Articles - Page 146

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Here's Why CMS Is Your 'Unsung Hero' in 2025

janus-boye

The Joomla! Project and Community have announced the release of the Joomla Framework. Being dubbed a major step forward for the Joomla Project, this new framework promises increased growth for the Joomla! project.
The Joomla development team has extracted and refactored many of the essential functions necessary to create, manage and deploy a modern PHP web application and compiled them into a library of modular packages that can be easily mixed and matched with other PHP frameworks and packages using Composer for dependency management.
<h2>How does it help Joomla?</h2>
According to the release announcement:
First, it makes several packages, inspired by the demanding needs of the Joomla! CMS, available to the larger PHP developer community, paving the way to build new web applications and services. These packages are distributed via Packagist.org for use with Composer and can be combined with packages from other best-of-breed PHP frameworks such as Symfony, Zend, and Laravel. Web Applications built on a server with the Joomla! Framework will have the advantage of creating, managing and authenticating user accounts; retrieving, managing and displaying content retrieved from one or more databases; and taking advantage of many social media integration features. For example, the social media packages for Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter are well executed. They have a common API that interacts with each of the services, and offers good coverage of each service’s program interface.
Second, it allows a future version of the Joomla! CMS to be built upon this Framework and thereby benefit from the broader base of PHP developers that adopt and can contribute back to the Framework, as well as the dependency management features of Composer. The Framework will bring new rapid development tools to CMS extension developers that will allow them to create and maintain more sustainable and robust extensions.
While it may not directly affect end users of the Joomla CMS, this is a great step forward for the development community and other web developers as well.
<a href="http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5521-joomla-framework-1-0-released.html">Read the announcement on the Joomla website.</a>

Joomla Releases the Joomla Framework Version 1.0

mike-johnston

For those who have been around the CMS industry for a while, you may recall the name Movable Type. Movable Type was once the strongest competition against WordPress but, through a series of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/six-apart-acquired-by-videoegg-movable-type-finally-bite-dust/">acquisitions</a>, began to lose ground quickly and faded from attention. Not completely mind you, but certainly we didn't hear as much about it for quite some time.
Well, development continued regardless of these changes in the structure of the company and Movable Type is back strong and powerful with version 6 of their perl based Content Management System and publishing platform. Movable Type runs some of the largest sites in the world such as The Huffington Post, for instance.
Here's a video re-introducing the platform, now in version 6:
http://youtu.be/ALQpd2kETCE
While there once was an open source branch of Movable Type, it has since been laid to rest, however, the system itself can be purchased through <a href="http://movabletype.com">MovableType.com</a>.
If you stay tuned, tomorrow, we will be giving away a very lucrative Movable Type license in our Great #CMS Giveaway. Be sure to check back and enter for your chance to win as this is a great package for those looking to get into blogging or publishing online.

Re-Introducing Movable Type

Within the CMS industry, we are very fortunate. Every year, thousands of developers work their fingers to the bone to deliver highly capable free CMS to the market. When it comes to selection, the CMS industry is definitely not hurting for choices. For this reason, selecting a winner for the Best Free CMS award has been a tough decision. What it has come down to, however, is the flexibility and capability of the platform.
In the end, when it comes to being flexible, it would be foolish to select any other CMS on the market. For a free content management system to be as capable and widely used in such an incredible amount of environments is nothing short of amazing and without further adieu, we're pleased to announce the winner of the 2013 Critic's Choice Award for Best Free CMS goes to…
<h3><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-free-cms150x0.png" alt="best Free cms" />Drupal</h3>
One of the most flexible content management systems available for free today, Drupal is a powerhouse that can be used to power all kinds of different platforms. It's so flexible that it is often discounted as a CMS and referred to strictly as a Content Management Framework.
In our eyes, both monickers fit the bill nicely. Drupal has been used to power all kinds of web applications including some incredibly high visibility websites worldwide. With a massive developer network and a huge fan base, Drupal is without a doubt one of the biggest and most successful CMS the industry has seen. With thousands of modules and a vast number of distributions, Drupal is a very capable system.
Congratulations to all Drupal Developers worldwide, you are the reason Drupal is so successful today.
<a href="/products/drupal/">Learn more about Drupal</a> or visit the <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal website</a>.

2013 Critic's Choice Award for Best Free CMS

EPiServer has announced the release of EPiServer 7.5 Commerce, a .NET ecommerce solution. Building on the success and flexibility of <a href="http://www.episerver.com/Products/EPiServer-7-CMS/">EPiServer 7 CMS</a>, the newly available version uniquely combines e-commerce functionality with state of the art customer experience management. The updated platform allows EPiServer clients to capitalize on the convergence of e-commerce and content marketing, enabling improvements in top-line revenue and average order value.
EPiServer 7.5 Commerce combines content and catalog handling to allow the full complement of customer experience tools to deliver value to organizations that recognize the importance of the online sales channel. By creating a combined solution, EPiServer 7.5 Commerce offers a transparent business view, beyond complex side-by-side or e-commerce led integrations that have traditionally created problems for business uses and customers for years.
<blockquote>
“Companies need cohesive digital customer experiences, but marketing and e-commerce groups often operate in silos with differing objectives, which leads them to buy and operate independent solutions for brand content and transactions,” according to a Forrester Research, Inc. report written by analysts Stephen Powers and Peter Sheldon (Content And Commerce: The Odd Couple Or The Power Couple?, November 19, 2013). “The end result? A fragmented and poorly integrated digital presence that confuses the customer, is difficult to manage, and, ultimately, leaves revenue on the table.”
</blockquote>
The new release helps marketers with the challenge of controlling their content layout, design and landing pages through tighter integration of content and commerce. EPiServer  7.5 Commerce enables a ‘quick launch campaign' with flexible layout control, and content and catalogue re-use, which allows merchandisers to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. Marketers and merchandisers often find it too hard and too time consuming to manage product content and this latest platform helps them navigate this challenging terrain. EPiServer 7.5 Commerce”s capabilities also create a more personalized experience across channels for the consumer, a top-priority for businesses that understand that customer loyalty is driven by great customer experience.
<blockquote>
“It's obvious for people that are thinking about the future that content marketing is changing the way digital marketing moves,” said Bob Egner, VP of Product Management at EPiServer. “The opportunity to improve experiences for ecommerce and help marketers reach the connected consumer by enabling them to seamlessly interact with customers across channels is tremendous. EPiServer is capitalizing on this new industry trend not just for B2C retail customers, but for other segments as well, such as those in B2B ecommerce who are finding their footing in this exciting new market opportunity.”
</blockquote>
The latest platform is easily integrated to help IT teams effectively streamline business processes. More information on EPiServer 7.5 Commerce is available <a href="http://www.episerver.com/Products/EPiServer-Commerce/">here</a>.

EpiServer 7 Released

Throughout this month, we're giving away tons of awesome prizes to our lucky readers, You! We're calling it The Great #CMS Giveaway.
To participate, simply follow the instructions below and get in on the action. Free is awesome and so are the awesome companies that are participating this year.
To kick off the Great #CMS Giveaway, we're starting with an awesome giveaway from <a href="http://www.setseed.com">SetSeed CMS</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/setseed8logo.jpg" />
Our first prize includes the following:
<ul>
<li>1 SetSeed Website License worth $120 USD (approximately)</li>
<li>1 Month of their ‘pro seller’ plan worth $160 USD (approximately). This includes (for the duration of the month):</li>
<ul>
<li>44% discount on any further license fees. (Per site cost of £42.00 ($65 Approx.))</li>
<li>HTML/CSS/jQuery theme building advice</li>
<li>30 Day Demo Licenses</li>
<li>Licensing API access</li>
<li>Pre-Sale advice (help to win new jobs by consulting on SetSeed's suitability for a project)</li>
</ul>
</ul>
Total value would be £175 ($280 USD Approx.)
Check out this great video showcasing SetSeed:
https://vimeo.com/81022582
<h2>Enter to Win!</h2>
[[cmsgiveaway1]]

The Great #CMS Giveaway - Prize #1

Magnolia International has released Magnolia CMS 5.2. The new version delivers the latest Magnolia 5 content management platform to existing Magnolia CMS users, offering a supported upgrade path with dedicated migration tools. Magnolia CMS 5.2 also offers a new REST API and enhanced support for the Groovy scripting language.
“Since the launch in June, new customers have been telling us that Magnolia 5 is the best user interface available for integrating mobile devices,” comments Magnolia’s CTO Boris Kraft. “But we believe it is just as important to deliver this innovation to our existing user base. Version 5.2 now offers all Magnolia users a free, safe and straightforward migration path to the new Magnolia 5 platform.”
Magnolia 5’s new user interface represents a radical rethink of how employees interact with their organisation’s web and mobile channels. Users work through intuitive task-focused apps, which can be customised around their job role. Actions and responsibilities are allocated, monitored and managed in real-time through “The Pulse”. Meanwhile the “Favorites” function allows users to create a personalised view of the system, with shortcuts to common tasks and relevant areas (see the <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/company/news/press-releases/magnolia-5-release.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Magnolia 5 launch release</a> for details).
Magnolia 5.2 now provides tools for users of Magnolia 4.x to migrate content, along with a step-by-step guide for migrating and testing custom-developed modules and extensions on the new platform.
In addition to the migration tools, Magnolia 5.2 also implements a new REST API, simplifying integration of Magnolia with other applications and online services. The new release also features upgraded support for the popular Groovy scripting language. This allows developers to use Groovy for creating new page templates, apps and functionality. Groovy scripts can also be used to automate repetitive tasks and content updates, dramatically reducing administration overheads and providing an additional tool for users migrating to Magnolia 5.
A full feature overview of Magnolia 5.2 is available at: <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/5-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.magnolia-cms.com/5-2</a>

Magnolia CMS 5.2 Delivers Migration Tools, Simplifies Integration and Dramatically Reduces Administration Overheads

Jahia today presents its Digital Industrialization vision and the product that supports it: <a href="http://www.jahia7.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jahia 7</a>. Jahia 7 will be officially presented during <a href="http://www.jahiaone.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">JahiaOne</a>, the vendor’s 1st International User Conference to be held on Feb 6-7 in Paris. 
The Digital Industrialization vision is about an uninterrupted, optimized and continuous production flow of digital experience, from the business need to its final digital rendering. 
This is now possible thanks to a new approach where distributed development is secure and fully integrated with code server and private apps forge. Developers and business users can collaborate in fast and short iterations to deliver validated components that would be made available to the entire organization via a private apps forge. Project after project, the TCO and time-to-market of digital projects decrease thanks to the ability to reuse modules and components from the private apps forges. 
Elie Auvray, CEO at Jahia Solutions Group SA says “Jahia 7 delivers two game-changing capabilities: it brings the ability to develop collaboratively with Marketing AND deploy modules and apps securely thanks to Private App Forges. This is the end of the tunnel effect era: because they can now truly work together, developers and marketers can deliver business solutions faster. Decision makers validate recent developments that are made available to the entire company through private forges. Everyone can then use and reuse – safely – these modules and applications for all new digital initiatives without compromising neither the assets of the company nor its critical projects. You no longer spend with no visibility, you invest without sacrificing marketing velocity, but instead, by augmenting it. This is the double promise of Digital Industrialization. “
<h3>Key strengths of Jahia 7</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Distributed development to industrialize the development by combining control and agility. Jahia 7 brings many new improvements based on the integration of Jahia Studio, its unique UX builder with shared source repository. Several developers can work on the same subject, independently from where they are located, directly on the integration server or from their desktop. All sources modifications are pushed to a repository to which the Studio is linked. Changes are versioned in the source repository and all changes can be tested on the same server to verify compatibility and to actually develop with agile methodology.
</li>
<li>
Agile Deployment. Two major enhancement now allow for agile and faster deployments:
</li>
<ul>
<li>
The integration of OSGi allows the hot-deployment of modules without downtimes or restarts
</li>
<li>
The introduction of Private Enterprise Apps Forge where all validated modules and business applications are made available and versioned for administrators to decide whether to deploy them or not. This centralized and secure Forge allows for unlimited reuse of previously developed modules and for instant deployment on as many instances as needed. Both TCO and time-to market are drastically reduced, project after project. The apps forge can be declared fully private within your entire organization and/or shared with your integration partner.
</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
Dynamic Content. Marketing teams get control over their main objectives: ensure brand consistency through all their sites and adapt their content to each required channel for the best possible user experience. They benefit from an entire autonomy to create, at will, any global and localized digital initiatives, manipulate any type of content, assemble full-fledged sites based on pre-defined templates and socially engage visitors by just drag'n dropping related modules and validated content. And much more!
</li>
<li>
Guaranteed Update. Jahia 7 comes with a fully secured and guaranteed update process to protect former investments in Jahia.
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Official Presentation of Jahia 7</h3>
Jahia 7 will be presented for the first time at JahiaOne, Jahia’s first international user conference. During two days, developers, users, clients and partners will be able to meet, share their experience and discover Jahia 7.
JahiaOne will be held in Paris on February 6 and 7, 2014.
<a href="http://www.jahiaone.com/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More about JahiaOne</a>
<h3>About Jahia</h3>
Jahia's next-generation, Open Source CMS stems from a widely acknowledged vision of enterprise application convergence – web, search, document, social and portal – unified by the simplicity of web content management. Structured around Jahia xCM, Jahia Wise, Jahia Studio and based on the powerful Jahia Content Platform, Jahia brings a unique modularity to the Java development arena. With its hundreds of built-in widgets, downloadable JahiApps and third party modules, Jahia is the tool of choice for building business-driven user experiences for innovative web and mobile applications, at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.
Founded in 2002 and based in Geneva (Switzerland), Jahia Solutions Group has offices in Paris (France), Klagenfurt (Austria), Düsseldorf (Germany), Toronto (Canada) and Washington, DC (USA). Jahia counts hundreds of global brands and governmental organizations among its loyal customers, in more than 20 countries across the globe. For more information, visit: <a href="http://www.jahia.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.jahia.com</a>

Jahia 7 to be unveiled during JahiaOne in February 2014

WordPress has been evolving at an incredible rate these last few years, changing from a straight forward blogging platform into a powerful content management system. As a business owner, there may come a time when you will want to be able to handle your billing and invoicing from within WordPress, well, it's a lot easier than you might think.
Enter WP-Invoice. WP-Invoice has been around for a number of years in numerous iterations but has consistently become better and better and today, we're going to share with you some of the excellent functionality you can get when you implement this handy plugin.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wpi-overview-hero-splash.jpg" alt="Billing and Invoicing with WordPress" />
<h3>How does it work?</h3>
You create an invoice from you WordPress installation’s admin section, an email with a brief invoice description and a unique link is sent to your client. Your client follows the special link to your blog’s where their invoice is automatically displayed for them. After reviewing the invoice, your client pays their bill using a credit card or PayPal account, and you are immediately notified.
Credit card payments can be accepted via Authorize.net, MerchantPlus' NaviGate, PayPal or Google Checkout account. For recurring billing, there is Authorize.net's ARB API that will allow you to setup payment schedules along with invoices. Subscriptions can also be implemented using PayPal Subscriptions and Google Checkout Subscriptions.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/27887971?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h3>What can it do?</h3>
Here is a list of some of the features offered by WP-Invoice:
<ul>
<li>Automatically import invoices from Web Invoice plugin.</li>
<li>WP-CRM Integration</li>
<li>Brand new user interface for much improved invoicing filtering and searching</li>
<li>Minimum and Split / Partial Payments</li>
<li>Invoices can be reassigned to a different recipient</li>
<li>Receipt Page with Invoice Log</li>
<li>Per-defined Line Items</li>
<li>Discount Line Items</li>
<li>Custom Payment Entry, and administrative adjustments</li>
<li>Customizable Invoice and Receipt Templates</li>
<li>Create invoices from the WordPress control panel</li>
<li>Prefill customer information using the WordPress user list</li>
<li>Send invoice notifications to customers with a secured link back to the web-invoice</li>
<li>Accept credit card payment via Authorize.net or MerchantPlus NaviGate</li>
<li>PayPal available if you don't have a credit card processing account</li>
<li>Setup recurring billing using Authorize.net's ARB (Automatic Recurring Billing) feature</li>
<li>Force web-invoice pages to be viewed in SSL mode</li>
<li>Archive old invoices</li>
<li>Easily use old invoices as templates for new ones</li>
<li>Dynamic and intuitive user interface</li>
<li>Custom tax label, states input, and PayPal button URL</li>
<li>Insert an “Invoice Lookup” form using PHP or WordPress Shortcode anywhere</li>
<li>Create users directly from WP-Invoice</li>
<li>Customize billing settings per invoice</li>
<li>Customize invoice notification email per invoice</li>
<li>Invoice notification, reminder and receipt templates</li>
<li>Export/Import Invoices [Power Tools]</li>
<li>Sales Visualization [Power Tools]</li>
</ul>
Pretty impressive isn't it? This is not just your mom and pop invoicing plugin, this literally turns WordPress into an excellent invoicing and billing system and is something every business owner should take a look into. Even if you decide to go with the premium features, the whole package costs less than $250, which is quite reasonable considering what you get for your dollar.
The good news is that you can use a large amount of the features this plugin offers for free. There is a bundle that offers upgrades such as single page checkout, premium themes and additional plugins but for the most part, the majority of the features within the plugin won't cost you a dime.
Peaked your interest? Check out WP-Invoice today in the WordPress Plugin Directory: <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-invoice/">WP-Invoice</a>

How to Manage Billing and Invoicing with WordPress

Best Video Experience

Give your audience the best video experience

#000000

Sitecore, the winner of both our People's Choice and Critic's Choice awards for <a href="/cms-critic-awards/"> Best Enterprise CMS </a> , has recently acquired .NET Ecommerce solution, <a href="http://commerceserver.net"> Commerce Server</a>. This new purchase shows how quickly Sitecore has been able to respond to calls within the industry to offer fully integrated all-in-one solutions to customers.
Commerceserver.net offers a powerful platform that is sure to integrate nicely with the Sitecore family of products, namely their Customer Experience Platform. To learn more about what Commerceserver.net offers, check out their product overview here: <a href="http://commerceserver.net/Product%20Overview/"> http://commerceserver.net/Product%20Overview/ </a>
<blockquote>E-commerce functionality is critical to delivering relevant, personalized experiences for online shoppers, yet current CMS solutions offer poor or non-existent e-commerce integration. The acquisition of commerceserver.net by Sitecore is great news for customers because it introduces a rich level of integration between commerce, content, and digital marketing that has not been achieved by any other vendor. It will also provide a compelling .NET choice for enterprise customers while ensuring a strong and viable future for Commerce Server technology to its sizeable install base. – Ryan Donovan, President, Commerce Server </blockquote>
From the Sitecore announcement:
<blockquote>Industry analysts have repeatedly highlighted the need for online retailers to adopt a holistic approach to their operations, taking full account of the overall customer experience. We understand that at Sitecore, it’s the philosophy behind our Customer Experience Platform. The addition of Commerce Server’s enterprise grade e-commerce capabilities means that we can quickly move to a position of leadership in this space to complement our successes and leadership in content management and customer experience.</blockquote>
From our standpoint here at CMS Critic, we see this as a positive change reflecting the need for solid integrations within CMS suites and platforms. Sitecore has made some significant strides this year and we are looking forward to seeing what 2014 brings to the CMS market.
<a href="/products/sitecore/">Learn more about Sitecore.</a>

Sitecore Buys Commerce Server, Aims to bring ECommerce to their Platform

There are several strong competitors in the eCommerce market but only one can be the winner of the 2013 Critic's Choice Award for Best eCommerce Solution. With a market that is full of excellent solutions, to stay on top, one must be innovative, quick to market with new updates and changes and be able to integrate with top names in the CMS and CRM world.
No solution does this better, or is more deserving of the Best eCommerce Solution award than…
<h3><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-ecommerce-solution150x0.png" />Magento</h3>
Magento has been around for many years and, as a strong eCommerce solution, has managed to ensure they have a foothold into the key areas of the market. With a powerful Enterprise solution, a Community Edition and MagentoGO, they are well positioned within the industry. It's no surprise really that when eCommerce powerhouse eBay, Inc. went shopping for an eCommerce solution to purchase, they ended up choosing Magento.
Magento offers a unique solution that has a huge developer community, strong theming support and plenty of integrations for all kinds of different solutions. Now, backed by eBay, they are poised to continue their amazing growth throughout the years to come.
Congratulations to the team at Magento!
<a href="/products/magento">Learn more about Magento.</a>

2013 Critics Choice for Best eCommerce Solution

<h3>Background</h3>
For over a year, HCC Medical Insurance Services utilized WordPress for their content management needs. Recently, however, it became evident that using a number of plugins and an outside vendor was ineffective and prevented the company from efficiently updating their corporate website. The usage of shortcodes to build content blocks and to style content on a page resulted in a high number of poorly coded and poorly presented pages. Considering that healthcare is a highly regulated industry, HCCMIS worried about compliance with regard to the content published out to their website. The compliance approval process often resulted in delayed content releases, sometimes to the point where the content was no longer relevant by the time it was approved.
<h3>Goals</h3>
As HCCMIS decided to upgrade to an enterprise CMS, the most important objective was to gain full control of their web content. Creating and editing content needed to be placed in the hands the Subject Matter Experts. In order to meet this objective, proper workflows had to be put in place to streamline the process of content creation, compliance approval and final publishing. Another goal was to speed up content creation through the extensive use of reusable blocks, which would also generate greater consistency from page to page, resulting in an improved visitor experience.
<h3>CMS Evaluation Process</h3>
During the CMS evaluation process, HCCMIS reviewed several content management products and performed a side-by-side comparison of features. This was followed by an ROI analysis to show which product would be able to provide a positive return to HCCMIS over a three-year period. The team presented those reports to the executive team, and Cascade Server was recommended based on future potential for growth and the ability to leverage the system to grow the value of the HCCMIS marketing department within the overarching umbrella of HCC companies. According to Bill White, senior developer at HCCMIS, Cascade Server’s enterprise capabilities proved to be the clear winner for this healthcare organization.
<h3>Results</h3>
While it had taken HCCMIS more than two months with an average daily input of three hours to put the 700+ pages on their site into WordPress, moving the same site into Cascade Server was much easier. Once the templates were built, 2-5 marketing team members, who were all non- technical, were able to migrate all 700+ pages from WordPress into Cascade Server within three weeks working one to two hours a day on the migration, with as little as 5% as many requests for technical help as compared with the WordPress implementation.
HCCMIS was able to overcome compliance issues with the help of Cascade Server’s ability to track all changes to content and provide a full history of page content by date of revisions. With Cascade Server, HCCMIS can now quickly reproduce what a visitor on the website would have seen on a specific date in the past. Reverting back to previous versions in Cascade Server can be accomplished with just two clicks, much to the delight of the Compliance department.
The Subject Matter Experts at HCCMIS are now empowered to manage their own web content. Workflows have been put in place for compliance approval, and the use of content blocks allow HCCMIS to maintain branding consistency throughout their site.
<h3>Upcoming Projects</h3>
HCCMIS started the process of completely redesigning their site at the same time that the marketing team moved the old site into Cascade Server. Handling both projects simultaneously was not an issue due to Cascade Server’s content reuse capabilities. The new site will be more user-friendly and utilize responsive web design. In addition, HCCMIS intends to further customize its compliance approval workflows.
<h3>Can Cascade Server Help with your Content Management Needs?</h3>
Cascade Server is a robust enterprise CMS that is used by over 300 organizations worldwide. If you’re in the market for a new content management system, our solutions consultants can help! They will work with your team to help you identify your needs and goals for your new CMS and determine if our solutions are the best fit for you. We’d love to show you why Cascade Server was a finalist in the <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">CMS Critic 2013 People’s Choice Awards for Best Enterprise CMS! </a>
Fill out the form below, and we’ll contact you to set up a demo and give you access to your own sandbox instance for testing!

Moving from WordPress to Cascade Server for Better Content Governance and Compliance

As part of our efforts to offer as many resources as possible to our readers, we are pleased to announce that we now offer unique editions of CMS Critic for specific topics.
Since themes and theming are so closely tied to Content Management Systems, we felt it was a good idea to start with this particular topic and as such, I am pleased to announce the launch of CMS Critic (Theme Edition) , our first foray into this new venture.
This new sub-site of CMS Critic will be offering theme reviews, resources and news for all types of content management systems. We will, of course, also be sharing those posts here as well. I hope you find these new sites useful and if there is something specific that you'd like to see, please by all means, drop me a line and I'll take them into consideration.
To access an edition of our site, simply use the red drop down menu on the left sidebar.
To kick things off, we've got a few great posts on it for you to enjoy, which I'll begin sharing momentarily.

Announcing CMS Critic Editions

You may have already heard the terms ‘Portlets' &amp; ‘Portals' on various occasions, yet you may also still wonder what the differences are.
A Portal is a generally a web page which aggregates information from diverse sources, presenting them in an organized, manageable way, on one screen or page. Each module or source of information usually gets its own section within the page, and these smaller ‘boxes in pages' are called Portlets.
Generally speaking, a Portlet produces fragments of markup (HTML, XHTML, WML), displaying small windows within pages, which may contain things like weather, email and news. A group of Portlets coming together on one page, create a Portal.
However, the question now just might be, are Portlets on their way to becoming extinct?
<h2>The Power of REST</h2>
REST, or Representational State Transfer, is a stateless architecture which predominantly runs over HTTP. Today, it is often used in mobile applications, social networking Web sites, mashup tools and now increasingly, in Portals.
Essentially, Representational State Transfer is an architectural style which makes the most of existing protocols and technologies, including HTTP, JSON and XML. REST helps to meet integration requirements which prove critical to systems where data needs to be combined.
REST is simpler to use than SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), which instead requires either writing or a server program combined with a client program. REST's simplified approach has attracted giants such as Google,Yahoo &amp; Facebook, all of which have adopted REST services in recent years.
So, where exactly does this leave Portlets?
Well, modern web applications are rich Javascript clients, using AJAX technology to offer user experience. Portlets on the other hand, are packaged in Java EE web applications, which by design, are instantiated in separate class loaders. That's great for isolation, but not so great when it comes to collaboration.
<h2>REST in Peace Portlets</h2>
In practise, Portlets are ironically quite difficult to port from one server to another, whereas REST services can be hosted anywhere.
There is now a growing need to exchange content and services between modules, which is difficult with Portlets, since true portable Portlet repositories never really emerged. For example, many Portlets built using a particular Portal software will only ever work on that particular platform, as the Portlet will by-and-large depend upon the services of that server.
You could of course argue that REST-compliant Portlets can be developed, but such a stance makes little sense when you consider the ease of just using REST services on top of any given framework.
So, interoperability has, over time, become key. That leaves Portlets out in the cold, whilst more Portals are now becoming aggregations of REST clients that use simplistic client-to-server interfaces to work their magic – regardless of presentation technologies.
<h2>The Future of Portlets, Portals &amp; REST with Jahia</h2>
When it comes to moving forward with the times in terms of Portlets, Portals and REST services, <a href="http://www.jahia.com/home">Jahia</a> has the right idea, modernizing their approach faster than their competitors.
Jahia offers both the client side components and the technology to quickly and easily develop REST services, whilst still supporting Portlets to handle “legacy” applications.
Using a drag-and-drop system, Jahia's components can be easily integrated into a Portal page. What's more is, Jahia offers Bound Components, which can “talk to each other”.
This works by defining a binding between components whilst positioning them on the page, not at deployment time, allowing them to augment the capabilities of a particular component. For example, this can be used to make any piece of content “commentable” by binding an article to the comments module
Components offered by Jahia can also inherit from each other in an object oriented fashion.
The next major version of Jahia, expected in early 2014, will make its components OSGi compliant, making their deployment and hot-swapability easier than ever, whilst they will also benefit from the existing ecosystem of OSGi components, such as <a href="https://github.com/barjo/atmosphere-osgi">Atmosphere-OSGi</a>, or <a href="http://felix.apache.org/site/apache-felix-web-console.html">Apache Felix’s Web Console</a>.
To conclude, as time goes on, Portlets are racing faster and faster towards irrelevancy. Whilst at the same time, Portals and associated technologies are now more critical to web deployments than ever before – and Jahia is primed to help you handle all of that, and more.
If you're interested in exploring what Jahia has to offer in terms of REST and other services, <a href="http://www.jahia.com/home">check out their website</a>.
You can also explore a little more of <a href="/products/jahia/">Jahia via our CMS Directory</a>.

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