Articles - Page 164

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

msalvatierra

Starting out your career in any creative field is quite challenging. Whether you are looking to get hired or to try your luck freelancing, you will need a solid portfolio. I won’t get into detail on what that should include or how you will find the first projects to display, but I will guide you on your <a href="http://dashboard.webydo.com/landingpages/starta.aspx?campaign=CMSCritic">website design</a> step by step using <a href="http://dashboard.webydo.com/landingpages/starta.aspx?campaign=CMSCritic">Webydo</a>. Furthermore we won’t write a single line of code to achieve that!
Hope you are eager to get started!
<h2>First Steps</h2>
Setting up an account at Webydo is a very easy and fast process. And after you finish you will be prompted to select how you’d like to begin:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo_tutorial-1918x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
For the purposes of this tutorial we’ll select “Layout”. That will give us 4 layout templates to begin our project with.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo_tutorial-2918x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Go ahead and select the portfolio layout. This will load for us the editor we’ll be working on, with the standard portfolio structure ready.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo_tutorial-3918x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
<h2>Customizing your Portfolio</h2>
Let’s begin customizing our portfolio website by visiting “Site presets”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo_tutorial-4918x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Through here we can select some site wide options for our portfolio.
Let’s leave the site size and alignment as is. We’ll go select a favicon, by clicking the small image icon, next to “Favicon Image”.
Next we can select a background for our page. Click on the pull down menu next to color, and select “Solid Color”, also click on the color swatch and set it to #e9e9e9.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo_tutorial-5918x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
To set a background you can click on the small image icon, next to the text image, and select the image you will use for the background. I selected a small pattern image with diagonal lines, which we can repeat to fill out the whole background.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo_tutorial-6.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Here we can also set the generic color styles. I changed my main color to #333333 by clicking on the swatch next to it, and the secondary to #222222. You can create 4 additional color styles if you like.
After you finish, click “ok” to close these settings. We can come back to them if necessary at any time of the process, by visiting the “site presets” menu option.
<h2>Adding your content</h2>
Let’s now place our logo. Click on the logo rectangle, and then the interface will change to give you a property bar on top of your page. From there we can set the image dimensions, and add our image.
Click “Change” and that will prompt you to select the image file.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo_tutorial-7_jpg902x0.png" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Here we can also specify a title and alt attribute to our image, as well as if it links to a page of our website or not.
Let’s now set the menu. Click on any menu item. This will give some new options both in the top and right panel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-81250x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
From the top panel you can choose options that affect the whole menu, and from the right panel affect each menu item individually.
I will leave the menu alone for now. And we get back to it after we finish with our homepage.
Double Click on the Text “Insert your slogan”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-9.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Here we can modify the text and add our slogan. Notice how the top panel adjusted to give us options that relate to the selected object. So always keep that in mind as you explore the editor’s interface.
Try to find a catchy slogan to use here. You can easily adjust font, size and colors from the top panel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-10.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
When you finish you can click outside and the changes will take effect. You can move any element on the page with the mouse or the arrow keys. Now let’s add our portfolio projects!
To do that, we simply double click at an image placeholder. Then select the image. Notice that the placeholders are 300x150px so you might think to crop your thumbnails at this size. Don’t!
If you use a larger image, you can change its dimensions from the top panel after it is placed to fit or match the container size. Clicking any of these thumbnails after the site is launched will open the full image in lightbox mode.
In order to edit the captions and the text below your thumbnails you simply double click them. And to delete elements you don’t need simply hit the delete key. The choices for editing these texts are similar with those on the slogan we set not long ago.
You can preview your website at any time by clicking “Preview” on the black top menu. Then click “Design” to get back to editing your website.
After all the thumbnail slots have been filled, If you need to add more projects to the home page you can create some space by moving the footer.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-11.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Simply move your mouse to the blue line, till your pointer turns to a bi-directional arrow, and then click and drag to create more space.
To add more thumbnails Shift+Click the 3 last projects, right click on them and select copy and then paste. Or simply alt-drag them in the spot you’d like to copy them.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-12.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
After the new row is created you can double click the images, and add more of your projects.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-13.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
<h2>Adding more pages</h2>
Now we have finished with the home page, let’s see how we can create the rest of the 3 pages!
Click on any menu item and then from the top panel choose “Manage”. (You can access the same menu by clicking on “Pages” on the top menu.)
Then double click on “About Us”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-14.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
That will generate for us the template for the about us page. By now you should feel comfortable enough, to fill on your own.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-151250x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
You can generate and fill the Gallery page the same way. Or create your own pages. Perhaps you want each project in the home page to have its own page displaying more images and details. You can add those pages from this menu. But for our tutorial purposes, let’s also generate the “Contact Us” page to see a fine detail you need to pay attention as far as the form is concerned.
Click on the “Pages” menu, and then double click “Contact Us” to generate the page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-161250x0.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Select the whole contact form, as in screenshot and from the right panel set your email. Otherwise the form data won’t reach you! If you want to add an additional email simply click on the add email button.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-17.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
<h2>Tweak your SEO</h2>
Before we publish our website, it’s a good idea to visit the “Pages” menu once more and add some SEO details and descriptions to our pages.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-18.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-19.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
Fill in the details for each page and the click “Ok” to save your changes.
<h2>Publish your website</h2>
Simply hit publish and you are done! Your site is now live. You can upgrade your plan or edit your site name and other important settings (like adding Google analytics code, web master tools verification etc.) through your dashboard.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/webydo-tutoral-20.jpg" alt="webydo tutorial" />
You can access your dashboard at any time through the main menu on top, while you are on the design view.
I hope you enjoyed and found this tutorial useful! If you have any questions feel free to comment below!
<a href="http://dashboard.webydo.com/landingpages/starta.aspx?campaign=CMSCritic">Head on over to Webydo</a> to get started building your Portfolio (or Business, Personal) website today.

How to: Build your portfolio website fast with Webydo

mike-johnston

Now in our second year, we're reminded how lucky we are here at CMS Critic to be able to work with such great people and such an awesome community.
In the first year of our awards, we were fortunate enough to be sponsored by SiteGround, and this year, we've got a new sponsor joining us to help with the Critics Choice CMS Awards, <a href="http://craftersoftware.com/lp/g2013?s=cmscritic">Crafter Software</a>!
<img style="max-width:400px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/crafter-software-notm400x0.jpg" alt="crafter software" />
Their main product, Crafter Studio is a content authoring, management and publishing application that allows marketers and content editors to create rich web experiences. Some of the features of this platform include:
<ul>
<li>Dashboards for tracking content tasks and workflow</li>
<li>WYSIWYG authoring</li>
<li>In context preview for the web and all mobile devices</li>
<li>Workflow</li>
<li>Integrated Web Analytics</li>
<li>Multi-channel publishing</li>
<li>Hooks for language translations services</li>
<li>Site blueprints to rapidly create new mini- and micro-sites from pre-defined templates</li>
</ul>
Here's a video showcasing some of the highlights in their product:
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mSJ_7rvqMic?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Interested in learning more? <a href="http://craftersoftware.com/lp/g2013?s=cmscritic">Visit them </a>&amp; be sure to get your nominations in for the Critics Choice <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">CMS Awards</a>.

Welcome to our Sponsor for the Critics Choice CMS Awards: Crafter Software

elcomCMS 8.2 was released on June 12th, 2013 and with it come a number of enhancements, specifically in the areas of collaboration and social. Let's run through what you can expect from this latest release.
<h2>Meeting Manager</h2>
A new meeting manager module has been added to elcomCMS. This tool allows users to scheduled meetings, upload agendas, create meeting packs, invite participants and more. If you are an attendee, its gives you a portal to view calendars, meeting info and documentation in preparation for upcoming meetings. What's especially cool, however, is that is also lets the person running the meeting record minutes against agenda items in real time and keep track of the time taken. We can see this capability being useful for boards, project teams and for a myriad of others uses.
<h2>Single Social Sign-on</h2>
Also in place with this new release is the introduction of Social Sign-on to the CMS, allowing users to authenticated via OAuth with elcomCMS. Supported networks include: Facebook, Windows Live, Twitter and Google.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/oauth.jpg" />
Other capabilities introduced include the ability to track the number of page ‘shares’ and ‘likes’ individual members have made; and the ability to push and promote events managed through the elcomCMS into Facebook Events.
<h2>Responsive Images</h2>
elcomCMS now creates several sizes of the images you upload to best present them for the varying screen sizes in use nowadays. These new responsive images help ensure better quality and the serving of the appropriately sized image to the devices visiting your site.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/responsive_images.jpg" />
This prevents “squashing” of images (or scaling) and delivers a better visual experience to the end user.
<h2>Dropbox, SkyDrive &amp; Google Drive Connector</h2>
With so much data being stored in the cloud nowadays, it's nice to see that elcomCMS has added connectors for the most popular cloud storage services; Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Drive &amp; Box. You can now list, navigate and search your cloud storage from a dedicated page inside the CMS.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dropboxintegration1.jpg" />
<h2>Additional Features</h2>
In addition to the features highlighted above, you will also find Responsive Image management, PayPal Connector, SCORM management, built-in Image editing and geo-location template switching. within the new CMS.
To read more about elcomCMS 8.2, review screenshots or to arrange a 1-on-1 demo, <a href="http://www.elcomcms.com/Latest-Release-8-2">http://www.elcomcms.com/Latest-Release-8-2</a>

A Look at the New Features in elcomCMS 8.2

How do you figure out whether a CMS is good or bad? More to the point, how do you know whether the CMS you're using at this selfsame moment is hurting your business or harming it? Selecting the right CMS is a really, really big decision. It's no overstatement to say that your CMS choice can either propel your business to success or drive it to the ground in abysmal failure. Rather than scare you with doomsday tails of people who made bad decisions, I want you to provide a measuring stick by which you can determine whether your CMS is tall enough for your needs.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shutterstock_88875994600x0.jpg" />
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-88875994/stock-photo-final-exam-marked-with-isolated-on-white.html"> Exam picture </a> by Shutterstock
Here are five questions that you can ask yourself right now to figure out if your CMS is good enough.
<h2>1. How does the user interface make you feel?</h2>
Okay, this is a subjective question, but CMS choices aren't always cut-and-dried. When it comes to the UI, it's an intuitive thing. You can get a sense pretty quickly — I'm talking seconds, not days — if the interface is helping you out or slowing you down. Here are a few sample questions you can ask.
<ul>
<li>Do you have trouble figuring out how to complete a simple operation?</li>
<li>Is there something that should be easy to do, but you have to click 14 times and open 5 menus just to get to it?</li>
<li>Do you avoid certain CMS tasks because they take too long, or “it's just a hassle.”</li>
</ul>
Are you getting a sense of things? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then your CMS may have a user interface problem. I've asked this question first, because without a clear and clean user interface, you're going to have a really rough time with your CMS going forward. Simplicity, clarity, and functionality are important here.
<h2>2. Does the CMS have a healthy and responsive support network?</h2>
One day, you're going to face a problem you can't fix on your own, unless you're the Chuck Norris of CMSes. In this case, you need help. There are some CMSes out there (I've used them) where zero help exists. Whether the CMS developer was running a solo operation from his parent's basement, had retired, or had passed away, I know not. All I know is that a CMS without a help network is like a hot air balloon without a gondola.
Check to make sure that the CMS of your choice has the following. One or more will suffice. You don't need all four.
<ul>
<li>You can pick up the phone and talk to a live human being.</li>
<li>You can hop on a forum and get an answer within 24 hours.</li>
<li>You can email a problem ticket, and receive a response within 48 hours.</li>
<li>You can attend a class to gain additional information.</li>
</ul>
Don't simply rely on a fat documentation PDF to help you through your struggles. You'll need more.
<h2>3.  Is the hosting customizable and/or rock-solid?</h2>
One of the biggest oversights in selecting a CMS is the hosting issue. Often, users and testers tend to gaze at the CMS itself without remembering that everything needs to be hosted somewhere, somehow. To complicate issues, when you test a CMS, you're often doing so in a web-based environment, meaning that hosting is going to look a lot different once you've paid up and get all situated with the shiny new CMS in its hosting environment.
Many businesses use Windows VPS hosting. If this is your choice, make sure the CMS supports it. Otherwise, ensure that the CMS offers a hosting solution that guarantees uptime, can maintain traffic surges, and gives you control and flexibility as needed, such as <a href="https://www.inmotionhosting.com/">InMotion Hosting</a> or <a href="https://www.servint.net/">Servint.net</a>.
<h2>4. Does the CMS have active developers?</h2>
When I look at a CMS, I try to notice something really simple — the version number. When a CMS has a name like “Sitesuper v. 6.1.5, ” I consider that a good thing, based on the string of numbers alone. Why?
<ul>
<li>It's been around for a while, and will probably be around for a little while longer.</li>
<li>It's changing, most likely for the better.</li>
<li>It has people who are actively developing it.</li>
</ul>
That last point is clutch. If a CMS is left to survive on its own merits apart from the constant work of team of developers, it will die within a matter of months. The turbulent and ever-changing nature of the web demands that a CMS be constantly changing in order to adapt.
Let me get specific here about what kind of developmental changes should be present and/or available in your CMS:
<ul>
<li>Responsive design adaptations. If they don't already have one, most businesses will need a responsive or mobile site within the next 12 months.</li>
<li>Social capability. This is a must-have.</li>
</ul>
A team of developers is the lifeblood of a CMS.
<h2>5. Does the CMS offer extensive customizations?</h2>
Finally, you're going to need a CMS that meets your needs. In other words, you want your CMS to give you options — design options, user options, plugin options, color options, video upload options, analytics options, ecommerce options, etc., etc. Some CMSs attempt to place every user within a box, usually a very small box, that dictates how the site looks, feels, and works. This may work for some people, but if you want a scalable and robust online presence for years to come, look for something that offers a bounty of options.
If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, it may be time for you to go shopping for a new CMS. By way of disclaimer, the fewer CMS needs you have, the less important these qualifications are. If, for example, you're a photographer who's happy with a nice-looking site, you probably won't need a big enterprise CMS. For most businesses who depend on publishing, ecommerce, web traffic, or web solutions, each one of these points above is imperative for long-term success.
So, what about those qualifications of your CMS that didn't quite measure up? The good news is that here on CMS Critic, the Internet's best source of CMS critiques, you're in the right place.

Is Your CMS Good Enough?

daniel-threlfall

Since its launch in 2006, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shopify.com/">Shopify</a> has come to be one of the most respected ecommerce solutions on the web, supporting over 50,000 online stores to set up, sell and market their products.Shopify enables you to build an ecommerce website in seconds, upload or import your products, market yourself and track your growth in a variety of ways. The store itself is hosted by Shopify, although you may use your own unique domain name if you so wish.On June 4 th 2013, Shopify finally announced the arrival of Shopify 2, an updated, smoother version of its former self. The update came after a beta period lasting a few months, bringing with it a new admin interface, and an array of over 60 new features.<h2>The Impact of Shopify 2</h2>With the recent introduction of Shopify 2, the platform's admin panel has seen a complete revamp of its interface, along with the addition of a live theme preview editor. The update brings about a wide range of new, more intuitive administrative abilities and options.Shopify’s new host of features includes the ability for merchants to freely specify meta descriptions, offer partial refunds without having to use PayPal, as well as enjoy a newly improved search functionality to find order and customer information faster than ever before.Arguably, the biggest Shopify enhancements is the live theme preview, which allows merchants to build and customize the look of their store in a live preview window before publishing any updates. Colors, fonts, spacing, images and so on can all be refined instantly, yet no changes will be made until the admin is happy with the store's new look.Additional features include product bar codes, which allow for a seamless Google Shopping integration, along with easier page, product and blog editing.Aside from aesthetic and functional updates, Shopify 2 also bring two new price plans along with it. A new Starter plan valued at $14 per month, plus an Enterprise plan for $1000 per month. These pricing additions will help Shopify to appeal to both less experienced merchants, as well as the merchant who knows exactly what he or she is doing – and then some.<h2>Initial Thoughts</h2>Shopify is all about appealing to the masses. Upon entering the website, you are professionally presented with the Shopify sign up form, accompanied by the introductory video, which exemplifies the accessible nature of the ecommerce CMS.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1700x0.jpg" alt="Shopify, review, ecommerce" />The sleek look and feel of the home page is carried on throughout the set up process and beyond. From the admin panel to the store themes, everything is tailored to suit both ecommerce novices and seasoned veterans.All Shopify plans include secure, unlimited ecommerce hosting, all via their in-house servers. This eradicates the need for the user to hunt for a good hosting plan elsewhere, making it ideal for merchants looking to build their first online store.<h2>Getting Started</h2>Signing up to Shopify is a piece of cake. After naming your store and entering some personal information such as your full name and email address, Shopify will spend no more than a few seconds to create your online store.Once the set up process is complete, Shopify will present you with your brand new, glossy admin panel. Rather usefully, it will also provide you with a short six step guide to get your store up and running as quickly as possible.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.jpg" />The six steps illuminate the path to a successful store launch for those who have no experience, and also makes life easier for those who understand all there is to know about launching websites and configuring content management systems.Although the dashboard houses the six tutorial steps, it may have been beneficial for new, less experienced users to undergo an optional tour or interactive tutorial of the admin panel. Unfortunately, no such option exists, so once you leave the dashboard, you are very much alone.<h3>Adding Products</h3>To add products, you will need to navigate over to the “Products” button located on the left-hand side bar. Once there, you will be given the choice between manually adding new products, and importing products in bulk via CSV files, or through another platform.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/3.jpg" />For those of you who are migrating from another ecommerce CMS, importing your products from your previous platform will save a huge amount of time. Currently, Shopify allows users to import products from Magento, Volusion, eBay and WordPress. To begin the importing process, you will need to click “Import Products”.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4700x0.jpg" />If you do not already run an online store on another platform, you can go ahead and add your products manually by clicking “Add Products”. The process of adding products from scratch is easy to understand, with plenty of room to expand on the product's description, price, and so on. One of the newly introduced features of Shopify 2 also allows you to add a meta description for each new product, which helps with optimizing the product for the search engines.<h3>Themes</h3>Heading over to the “Themes” button on the left-hand side bar will allow you to tinker with the standard Shopify theme – named “Radiance”, or to visit the Theme Store.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/5700x0.jpg" />All of Shopify's themes can be refined via their own theme settings, or by directly editing the HTML, CSS and JS files.Accessing and using the theme settings page is easily done. Colours, fonts, buttons and more can all be customised and previewed thanks to the newly introduced live theme preview feature.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/6700x0.jpg" />Shopify's Theme Store makes it easy to browse and select new themes for your website. The themes themselves appear elegant and professionally constructed, ensuring that whichever look you decide to go for, you won't be compromising on quality.However, it must be said that the pricing of the themes is questionable. Although there are a range of free themes available, anybody wanting to opt for more complex, paid for option will find that the price jump is a steep one. Aside from the free options, the cheapest theme comes in at $80, reaching up to $180.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/7700x0.jpg" />Such prices are certainly not unheard of when it comes to professionally designed ecommerce themes, but the gap between completely free and paid-for is quite a large one, which is slightly surprising.In comparison, Magento's themes are available from $49, whilst Woo Commerce offer a small selection of free themes, with their paid-for themes being capped at a price of  just $70.<h3>Domain names</h3>Upon creating your store, you will be given a Shopify sub-domain, looking something similar to “my-store.myshopify.com”.However, you can choose to buy a new domain name through your Shopify admin panel, or link your Shopify account to a domain name which you may already own.<h3>Shipping, Taxing and Payment options  </h3>Configuring your shipping, taxing and payment information is essential when opening an online store, and Shopify does a good job of simplifying the process.By clicking on “Settings” on the left-hand side bar, followed by “Taxes”, you will be presented with the option to set tax rates for your home country, as well as the rest of the world. Shopify will also offer to calculate the tax rate per sale using its own formula. Via this page, you can also choose to tax shipping charges, or add sub-region taxes.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/8700x0.jpg" />Heading over to the “Shipping” page, which is now located on the left-hand side bar, you can set the shipping rates for different countries and regions, as well as for products which weigh above a certain amount.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/9700x0.jpg" />When it comes to setting up your payment options, Shopify yet again does a great job of catering for the less experienced.Payments can be taken through PayPal, as well as via a range of credit and debit cards, with each one being extremely straightforward to set up. Additionally, payment methods such as cash on delivery and bank transfer can be configured.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/10700x0.jpg" />On the same page, you are given the option to write up your returns policy, terms and conditions, and other general notes which can be accessed by your customers just before checkout.<h3>Pages</h3>Being able to easily create and modify different web pages to round off your online store is vital. Pages such as the “About” and “Contact” page can make or break a sales conversion. Thankfully, Shopify once more rises to the challenge.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/11700x0.jpg" />By clicking the “Pages” button on the left-side bar menu allows you to add new pages and edit existing ones with ease.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/12700x0.jpg" />The text editor is well designed and easy to use, allowing you to insert images and exercise a range of different formatting styles. You can also configure SEO settings for each individual page.When you have successfully uploaded of your products and configured your various store settings, you will be all set to begin your online selling venture.All of the above steps are the essential for getting your ecommerce store up and running, but now is the time to launch, tweak and market your store to the masses – and Shopify provides everything you need to do a good job of it.<h2>Apps &amp; Extras</h2>Once you have hurdled the basics and launched your store, you will notice that Shopify offers a fair amount of extra apps and widgets which can be found via their <a target="_blank" href="http://apps.shopify.com/">App Store </a>, or by clicking the “Apps” button located on the left-hand side bar within your admin panel.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/15700x0.jpg" />There is a healthy amount of free and paid-for apps available, coming in categories to do with sales, marketing, social media and more.To make life even easier, Shopify doesn't need you to download or upload any files to install apps on your website. instead, you can add all apps directly from the app store almost instantly.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/16.jpg" /><h2>Marketing Your Store</h2>Refining your marketing strategy is an important part of launching and sustaining your online store's presence. Shopify offers a few ways to engage with new customers, and lure old ones back to your checkout page.<h3>Discounts</h3>By heading over to the “Discounts” section located on the left-hand side bar of your admin panel, you will be able to configure a selection of discounts and special offers which you can make available to your customers for marketing purposes.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/17.jpg" />Using this feature, you can set date ranges, discount codes and a variety of discount types, all of which are useful when it comes to marketing and generally reaching out to both old and new customers, enticing them back on to your online store.<h3><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/18700x0.jpg" /></h3><h3>Blogging</h3>Blogging is a great way of ranking in the search engines and attracting new customers. Shopify provides a blogging platform which is exceptionally easy to get started with, even for users who have never published a blog post before.By clicking on the “Blog Posts” button on the left-hand side bar, you can immediately begin writing and publishing blog posts.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/19700x0.jpg" />Much like pages, blog posts are simple to set up, write, modify and publish. SEO settings are also provided to ensure you get the most out of your blogging. Once again however, it would have been useful to point out the relevance of blogging to ecommerce. With no guidance, many merchants will fail to reach the potential of their new blogs, if they use it at all.<h3>Tracking Orders and Customers</h3>Shopify does well to provide customer and order records and to help you keep tabs on the growth of your online store, and to help you understand its shortcomings.Both “Customers” and “Orders” buttons are again located on the left-hand side bar of your admin panel, allowing you to track all customer activity and information. The neatly presented metrics provided within these pages help merchants to track trends and gain insights from site traffic and sales.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/22.jpg" />Additionally, another update introduced alongside Shopify 2 allows you to review information arround abandoned checkouts via the “Orders” page. This information tells you about the customers who have abandoned the sale at checkout, giving you the option to email them to offer more support or perhaps a better deal.Generally, Shopify offers a great deal of marketing tools. Discount codes, Blogging, order metrics and even Shopify Apps – which can help with email marketing and social media, all combine to create a stellar marketing strategy.<h2>Getting Help</h2>When using any CMS, being able to seek help needs to be quick, easy and effective. Yet again, Shopify complies with the criteria.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/20.jpg" />Via the admin panel, the “Need Help” button is clearly visible, and offers the three useful options of getting in contact with customer support, visiting the discussion fourms, or even hiring a Shopify expert.Having said that, an FAQ section within the admin panel would have been a good idea, especially for those with no experience with setting up or using a CMS or online store.<h2>Price Plans</h2>Before Shopify 2, just three price plans were available to merchants. Such a limited pricing system, which originally started as high as $29 per month, priced out many merchants looking to get started in the world of ecommerce.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/21700x0.jpg" />However, Shopify 2 has brought with it two <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shopify.com/pricing">new price plans</a>, which consist of the “Starter” plan, valued at $14 per month, plus an “Enterprise” plan for $1000 per month. These new plans will certainly attract merchants looking to test the waters of ecommerce, whilst also catering for the executives and giants of the online world of commerce.Despite the relatively reasonable monthly prices, Shopify imposes a 2% transaction fee on both the “Starter” and “Basic” plans, reducing it to 1% for the “Professional” plan, and removing it completely thereafter. On top of the monthly fees, plus the standard PayPal transaction fees, it is not unfair to conclude that using Shopify alongside Payal – which will surely be a popular combination, is almost financially unfeasible.Also, in relation to the competition, Shopify's price plans are not the most favourable. Magento asks for similar monthly fees, starting from $15 per month, all the way up to $124 per month. However, the key difference is that Magento charges no transaction fees on any of its plans. Additionally, Woo Commerce is a free and open-source platform, charging no transaction fees.<h2>The Verdict</h2>Overall, Shopify does everything a good ecommerce CMS should do, and more. Undoubtedly, the release of Shopify 2 has propelled the platform to new heights, posing a serious threat to competitors such as Magento, WooCommerce and <a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a>.Getting your store online can be done in minutes, and all Shopify stores have the potential to look unique, with our without user knowledge of HTML or CSS. It does a brilliant job of appealing to both ecommerce novices and experts alike.<h4>Pros</h4><ul><li>Shopify is extremely quick and easy to set up, creating your store within minutes.</li><li>The updates of Shopify 2 greatly expand the potential of Shopify, bringing new features and capabilities to merchans on a variety of levels.</li><li>Migrating your store from a host of other platforms, or uploading products from a CSV file is incredibly easy.</li><li>The wide range of themes on offer can be customized in terms of colour, font, images, and even more thanks to theme HTML, CSS &amp; JS access.</li><li>customer and sales trends and insights can be gathered via the admin panel</li><li>The new admin panel is incredibly easy to use, understand and navigate, allowing you to upload products, make blog posts and create customer discounts in no time at all.</li><li>Enhanced abilities including partial-refunds, improved search filters and SEO friendly meta descriptions help round off Shopify's robust platform.</li><li>Customer support, discussion boards and even specially hired Shopify professionals are al on hand to provide assistance.</li><li>Google Shopping integration is easier than ever before, thanks to Shopify's introduction of product bar codes.</li><li>No third-party hosting required.</li><li>A 14-day free trial helps you get used to things before committing your payment details.</li></ul><h4>Cons</h4><ul><li>The two cheapest price plans each come with a 2% transaction fee, whilst the third offers a reduced 1% fee. These fees, alongside PayPal fees and Shopify's original monthly subscription, amount to quite a hefty sum, which will no doubt eat into any profits.</li><li>Shopify offers just 19 free themes, with the rest of the selection ranging in price from between $80 and $180.</li><li>An FAQ page within the admin panel, or an optional guided tutorial would greatly benefit merchants who are only just exploring the world of ecommerce.</li></ul><h2>Final Remarks</h2>Shopify does a remarkable job of making life simple for the ecommerce new comers who need constant guidance and simplification, whilst offering more a range of more advanced options and features for seasoned ecommerce professionals.Although many will find the ecommerce CMS to be pricey, others will argue that you get what you pay for. The release of Shopify 2 has made the platform easier to navigate and better to look at, whilst adding a huge array of extra features to an already robust set of functionalities.Shopify's revamped interface is well polished and gives attention to detail in areas where many other ecommerce CMS fail to touch upon. Without doubt, Shopify is a platform worth serious consideration for anybody looking to build an online store.<blockquote><a href="/products/shopify">Try Shopify</a>  </blockquote>

Shopify Review: Ecommerce, Only Simpler

Like many other hosted website builders, <a href="http://www.gutensite.com" target="_blank"> Gutensite </a>  allows you to easily create a simple and beautiful website in as little time as it takes you to figure out what you want to say. And because of its robust framework, advanced functionality, and ability to customize anything , Gutensite has become a refuge for non-profit and business websites that realize they need more than just a pretty online brochure and contact form.
If you want to stand out from the crowd and make sure your website brings you value, you need to optimize the design and functionality of your website to help you achieve your unique conversion goals . A good website should empower your clients/members and integrate with your existing business processes. On the Gutensite platform, you can work with directly their team or a third party designer/developer to customize your design and functionality. Or if you are ambitious you can customize the design the yourself and this tutorial will show you how.
Gutensite provides many <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/Free-Website-Designs" target="_blank"> beautiful, free design templates </a>  to get you started, so you can either tweak the template that is closest to what you want, or start completely from scratch. If you are a designer (or just adventurous), you can access the design files to work directly with the HTML, CSS and Javascript. Gutensite also uses the <a href="http://www.smarty.net/docsv2/en/" target="_blank"> Smarty templating engine </a>  to introduce logic and system variables into your HTML, so it’s very powerful.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
From your Admin home page in the main “Content” tab, click on the “Design” icon and in the left sidebar, click on “ Design Files ”.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/01_-_gutensite_design_files_folder_structure700x0.png" alt="Gutensite folder structure for editing your design files." />
On this page you will see the structure of your website, with folders related to whatever content types you have activated on your site. Gutensite has core system files that all websites use, but it will first look in your template to see if a “better” version of the file exists and use that instead. And if you customize a file personally for your website, the system will use that file instead of the template or core file. The folder view shows all these files as if they were “stacked” on top of each other so you can only see the “best” version. Colors are used to indicate which version your site is using:
<ul>
<li>
 black : the default core system files.
</li>
<li>
 red : files that have been customized for the template you are using.
</li>
<li>
 green : files that you have customized for yourself.
</li>
</ul>
Whenever you edit a file, the CMS makes a copy of the core or template version and puts it in your custom files. You can easily restore the original if you make a mistake.
<h2>Which Files to Edit</h2>
Gutensite uses common file extensions to help you figure out which file to edit:
<ul>
<li> HTML/Smarty (layout and elements): .tpl</li>
<li> CSS (styling): .css</li>
<li> Javascript (interactivity): .js</li>
</ul>
Each content type has it's own folder (e.g. /blog/), but all the generic website files are located in the /site/ folder. Below are some common files you may want to edit:
<ul>
<li>
<h3> Layout </h3>
<ul>
<li> Home Page: /site/site.home.tpl</li>
<li> Secondary Pages Shell: /site/site.shell.tpl
<ul>
<li>This is the shell that surrounds all the secondary pages content.</li>
<li>You can create custom shells for special landing pages or sections if you want, e.g. /site/site.shell_Store.tpl and then in the CMS you can assign a single page or an entire section of the site to use that alternative shell.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Header: /site/includes/site.header.tpl
<ul>
<li>Usually a reusable header file is included in the home page and shell.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Footer: /site/includes/site.footer.tpl
<ul>
<li>Usually a reusable footer file is included in the home page and shell.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Modules: /site/includes/site.module.*.tpl
<ul>
<li>These are the templates for various promo modules you may include on your home page or other pages.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Content Type Layouts: e.g. /blog/blog.home.tpl or /blog/blog.details.tpl
<ul>
<li>Any special content types will have their own folder and generally consist of a list page (multiple records on a page) and a details page (single record on a page).</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<h3> Style </h3>
<ul>
<li> Site Design Styles: /site/css/site.css
<ul>
<li>These styles will load on every page of the site.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Core Styles: /site/css/core.css
<ul>
<li>These styles will also load on every page of the site, and include some default styles that the CMS will use. It can be customized or completely gutted and replaced with your favorite CSS framework (e.g. Twitter Bootstrap). But be aware that you probably want to keep some of the default classes for errors and other system generated content.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> Content Type Styles: e.g. /blog/css/blog.css and /blog/css/core.css
<ul>
<li>Any special content types (e.g. blog) has it’s own css that you can customize, which works just like the general /site/ content type.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Example 1 – Changing Font and Color</h2>
Let’s say we want to change the default font and theme color of our template. The first thing we should do is go to our website and use your browser’s developer tools to “inspect element” that has the color we want to change in order to find the CSS that is styling these elements. Every browser has a developer mode (which you need to enable) that will let you do this. If you use Chrome, <a href="https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/"> read this tutorial explaining how to inspect elements </a> (it will be similar for other browsers).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/02_-_find_correct_element700x0.png" alt="Find the correct element on the page that has the style you want to change." />
Use the inspector to click through the DOM to find the element that has the styles. You can change the values directly in the inspector to test your new styles live.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/04_-_editing_the_color700x0.png" alt="Edit the background color of the element on the page." />
The inspector will also tell you the file where the css is located (e.g. site.css) and the class or id name controlling the style for that element.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/03_-_finding_the_class.png" alt="Find the relevant CSS class that controls the styles for the element." />
Once you know the file and class, you can find and edit the design file in the Admin and make the change. In this case, we’ll edit the .home_main_content class in / site/css/site.css and change the background-color from #FF7A4D to #E2D75A .
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/05_-_edit_the_site_css700x0.png" alt="Edit the site CSS and change the background color." />
You may want to search the rest of the CSS for the original value and swap out your new value so that the new color is used everywhere the old color was used.
To change the font, repeat the process to find the font for a specific element. Or if you want to change the font for the entire site, edit the same /site/css/site.css file and at the top you’ll see the body element styles, i.e. change: “font-family” to some acceptable font style. We recommend using <a href="http://www.google.com/fonts/"> Google Fonts </a> for free and easy fonts to include beyond the basic web fonts. You can use @import method to add the font to the top of your CSS and <a href="https://developers.google.com/fonts/docs/getting_started?hl=en"> follow their tutorial for more instructions </a> .
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/06_-_edit_font_family700x0.png" alt="Edit the site CSS and change the font family to a font included with @import." />
<h2>Example 2 – Add Variables or Logic to your Templates</h2>
Let’s say you want to add a custom button to the Shell that goes back to the last page the user was on, but if they visited the page directly you want the button to go back to a default page.
So first you want to edit the template file, e.g. /site/site.shell.tpl and add the element to the html. You can find a list of available variables by looking at the <a href="http://gutensite.com/gutensite/v/2.0/docs/1.0/installs/Standard-Variables"> Gutensite 1.0 docs variable page </a> . You can also add {debug} to the template and then view your page in report mode (http://www.domain.com?report=gutensite) which will make Smarty show you all the variables that are available (in a popup window).
The variable we want is {$PAGE_TRACKING.last} (which shows the url for the last visited page). After we know the variable, we just just use Smarty to add some logic around a link to go back to the previous page. Something like this:
<pre>{* Add Button to Go to Last Page *}{if !empty($PAGE_TRACKING.last)} &lt;a href="{$PAGE_TRACKING.last}"&gt;Go Back&lt;/a&gt;{else} &lt;a	href="/"&gt;Go Home&lt;/a&gt;{/if}</pre>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/07_-_add_logic_button_to_go_back700x0.png" alt="Add Smarty Logic to the HTML template to make a button that goes to the last page." />
This is just a very basic introduction, but Gutensite's open framework allows you to literally customize anything within your skill level. To learn more, read through <a href="http://www.gutensite.com/How-To-Customize-The-Website-Design-Files"> Gutensite's advanced design editing documentation </a> or call their customer service and ask for help. Happy coding!

How to Customize Your Own Website Design on Gutensite

With just over 113 million active blogs, Tumblr is already a big player in the world of microblogging. However, following <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-do-you-make-of-yahoos-purchase-of-tumblr/">Yahoo!'s $1.3 Billion takeover</a>, is there a chance of Tumblr becoming the next CMS powerhouse?
It's no secret that Tumblr has a long way to go before it catches up with WordPress, or even the likes of Joomla &amp; Drupal which help make up the competition, but Tumblr has some unique advantages which make it worthy of a passing mention amongst these CMS giants.
Tumblr is not a platform which readily springs to mind when thinking about content management systems, yet it certainly has the raw ingredients and potential to reach such a prestigious status.
<h2>Strong Foundations Rarely Tumble</h2>
If there is one thing Tumblr can rely on going forward, it is a strong foundation. Since its birth in 2007, the microblogging platform has gone from strength to strength.
With a total of 52 billion individual posts, it's safe to assume that Tumblr's user base is flourishing. In fact, the website boasts 300 million monthly unique visitors, with 900 posts going live every second. In light of these figures, it is not surprising that Tumblr is amongst the <a href="http://trends.builtwith.com/cms/growth#!oneYear">fastest growing CMS and blogging platforms around</a>.
Despite Tumblr's strong roots within the blogging community, it is important to note that the tumblelogging platform is still in its youth compared to WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, all of which were founded years before Tumblr.
The statistics above prove that Tumblr is a young, exciting project, and such figures would have certainly played a key role in Yahoo's decision to acquire the platform.
<h2>Tumblr as a CMS</h2>
In order to compete with the likes of WordPress, Joomla and Drupal, Tumblr needs to have a few content management tricks up its sleeve.
Tumblr's main straighten when it comes to being a CMS, is its incredible simplicity.
As the Internet continues to grow, new areas of the globe and its blossoming population are being touched. The world of blogging and social interaction are attracting people who are both younger and older than ever before, and it is precisely these untapped demographics which Tumblr could appeal to most.
Despite being extremely easy to use, WordPress still requires a learning curve to get used to. The same applies to most of the major <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/which-cms-make-up-the-wordpress-competition/">WordPress competition</a>. Tumblr on the other hand, offers a whole new level of simpleness.
Tumblr requires no installation or configuration, nor does it require you to pay for a personal hosting plan – yet still allows you to operate via a unique URL.
Additionally, Tumblr's social integration is unmatched. Re-blogging, following and liking content from other users is easy, and can promote a sense of community far quicker than most other platforms. Linking up to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks is also a breeze. It is these built-in community functions which give Tumblr a huge, unique advantage.
When it comes to design, Tumblr has some work to do. A number of themes are readily available, but page layouts are extremely limited. The only way to obtain a personalised look is to <a href="http://www.tumblr.com/docs/en/custom_themes">create a custom HTML theme</a>
Lastly, Tumblr has another hurdle to overcome, in the form of search engine optimization. All great CMS comply with, and can be optimized for popular search engines – except Tumblr.
As far as Google is concerned, Tumblr is a place where duplicate content is encouraged, thanks to the website's re-blogging feature. This, combined with the fact that many Tumblr pages lack unique title tags, combines to create a huge obstacle for users looking to rank well in the search engines.
<h2>Yahoo's Plans</h2>
Immediately following the news of Yahoo's Tumblr takeover, the company released a statement via its <a href="http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/50902111638/tumblr-yahoo">official blog</a>:
“We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.”
Although Yahoo haven't exactly detailed their specific plans for Tumblr, they imply that they will prefer a gentle approach to changing the current Tumblr infrastructure.
After both Delicious and Flickr suffered under Yahoo's rule, the promise to not screw Tumblr up is perhaps a wise statement to make, and one which many will hope Yahoo live up to.
Despite having some obstacles to overcome, there is no doubt that Tumblr has potential to become a big time CMS, blogging and social networking platform, all in one. Whatever Yahoo decide to do, it will be interesting to observe the results.
Do you think Tumblr has the potential to rival the likes of WordPress in the world of CMS? Let us know what you think.

Could Tumblr Become the Next CMS Powerhouse?

Kontent.ai - Agentic CMS

Meet the world's first Agentic CMS

#ffffff

<a href="http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?1465944" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DreamHost</a> has today launched a new Managed WordPress Hosting offering they've aptly named DreamPress. At its core, the service comprises managed Virtual Private Server (VPS) instances running on isolated, highly scalable and tuned-for-WordPress physical servers.  The application stack includes an automatically configured, in-memory caching layer for rocket-powered speed, and WordPress itself is likewise optimized and tuned for the VPS environment. Add in robot-assisted migration that leverages DreamHost-developed open source contributions to the wp-cli tool, an easy control panel interface, the advanced WordPress support that DreamHost is known for, and simple monthly pricing, and the result is a powerful yet ultimately usable and cost-effective hosted WordPress service.
With its advanced management and security features, and a 100% uptime guarantee, peace of mind is at the heart of DreamPress. DreamHost has built into the service automatic WordPress core updates, best practice security configuration to prevent common attacks, automatic mod_security web firewall rule management, and application stack management, to name some of the key features. Combine this with expert engineers operating the DreamPress service 24/7, plus a US-based technical support team available via live chat, email, or phone call – so even the most demanding implementations are equipped for non-stop operation.
Engineered for speed and backed 24/7 by expert WordPress technical support from DreamHost, this offering is available for a limited time at a ridiculously low monthly rate of $19.95!
<blockquote>
“DreamPress is hosted WordPress on steroids,” said Simon Anderson, CEO of DreamHost. “Running on specialized, optimized virtual private servers – and with each instance pre-configured by our WordPress experts for scalable performance under traffic load – DreamPress is the perfect upgrade for publishers with a growing blog or site, and developers looking to save config time. With our 15 years of experience in automating and delivering Open Source applications and platforms, our customers have been asking us to Just Do DreamPress, so we’re happy to roll it out!”
</blockquote>
<h3>What do you get for your money?</h3>
This deal gets you a performance package that includes an isolated VPS web server, a MySQL VPS database server, premium support, performance and security tuning, consulting support, and available automated backups to DreamHost’s public cloud storage service, DreamObjects. As with all DreamHost services, every DreamPress account is backed by a 97-day, money-back guarantee.
I can quite honestly say that comparable services run far more expensive and now is definitely a good time to jump on board and give this awesome offering a try. For $19.95, you can't beat it and with a 97 day money back guarantee, what do you have to lose?
Grab this deal while the gettings good and before the price increases. Visit <a href="http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?1465944" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DreamHost</a> today and click on the DreamPress tab to get started.

DreamHost launches DreamPress Managed WordPress Hosting

I'm excited to announce that the <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critics Choice CMS Awards</a> for 2013 have begun! Nominations are now open until the beginning of August. The awards categories for this year include:
<ul>
<li>Best Open Source CMS</li>
<li>Best Free CMS</li>
<li>Best Small to Midsize Business CMS</li>
<li>Best Enterprise CMS</li>
<li>Best eCommerce Solution (New for 2013!)</li>
<li>Best Social Networking Solution</li>
<li>Best Website Builder</li>
<li>Best Hosted/ Cloud CMS (New for 2013!)</li>
<li>Best Forum Solution (New for 2013!)</li>
</ul>
Be sure to let your respective communities know to get their nominations in, the more nominations, the more likely your product will be shortlisted for a Peoples Choice Award.
We've created this graphic for those that would like to use it to help promote the nominations.
<img style="margin-right:auto;margin-left:auto;display:block" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/nominate-us.jpg" />
The page you should link to is <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards/" target="_parent">https://www.cmscritic.com/critics-choice-cms-awards/</a> which contains more info and the nomination form.

Nominations are now Open for the Critics Choice CMS Awards

Today, I am excited to announce that CMS Critic is now powered by last year's winner of the Best Free CMS award in our <a href="/cms-critic-awards/">Critics Choice CMS Awards</a>, <a href="http://www.processwire.com">ProcessWire</a>! For the last several years, we've run our popular website on WordPress but found as things progressed, we continually ended up having to rely on third-party plugins to get the functionality we needed. With ProcessWire, we no longer have this issue as the bulk of the capabilities we require are built in.
Our WordPress platform, up until today, required approximately 30 plugins and had a database size of over 30 mb at the time of transfer to ProcessWire. Now, we are just over 5 mb in database size and our system is far, far faster than it was before. Not only that but we've had the site developed on the amazing <a href="http://foundation.zurb.com/">Foundation Framework</a>, which I personally had the pleasure of tweaking and adapting with a new style and layout. I have to admit, this is the most fun I've had in years of development work. I can truly say I fell completely in love with this framework. It's absolutely amazing how quickly and easily you can adapt your layout and come up with a unique look.
The transition to ProcessWire began after the first week of May when I first reached out to <a href="http://www.ryancramer.com/">Ryan Cramer</a> (lead developer and founder of PW) to find out if he thought his system would be a good fit for our needs. Our talks quickly led to us hiring Ryan to develop our site and I have to say the whole experience has been an incredibly awesome learning opportunity. It's been exciting and wonderful to learn to work with this CMS, from its simplicity to its logical programming. Ryan is a consumate professional and if working with a developer was always like this, I'd want to keep building things and never stop.
I'd like to think that this site now has an opportunity to expand past the borders and roadblocks we had encountered on WordPress into new realms of opportunity and I'm looking forward to exploring what we can do with this great CMS.
A big thank you to Ryan and I hope you like the new site. Have feedback to share? Please do so in the comments below.

CMS Critic is now powered by ProcessWire

In an email sent out to members of Drupal.org and Groups.Drupal.org, Holly Ross, Drupal Association Executive Director has advised that a security breach has exposed the personal information of those registered for these sites. Information exposed includes personal information such as usernames, passwords, country information and more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/shutterstock_135704441.jpg" alt="Hacker image by Shutterstock" /> <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=security+breach&amp;search_group=#id=135704441&amp;src=_0MCVbp98XEwZ1qDxgS9Tg-1-14">Hacker image</a> from Shutterstock
This security breach was made possible by malicious files that were placed on association.drupal.org servers via a third-party application used by that site.
Here is the email in its entirety:
<blockquote>
Dear community member,
We respect the privacy of your information, which is why, as a precautionary measure, we are writing to let you know about an incident that involves your personal information. The Drupal.org Security and Infrastructure Teams have discovered unauthorized access to account information on Drupal.org and groups.drupal.org. Information exposed includes usernames, email addresses, and country information, as well as hashed passwords. However, we are still investigating the incident and may learn about other types of information compromised, in which case we will notify you accordingly.
This unauthorized access was made via third-party software installed on the Drupal.org server infrastructure, and was not the result of a vulnerability within the Drupal software itself. This notice applies specifically to user account data stored on Drupal.org and groups.drupal.org, and not to sites running Drupal generally.
We have implemented additional security measures designed to prevent the recurrence of such an attack, and to protect the privacy of our community members.
The next time you attempt to log into your account, you will be required to create a new password.
Below are steps you can take to further protect your personal information online. We encourage you to take preventative measures now to help prevent and detect the misuse of your information.
First, we recommend as a precaution that you change or reset passwords on other sites where you may use similar passwords, even though all passwords on Drupal.org are stored salted and hashed. All Drupal.org passwords are both hashed and salted, although some older passwords on groups.drupal.orgwere not salted. To make your password stronger:
* Do not use passwords that are simple words or phrases * Never use the same password on multiple sites or services * Use different types of characters in your password (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols).
Second, be cautious if you receive emails asking for your personal information and be on the lookout for unwanted spam. It is not our practice to request personal information by email. Also, beware of emails that threaten to close your account if you do not take the “immediate action” of providing personal information.
For more information, please review the security announcement and FAQ at  <a href="https://drupal.org/news/130529SecurityUpdate" target="_blank"> https://drupal.org/news/130529SecurityUpdate </a> . If you find any reason to believe that your information has been accessed by someone other than yourself, please contact the Drupal Association immediately, by sending an email to  <a href="mailto:password@association.drupal.org"> password@association.drupal.org </a> .
We regret that this incident has occurred and want to assure you we are working hard to improve security.
Thank you, Holly Ross Drupal Association Executive Director
</blockquote>
As mentioned in the email, a security announcement has been made available which explains the issue in further detail. You can find it here: https://drupal.org/news/130529SecurityUpdate
For those who are members of these sites and use the same password elsewhere, we recommend you update those accounts with new passwords immediately.
Stay tuned for more info.

Drupal.org Security Breach Exposes Personal Information

Social is not a new buzz word.  Although we hear this term ad nauseam in most marketing, product roadmap, sales – name the department – meetings, this is an elusive topic.  Why is it so elusive?  Quite simply, this is because “social” has a different meaning to different people.  This conversation can get complicated quickly as you apply it to your CMS and overall website strategy.  So, let me demystify this for you.
But Seriously, What Does it Mean?
Social has a few different meanings.  It could mean to some people that they are able to share content on places like Facebook and Twitter.  Others may think it refers to common features like blogging and forums.  It really is just how we want to communicate and have our customers communicate with each other and with our brand.
Customers demand a different kind of website experience today.  (Yes, employees on your intranet are your customer too.)  Your customers want to communicate with your brand in a way that they’re used to in their daily life.  E-mail is boring and old.  They want to engage in a community setting.  They want to have friends, instant gratification, earn rewards, and more.  They want to feel like they are part of something.
Why a Community?  Why Now?
If you’re not leveraging a community on your website, you are missing a critical opportunity to engage with your visitors, build customer loyalty, lower support costs, and stay ahead of your competition.  If done right, a community-centric website will also keep your visitors on your site longer and cultivate brand advocates.  You’ll begin to notice that it shortens sales processes and builds word-of-mouth advertising through community generated recommendations.  After all, who trusts the car salesman over their neighbor or best friend?
Now that we understand what community is and why it is important, let’s look at the top 5 mission-critical decisions that you need to keep in mind.
<h2>1. Avoid the Nuts and Bolts</h2>
Market research has shown that building your own community software will cost you millions in development, which would likely leave you looking at purchasing an existing solution.  Make sure when you do that, you choose a solution that of course meets (and perhaps exceeds) your expectations.  This part is easy.  The hard part is not knowing what you don’t know…
Most social solutions today are hosted in a central location, forcing you to integrate with them in a way to hopefully make it appear to be a seamless transition from your website to your community.  This is clearly not ideal though and rarely works out how you expect.  Now you have to figure who is going to do that integration, how much time it will take, and how much this will cost above what you originally expected.  Don’t forget that you also now have to master this new system alongside your existing one, putting you into additional support costs right away.
You instead want to find something that fits the overall website strategy of your organization.  Why stop at just the community?  Choose a solution that also allows you to manage all of your websites, content, digital assets, users, and more.  Your total cost of ownership will definitely be better off instead of continuously bolting on a new solution every time you’re trying to solve a business problem.
<h2>2. The Only Constant is Change</h2>
You almost certainly will have the need for modification.  You might integrate custom back-end systems, an ERP, CRM, a document management system, or any other kind of application.  This is definitely a requirement of any website project today to make sure you are meeting business goals and to ensure adoption.
When you talk about choosing the solution for your community, you should also pin point exactly what it will take to make those modifications when the time comes.  Do you have the expertise in house?  Do you need to contract someone else?  Does the vendor require that they or their partners do it for you?  What are the cost differences?  Who owns the resulting code in the modification?
Probably the most important question here though is…  Will these modifications prevent you from being able to upgrade to a newer version of the software?  The last thing you want to do is get stuck in an old version or not be able to upgrade because it’s cost prohibitive.
<h2>3. Licensed to Thrill</h2>
The most commonly misunderstood concept when looking broadly over the software ecosystem is licensing.  This is never truer than in the open source space – but you want to be aware of what you’re getting yourself into regardless.
Do you own the software or are you just using it?  Does that answer fit into your business model?
If your community becomes successful, how will your cost be affected?  Are you going to be penalized for that success or can you grow your community freely?
Can you legally make modifications and where does the licensing allow you to install the software?  If you make a modification or you choose to host it in your own data center, how does that impact your licensing and support?
<h2>4. Own the Data</h2>
When you look at the various options available for community or social software solutions today, the vast majority are hosted for you.  This is a great convenience for a few reasons.  It allows you to not worry about where and how to get it up and running.  It also limits the amount of maintenance that you need to be involved in.  However, not everything is convenient about it.
You need to be fully aware of what that means to you and your business objectives.  Who owns the data?  Can you get to that data in a meaningful way?  How are you allowed to use that data?
Regardless to where and how your community is hosted, you should make sure that there are no restrictions to how you can use and access the data that is resulting from the activity of the community that you are working very hard to foster and likely paying a premium to have.  You also don’t want to invest in a model that appears to lock you in as an imprisoned customer.
<h2>5. Take it From the Horse’s Mouth</h2>
One of the things that many of us look for when making large purchases is a proof source.  You wouldn’t hire a graphic designer without seeing some examples of their work first.  The same should be true of the solution you choose to run your community.
The last thing you should do when building a community is choose a vendor that itself hasn’t proven to be able to foster its own community.  If they don’t know how to do it themselves, how can they do it for your organization?  If the vendor hasn’t been able to use their own software to build a world-class community presence, you should consider over-analyzing every detail of their value proposition and maybe even just consider another solution altogether.  Save your time.   Your time is worth something, right?
<h2>Wrap It Up Already!</h2>
Add these things together and you should end up with a rock solid solution for your organization that will allow you to meet your project requirements, align with your business objectives, and keep you agile enough to not get in the way when change happens.  It’s not easy to move from any kind of solution to another.  A social community may even be the most painful kind of solution to migrate.  Hopefully these tips will ensure that you only have to make this decision once!

Five Critical Decisions When Building a Community on Your Website

Global social media <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19816709" target="_blank">finally hit the 1 Billion user mark</a> in 2012 – and there have been no signs of slowed growth since. As they compete, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many others are slowly but surely bringing social networking to every corner of the earth.
As a result of such exponential growth, the number of content management systems dedicated to building social networking websites has greatly increased over the years. Thanks to their ever-growing number, some good old fashioned competition has spurred many social networking CMS into providing professional platforms of the highest quality. Yet at the same time, scores of poor CMS have also flooded through, hoping to nibble on a slice of the gigantic social networking pie.
To help un-blur the lines between the two groups, we have compiled 8 of the very best social networking CMS which allow you to build a well structured, professional social networking website.
As a bonus, we've also got a new post we published called “<a href="/how-to-create-a-social-network/">How to Create a Social Network</a>” that gives you full step by step instructions on the process.
<h2>1. Pligg</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pligg.jpg" alt="pligg" /> 
The Pligg content management system was designed from the ground up to manage a website with an unlimited number of authors and contributors. In essence, all participating users are in control of the website’s content. This is in contrast to the standard website structure, where only a set few managerial or administrative members control core content.
Pligg's open-source CMS is incredibly easy to use and manage, and can easily help power social networks and other interactive communites. There are plenty of templates to choose from, along with a plethora of plugins and extensions. The software encourages visitors to register on your website so that they can submit their content and connect with other users.
The unique user driven CMS relies on independent author contributions and participation. Originally, Pligg began as a simple CMS which allowed registered users to submit, comment and vote on news stories – which, to this day, remains a key feature. Amongst other social interactions, users can vote on articles and publications that interest them, and those with most votes eventually appear on the homepage of the Pligg powered website.
<blockquote><a href="http://pligg.com/" target="_blank">Try Pligg</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>2. BuddyPress</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/buddy.jpg" alt="buddypress" /> 
As <a href="/which-cms-make-up-the-wordpress-competition/" target="_blank">WordPress continues to cruise past its competition</a> year on year, the team behind the CMS giant have also released BuddyPress, a social networking equivalent to their mainstream powerhouse platform.
BuddyPress carries the same high quality structure and presentation which WordPress is famous for. It's free, open-source and allows you to customize your social networking website to no end. Features such as comprehensive personal profiles, friend connections, discussion boards, private messaging and so on, are all implemented into the foundations of BuddyPress' comprehensive CMS. Powerful extensions and plugins are on hand to help you tweak even further.
If you're aiming to add your social networking platform on to an existing WordPress website, BuddyPress is of course the natural choice. Seamless integration with WordPress is easy to achieve, making it the ultimate social extension.
<blockquote><a href="http://buddypress.org/" target="_blank">Try BuddyPress</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>3. Elgg</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/elgg.jpg" alt="elgg" /> 
Elgg is a powerful social networking platform capable of building all kinds of social environments. The robust CMS is easy to use, comes packed with a multitude of features, and offers added functionality through various Elgg plugins.
Developing a powerful, yet simple social networking platform is easy with this CMS. Elgg uses and operates on LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) making it perfect for developers who know exactly what they're doing, and know exactly what they want. Definitely one for the web development experts to ponder over.
A strong, loyal fan base helps prop us Elgg's open-source CMS. It's not strictly for building social networking websites, as Elgg has other, less community based uses. The World Bank website for example, runs entirely on Elgg. <a href="/elgg-social-networking-cms-review-and-commentary/" target="_blank">Check out our comprehensive review of Elgg</a>.
<blockquote><a href="http://elgg.org" target="_blank">Try Elgg</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>4. Dolphin</h2>
<a href="http://www.boonex.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/unnamed_4.png" /></a> 
When it comes to comprehensiveness, Dolphin can't be faulted. With features like user video chat, membership, discussion forums, file sharing, user specific RSS feeds, and more, Dolphin is capable of building social networks with incredible depth.
Dolphin implements Durpal-esque “modules” which allow you to fully customize the way your social networking website will look, feel and function. Standard modules can be used, as well as the thousands of extra third-party variables found on the BoonEx market.
A wide variety of templates, paired with the ability to create your own, makes Dolphin extremely customizable. Facebook integration, built-in mass mailers and site statistics make Dolphin a pretty difficult social networking CMS to beat. <a href="/boonex-dolphin-review/" target="_blank">Check out our in-depth review of Dolphin</a>.
<blockquote><a href="https://www.boonex.com/features" target="_blank">Try Dolphin</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>5. Oxwall</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/oxwall.jpg" alt="oxwall" />
As the winner of our <a href="/peoples-choice-winner-for-best-social-networking-solution-is/" target="_blank">2012 Peoples Choice Award for Best Social Networking Solution</a>, Oxwall is a pretty impressive and appealing social networking CMS, and one that is difficult to ignore. It offers a clean, professional feel to both admins via the CMS, and to users via crisply presented templates.
Oxwall is an incredibly flexible and easy to use PHP/MySQL social networking software platform, capable of building fertile online communities. Various plugins available to Oxwall users help personalise and add social functionality to your website. The open-source CMS is great for both small-scale social networking, as well as larger, more executive style websites.
Photo and video sharing, user blogging, advertisement management and file sharing between friends, are just some of the features that make Oxwall a CMS which is to be seriously considered amongst its rivals.
<blockquote><a href="http://www.oxwall.org/" target="_blank">Try Oxwall</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>6. phpFox</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfox.jpg" alt="phpfox" />
Much like Facebook and LinkedIn, phpFox is able to create an online community based on social profiles and content sharing. With built-in features such as pages and groups, discussion boards, Polls, Instant messaging and so, on, you can create your own, comprehensive social network with ease. It's no surprise then, that phpFox was the <a href="/critics-choice-for-best-social-network-software-is/" target="_blank">CMSCritic choice for best Social Networking Software for 2013</a>.
PhpFox offers a variety of themes, along with a WYSIWYG editor to make life simple when it comes to building and designing your social network. Monetization through advertisements is a prominent feature, along with the extensive branding and marketing options.
Numerous phpFox extensions allow you to fully personalise and refine your social networking site, meaning that achieving a unique, aesthetically appealing interface is never too difficult. <a href="/phpfox-review/" target="_blank">Check out our review of phpFox</a>.
<blockquote><a href="https://www.phpfox.com/" target="_blank">Try PHPFox</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>7. SocialEngine</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/socialengine.jpg" alt="socialengine" />
SocialEngine is the first choice for many people when it comes to constructing a professional social networking website. It integrates directly with major social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Your members can sign up to your site with their social accounts, bringing their friends along with them. Additionally, content from your website can be shared by users via their social networks, increasing your site's public visibility.
You may even customize the way your users vote, like, comment and discuss content within your website. Such deeply customizable features are hard to find elsewhere.
Run on Amazon Cloud servers, SocialEngine is a powerful social network platform with a huge array of extensions, add-ons and features. Unlike other social platforms, SocialEngine gives you complete HTML &amp; CSS access with a convenient layout editor, so your website can look totally unique. <a href="/socialengine-review/" target="_blank">Check out our review of SocialEngine</a>.
<blockquote><a href="/social-engine" target="_blank">Try SocialEngine</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>8. Ning</h2>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ning.jpg" alt="ning" />
Using Ning, you will be able to engage and communicate with your users on a whole new level. Thanks to a built-in email broadcast functionality for HTML newsletters, paired with beautifully presented content and interfaces, Ning is all about building communities in style.
Ning’s Social Sign-In feature makes it easy for new members to sign-up to your social network using their accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and others. Naturally, such integration can only do good for the publicity of your website.
Your users can easily set up profiles and blogs of their own, engaging with others via comments and discussion boards. All the while, core content published by you is also presented in a way which is compelling.
<blockquote><a href="http://www.ning.com/" target="_blank">Try Ning</a>.</blockquote>
So there you have it. The 8 social networking CMS listed above each offer their own unique features, plugins and community building extras. Some of them are tailored for seasoned web development experts, whilst others cater for the less code-savvy from amongst us.
Don't forget that when you go to set up your own social network, you'll need a reliable web hosting company. We recommend Arvixe. They are currently offering great discounts to our readers, so be sure to take advantage of the offer before it expires. <a href="/bluehost">Click here to get cheap, reliable hosting from Arvixe</a>.
Yet, all of them offer sound, proven social networking structures which are capable of real growth. If you're looking to build a social networking website, you need not look any further than this list of social networking CMS.

8 Great Social Networking CMS

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