ones. To create systematic approach to developing plugins we have to step up our game in the essential technical aspects. These works are to be launched together with the new development cycle.</blockquote>
For me, all of the above points raised by Oxwall are hugely encouraging. I personally see the social networking CMS sector to be a rather stagnant one, so hopefully this announcement will not only spark the beginning of a newly invented Oxwall, but also inspire other platforms to improve, too.
Oxwall users were equally excited about this announcement in the comments section of the blog post.
To see those comments, and to find out more about Oxwall's plans, <a href="http://blog.oxwall.org/2015/02/oxwall-2015" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">check out their blog announcement</a>.
Also, you can explore more of <a href="/products/oxwall/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oxwall via our CMS Directory</a>.

Oxwall Reveals New Focus On Interface & Mobile Going Into 2015

The latest version of BuddyPress, the popular WordPress social network and community building plugin, has been released.
WordPress names its updates after Jazz musicians, but BuddyPress has the honour of having its updates named after eateries located in the New York vicinity. “Spumoni” then, is actually short for <a href="http://www.spumonigardens.com/">L&amp;B Spumoni Gardens</a>, a pizzeria located in Brooklyn.
BuddyPress 2.2 brings about a number of enhancements to the previous version, <a href="/buddypress-2.1-patsy-released/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BuddyPress 2.1 “Patsy”</a>. From what can be seen from the feature highlights though, it seems BuddyPress 2.2 is geared more towards the developers behind BuddyPress-powered communities, rather than the average user.
Here are those highlights.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/developer/member-types/">Member types</a> will allow developers to register different types of users.</li>
<li><a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/plugindev/post-types-activities/">Post type activities</a> will allow developers to connect custom post types to activity stream items.</li>
<li>Improvements to the Legacy template pack.</li>
<li>Several new query API’s (based on WordPress improvements) for retrieving exactly the results you’re looking for.</li>
<li>Continued cache enhancements, particularly for multi-site and multi-network WordPress configurations.</li>
<li>Improved Group invitations UI.</li>
<li>Tons of under-the-hood improvements.</li>
<li>Increased coverage of inline code documentation, actions, &amp; filters.</li>
</ul>
To read through the full list of BuddyPress 2.2 features, <a href="https://codex.buddypress.org/releases/version-2-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">check out the release notes</a>.
The initial announcement was made on the <a href="https://buddypress.org/2015/02/buddypress-2-2-spumoni/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BuddyPress blog</a>.
And as always, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/buddypress/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BuddyPress via our CMS Directory</a>.

BuddyPress 2.2 "Spumoni" Released

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