Articles - Page 245

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

msalvatierra

A new release candidate for TYPOlight is available for testing. For obvious reasons, this is not recommended to use on production sites but if you are willing to assist them with testing, it would be greatly appreciated.
A full change log that itemizes what has been done since release candidate 1 can be found here: <a href="http://www.typolight.org/changelog.html">TYPOlight changelogs</a>.
One of the key changes is an Improved Events list:
<blockquote>
Similar to the improved news lists, the event list interval can now be set dynamically by changing the parameter name in the URL. The module responds to “year”, which displays all events of the specified year, to “month”, which displays all events of the specified month and to “day”, which displays all events of a particular day. In addition, you can configure the news list to only show past or upcoming events, which replaces the upcoming events module (removed in version 2.8.RC2).
</blockquote>
You can learn more about TYPOlight or download the release from <a href="http://www.typolight.org">their website</a>.

New release candidate for TYPOlight 2.8 available for testing

mike-johnston

Looks like WordPress has another release close on the heels of 2.9 which was released a <a href="/wordpress-2-9-has-officially-been-released/">couple of days ago</a>.
Apparently, this is due to a bug in certain versions of PHP's curl extension. Right now this maintenance release is in beta until they determine for sure that it resolves the issues correctly without creating further ones.
From the announcement:
<blockquote>With these versions of curl, scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly. To fix this problem as well as a handful of other, lesser issues, we are quickly releasing 2.9.1, the first maintenance release of the 2.9 line. Help us get 2.9.1 ready to go by testing 2.9.1 Beta 1.</blockquote>
You can grab the release from the <a href="http://wordpress.org/development/2009/12/wordpress-2-9-1-beta-1/">release announcement page</a>.

WordPress team releases 2.9.1 beta 1 to address PHP Curl bug

Described as the open source social engine which powers all kinds of social environments, Elgg, was first created back in 2004 and built to run on the popular php/mysql combination. <a href="http://www.elgg.org">Elgg</a> is easily installed once a database and its proper credentials have been created.
In my test install, I created a new website at my web host and FTP'd the necessary files to install Elgg 1.6.1 to the root of my new site. One thing that was different in this install compared to others I've tested is that Elgg requires you to create a data directory the system uses to store uploaded files, profile icons and photos that sits outside the root of the website.
Not a big deal, just something to note as you follow Elgg's <a href="http://docs.elgg.org/wiki/Installation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">installation documentation</a>.
<h3>Administration</h3>
Once installed, I was perplexed with a sparse login page that sported basically a blank page and login box. I retraced the installation steps in my mind trying to remember if I had created an administrator account. If you're like me, you don't necessarily read all the documentation every time. Finally I registered as a user just to see what would happen. The message “You have successfully registered for New Elgg site.” appeared. Then, after logging in, a new message told me that my administration account had been successfully created. Of course, I could have saved some angst on my part by actually reading in the configuration documentation that the first user account is the administrator account. Lesson learned.
Elgg presents the administrative account with a site management interface that is very gray, but decently organized. As prescribed by its creators, I navigated to the tools administration page and enabled all of the widgets provided by the typical installation which includes such standards as pages and blogs, but also niceties like captcha, notifications, content reporting, garbage collection, and validation emails. From the left navigation bar in the administrative area, all management functions are easily accessible. And, while it's not eye-grabbing, the interface is functional and easy to understand.
 
<h3>Dashboards</h3>
In addition to my administration account, I created two more user level accounts. Mike1 was added via the administrative panel and Mike2 was created by a typical front-end registration on the site itself.
Both methods worked as advertised and each member was provided a dashboard from where they could add and edit the amount of information displayed. The default dashboard comes blank but the site administrator has the option on determining which of the base widgets are pushed out to the subsequent dashboard of each registered user. I can see where an admin would want to push basics out like pages, friends, activity, and the file widget just to get things started. The individual member has full control of their dashboard so they also have the privileges of removing widgets they don't want as well. As Mike1, you can see that I added the pages, friends, activity, group membership and wire posts widgets. What's nice about this system particularly is that I can click Edit page and simply drag the /widgets to the appropriate channel position, save, and I have new widgets to work with. If you've worked at all with WordPress, the channel management feature in Elgg will feel familar.
 
<h3>Pages</h3>
To add a new page, a member simply navigates from their Pages widget to the More Pages link. This link goes to the Pages home where you can add a new page and/or edit your welcome message that will appear on your pages home.
You can also reach your pages by navigating the top navigation bar from Tools &gt; Pages to arrive at the pages home as well. Regardless of which path you take, you arrive at a nicely organized interface that offers a clean, basic method to add content pages. Pages have the ability to accept comments from other members, have sub-pages, as well as the ability of the author to set read/write permissions.
I do have one gripe regarding the editor. I use the tab key a lot to advance to the next text field or box, but in Elgg's editor I have to depress the tab key 16 times to move from the page title text box to the body of the page. Then five more times to get from the body to the tag text box. This feature I could definitely live without.
 
<h3>Blogging</h3>
The blogging widget also comes with the default Elgg installation and in my test, I created one blog entry for users, Mike1 and Mike2. Neither could see the other's blog from their dashboard under the Activity widget until they either became friends or visited the homepage of the website where the widget Latest Blog Posts displays all of the latest posts from members. Each member is provided an interface that includes links to not only their blog but to their friends blogs, all site blogs, and of course, the ability to write a blog post link.
If the user decides to write a blog post, they will find that the new post interface is nearly identical to the new page interface. The only difference I could see is that when I user creates a new page, edit permissions is assignable and with blogs, only viewing levels can be assigned.
One feature that I either wasn't able to figure out or isn't available with the default installation was how to add the blog widget to either of my user's dashboard. It would be nice to have something similar to that of the pages widget only for blogs.
Currently, at least from the experience I had, you can only access your blog homepage from the top navigation bar going from Tools &gt; Blog. If you know how, please comment and let me in on it.

<h3>Summary</h3>
In addition to the page and blog widgets, the default installation provides recent bookmarks, twitter integration, group membership, activity, wire posts, and file management. All performed well and I was especially fond of the wire posts where you can make a quick post similar to that of Twitter and tell everyone who is a member of the sight special news or make an announcement. Even though I focused mainly on the default widgets, there is a slew of add-ons available at the <a href="http://community.elgg.org/mod/plugins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elgg community site</a> offering everything from sitemaps and polls to Facebook, MySpace and AdBrite integration.
I like simplicity and this seems to be a running theme throughout Elgg. While my review was focused more or less on the management of content that the user creates via pages, blogs, I only scratched the surface on my test of Elgg and look forward to working with it more to see what it can really do.
<h4>Pros</h4>
<ul>
<li>Comparable to some commercial offerings.</li>
<li>Easily extensible with a vast collection of widgets.</li>
<li>Easy to navigate and administrate.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Cons</h4>
<ul>
<li>Tabbing in the editor was tough to work with.</li>
<li>Look and feel of the default install fell flat.</li>
<li>Remember, the first account is the administrator account.</li>
</ul>
Website: <a href="http://www.elgg.org">http://www.elgg.org</a>
<h4>About the Author</h4>
Based in the Pacific Northwest, Michael Childress has been a system analyst and writer for 10 years. He currently writes for CMS Critic and is a full-time analyst.

Elgg Social Networking CMS - Review and Commentary

The open source content management system, <a href="http://www.s9y.org">Serendipity</a>, the platform that runs this very site and our sister site, <a href="http://ww.linuxcritic.com">Linux Critic</a> has been upgraded to 1.5.
(note: after we wrote this article, there was a bug found so the newest version is actually 1.5.1)
Additional details from the release announcement:
<blockquote>
This version mainly addresses login security by changing our method how passwords are stored to use salted SHA1 checksums instead of plain MD5 checksums. This makes password retrieval (rainbow attacks, see <a href="http://blog.s9y.org/archives/205-Serendipity-Snapshot-New-login-hashing.html">special blog posting</a>) through the database virtually impossible. Another thing is improved PHP 5.3 compatibility.
For users of our Bundled WYSIWYG-Editor <a href="http://www.xinha.org/">Xinha</a> users now have the ability to easily customize the appearance of this panel through a “my_custom.js” file inside the template directory (a draft of such a file can be found as fallback default in the htmlarea/subdirectory).
One cool new feature for developers is that now also templates can register themselves inside the plugin API hooks to execute specific things, that don't require installation of an event plugin.
Other news include:
<ul>
<li>new event API hooks</li>
<li>fixed PDF nail generation</li>
<li>ability to auto-scroll on borders when Drag/Dropping plugins</li>
<li>UTC server time zone support</li>
<li>improvements in the Smarty functions to easier use Serendipity as a CMS for individual entry output.</li>
<li>quicksearch improvements for doing a wildcard-search when too few searchresults were found on a fixed searchterm</li>
<li>support for Typepad anti-spam server-checks, additionally to Akismet</li>
</ul>
Minor improvements since the 1.5-beta1 release:
<ul>
<li>more PHP 5.3.0 compatibility improvements</li>
<li>Disallow uploading any files that contain “.php.” in the filename for extra security with Apache MimeMagic-Modules</li>
<li>expermiental PDO:SQlite support</li>
<li>usability improvements for the comment moderation panel (bottom-navigation, removed border increase)</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Grab your copy today at the <a href="http://s9y.org">Serendipity website</a>.

Serendipity CMS sees 1.5 upgrade

Over the weekend, a <a href="//www.typolight.org/news/items/major-security-hole-in-the-typolight-install-tool.html">major Typolight security hole</a> was identified that allows hackers to bypass password authentication and gain access to Typolight sites.
In an email sent to the Typolight community, the Typolight team has made it quite clear the impact of this security hole and why they want people to patch immediately.
We would like to applaud the Typolight developers for their honesty and the time they have taken to explain to people why they need to patch right away. It's clear the Typolight team does not mess around when it comes to security and that's should make those using their CMS feel like they have made the right choice.
More about this security hole and how to fix it can be found here: <a href="http://www.typolight.org/news/items/major-security-hole-in-the-typolight-install-tool.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.typolight.org/news/items/major-security-hole-in-the-typolight-install-tool.html</a>

Major Typolight CMS security hole identified

WordPress 2.9 has officially been released to the public today. With a number of awesome improvements, this makes for one of the best upgrades to date.
Some of the key improvements from the user standpoint include:
Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
Screenshot of image editor: Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
<a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Embeds">Easier video embeds</a> that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).
<ol></ol>
You can see the full announcement of this releases on <a href="http://wordpress.org/development/2009/12/wordpress-2-9/">WordPress.org</a>

WordPress 2.9 has officially been released

Two new releases of the extremely popular open source content management system, <a href="http://drupal.org">Drupal</a>, are available for public consumption. These new versions cover both the 5.x series and the 6.x series.
You can preview the <a href="http://drupal.org/node/661600">Drupal 6.15 release notes</a> as well as the <a href="http://drupal.org/node/661598">Drupal 5.21 release notes</a> to see the full list of changes.
From the announcement:
Drupal 5.21 and 6.15 were released in response to the discovery of security vulnerabilities. Details can be found in the official security advisory:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://drupal.org/node/661586">SA-CORE-2009-009</a></li>
</ul>
To fix the security problem, you can either (1) upgrade Drupal or (2) patch Drupal.
We strongly recommend you do a full upgrade (which is also detailed in the security announcement) as the patches do not contain the additional bug fixes that went into the releases. Applying the patches will leave your site in an unversioned state and confuse the update status module, which will keep reminding you to upgrade to 6.15 or 5.21. Please read the announcement for details on the patch.
If you still prefer to patch Drupal, apply the <a href="http://drupal.org/files/sa-core-2009-009/SA-CORE-2009-009-6.14.patch">http://drupal.org/files/sa-core-2009-009/SA-CORE-2009-009-6.14.patch</a> file to your Drupal 6.14 codebase or <a href="http://drupal.org/files/sa-core-2009-009/SA-CORE-2009-009-5.20.patch">http://drupal.org/files/sa-core-2009-009/SA-CORE-2009-009-5.20.patch</a> to your Drupal 5.20 codebase.

Two new Drupal CMS releases are now available

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A release candidate for what will become WordPress 2.9 has become available on <a href="http://WordPress.org">WordPress.org</a>.
WordPress 2.9 will feature a significant number of changes to the popular blog / cms platform. You can see a full list of features and enhancements on the <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_2.9">WordPress 2.9</a> page.
The development team is in need of people to test out plugin compatibility.
You can grab a copy of it here: <a href="http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.9-RC1.zip">http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.9-RC1.zip</a>
Screenshot of the new Admin Interface:

WordPress 2.9 release candidate 1 available

After a lengthy 14 months of development time, the final version of <a href="http://community.impresscms.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=446">ImpressCMS 1.2</a> has been released.
ImpressCMS started as a fork of XOOPS CMS and has had a pretty successful history so far. Having won an award in 2009 for Most Promising Open Source CMS, this system has done very well since its inception.
Some of the features in this release include:
<ul>
<li>Imagemanager, with online editing</li>
<li>Fully customizable Profile module, with social networking features</li>
<li>Content module</li>
<li>Autotasks</li>
<li>AJAX Redirect – no more redirect page!</li>
<li>HTMLPurifier configuration</li>
<li>Captcha configuration</li>
<li>Themes for the admin area</li>
<li>Separate home pages for each group</li>
<li>Textsanitizer plugins</li>
<li>Installer – new look, using AJAX and you can install modules while installing your site</li>
<li>Search results page</li>
<li>Adsense management</li>
<li>Centralized Ratings and Mimetype management</li>
</ul>
A full change log can be found here: <a href="http://wiki.impresscms.org/index.php?title=Change_Log#Impresscms_1.2">ImpressCMS 1.2 Changelog</a>
Alternatively, you can read the announcement here: <a href="http://community.impresscms.org/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=446">ImpressCMS 1.2 release announcement</a>

Final version of ImpressCMS 1.2 has been released

Vivvo is offering up some pretty sweet deals just in time for the holidays. So if you are on the fence about whether to upgrade or purchase Vivvo, now is the time to do it.
Right now, if you are a Vivvo Standard license holder and want to upgrade to Professional, you can do so for only $39.95. That's $60 off the regular price of $100.
Also, they are offering this wicked deal: With every purchase of Vivvo CMS License – you get another one completely FREE, with 6 months of free support and upgrades package! This applies to both standard and professional versions.
Not sure?
Check out our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/vivvo-cms-review/">Vivvo Review</a> or <a href="http://www.vivvo.net">their website</a> to learn more. Hurry though, the offer ends December 31st 2009.

Vivvo offers up holiday specials for it's popular CMS

Software Update Gives Designers Enhanced Control Over Layout and Styling Of Dynamic Content, Delivers Enhanced Event Calendar, Blog, Spam Filter and Accessibility Compliance
Systems Alliance Inc., a software development firm and systems integrator providing high-value IT and business consulting services, today announced the release of Enhancement Pack 6 (EP 6), a software update for the company’s <a href="http://www.siteexecutive.com/">SiteExecutive Web content management</a> (CMS). EP 6 introduces a new application layout editor and event calendar application, SiteExecutive Developer Edition, and enhancements to a number of other SiteExecutive components and capabilities.
 
New Applications
 
Designers will be especially pleased with the new application Layout Editor, which provides a graphical user interface for arranging and styling dynamic content. This simplifies the process of defining and applying cascading style sheet (CSS) values to various content elements using reserve classes, providing designers with much greater control and flexibility, while also speeding the development of complex, dynamic Websites.
 
The new Event Calendar Application extends the functionality of the existing SiteExecutive Event Calendar Module. It addresses client requests for enhanced event and calendar management, search and display capabilities, including:
<ul>
<li>Better categorization – it’s now easier to create and maintain event categories, making it easier to associate event content with other site content</li>
<li>Improved SEO – URLs, title and browser tags are now search engine friendly</li>
<li>Smarter layout and design – layout editor and extensive set of reserve classes enhances visual integration of calendar and event content with site graphics</li>
<li>Greater scalability – database enhancements enable better performance for sites with multiple event calendars and large numbers of events</li>
</ul>
With EP 6, Systems Alliance is introducing enhancements to the SiteExecutive API which will accelerate development of custom applications, modules and integration with third-party applications and data sources. To support the adoption of the new API, Systems Alliance has also revamped its API and Extensibility training program, which is now offered as a three-day course. All clients who complete the training will be offered a free SiteExecutive Developer’s Edition license for use on local workstations only.
 
Other Enhancements
 
EP 6 includes a number of additional client requested enhancements, including:
<ul>
<li>Better blogging – the SiteExecutive Blog Application is now easier to deploy and configure using the new Layout Editor and reserve classes</li>
<li>Improved SPAM filtering – the SPAM filtering built into the SiteExecutive Advanced Forms module – reduces SPAM form submissions – has been enhanced to reduce false positives and now generates automated notifications alerting Website administrators of possible SPAM submissions.</li>
<li>Smarter navigation – enhancements to the SiteExecutive Site Map and Site Info modules provide greater control over the range of content types displayed, enhancing site navigation and usability</li>
<li>Accessibility compliance – EP 6 provides two enhancements for boosting site accessibility and SEO performance:</li>
<li>Assignment of table header tag &lt;th&gt; at cell, row or column level</li>
<li>Assignment of “default language” html code at the site, folder or page level</li>
</ul>
A complete list is available from the <a href="http://www.siteexecutive.com/support/support-center.html">SiteExecutive Support Center</a> (requires login). 
About SiteExecutive Web Content Management Software SiteExecutive Web content management software reduces the complexity, cost and effort of building highly effective Websites for organizations of all sizes. It gives non-technical personnel the means to create and publish Web content and deploy Websites in real-time, while enforcing compliance with organizational processes, branding guidelines and industry best practices. To learn more, please visit: <a href="http://www.siteexecutive.com/">http://www.siteexecutive.com</a>.

About Systems Alliance Systems Alliance, Inc., founded in 1993, is a Maryland-based company that provides business and technology consulting services to leading corporate and public sector clients, including Asurion, Condé Nast, Johns Hopkins Institutions, Random House, Inc., Baltimore County Government, and Maryland Department of Transportation. Systems Alliance has local offices in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Michigan. To learn more, visit <a href="http://www.systemsalliance.com/">http://www.systemsalliance.com</a>

Systems Alliance Releases Enhancement Pack 6 for SiteExecutive Web Content Management System (CMS)

Inspirit, a Sao Paulo based-technology developer and global distributor for Digital Intelligence, with offices in Santiago (Chile) and Miami (USA), announces the release of the Si4 CMS Content Management System platform, which permits access control via smart card / tokens and integration with major social networks.
Si4 CMS facilitates publication, maintenance and control of content and news, product and service lists to be integrated with e-commerce and with business project campaign control projections, including the creation of rules for control and access levels.
Major publishers, universities and companies across several industries are already using the Inspirit platform. Its functionality provides users with a greater level of security in managing information and system access through pre-defined rules.
Supplied as software as a service (SaaS), Inspirit CMS can be integrated with social networks, in addition to guaranteeing an increased level of content indexing, including security at the user authentication level.
“Si4 CMS makes the company independent of outside teams in the publishing, management and control of content. The user may easily modify or publish any information. With the newly released features, users will have greater confidence in the development of their content and more control over what is being produced,” said Francisco Monteiro, director of Inspirit.
Commenting on the results achieved by Inspirit during Web 2.0 Expo New York, Monteiro said that the Si4 CMS platform attracted the interest of visiting companies because of the features offered, such as the ability to include specific content channels, such as products, services, capturing market demand, sponsors, announcements, events, and forums. The company is also celebrating the first business arising from the event. “In order to deal with the various user profiles, the technology allows for the creation, management and delivery of specific value-added content, knowledge-based management, advanced search systems with relevance and specific bases, systems for communication with users, internal and external access levels, and management of the created communities and social networks,” explains Monteiro.
More info: <a href="http://www.inspirit.com.br/english/fabr_soft.asp?cod=28">http://www.inspirit.com.br/english/fabr_soft.asp?cod=28</a>

Inspirit Introduces Content Management System Platform Integrated with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

ExpressionEngine fans will be excited to learn that they have released a public beta of the upcoming 2.0 release.
According to their website:
We’ve setup a <a href="http://expressionengine.com/public_beta">Public Beta</a> section with all the information you need to get started right away.
This includes a video tour by community super hero Ryan Irelan, F.A.Q., free 30-day full version trial of ExpressionEngine 2.0 PB, the User Guide, all First Party Add-ons, and links to Tech Support and the Bug Tracker.
For compatible 3rd party add-ons, check out <a href="http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/ee2/">Devot-ee.com</a>, a stellar community run site dedicated to EE add-ons.
A full changelog containing a glimpse of what can be expected is available here: <a href="http://expressionengine.com/public_beta/docs/changelog.html#v200pb%20">http://expressionengine.com/public_beta/docs/changelog.html#v200pb </a>

ExpressionEngine users get a first look at 2.0 with new public beta

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Explore a wide range of informative articles, insights, and industry updates. Stay informed and ahead of the curve with our diverse collection of news and posts covering the latest trends and developments in the industry. Page - 245

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