Articles - Page 122

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

<a href="/products/craft-cms/">Craft CMS</a>, one of the winners of our CMS awards for Best Small to Midsize Business PHP CMS, has announced a slew of new updates with their 2.4 release. Here is a quick breakdown of some of the changes and additions you can expect from this great CMS.
<h2>Customizable Selection Buttons</h2>
Assets, Categories, Entries, Tags, and Users fields now make it possible to customize their selection button/input labels.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/craft24.png" alt="craft 2.4" />
<h2>Redesigned User Permissions</h2>
Each section of user permissions now has a “Select All” button which will immediately select all of the permissions in that group.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/permissions_2x.png" alt="craft 2.4" />
<h2>Two New Languages</h2>
The Control Panel has been translated into two new languages: Czech and Slovak. That brings the grand total up to <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/help/cp-languages">18 supported languages!</a>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/slovak_2x.png" />
<h2>And More!</h2>
Check out the <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/updates/2.4">release notes</a> for a complete list of all that’s changed!

Craft CMS 2.4 - Chock full of Improvements and Additions

mike-johnston

It’s hard to avoid the rocket allusions, but with a product called “Launch,” it’s almost a requirement.
For <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-launches-new-marketplace-to-accelerate-composable-digital-experience-innovation/">Contentstack</a>, a leading <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/">headless CMS</a> and <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/cms-guides/building-digital-experience-platform-dxp/" target="_blank">composable DXP</a>, the liftoff of its new front-end hosting solution comes at a perfect time. As the market’s focus on composable accelerates at warp speed, organizations are looking for more complete ecosystems to simplify the challenges of building, deploying, and scaling their experiences.
This is where <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/launch/" target="_blank">Contentstack Launch</a> can take businesses orbital. The new solution, which is currently pre-GA, promises a MACH-compliant, low latency hosting solution with fully automated functionality from back-end to front-end.
I had a chance to connect with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-haddock-24697870/" target="_blank">Dean Haddock</a>, the Senior Product Manager at Contentstack who’s helping to pilot the Launch mission. We talked about the new offering and how it completes a vision to deliver everything needed for building composable experiences.
Dean is a fellow CMS journeyman. His story began in open source, working on the early frontier of APIs before they became native to platforms. That eventually led him to Contentstack, where he’s spent the last year focusing on cutting-edge products in the company’s evolving portfolio – which is now reaching beyond its core headless CMS and into middle layer tools like Contentstack’s <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-launches-new-marketplace-to-accelerate-composable-digital-experience-innovation/">Automation Hub and Marketplace</a>.
“Contentstack is now a multi-product platform,” he said. “So a lot of my work is stitching together the fundamental and foundational parts of that architecture and infrastructure.”
This might sound like rocket science, but Dean and the team at Contentstack have been executing on a clear vision for quite some time. That’s led to some stellar investments – including an <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-80-million-series-c-focuses-on-accelerating-the-path-to-composable-for-enterprises/">$80 million Series C</a> that closed in November of 2022. To date, the company has raised $169 million.
Is it enough to reach the moon? Even in a highly competitive market, that’s one giant leap for a headless CMS. Compound it with the gravity of a softening economy – particularly in tech – and the escape velocity shifts.
But this is where Contentstack has a distinct advantage: they’re market leaders. The company is solid and expanding globally from its San Francisco headquarters. They’ve also cultivated a dynamic culture under <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/contentstack-raises-57-5-million-in-series-b-round-qa-with-ceo-neha-sampat/">CEO Neha Sampet</a> and consistently demonstrated a commitment to innovation.
Couple all that with a solid multi-product strategy and you have the rocket fuel to blast off.
<h2>Bringing content creators and developers together</h2>
From the get-go, Dean wanted to focus our conversation on the critical relationship between content creators and developers, which he believes is the most interesting story around Launch. He was very enthusiastic about it, and I asked him what’s driving his passion. 
“I couldn't be more excited about [Launch],” he said. “Because it's the front-end, putting the head on the headless with CMS and providing this end-to-end digital experience where we have the CMS, the automations, integrations, extensions. Things you can do in the middle layer of your content delivery. And now the front-end, where you can deliver to all to your audiences in a super-efficient, very delightful, easy breezy way.”
“Easy breezy” might be the operative terminology, and what Dean proceeded to share in his demo was exactly that: Launch is helping to eliminate the friction around completing the composable puzzle when building and deploying websites – making the entire process seamless and, well, easy breezy.  
<h3>Deploying Launch with Next.js</h3>
Dean took me through a typical deployment example, and as billed, it all felt smooth. He used a starter stack for Next.js, for which they provide tutorials and documentation. You can do this on your own, but Contentstack offers these flexible “launchpads” that use common rendering methods and auto-populate environment variables.
In seconds, we were able to deploy a staging and production environment with all the essentials – and this is where he notes the connective tissue between content creators and developers.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/03/create-new-project.jpg" alt="Contentstack Create New Project" />
“You'll be able to see the opportunities to bring folks together on the same sides of a ‘walled garden’ instead of tossing things over the fence from content manager to developer using other platforms – and where we can get some efficiencies and scale,” Dean said.
The staging and production environments use Contentstack’s CDN, which automatically triggers rebuilds. You can also schedule rebuilds to help reduce routine DevOps tasks, and there’s a nice Slack integration that allows you to message team members around your workflows.
What was really slick was the degree of visibility across the environments. With Launch, you can always see what’s deploying, what’s live, and what might have failed in the build process.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/03/environments.jpg" alt="Environments" />
Launch is also framework agnostic, so developers have their choice of any common JavaScript front-end frameworks like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Next.js</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/netlify-acquires-gatsby-aims-to-accelerate-adoption-of-composable-web-architectures/">Gatsby</a>. This fits squarely with the composable promise of enabling developers to work in the language they prefer.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/03/portfolio-overview.jpg" alt="Portfolio Overview" />
<a href="https://www.contentstack.com/launch/?creative=651180332057&amp;keyword=contentstack%20launch&amp;matchtype=p&amp;network=g&amp;device=c&amp;campaign=19806932844&amp;adgroup=146548710469&amp;placement=&amp;utm_campaign=fy24-glob-dg-launch-us-ca&amp;utm_medium=paid_search&amp;utm_source=google&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwzuqgBhAcEiwAdj5dRrCGvcWB6oY89DiyAitLebtNklaEF5zT2t22x2RXcJYxcqSUG8ZZSBoCx64QAvD_BwE" target="_blank">According to a video</a> Dean hosted, Launch was originally conceived as a tool that developers would use. To that end, it’s effectively an active CI/CD system that builds and deploys your code immediately after pushing it. This reduces the cumbersome challenges with building CI/CD from scratch.
After our environment was in place, Dean brought us back to Github, where we selected the Next.js starter and gave it a name (aptly, “CMS Critic Demo”). Going back to the prod environment, we were able to pick a delivery token and import the variables. From there, it was as simple as clicking “Deploy” to start building the front-end site.
“So what [Launch] is doing here is going to Github, grabbing my code, downloading it onto our platform, running the build commands, and compiling the application,” he said, describing the automagical process. “When folks start accessing my content, it's going to be caching it on the CDN for super low latency, as you would expect for a front-end, headless hosting solution.”
<h3>Powering content creators </h3>
Deployment took a few minutes to complete, which included the SSL provisioning – yet another headache that Launch resolves. From there, we shifted to the content publisher’s realm and walked through the experience of our new homepage. With everything running off the same codebase, it was a snap to preview changes to any aspect of the page and then push to production in seconds.
"So I could say, ‘here's a production publishing environment where all my production content is going to go,’’ Dean said, narrating the use case. “I can also create lower-level environments, if I want to try out content or maybe write content that then needs to be approved by legal before it goes to publish on the web. The legal team can look quickly for any changes, hit approve, and then content could be delivered to environments as it’s promoted all the way up to production for a final approval.”
It's clear that this use case around governance and compliance is crucial for modern enterprises. While Contentstack’s CMS can certainly handle organizational permissions, the addition of Launch further simplifies vital workflows while accelerating the entire process – allowing content to be published faster and with greater control.
We played a little more with the staging and production sides of the flow, changing colors in headers and updating content elements – and it all felt easy breezy and lightning fast. As Dean explained, with this particular front-end, updates in the CMS were being automatically delivered to the presentation layer. With other packages that use SSG (such as Gatsby) it would require a quick rebuild.
The promise of Launch is greater freedom to build with clicks, not code. Modeling exists on both sides of the “walled garden,” where dev, staging, and prod are all handled in once place like cream cheese – so developers can focus on building while marketers push content and new experiences faster than ever.
“You could also create front-end templates, sites, and microsites that can be deployed from the content management side without ever really needing to engage the developer,” Dean said, codifying that promise of freedom. “So your developers set you up with a handful of different templates and you can just deploy front-ends for any kind of marketing purposes with a really quick turnaround time.”
<h2>Stacked for composable success</h2>
I asked Dean what the roadmap looks like for Contentstack in 2023. They’re now a multi-product vendor – so what does that mean in terms of market strategy?
“You should expect to see more products in the future, more innovations,” he eluded. “I got off a demo today and my mind is blown. I can just tell you that the product team, engineering team, design team – all the folks over here on our side – are doing some very, very cool stuff that will hopefully hit the market in the near future.”
I inquired about the expanding landscape of JS frameworks and how that might influence the Launch vector. “Right now, [Launch] has auto-detection for Gatsby and Next.js because those are two very, very popular frameworks that a lot of our customers and community work with. And there’s also the option to put your own custom build commands in the workflow. But you know, there are a couple dozen plus really popular frameworks out there and new ones every single day. So we'll be adding support for more of those.”
I also probed a bit more about the composable nature of their new multi-product approach and how this all fits with Contentstack’s commitment to MACH. It's worth noting that the company is a founding member of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/the-future-is-composable-a-conversation-with-new-mach-alliance-president-casper-rasmussen/">MACH Alliance</a>.
“Fundamentally, we are staying in the composable space, and it is extremely important for us. It’s a core value of Contentstack that you want to use our CMS and go omnichannel across lots of different screens and ways of delivering your content. This [Launch] is just one new tool in a toolbox to deliver your end-to-end digital experience. So if you don't want to use Launch, that's totally fine. You can bring your own front-end hosting service, build custom in AWS, or however you want to do it.”
With so much DIY in the equation, it's also good to see the presence of human service in the digital DNA. Case in point: Contentstack's <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/customer-success/" target="_blank">Care Without Compromise Program,</a> which establishes an agreement to work with other vendors with like-minded technologies to provide solutions to customers. 
One thing Dean said that really resonated with me was how Contentstack’s multiple offerings represent a “supply chain” for your digital experiences. He mentioned it several times, and it really spoke to the idea of interdependence on the parts to deliver the whole. At the same time, the pieces can be interchanged in a composable way. But Launch – and its other products – are built with Contentstack in mind, which provides more features and flexibility.
“You can plug and play with other tools as you need them – or as you want to,” he said. “The fact of the matter is there are lots of different front-end hosting services out there, including the ones that you could build yourself. This one is designed to play very, very well with Contentstack specifically.”
And that’s what makes a composable DXP.
<h3>The countdown to Launch</h3>
If you’re interested in joining the mission, Contentstack Launch is in pre-GA and should be generally available in the next few months. According to Dean, they’re in an early adopter phase, and interested parties can request a demo or apply for early access on the <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/launch/?creative=651180332057&amp;keyword=contentstack%20launch&amp;matchtype=p&amp;network=g&amp;device=c&amp;campaign=19806932844&amp;adgroup=146548710469&amp;placement=&amp;utm_campaign=fy24-glob-dg-launch-us-ca&amp;utm_medium=paid_search&amp;utm_source=google&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwzuqgBhAcEiwAdj5dRrCGvcWB6oY89DiyAitLebtNklaEF5zT2t22x2RXcJYxcqSUG8ZZSBoCx64QAvD_BwE" target="_blank">Contentstack Launch product page</a>.
“If you’re a good candidate for our program, we’ll bring you in, give you a nice bear hug of support, and make sure you have a really good experience.”
Sounds a bit like astronaut training. With "bear hug" service to boot.

Contentstack Launch Aims to Simplify Front-End Hosting: Interview with Dean Haddock, Senior Product Manager

matt-garrepy

WordPress, <a href="/wordpress-is-a-cms-whether-you-like-it-or-not/" target="_blank">the world's most popular CMS bar none</a>, has rolled out its latest update.
In keeping with WordPress' tradition of naming their updates after musicians, version 4.3 has been called “Billie”, after Billie Holiday.
Here's a video detailing all the latest WordPress features.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WECBz7-MC3c?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Customizer Menus, Icon Management &amp; Better Passwords</h2>
First up, WordPress users can now manage their menus directly from the Customizer interface.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/menu-customizer727x0-is.png" /> It's now easy to build a menu, update it, and assign it, all while live-previewing in Customizer. The newly streamlined Customizer design provides a mobile-friendly and accessible interface.
The Customizer tool also now boasts a site icon manager.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/site-icon-customizer727x0-is.png" /> This enables users to adjust icons for browser tabs, bookmark menus, and on the home screen of mobile devices. A nifty little branding feature.
And finally, passwords are now far more secure out of the box.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/better-passwords727x0-is.png" /> When resetting a password, users will no longer receive passwords via email. Instead, they’ll get a password reset link. Furthermore, WordPress will automatically generate a secure password when new user are added.
To find out more about WordPress 4.3 Billie, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2015/08/billie/" target="_blank">check out the official blog announcement</a>.

WordPress 4.3 "Billie" Brings Improvements to Customizer, Passwords & More

Offiria today announced its release of its enterprise social network program Offiria Enterprise 3.0 for download.
Offiria is an advanced, fully-featured enterprise social networking software that offer a flexible, collaborative workspace for teams to get work done. What’s unique about Offiria is, instead of offering it as SaaS software, we focus on delivering a self-hosted, highly customizable solution for organizations with modern collaboration requirements.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/offiria913x0.png" alt="offiria" />
That reputation has been further strengthened by the release of Offiria Enterprise 3.0.
Key updates in this release:
<ol>
<li>Fresh, updated design</li>
<li>(New) Wiki pages</li>
<li>(New) Advanced file management system</li>
<li>(New) Photos and videos gallery</li>
<li>(New) New poll module</li>
</ol>
<h2>New features highlight – Wiki document and robust file management support</h2>
Among the new features on Offiria 3.0 is wiki document support, which allows a team to collaboratively share information on a document.
Offiria stores a history of all the changes made to a wiki page and allows all users with access to the page to update it. It also uses a modern wysiwyg editor instead of cryptic wiki syntax.
File management in this latest version has also been massively improved. We introduced a more intuitive folder structure and an “Official Files” feature where common files can easily be shared across the whole organization
<h2>Photo and Video Gallery</h2>
Support for photo and video gallery has also been added in this latest version.  Although it is not strictly a collaborative feature, support for photos and videos gallery has proved to be useful in a work environment. 
This makes the feature an added benefit for those who frequently use and share photos and videos in the workplace. User can organize these photos and videos within categories, creating an extremely structured content that is easy to search.
<h2>Pricing and Enterprise Edition</h2>
Offiria Enterprise 3.0 (self-hosted) is now available with two support package options.
The first and cheapest option is a 6-month support package at a highly affordable price of $249. The second and more comprehensive option is the 12-month package at $350 for an unlimited number of users.
In-line with Offiria’s open source commitment, the software will continue to operate even after the support package has expired.
Community vs Enterprise Edition
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
Features
</td>
<td>
Community
</td>
<td>
Enterprise
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Social stream
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Work groups
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Event Management
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Task/Milestones
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Employee Directory
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
File management
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Advance file management
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Poll and survey
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Wiki pages
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Photo gallery
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Video gallery
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
MS SQL Server support
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
MS Active Directory integration
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Dropbox integration
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Support
</td>
<td>
–
</td>
<td>
YES
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
Pricing
</td>
<td>
FREE
</td>
<td>
FROM $249
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2>About Offiria</h2>
Offiria is an open source, enterprise social networking software that focuses on providing tools for companies to deploy internal collaborative workspace within their own secure technological infrastructure.
Unlike other companies who increase SaaS deployment costs as more users are added, Offiria offers a fixed cost to its customers.
For more information please contact <a href="mailto:email@offiria.com">email@offiria.com</a>

Offiria 3.0 released – Open Source, self-managed, enterprise social network software

Squarespace 6 was released to the public last year on July 17th and was the winner of our 2012 Critics Choice Awards for <a href="/peoples-choice-winner-for-best-website-builder-is/" target="_blank">Best Website Builder</a>. Over 50 new features were added in the Squarespace 6 release, but there was one outstanding feature that everyone was waiting for: Squarespace Commerce. On Valentine's day 2013 they finally released it so we decided to do a new Squarespace Review.
<blockquote>“The ability to sell goods from Squarespace has been the most consistently requested feature throughout our history. We’re thrilled to be able to release a commerce offering we’re proud of.” – Anthony Casalena, CEO and Founder of Squarespace.</blockquote>
In light of all these recent changes since our last Squarespace review back in 2010 we have prepared an updated review, but first of all here is the current demo video for you to get a basic idea of what it can do:
<h2>Introduction Video</h2>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/45734056?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>System Requirements</h2>
Unlike some other CMS reviews, like our WordPress or Drupal ones, for example, for this review, there was no need to download any applications to install on our servers. In fact they stated that they do not plan to release such a service. Instead they have streamlined their code to work efficiently with their own high performance cloud system and you do everything via your browser. Say goodbye to maintenance and updates taking up your time, Squarespace does that for you. You will, however, need to make sure your browser is compatible with Squarespace, which by the looks of things just means keeping it up-to-date (although at the moment they support both IE 9 and 10 for both viewing and editing). You can use Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox to work with Squarespace 6.
However for editing there are some additional system requirements:
<ol>
<li>Cookies must be enabled for login purposes.</li>
<li>JavaScript must be enabled for the site manager.</li>
<li>Avoid running JavaScript blocking programs, such as anti-virus software.</li>
</ol>
<h2>New Features in version 6</h2>
I want to cover some of the new features that came with the Squarespace 6 release before I move onto the commerce piece of this review.  I'm not going over the reporting feature as they are hard to demonstrate when you are the only one viewing the page. The option is available on the main menu and looking through it is fairly self explanatory, so I'll move on.
<h3>The Blogging &amp; Layout Engine</h3>
In Squarespace 6 they did an overhaul of the blogging engine, along with a new commenting system and multiple author support. You can change the way your blog is set-up via the ‘Blog Settings' button, such as changing the name of the blog (we called it ‘Journal'). This is a very intuitive feature that I really like about Squarespace 6. There are also 20 new templates you can use for your blog in this latest release. When I first tried creating a blog post it took me a moment to understand how to add images. My screen is quite big and I didn't see the plus symbol at the bottom of the big text box, or realise what it meant. This button lets you add ‘Blocks' from images to quotes, to video and code; you get a lot of handy options to build your post quickly. Once I figured this out it was fairly self explanatory exploring the rest of the block options listed below.
<h4>Editing a Post and Adding a Block:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-blocks.png" alt="squarespace-review-blocks" />
The new LayoutEngine lets you drop images onto your image blocks and once they are embedded you can drag them around to rearrange them in your post. The only thing I will say is that I was expecting their Media Management to be separate. I found myself looking for it in the menu structure and I couldn't find what I had seen in the videos until I tried adding an image block to a blog post.
<h4>Editing a Post and Adding Images:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-layoutengine.png" alt="squarespace-review-layoutengine" />
<h3>Social Network Integration </h3>
The other great thing about Squarespace is the social integration. There are again a wide variety social media you can tap into as you can see below. Whilst you build your website you are offered many ways to integrate your site into the social networks you connect to your Squarespace account.
<h4>Adding Social Network Accounts:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-social-networks.png" alt="squarespace-review-social-networks" />
<h3>The Commerce Engine</h3>
To get to the Commerce section of Squarespace 6 you click on the dollar symbol on the left-hand side menu. This gives you a 4 step ‘Getting Started' process to get your store up and running quickly with options to: add products, select shipping options for physical products, connecting your Stripe account so you can accept payments and making your store live to the public.
<h4>Getting Started with the Commerce Engine:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-commerce-start.png" alt="squarespace-review-commerce-start" />
Getting Started is just the first item in the Commerce sub-menu. This gives you a way to manage your store and track your orders, inventory, shipping details, coupons for special offers, tax details, handling notifications and other settings. Everything you need to run your store effectively. So lets start with creating products. Before we can add products we need a product page to hold them. I didn't realise this and so got the following error when I tried to just add a product under Inventory.
<h4>Inventory (Before Adding Products):</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-no-product-page-error.png" alt="squarespace-review-no-product-page-error" />
To do this we need to go back to the content manager. Squarespace even provides you with a content specific tip when you over your mouse over the big ‘a' representing the content manger on the main menu. This is an unexpected but appreciated way to help you navigate the process of setting up your store.
<h4>Inventory Screen:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-add-product-page-tip.png" alt="squarespace-review-add-product-page-tip" />
When you click on the content manager icon you then need to click on the ‘Add Page' option under the ‘Top Navigation' list. This will give you a range of page types and in this case we want to click on the ‘Product' option.
<h4>Creating a new Page:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-create-new-page.png" alt="squarespace-review-create-new-page" />
You will be asked to enter a name for the page, which will correspond to the search friendly URL it will create for the page, although if you wish you can alter this to be different than the page's title if you want. It also gives you the option to set this page as the homepage of your website.
<h4>Configuring Products:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-page-title.png" alt="squarespace-review-page-title" />
Now that we have the product page in place we can create products. When the products page is created is creates a new option under the Top Navigation in the Content Manager called ‘Products', which has similar options to the Inventory page in the Commerce section.
<h4>Adding a Product:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-content-add-product.png" alt="squarespace-review-content-add-product" />
Since you are taken to this page immediately after creating the Products Page you might as well create your products from there, but you could equally go back into Commerce menu to do the same. Whatever menu you choose however, you will see on the top right a button called ‘Add Product', that is what you need to click.
<h4>Adding Products into Inventory:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-inventory-empty.png" alt="squarespace-review-inventory-empty" />
You will then be given a choice between creating a physical product that has to be shipped, or a digital product. With a digital product the customer will get a download link sent to them via email that is valid for 24 hours. In this review I'm going to create a physical product so I can cover the shipping options as well. You then get a screen where you can edit all the details of your product. Across the top on the right there are a number of different steps, the first of which ‘Item' lets you describe your product, add images, add categories for your product (see bottom left) and an options to make the product visible or not in your store.
<h4>Editing a Product:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-edit-product-complete.png" alt="squarespace-review-edit-product-complete" />
You can set the price here as well, but if you plan to have more than one variant, in size or colour for example, you might want to wait until the next step. When you hit save you go to the ‘Pricing &amp; Variants' step. In the example below I added a column called ‘Colour' as my example product comes in black and Mahogany. You can do this by clicking the ‘+' symbol on the right of the column headers. I then set the price and stock details for each variant by clicking on the ‘+' on the bottom left underneath the headers and filling out the different colour variants.
<h4>Editing a Product Variant:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-edit-product-variants.png" alt="squarespace-review-edit-product-variants" />
The next stage just lets you add rich text notes for additional information., there isn't much more to say so I'll skip over this stage. Next comes the step to set the URL address of the product. This seems to have an issue because it is set to ‘new-product' by default and you can't seem to edit this, regardless of what you set your product page URL to be. I had removed the ‘new' from ‘new-product' in my product page, but found I could not do this here. I was able to type something after ‘new-product' but it wasn't ideal. It also seemed to put a space between ‘new-product' and what I entered but it is just a display issue (when I later checked the product once it was live, the space was gone and ‘new-products' was replaced with just ‘products', as I had set it up on the products page, which could cause some confusion).
<h4>Adding a URL and Image to your Products:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-edit-product-url.png" alt="squarespace-review-edit-product-url" />
You then have the option to publish your product via your social connections, and if you haven't set any up it gives you the option to do so. You will need to make sure your product is saved before you navigate away from this product wizard. When you have completed filling out the product details hit ‘Save and Publish'. You can then go to your inventory to view the product.
<h4>Inventory with added products:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-inventory-products.png" alt="squarespace-review-inventory-products" />
If you made it available so people can find it on your store then it will also show on your products page. If you click on the product it will look like this:
<h4>The End Result:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-live-product.png" alt="squarespace-review-live-product" />
Now we want to move onto shipping options. Click on the Commerce symbol on the main menu and then select Shipping. On the top right is a button you want to click called ‘Add Shipping Method'.
<h4>The Shipping Portion of the Commerce Engine:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-empty.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-empty" />
You then get two options for shipping: ‘Flat Rate' whch lets you set a single price for shipping costs, or ‘Depending on Weight' that will determine the cost based on how heavy a product is.
<h4>Adding shipping options:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-types1.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-types1" />
I've chosen the second shipping option, as the flat rate option is pretty straight forward and most of it's functionally is the same as the weight based shipping option. You get the option to set weight ranges and the rate each one will cost. You can add more option by clicking the ‘+' symbol below the first two weight ranges it creates for you by default. You have to set a name to determine what postal method this delivery option will use, such as FedEx. This is a mandatory field.
<h4>Editing the weight range rates for shipping:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-formular.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-formula" />
Then there is another step at the top right called ‘Country Restrictions' which lets you say which countries you will deliver too. Remember that you can create more than one shipping method, so you could create different rates this way for USA, europe and worldwide, for example, if you need different pricing for each of them. Once you have saved all your option is will show up in a list under the Commerce Shipping menu.
<h4>Setting Country restrictions:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-shipping-country.png" alt="squarespace-review-shipping-country" />
I want to briefly cover the rest of the options under Commerce. You have the option to make your own coupons for special promotions and sales etc. They actually give you a vast range of types to choose from, that gives you a lot of power to promote your  products. They then give you even more choices, whether you want to offer free shipping, a percentage discount or a flat dollar discount.
<h4>Creating Coupons in the Commerce Engine:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-add-coupons.png" alt="squarespace-review-add-coupons" />
Moving onto to Commerce Taxes. You can set how much tax will be charged for your products on a state-by-state basis (and is therefore limited to the USA only). They also give you the option to charge sales tax on the shipping costs.
<h4>Tax Rule Editing:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-add-taxes.png" alt="squarespace-review-add-taxes" />
We now come to Email Notifications. This is where you can customise the text that will be sent out to customers, including header and footer options. There are two message templates you can tweak for emails that are sent to the customer regarding order confirmation and shipping. I did notice a little issue here. If I click on email notifications and then cancel without doing anything, and error will pop up asking to save or discard changes when none had been made. I found discarding didn't do anything untoward as far as I could tell so I just used that.
<h4>Setting up Email Notifications:</h4>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-email-notifications.png" alt="squarespace-review-email-notifications" />
The last menu under Commerce is Settings. From here you can configure the setup of your Stripe payment account, support email address, express checkout option and setting the shopping cart to a dark or light style, depending on what colour scheme the reset of your website is using. You can integrate your MailChip newsletter account, get stock level alerts to remind you when to stock up on physical goods. Lastly it lets you write your own terms of service, as well as privacy and returns policies. If you judge your settings and notifications just right, you can communicate your style and values in a more interesting way.
<h3>The Final verdict:</h3>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/squarespace-review-support.png" alt="squarespace-review-support" />
This was my first time using Squarespace so I had a fresh eye that had not been accustomed to earlier releases. I can see why millions have flocked to Squarespace, because you can create any kind of website regardless of technical ability.  The only downside for me was that the payment option they use for Commerce is restricted to the USA only. It's not clear if this is because of limitations in Squarespace 6 itself, or due to <a href="http://stripe.com" target="_blank">Stripe</a>, the payment vendor they are using. I also can't get <a href="http://lastpass.com/" target="_blank">LastPass</a> to work with the login form whilst using Chrome, my preferred browser. This has me going back and forth to my emails to find the password each time I want to login. However I think the issues I've found are minor details that are possible to address in the future, so I'm willing enough to over look them until they broaden the scope of Commerce to include payments to Denmark, which is where I live.
Squarespace caters to developers too, so you can delve deeper into it to get even more functionality and customization. As a developer, you can build your site for free until you go live. Whether you are a developer or not after the trial the monthly subscription cost varies from $8/month up to $30/month, depending on which of the 3 plans you choose and if you pay monthly or annually. So for the same monthly cost of a low bandwidth Virtual Private Server, which you would have to administer yourself, you really can have your cake and eat it with Squarespace 6.

Squarespace Review - the Long Awaited Commerce Solution

niam-brown

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/selz_logo595x0-is.png" />
<a href="http://selz.com/a?tap_a=8735-a5f61e&amp;tap_s=54870-f521b3" target="_blank">Selz</a> is an eCommerce solution with barrels of charm. With it, you can deploy a store or add buy buttons to existing websites and social channels.
Selz was born in 2013, and today boasts over 100,000 users. For the better part of a year, I've admired Selz from afar. It has been busy releasing small, regular updates that have all contributed to the impressive growth of the platform.
As well as being able to embed into any website, Selz boasts a range of payment gateways, built-in analytics, native apps, a WordPress plugin, and more.
Let's take a look at what the most recent set of updates brought to the eCommerce platform.
<h2>Broader Product Variations &amp; License Keys</h2>
Selz now enables you to easily sell products with varying characteristics. So, if you’re selling t-shirts in different colors, different styles, and different sizes, each of those variants can be represented in your Selz store.
You can even assign different prices to each variant if you charge more for different styles or sizes.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2016-08-12-at-10_37_01-am-1600x932657x0-is.png" />
If you’re selling proprietary software, apps, themes or any other digital product, you can now use license keys to let your customers “unlock” their product.
This will prevent your products from being shared by multiple people or illegally used by unauthorized users. Thus, your intellectual property is protected by the license key generated by Selz.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen-shot-2016-08-24-at-12_37_49-pm-1600x673911x0-is.png" />
To find out more about these two new features, <a href="https://selz.com/blog/2-major-features-released-august/" target="_blank">check out the Selz blog</a>.
<h2>Earn 200% Commission With The Selz Affiliate Program</h2>
Selz can make you money from the products you sell via an existing website or social media handle. But now, you can make money by selling Selz itself.
For any one person you refer to Selz, you'll receive 200% of their monthly plan price. Which is not too shabby.
You can become a Selz affiliate <a href="https://selz.com/affiliates" target="_blank">here</a>.
As I said, I've had my eye on <a href="http://selz.com/a?tap_a=8735-a5f61e&amp;tap_s=54870-f521b3" target="_blank">Selz</a> for a while now, and I like the way they handle business. For that reason, I think I'll delve into Selz a little deeper during the next episode of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdYIRZAO8llwAipfWWujTHsqH-2x3Qwwu" target="_blank">Software Explorer</a>.

Selz Grows Further With Product Variants, License Keys, Affiliate Scheme

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/djangocms_green-1_400x0.png" /><a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en" target="_blank">django CMS 3.4</a> is here, and it's the first release of the free and open source CMS that comes with long-term support (LTS).
In my <a href="/django-cms-review/" target="_blank">django CMS review</a> which I published a few months back, I remarked that:
<blockquote>
“There's no doubt about it, <a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en" target="_blank">Django CMS</a> is an excellent platform for projects large and small. It's simple enough for anybody to approach, although its true potential will need to be unlocked by a developer familiar with Python.”
</blockquote>
Matteo Larghi, the CXO at Divio and member of the django CMS technical board, gave CMS Critic an exclusive comment as he and the rest of the django CMS team released version 3.4. He claimed that, “this is a historic date [for django CMS], since it's the first Long-Term Support version.”
<h2>django CMS 3.4: What's New?</h2>
<iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/182752360"></iframe>
The video above does a good job of explaining the new features that can be found within django CMS 3.4, but here are the highlights:
<ul>
<li>An Improved editing experience: 	The Edit page view now displays complex content better. We've removed some extraneous markup and made some fundamental changes to the editing model to eliminate differences in appearance between draft and published views.</li>
<li>More editing shortcuts: 	Keyboard navigation has been improved and extended. An overview of keyboard shortcuts in editing mode is available by pressing “?”. Especially useful is a new “Shift + Space” command to switch between structure and content mode while highlighting the current plugin, revealing its position.</li>
<li>Revamped user permissions: 	The content permissions system has been significantly reworked. During this process a number of issues were discovered and addressed. The system now behaves now as expected. We recommend that owners of sites using permissions upgrade to 3.4, as some of these issues represent potential security problems.</li>
<li>Speed: 	The rendering speed of plugins in the structure view has been significantly increased.</li>
</ul>
For a complete summary of all updates, see the <a href="http://docs.django-cms.org/en/latest/upgrade/3.4.html">django CMS 3.4 release notes</a>.
<h2>It's Finally Here: Long Term Support for django CMS</h2>
All previous versions of django CMS came with no promise of long-term support. Which was a bummer.
But with django CMS 3.4, the django CMS team has proudly announced long-term support, meaning that security patches and bug fixes will roll out until at least the end of 2018.
This is an important milestone in the history of django CMS, which was voted in at the <a href="/announcing-the-2015-winner-for-best-open-source-cms/" target="_blank">Best Open Source CMS of 2015</a> not too long ago.

django CMS 3.4 Released With Long Term Support

It's usually a good sign, when a product emerges from a team which would otherwise be part of the intended target market.
<a href="http://mbsy.co/webydo/cmscritic" target="_blank"> Webydo</a> was unveiled in 2012, crafted by a web design agency who confess that, “we needed Webydo ourselves”. The cloud-hosted solution works on a WYSIWYG basis, giving users a browser based and completely codeless website builder.
<a href="http://mbsy.co/webydo/cmscritic" target="_blank"> <img style="max-width:144px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-logo.png" /> </a>
The platform powers thousands of websites, and boasts a wide range of user-friendly features. Here's an introductory video to get started with.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vFrMO-InkiU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>Drag, Drop, Animate</h2>
Let's now take a look at some of Webydo's core features.
As with most website builders, Webydo is designed from the ground up to be accessible to everybody. That means there's no code to worry about, and features like drag-and-drop page building are deeply rooted in the user experience.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/193-10c737f4-3698-4fd1-95cf-0801294c8d60.jpg" />
Users can drag-and-drop page elements like images, text, flash, forms, galleries, and so forth. Elements can then be resized, relocated and edited accordingly.
Webydo also gives its user base animation options, through its Parallax Scrolling Animator.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/193-0f04f419-2a08-4cd0-84b7-58252cc890e5.gif" />
The Animator enables users to animate any element on a page with unique motion paths, transitions and speed using a simple, codeless visual interface. It's the type of tool which can bring a website to life in ways that many other website builders don't allow.
Further features include eCommerce capabilities, responsive design, custom domains, automatic backups, as well as blogging and article management.
Webydo as a whole portrays itself with a sense of minimalism. Black and white interfaces are everywhere, with pretty much no clutter for the sake of beauty. It's a platform aimed at serious web designers looking for a serious website builder.
<h2>A Community Effort</h2>
As previously mentioned, Webydo sprung from a web design agency in need. Today though, it's a community effort.
Webydo's CMO Yam Regev explains.
<blockquote>“Webydo was founded as an internal solution, but quickly grew into a product after we witnessed a massive demand within the web design agency industry.
We quickly generated huge interest and now we have over 150k users in our community. These days professional designers don't have an independent SaaS solution and Webydo plans to be the solution that empowers designers to take full control of the web publishing space.
Our community is fully involved with the development of the product and will ultimately determine the success of the product.”</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/weby.png" />
The Webydo forum is where the community congregates.
Users are encouraged to share suggestions and even vote on popular ideas. It's a system rarely embraced by top-tier CMS, and it's nothing less than refreshing to see in action at Webydo.
To find out more about Webydo, <a href="http://mbsy.co/webydo/cmscritic" target="_blank"> visit their website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of Webydo via our CMS Directory.

Webydo: SaaS Design Canvas for Web Design Professionals

<a href="https://ghost.org/" target="_blank">Ghost</a> users can now preview their posts within their chosen theme before publication.
The free and cloud-hosted blogging solution was crowned winner of the <a href="/2014-most-promising-cms/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award for Most Promising CMS</a>.
As one of the most exciting blogging platforms on the market, Ghost already does a lot of things right. But post previewing was certainly a missing feature, and will no doubt be welcomed by Ghost users.
<h2>See It &amp; Share It</h2>
Now, Ghost users can open the post settings menu and hit the post preview link to see exactly what the post is going to look like before it goes live. Users will see the post in the context of their active theme — exactly as any visitor would see it.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/preview-ui.jpg" />
Interestingly, users can also send a preview link to others for proof-reading or feedback purposes.
Ghost Pro users already have access to this new feature. Self-hosted Ghost users will need to upgrade to <a href="https://ghost.org/download/">Ghost 0.6.3</a> in order to benefit.
You can see the <a href="http://blog.ghost.org/post-previews/" target="_blank">official announcement right here</a>.
Otherwise, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/ghost/" target="_blank">Ghost via our CMS Directory</a>.

Ghost Introduces Post Previews

<a href="https://adobe.com/" target="_blank">Adobe</a> has launched Shoppable Video authoring and publishing, which now comes bundled as part of <a href="http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/enterprise-content-management.html" target="_blank">Adobe Experience Manager</a> Assets.
<a href="https://adobe.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adobe_200x0.jpg" /></a>
The goal here, is to help marketers make any video shoppable across any device. This new out of the box tool lets consumers click on products shown in these videos and purchase them – making purchases quicker and more effective than ever before.
This update is catered to non-technical marketers, making it supremely simple to monetize video content across all screen sizes.
<h2>A Slice of The Future</h2>
Clicking to purchase while viewing a video sounds futuristic enough, but Adobe has gone a step further to help marketers drive conversions – and help customers get where they need to go.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shoppable-e1439480174195-1200x674728x0-is.jpg" />In addition to enabling purchase directly from the video, marketers can also add links to lead generation forms, quickview product details, landing page microsites, and other campaign activities at cue points in the video, all from a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Furthermore, all video events (including click-through rates, of course) can be tracked via <a href="http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/web-analytics.html" target="_blank">Adobe Analytics</a>.
And last but not least, end customers get a truly high-quality viewing experience, including a scrolling side panel that features the products or services shown in the video. This allows customers to check out products or services at their leisure, without disrupting the video playback experience or making the video feel too much like a moving advertisement.
In other words, Adobe has thought of everything with this one.
Want a more visual presentation of how this all works? You may want to <a href="http://aodproductna.assetsadobe.com/etc/dam/viewers/s7viewers/html5/VideoViewer.html?asset=/content/dam/mac/aodproductna/video/interactive-video-public%20(1).mp4&amp;config=/etc/dam/presets/viewer/Video_social&amp;serverUrl=http%3A%2F%2Faodproductna.assetsadobe.com%2Fis%2Fimage%2F&amp;contentRoot=%2F&amp;config2=/etc/dam/tenants/aodproductna/presets/analytics&amp;videoserverurl=https://gateway-na.assetsadobe.com/DMGateway/public/aodproductna&amp;posterimage=/content/dam/mac/aodproductna/video/interactive-video-public%20(1).mp4" target="_blank">check out Adobe's demonstration video</a>.
For more information on this release, <a href="http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/web-experience/watch-look-shop-look/" target="_blank">check out Adobe's official blog announcement</a>.

Adobe Launches Multi-device Shoppable Video Tool

<a href="http://liferay.com/" target="_blank">Liferay, Inc.</a>, has rolled out its latest project – Liferay Screens – in order to aid companies develop native apps for iOS and Android platforms.
Liferay is a vendor for <a href="http://liferay.com/">open source portals</a> designed for enterprising companies and organizations. Their clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Allianz, Siemens, Toyota and the United Nations to name but a few.
According to Liferay, Liferay Screens is a, “collection of fully native mobile components, using all the power of your Liferay Portal as an enterprise grade mobile back-end.”
<h2>Responding to the Mobile Explosion</h2>
In case you haven't heard, mobile is pretty darn big nowadays.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/liferay.png" />
This release is part of Liferay’s larger push to provide a mobile platform for companies developing several native apps across business units. Through Liferay Screens, the company hopes to save its customers time and money by making it easier for mobile apps to reuse core data and services.
Here are some of the benefits that Liferay Screens brings to the table.
<ul>
<li>Liferay Screens comes fully compatible with standard development tools for iOS and Android</li>
<li>Lowers learning curve for developing apps backed by reusable back end services</li>
<li>Helps developers comply with UX and Brand requirements using Screens Themes, which follow Apple and Google’s design languages and allow for custom colors</li>
<li>Adaptive layouts automatically ensure apps function and appear correctly on phones and tablets of any form factor</li>
<li>Reusable services like registration, user management, localization, and authentication help developers focus on more important business logic</li>
</ul>
Juan Fernandez, Liferay's Product Manager, had this to say upon the release of Liferay Screens:
<blockquote>“The problem we’re trying to solve for companies is, ‘how do we quickly build great mobile apps that integrate with the overall customer experience, while keeping development costs to a minimum?
Companies have to respond to the mobile explosion, but they need to do so with a strategy. With Liferay Screens, you can develop high-quality, elegant mobile apps quickly without compromising on these long-term considerations.”</blockquote>
Find out more about Liferay Screens.
Also, be sure to check out <a href="/products/liferay/" target="_blank">Liferay through our CMS Directory</a>.

Liferay Speeds Up Mobile App Development With Liferay Screens Release

Advertising on social media is a great way to attract traffic. In recognition of this, <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce</a> has released a new app to enable US users to leverage Facebook and Twitter ads far easier than ever before.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logo-1.png" />With the announcement of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/advertising/">Product Ads</a>, which comes thanks to a partnership with Boostable, users will have their ads automatically optimized for the highest ROI.<h2>Increased ROI, Decreased Costs &amp; Detailed Reporting</h2><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dashboard-01492x0-is.jpg" />Here are some of the benefits of this new app, outlined by Bigcommerce:<ul><li>Increased ROI through automatic optimization that continually improves targeting</li><li>Decreased costs with affordable, transparent pricing and no monthly fees</li><li>Detailed reporting that shows sales, orders, reach and clicks for each of your ads</li></ul>To set up product ads, user will need to download the app, and then follow the instructions below from their Bigcommerce control panel:<ol><li>Select your advertising networks and choose the products you’d like to promote</li><li>We’ll automatically create ads using your product names, descriptions and photos</li><li>Edit anything you’d like, then submit</li><li>Once approved by the network, your ads will start running immediately</li></ol>It seems like a pretty straightforward feature, and will certainly save users time when it comes to spreading the word on social media.For now, the app is available to US users only, and covers Facebook and Twitter. However, Bigcommerce have announced plans for an international release, as well as additional social media platforms.The app can be <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/advertising/">downloaded from the Bigcommerce Marketplace</a>.For more information on this release, check out the <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.bigcommerce.com/product-ads/">Bigcommerce blog</a>.Additionally, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/bigcommerce">Bigcommerce through our CMS Directory</a>.

Bigcommerce Introduces Automated Social Media Product Ads

Semrush - Be an SEO hero

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Hippo 10 has been released, and it brings a new focus on content performance along with it.
Last year's CMS Awards saw Hippo CMS win in two categories; 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>. Those victories were no mean feat, considering the competition in the two respective niches.
Touted now as a Content Performance Platform, Hippo 10 enables a data-driven omni-channel content strategy which aims to bring a more personable digital experience for every visitor. It is designed to help businesses understand their visitors – both known and anonymous – before helping them to deliver their content in any context and on any device.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/login.png" />
<h2>A Change in Direction</h2>
Content has always been the priority, and it probably always will be. Hippo 10 in changing the direction of the platform's focus to reflect the personalization-centric times.
Here's how.
A Move Towards Being A Content Performance Platform
Whereas traditional web analytics have focused on the majority and average visitor, Content Performance metrics tailor content delivery to the individual, based on that individual’s real time engagement with content.
Built on the power of the existing Hippo’s relevance engine, the Content Performance Platform adds further precision to real-time personalized content delivery. By providing a continuous feedback loop, Hippo CMS 10 offers actionable insights on content's success in supporting business goals.
A Refreshed User Interface
What good is a software update without a facelift?
Hippo 10 users will benefit from a revamped user interface, offering a new visual style alongside improvements to user interaction, making it more efficient and intuitive for end users.
Personalization, Testing and Continuous Optimization Combined
Given the dynamic nature of personalized onsite content, traditional A/B testing isn't as effective as it once was. During the period that an A/B test reaches statistical significance, the enterprise risks repeatedly delivering the wrong content to the wrong audience. By testing of content (rather than pages) per persona, and dynamically optimizing that content, Hippo CMS 10 avoids the pitfalls of standard A/B testing and drives better user experience for more visitors.
Hippo's multi-pronged bandit algorithm optimises while testing is going on. The algorithm initially tests content versions delivered in equal proportion— adjusting the proportion of content delivered in favour of the well performing content, wasting no time to continuously optimise the digital experience. This approach makes content performance metrics actionable even with a limited number of users in a test group.
Developer Agility
Hippo 10 also offers a major step towards the company’s SaaS and PaaS product vision, enabling developers to truly focus on what’s important: rapid development and continuous deployments.
Thanks to Live Reload functionality, developers utilize their preferred IDE to create code, templates, CSS and JavaScript, which then automatically synchronizes with the Hippo CMS repository. Changes are instantly visible without the need for publication or refresh. All this makes for a tight and optimized loop between code development and deployment.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/running_experiments.png" />
Upon the release of Hippo 10, the company's CEO Jeroen Verberg made the following comments.
“By learning about and responding to the individual visitor’s preferences, interests and intent in- real time, Hippo CMS 10 takes the guesswork out of content strategy.
This release transforms the CMS into a data-driven intelligent marketing technology that measures real-time content performance against the online goals of the enterprise – attracting visitors, improving engagement and increasing conversion.”
For more information on Hippo 10, check out the <a href="http://www.onehippo.org/" target="_blank">Hippo Community Website</a>.
Additionally, be sure to explore more of Hippo via our CMS Directory.

Hippo 10 Release "Transforms" Hippo Into Content Performance Platform

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