Articles - Page 239

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

janus-boye

Theme frameworks have always been around but lately they have begun to gain in popularity as more people discover the flexibility that they bring to the table. There is no doubt that there are more than enough themes available for WordPress to suit a number of needs but frameworks provide something different, they provide individuality.
There's a good sense of satisfaction to being able to create something unique for your site and theme frameworks are a good start on this path. They also help teach you about the structure of WordPress and how powerful it can be when it's used to it's full extent.
Here is a list of what we consider to be the best WordPress theme frameworks:
<h2>PageLines</h2>
A drag-and-drop platform that allows you to build a website in a professional way. PageLines theme offers an unmatched level of customization and, for the price, is an incredibly good deal. It produces clean code and amazing websites.
Some of the Features:
<ul>
<li>Drag and Drop: A drag-and-drop platform that allows you to build a website in a professional way.</li>
<li>Responsive Design: PageLines framework will dynamically respond to the resolution of your browser or device.</li>
<li>Layout Control: Just drag &amp; drop to set up your content layout dimensions. Then select each of your 5 layout options on a page-by-page basis.</li>
<li>Section Control: Duplicate sections so that you can use them multiple times on the same page. Each section gets its own options and is controlled independently.</li>
<li>Typography: Select from over 50 web-safe and Google fonts. Completely change the look of your website's typography in seconds.</li>
<li>Color Control: Use color control to change the palette of your site in seconds. You can also change layout modes and add background images.</li>
</ul>
Interested? <a href="https://www.pagelines.com/">Try the demo</a>
<h2>Elemental</h2>
Elemental is a powerful theme with a myriad of options. With 12 page templates, tons of widgets, and customization options, it won't take much to create a unique look for your site. Elemental was designed by the same development team that put together the incredible Mimbo Pro theme.
Website: Pro Theme Design
<h2>Thesis</h2>
Thesis is a very popular theme framework. There are tons of child themes for thesis available and it's known for performing well in the search engines. It provides a large number of options and is extremely configurable. There's a bit of a learning curve to get used to but once you do, it's quite amazing what can be done with this theme.
Website: <a href="https://diythemes.com/thesis/">Thesis</a>
<h2>Genesis</h2>
Genesis is, quite simply, the most popular of the WordPress theme frameworks on the market. The reasons are simple: Amazing Support + Amazing Designs + Amazing pricing.  Genesis offers state of the art code backed by some of the top WordPress developers out there. There are tons of child themes that can be used to create amazing sites and it's extremely extensible.
Here is just one sample of how it can look (there are tons of other options on their website):
Website: <a href="https://www.studiopress.com/genesis-pro/">StudioPress – Genesis</a>
<h2>Headway</h2>
Headway is another drag and drop capable theme for WordPress that allows you to create some pretty cool layouts for your site.
Some of the features:
<ul>
<li>The Headway Grid allows you to build virtually any layout you can think of. You are no longer constrained to other limited drag and drop layout systems. Headway is beyond drag and drop.</li>
<li>Add colors, background images, rounded corners, shadows, and more all without any code. Need to customize an element on one page, but not the other? No problem!</li>
<li>Responsive grid, HTML5, and CSS3 support.</li>
</ul>
Check out the video showcasing this great theme:
Website: <a href="https://headwaythemes.com/">Headway Themes</a>
<h2>Catalyst</h2>
Catalyst is an advanced theme framework that produces great, responsive websites. It is an HTML5 framework and there are child themes available for it as well.
Website: Catalyst Framework
There are definitely more frameworks out there but these are the ones that we think are the best of the best. What are your favorites?

The Best WordPress Theme Frameworks

mike-johnston

Microsoft has entered the cloud computing market with Windows Azure and SQL Azure. They officially opened the door on February 1st, 2010.
Here is a brief explanation of the offering:
<blockquote>
The Windows Azure platform offers a flexible, familiar environment for developers to create cloud applications and services. With Windows Azure, you can shorten your time to market and adapt as demand for your service grows.
Windows Azure offers a platform that is easily implemented alongside your current environment.
<li>Windows Azure: operating system as an online service</li>
<li>Microsoft SQL Azure: fully relational cloud database solution</li>
<li>Windows Azure platform AppFabric: makes it simpler to connect cloud services and on-premises applications</li>
</blockquote>
According to their website, price plans for <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure">Windows Azure</a> are as follows:
<ul>
<li> Compute = $0.12 / hour</li>
<li> Storage = $0.15 / GB stored / month</li>
<li> Storage transactions = $0.01 / 10K</li>
<li> Data transfers = $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB – ($0.30 in / $0.45 out / GB in Asia)*</li>
</ul>
* No charge for inbound data transfers during off-peak times through June 30, 2010
Price plans for SQL Azure are, at the time of this post:
<ul>
<li>Web Edition:  Up to 1 GB relational database = $9.99 / month</li>
<li>Business Edition:  Up to 10 GB relational database = $99.99 / month</li>
<li>Data transfers = $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB – ($0.30 in / $0.45 out / GB in Asia)*</li>
</ul>
* No charge for inbound data transfers during off-peak times through June 30, 2010
For the most current pricing visit <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/pricing/">Windows Azure pricing page</a>.
It will be interesting to see how well this investment works out for Microsoft. There is no doubt they have dumped a lot of money into this project.
You can learn more at <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure">http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure</a>
There are plenty of other <a href="http://www.peer1.com/hosting/cloud-services.php">cloud server</a> products out there as well.

Microsoft opens doors to cloud computing market with release of Windows Azure

Vivvo have released a new patch for their publishing CMS that claims to provide “few nice optimization improvements, including faster template rendering and addressed couple of minor bugs. Also, this patch is important to anyone using PHP 5.3 on server, for it solves compatibility issues with latest PHP release.”
A full changelog can be found here: <a href="http://www.vivvo.net/changelog.php">Vivvo Changelog</a> and as always, Vivvo can be purchased for less than $200 from <a href="http://www.vivvo.net">Vivvo.net</a>

Vivvo release patch for 4.1.6 to boost optimization

Nuxeo, the Open Source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) company, announced today the general availability of its open source Digital Asset Management offering Nuxeo DAM.
Nuxeo DAM is the latest application based on the Nuxeo open source ECM platform, Nuxeo EP. Nuxeo DAM addresses the complex and resource-intensive demands of managing the rich media assets that companies rely on. Designed to meet the creative and ever-changing needs of marketing and brand managers, as well as the custodians of digital artifacts in education, government, military and cultural institutions, Nuxeo's digital asset management software opens up new opportunities for the creators, users and consumers of rich media to take control of their critical image, video or audio content.
According to Nuxeo CEO Eric Barroca, “Nuxeo DAM has the same high level of flexibility as its underlying platform – Nuxeo EP – thanks to its extension-point, plug-in infrastructure. Thus, Nuxeo DAM can be adapted and customized to create a new kind of media-intensive content application matching ever-evolving business and creative needs.”
Nuxeo DAM is the first application of its kind to meet the currently available draft of the OASIS Content Management  Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification. Nuxeo, along with many other industry leaders such as Microsoft, IBM, and Adobe Systems, is involved with CMIS. CMIS is a proposed standard for interoperability across multiple ECM and web content management systems that is expected to be approved this year. Nuxeo EP, as the underlying ECM platform offering from Nuxeo, includes a CMIS Server, based on the latest CMIS specification, ensuring that packaged applications such as Nuxeo DAM and Nuxeo DM benefit from the interoperability enhancements.
As an open source offering, this release of Nuxeo DAM has benefited tremendously by input from the customer and partner community during the beta period which began in December 2009. Feature prioritization, open issue reporting, access to peer-to-peer support and best practice exchange ensured the public beta offering evolved quickly to meet the needs of early adopter clients.
Nuxeo DAM 1.0 – Feature highlights:
<ul>
<li>Asset Capture / Batch Import: Media file uploads with IPTC and EXIF metadata extraction; quickly upload batches of media assets; bulk tagging with metadata</li>
<li>Annotations: Annotate pictures and office documents directly from the browser</li>
<li>Intellectual Property and Rights Management: Manage attributions and expiration dates; administrators view rights to asset folders</li>
<li>Renditions: Store multiple formats of a media file for different use cases</li>
<li>Filter-based Navigation: Browse the asset repository using dynamic visual filters on metadata (by full text, content type, folder name, geographical coverage, etc.)</li>
<li>Watermarking &amp; Export of Media Files: Watermark images to ensure appropriate distribution and attribution; configure export formats; expose a unique URL for assets, to ease integration</li>
<li>Security &amp; Access Control: Control sharing and access to assets with Access Control Lists (ACLs) on folders; support complex authentication setups, user sources, user groups, etc.</li>
<li>Configurable Content Model: Quickly define and configure the right content model for assets (define metadata, controlled vocabularies, etc.)</li>
<li>Fully Browser- and Web-based: Use of web standards and technologies to provide a rich fully browser-based user experience (no plug-in/Flash required)</li>
<li>Deep Integration Across IT Ecosystem: Leveraging enterprise-class features from Nuxeo EP, Nuxeo DAM works with existing IT infrastructure applications (LDAP for user/group management, SSO for authentication, CMIS Server, etc.)</li>
</ul>
“Digital asset management is an increasingly important component of ECM deployments due to the rise of audio and video content and the need to consistently manage brand assets,” said Kathleen Reidy, senior analyst, enterprise software at The 451 Group. “The availability of DAM in an open source model potentially makes it accessible to organizations of different sizes and types.”
DAM Deployments Assured by Nuxeo Connect Digital Asset Management software deployments represent an important investment in terms of time and resources. Successful DAM initiatives reap maximum value from their platforms by ensuring that they are fully adapted to the organization's context.
Nuxeo Connect is the comprehensive subscription offering delivering high-quality software maintenance and support for the entire Nuxeo ECM offering. DAM deployments achieve a return on time and resource investment much faster when clients subscribe to Nuxeo Connect. Customers are assured of service level agreements for problem resolution, access to certified patches, value-added design, configuration, monitoring and management tools, as well as product updates in accordance with our product life cycle policy.
More info available at <a href="http://www.nuxeo.com">www.nuxeo.com</a>

Nuxeo Releases First CMIS-Enabled Digital Asset Management Application

Wolf CMS 0.6.0 final has been released to the public. This new version of the open source content management system offers a number of changes.
Changes with this release include:
<ul>
<li>Completely revamped the install sequence.</li>
<li>A page preview status was added users to preview the page before publishing.</li>
<li>HTTPS support was added for accessing the administration area.</li>
<li>CRON support was added. The term “cron” is also used as a general reference term for all manner of scheduling services. See <a href="http://www.wolfcms.org/wiki/enabling_cron_jobs">the wiki</a> for configuration details.</li>
<li>Administrative users can now “uninstall” a plugin. This removes any database tables and settings it may have added. The plugin has to support this feature.</li>
<li>Wolf CMS now supports frontend plugin controllers.</li>
<li>A new core plugin was added called BackupRestore which will allow site administrators to create a backup of all the Wolf CMS core database tables.</li>
</ul>
Screenshot:
 
Want more info? Check out the <a href="http://www.wolfcms.org">Wolf CMS website</a>.

Wolf CMS 0.6.0 Final now available

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/eden" target="_blank">Eden</a> is a unique new CMS from Durham, North Carolina based firm, Preation.
What makes it unique in a sea of content management systems you ask? Let us show you.
First off, anyone can create a free trial account (no credit card required) by accessing the <a href="../eden" target="_blank">Eden</a> website.
Once you've done so, you'll enter the dashboard which provides an overview of available options:

The dashboard gives you quick updates from the Preation team as to what has changed recently, as well as site statistics (if you scroll down you will see these):

Exploring the various options, there is an Album link which will allow you to define an album for your media as well as create and select a folder.
Next there is an authentication tab where you can define which user roles are able to see various areas of the CMS.
There is then a calendar feature which lets you define and categorize events with quite a bit of detail (Note: screenshot does not show all available options as it would be too long ):

Following the calendar is the file manager which gives you an interface where you can import images from a URL or select files individually.
The file manager is very fast and works very well.

Selecting multiple files with the ctrl-key and uploading them worked without issue as you can see from the 3 images we randomly selected below. They were all uploaded quickly and the system provides nail shots of each.
They can then be renamed and descriptions added:

Form management is the next selection in the dashboard. From here you can create as many custom forms as you like and the system will provide you with plenty of options to adjust them to your needs:

Next is the optimization tab which shows your calculated SEO scores for each of your pages:

Now here's our favorite part of this system.. the Page tab.
This tab shows you the hierarchy of your website represented as follows:

What's neat about this is the way they have handled the content and page editing.. clicking on any of the pages presents a dialog with options.

Selecting the settings option will provide you with the following options:
<ul>
<li>Name</li>
<li>Description</li>
<li>Layout (you can select the number of columns)</li>
<li>Page type</li>
<li>Whether or not to show the page in navigation</li>
<li>SEO info such as page title, keywords, description, SEO target keywords, optimization info, and more.</li>
<li>Analytics code entry (for Google Analytics)</li>
<li>Copyright information</li>
<li>Logo selection and Header image</li>
</ul>
Selecting the edit option lets you get your hands dirty and begin building your pages / content:

What's unique is that as you are populating the page with content, the SEO value is being analyzed and presented in real time to give you an idea as to how well you can expect your site to perform. We're not sure how accurate it is and what it is judging based on but it's a nice feature and we certainly appreciate having it as a guide.
The theme tab has a few themes which you can select from to give you a starting point for your site:

The final two options include user management and URL management and are pretty straight forward.
Pro's
<ul>
<li>Easy to use</li>
<li>Quick and responsive</li>
<li>Reasonably priced</li>
</ul>
Con's
<ul>
<li>No integrated CSS or HTML editing</li>
</ul>
Overall, it's a great starter system and being that you can upload your own designs to use with the system, the lack of integrated CSS and HTML editing isn't a massive issue but it would be nicer if it was included.
Eden is definitely a step in the right direction for ease of use and we can only hope that they keep improving.
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/eden">Check it out for yourself.</a>

Eden CMS Review

The latest release candidate of what will soon become <a href="http://www.ocportal.com">ocPortal</a> 4.3 comes with a number of new features. The most significant of these is a new importer for the popular open source CMS platforms, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/joomla">Joomla</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/wordpress">WordPress</a>.
Some other features that this new release candidate bring to the table include:
<ul>
<li>HTML website importer</li>
<li>iCal exporter</li>
<li>Quiz responses CSV exporter</li>
<li>New “importer redirects”, so that when you go to import it'll easily redirect you to the correct place in ocPortal for cases when import is done natively through modules (e.g. CSV importing)</li>
<li>New Comcode ‘pulse' tag (as seen on our website, where we write ocProducts (it's configurable with parameters)</li>
<li>Added submit-URLs to the side_news block and main_forum_news block and side_forum_news block</li>
<li>Added reply counts to the side_forum_news block</li>
<li>Added new parameter to main_leader_board block, to filter out staff from the points leaderboard</li>
<li>Added CAPTCHA support to the main_contact_simple block and main_contact_us block</li>
<li>The search will now auto search for expanded day selection if it can't find results for the default days selection (and tell the user it did)</li>
<li>Allowed the download A-Z index to support ocFilter notation</li>
</ul>
This is, of course, just a sample of the full changelog which you can find <a href="http://ocportal.com/site/news/view/new_releases/43_rc3_released.htm">here</a>.

Latest ocPortal release candidate includes importers for Joomla and WordPress

CMS Summit 25

Find out at CMS Connect 25, August 5 - 6 in Montreal, Canada. Seats are limited.

CMS. Content. AI. Where is it all headed?

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Nuxeo, the Open Source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) company, announced today that it has enriched the value of its Nuxeo Connect support and maintenance offering with the introduction of Nuxeo Studio.
Nuxeo Studio, a newly released configuration and customization environment for Nuxeo open source ECM, is available as a value-added component of the Nuxeo Connect subscription service. Nuxeo Studio is available as a web-based administrative tool for Nuxeo Enterprise Platform (Nuxeo EP) and packaged applications such as Nuxeo Document Management (Nuxeo DM) or Nuxeo Digital Asset Management (Nuxeo DAM).
“Nuxeo Studio is allowing us to customize Nuxeo ECM quickly in-house without developers. We've been able to skip some time-consuming steps, which has greatly sped up development of our document management application. Nuxeo Studio also gives us closer control of any customizations and much faster turn-around on overall development,” said Camille PINET, Project Manager at IGN France International, a geographic engineering company.
With an easy-to-use graphical interface, Nuxeo Studio enables information architects and business analysts to fully configure both Nuxeo EP and Nuxeo DM to adapt to their organization's unique requirements, without extensive training. Nuxeo Studio enables technically savvy business users, solution providers, and system integrators to accelerate the time-to-value of their Nuxeo open source ECM platform-based projects.
Nuxeo Connect is the comprehensive subscription offering delivering high-quality software maintenance and support for Nuxeo ECM. Customers subscribing to Nuxeo Connect are assured of service level agreements for problem resolution, access to certified patches, value-added design, configuration, monitoring and management tools, as well as product updates in accordance with our product lifecycle policy. Beginning with approachable base packages, and scaling to premium 24/7 support levels, Nuxeo Connect adapts to the needs of its customers as their projects mature.
In addition to Nuxeo Studio, Nuxeo Connect customers have access to other premium tools and support packages that are specifically tailored to fit their requirements. The support packages target developers and operations, tiered by Silver, Gold, or Platinum service level agreements, to give Nuxeo's customers flexible, value-added options for the maintenance of their content applications.
More information about Nuxeo Connect and Nuxeo Studio is available at <a href="http://www.nuxeo.com">www.nuxeo.com</a>.

Hosted Design and Configuration Environment Now Available for Nuxeo ECM

Bitrix, Inc. (<a href="http://www.bitrixsoft.com">www.bitrixsoft.com</a>), a technology trendsetter in business communications solutions, announces Y2009 business results that demonstrate significant growth in key business indicators.
During 2009, Bitrix registered worldwide revenue growth of 32% while keeping the EBITDA at 20% and CAGR (2005-2009) at 77,8%. The global installed base exceeded 30,000 projects while the customer list was reinforced by a number of both large enterprises and SMBs from various vertical markets. In the course of the year, the company signed contracts with VTB Bank (recognized leader in the Russian banking sector), Independent Media (publisher of world-famous Cosmopolitan, Vogue and other magazines), Gazprombank, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motor, Samsung Mobile, Xerox, Panasonic, Epson, Zurich Insurance, Oranta Insurance, Royal Canin and many others.
“We see companies, especially SMBs, are turning to the Internet as a natural opportunity to compensate the traditional business slowdown and increase the effectiveness of internal communications and collaboration,” said Dmitry Valyanov, President of Bitrix, Inc. “This is an opportunity for us to offer customers competitive solutions that can boost their online presence and create highly-productive enterprise-wide workspaces.”
2009 was a very positive year for Bitrix in terms of product development. The product portfolio was improved with Bitrix® Intranet Portal, a high-end Enterprise 2.0 software solution and Bitrix® Virtual Appliance, a ready-made platform to run Bitrix products in a Cloud/SaaS environment. The company also initiated launch of a new partner program and experience great success in channel development, widening its worldwide partner network to 4,000+ resellers, VARs, wed developers, hosting companies and service providers.
Since its foundation, Bitrix has followed a course of rapid but completely organic growth driven by a discerning sensitivity to the technical and practical needs of the market. The company experienced unmatched success in the Russian market, gaining a staggering market share of 65.3% according to independent research. Despite the negative global economic background, Bitrix continues to demonstrate growth that is an order of magnitude greater than the software sector as a whole.

Bitrix Reports Record Sales in 2009

A new version of the open-source content management system, SilverStripe, is now available for download. This release is primarily a bugfix release and according to the <a href="http://silverstripe.org/silverstripe-2-3-5-released/">changelog</a>.
For more information about SilverStripe, you can read our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/silverstripe-cms-review/">SilverStripe review</a> or check out all of our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/tag/silverstripe/">SilverStripe-related articles.</a>
You can also learn more by visiting their <a href="http://www.silverstripe.org">homepage</a>.

SilverStripe CMS 2.3.5 released

A new version of <a href="http://www.s9y.org">Serendipity CMS</a> (s9y) has been released. This is the content management system that powers this site and our sister site, <a href="http://www.linuxcritic.com">Linux Critic</a>.
Serendipity 1.5.2 was released to address the outstanding issue of SQLite installations with Serendipity. Full details on the release can be found at the <a href="http://blog.s9y.org/archives/216-Serendipity-1.5.2-released.html">release announcement on s9y.org.</a>
You can download the latest release from <a href="http://www.s9y.org">s9y.org</a> as well.

New version of Serendipity CMS available

A critical exploit has been found in the open source CMS, <a href="http://www.e107.org">e107</a>.
The e107 team is asking that if you know someone who is running the system or if you are running it, you upgrade immediately to prevent any potential security issues from arising.
From the announcement:
<blockquote>
We were recently informed of a very nasty exploit that, as far as we can see, affects almost all e107 0.7 releases. Everyone running e107 needs to get their sites updated as soon as possible. If you are a site owner and you are unable to upgrade for some reason (too much hacked core code), please contact me directly and I can help you with a quick-fix.
Please get the word out to all other e107ers. If you find an e107 site out there, post on their site somewhere about this upgrade.
We have also included an automatic update check in this release. It was in previous ones, but was based of sourceforge's rss feed, which they apparently don't want to fix. The new code will now check a file on e107.org, which will always contain the most recent e107 release information. If there is an update available, you should see a notice on your main admin screen. Depending on your admin theme, it may also appear in the left column of all admin pages.
</blockquote>
You can download this release from <a href="http://www.e107.org">e107.org</a>

Critical exploit found in e107 CMS

SEOTOASTER, the most advanced SEO CMS out of the box, that is also free and open source announces immediate availability of its seo website builder software in French, Spanish &amp; Portuguese. This releases covers both accents support for websites URL's, spell checking and other fields &amp; components critical to help websites rank higher with search engines for their respective languages. In addition, the website builder tool's user interface itself is now available in these three languages.
SEOTOASTER is an easy to use SEO website builder, and it is free and open source. SEO Toaster features an unique content management system or CMS architecture that grows with your business, and makes piloting SEO execution and marketing for multiple websites from a central automated web marketing location possible.
SEO Toaster represents a serious alternative to Yahoo Stores for small e-commerce websites or WordPress when used by small businesses as a corporate CMS.
SEO Toaster enables the entrepreneur, e-tailer, or local small business owner or marketer to quickly establish their Web marketing presence with a single overarching objective: Acquire top website rankings, generate leads and sales.
“I'm thrilled to announce the release of seotoaster in three important languages used by over 275 millions Internet users.” says Michel Leconte, the CEO of SEO Samba – the entity behind open source seo cms' seotoaster, and adds; “now, seotoaster unique abilities are available to entrepreneurs, web marketers, affiliates, and open source web developers in France, Spain, Portugal, but also Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Canada and the Americas in its entirety. If you're an importer or exporter located in the U.S or UK, this is an important release as well for you.”
SEO Toaster use an easy, front-end SEO CMS, where you log-in and simply surf your live website and edit content right onto the page itself, and building, importing or customizing a website theme takes as little as 30 minutes for a web designer. Unique search engine optimization features include automated re-directs; onsite SEO, onsite optimized linking, ink sculpting using Java script, and even point and click links silo building and everything is ready and easy-to-use out of the box.
Website designers, business services, product comparison and information providers affiliates can also take advantage of this language release thanks to a set of banners available in their respective language.
To learn more about SEO Toaster, please visit <a href="http://www.seotoaster.com/">http://www.seotoaster.com/ </a>

SEO Toaster announces support for multiple languages

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