Articles - Page 255

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

msalvatierra

We are constantly exposed to content management systems day to day and have a huge number of them (and it's growing too!) in our CMS list.
We have noticed more and more that people are having a hard time deciding how to choose the right CMS for the job.
It's not an easy task for some people, and for that reason we've created this article with the hope that it can free some of you from feeling overwhelmed.
When you first realize you need/want a CMS, there is the fear that the CMS you select will:
<ol>
<li> Suck your time and money into a spinning vortex.</li>
<li>Suck your page rank down the tube due to poor optimization.</li>
<li>Just plain suck.</li>
</ol>
How do you avoid this?
Start by Following these DO and Do NOT tips:
The DO NOT List:
<ol>
<li>Do NOT pick your CMS based on the fact that you found a pretty theme for it. Themes can be created quickly and easily.. and quite frankly, choosing based on this factor alone is bound to give you a headache.</li>
<li>Do NOT just buy something without trying it first. You wouldn't do it with a car (we hope) so don't do it with your content management system either. We can pretty much guarantee that if you approach a vendor and tell them you are curious and interested but want to demo first, they will make it happen or risk losing your business.</li>
<li>Do NOT throw tons of money (cause we all have tons of money right?) at a developer and have them make something custom just for you. It's not worth the investment.. there are plenty of well supported systems out there and it's much better to have others who know the product as support options rather than just one person.</li>
<li>Do NOT assume that because the CMS costs money, it must be better than it's Open Source alternatives. While this MAY be the case in SOME instances.. it is most certainly not always the case. There are a large number of Open Source CMS products on the market that are much better than some of the commercial offerings.. and vice versa.</li>
<li>Do NOT go to the Drupal forums and ask them if WordPress or Drupal is the best.. you will get a biased answer. This is about as intelligent as walking into a Ford dealership and asking them if they think Ford is better than Chevrolet.</li>
</ol>
The DO List:
<ol>
<li>DO take your time and explore your options. There are TONS of resources out there (this is the internet for pete's sake!) that can help you in your search. We think This Site is the best. (like how we slid that in there?).  If you have a hard time finding help, then ask and we'll direct you.</li>
<li>DO try the product first. We don't recommend demos as they are already installed. It's best to download the package, find a cheap host somewhere and try to install it and see what happens. If you get lost somewhere and need help.. hit the forums for the applicable package. You can start your hunt for the perfect product by reviewing this cms list or reading some reviews.</li>
<li>DO ask other webmasters of sites that you like. Some may or may not be willing to tell you what (if any) CMS they are using but it never hurts to ask.  Frequest webmaster forums or un-jaded sites such as ours!</li>
<li>DO remember to fully research the product you are considering.. explore some themes, plugins and see how the community treats questions from new users. This will give you a good feel for the product.</li>
</ol>
So now you know what we think you should do and shouldn't do. Let's cover some additional tips.
<ol>
<li>Make sure that you check to ensure that whichever platform you are evaluating (PHP, .NET, JAVA) your hosting provider, if applicable, supports it.</li>
<li>Check the Showcase pages (if any) for the product you are considering. This is a great help in seeing what the potential of the product is.
Here are a few of the more popular CMS' showcase pages:
<a href="http://silverstripe.org/community-showcase/">Silverstripe Community Showcase</a> <a href="http://drupalsites.net">Drupal Sites Showcase</a> <a href="http://wordpress.org/showcase/">WordPress Showcase</a></li>
</ol>
That should give you a fair start. We're sure there are plenty of other items that could be added to this list. By all means, please contribute!

How to choose a CMS that doesn't suck.

mike-johnston

During this survey, they identified three key trends that they feel will impact Web Content Management in 2009.
In the survey of 83 U.S. web content management customers, Sitecore found the number of organizations implementing Web 2.0 functionalities increased by over 250 percent.
Enterprises are finding that it is important that they make it easier and quicker for people to share news, have discussions and get information via social networking tools. The ability of Sitecore’s Web CMS to effortlessly add applications such as wikis, forums, blogs and surveys has helped its customers meet their social computing goals. Although Web 2.0 has been a recurring topic in the press, Sitecore’s survey now indicates integration with websites is rapidly growing and expects that it will see continued strong growth in 2009.
Another growing trend is the integration of portals with public websites. The predominant type of portal being integrated with Sitecore’s public websites was Microsoft’s SharePoint, with a 100 percent growth rate in portal to public website integrations noted. While content sharing is a stated goal of many web projects, to see such a high growth rate of actual implementations indicates the trend is now established.
The final key trend was the use of web content management to integrate e-commerce tools into websites. The percent of such integrations increased 39% year to year, with the two most frequent e-commerce solutions used being Microsoft Commerce Server and InSite Commerce.
Ecommerce is becoming increasingly popular as is the need for B2B as opposed to business to customer marketing. In fact, there has been a drastic increase in the profit margins of most ventures that focus on business to business transactions.

Three Key Trends That Will Impact Web Content Management in 2009

Last week, Nicole Denil of <a href="http://www.sitemasher.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sitemasher</a> was kind enough to set aside some time to walk us through a complete demonstration of Sitemasher and its functionality. We were so impressed that we wanted to spread the word about this fine content management system.
For those of you that have never heard of Sitemasher, read<a href="http://www.sitemasher.com/the-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> The Sitemasher Story</a>.
Sitemasher is unique in that it allows you to create an entire website with minimal experience and no requirement to know coding or css. This is huge for those of you that struggle to understand the intricacies and/or simply do not have the time.
Want to add youtube videos? You can literally search and add directly from their interface without ever going to youtube.
Don't just take our word for it though.. you can quite literally demo the entire system on their website and we highly recommend you <a href="http://dashboard.sitemasher.com/register.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">try it</a>.
Not convinced yet? Then watch this video:

Thanks again to Nicole for opening our eyes to the power of Sitemasher. We hope you have a chance to try it out.

Sitemasher, making it easy to get things done.

The latest release candidate of the upcoming Umbraco 4 release has been unleashed for public consumption.
According to the <a href="http://umbraco.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Umbraco</a> website:
<blockquote>
The final release candidate of Umbraco 4 is out and <a href="http://www.codeplex.com/umbraco/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=22030" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">available for download at CodePlex</a>.
The focus the past week have been on stability and fixing any serious issues. The last Release Candidate added error when deleting files and macros via the context menu and we’ve made sure that all that is working again.
We’ve also polished the Membership Provider, so that it’s 100% compatible with the umbraco content and members for security trimming. Word is also 100% compatible with Umbraco Content Channels including uploading images and  charts and speaking of Content Channels, it also supports the umbraco tagging control now.
The internal search index have been upgraded to Lucene 2.0 and it’s better at auto correcting any errors and you can  now also activate internal search dialog by pressing SPACE in the search box. Apart from this we’ve made a good bunch of UI polishing and upgraded jQuery to 1.3.1.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
We’re confident that we’ll have a release of Umbraco 4 on Friday – YAY!
</blockquote>
Be sure to help them test it out if you are a user so they can have their final release ready for the upcoming weekend!

Umbraco Content Management System 4 RC 3

Founded by Ali Fazelzadeh, Jaws is a small content management system that is capable of some pretty cool functionality. With some very interesting addons and high ease of use, it's definitely a platform worth looking at if your goal is to design something simple and fast. Today we're going to show you what makes it unique amongst the other industry players in this Jaws CMS Review.
To get started, you need to download the appropriate package from the <a href="http://www.jaws-project.com/" target="_blank">Jaws Project </a>website, extract it to your host and visit your domain, you will be presented with the following screen:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws11.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
After selecting your language:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws2.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
An interesting security procedure above, requires you to create a file called key.txt with the displayed code in it and upload it to your /install directory before the software will allow you to install. Once you've done this, you may proceed below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws3.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
As usual, if you see all green.. you get to continue:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws4.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
Once you've got your database details configured, you move on to entering your admin details:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws5.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
Then proceed to:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws6.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
Jaws uses gadgets which you can place anywhere within your layout (drag and drop style).. this option gives you a chance to enable a default gadget.. I would recommend the ‘Static Page' one.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws7.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
Now you have the option to view the site or enter the control panel. Since your site will be completely void of any gadgets or content at the moment.. I'd recommend you enter the control panel first:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws8.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
Note the section entitled “Disabled Gadgets”, this is where you get to select which ones you wish to install. Each of these gadgets once enabled will add a new icon to the control panel with which you can administer them. You can also then add them to various blocks on your new page using the Layout icon in the control panel.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws9.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
To enable, just scroll through the list above and click install. Once you've selected the ones you want to install.
Once installed, you'll see the new icons created in the control panel:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws111.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
You can then move to the Layout icon which will allow you to begin placing gadgets and applying a theme to your site:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws10.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jaws12.jpg" alt="Jaws CMS Review" />
Once you have the applicable gadgets added, you will be able to check out your new site and see how it looks.
You can find a few sites running Jaws at the <a href="http://wiki.jaws-project.com/doku.php?id=jaws:showcases:important" target="_blank">Jaws Showcase</a> page.
Jaws is what it claims to be.. a user friendly CMS.
It is not something I could see myself using to build massive corporate websites.. but it is something I could see using for a personal site or to create a quick web presence. I like the gadget concept and think that as the project matures, it would be nice to see these get a bit more refined.
They have recently added a forum to their project page which was desperately needed and it's seeing a fair amount of activity.
There is a lot of potential in Jaws.. don't go to it expecting perfection because you won't find it.. but do go to it if you are willing to contribute and help enhance it into something amazing.
Overall Ratings:
Community 7/10 – With the addition of the forums, it is growing rapidly.
Expandability 7/10 -There is a ton of potential here to create new gadgets and build upon the existing functionality.
Themability 7/10-Easy to theme with a reasonable selection of themes installed by default
Useability 8.5/10 – Very easy to use, highly recommended for new users or people looking to create a simple homepage, blog or web presence.
<h2>Overall Score: 7/10</h2>

Jaws CMS Review

This new venture offers commercial services from the core development team.
This is great news for those who currently run the platform or for those who are interested in starting a social network with this incredibly good software.
Having the expertise of the core development team on your side is a huge advantage for those looking to build or develop a new website in the future. Let's not forget that Elgg is one heck of a powerful system and with these guys backing you, you can't go wrong.
Some of the services they are now offering are:
Custom builds
<ul>
<li>They can build any type of social application branded and equipped exactly as you want it.</li>
</ul>
Plugin &amp; theme development
<ul>
<li>Great option is you need a specific module or a custom brand for your network.</li>
</ul>
Consultancy
<ul>
<li>On all aspects of Elgg.</li>
</ul>
Learn more @ <a href="http://www.elgg.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.elgg.com</a>

Elgg launches new site and offers Commercial Services

This young man is the brains and brawn behind the single most popular blogging platform on the planet: <a href="http://wordpress.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WordPress</a>. What's more impressive than accomplishing something this colossall? Well, how about being just <a href="http://ma.tt/2009/01/twenty-five/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">25 years old</a>!
Let's highlight some of Matt's accomplishments in his 25 years on the planet:
In 2003:
<ul>
<li> He formed WordPress by forking some code from b2/cafelog.</li>
<li>He co-founded the Global Multimedia Protocols Group.</li>
</ul>
In 2004:
<ul>
<li>He formed Ping-o-Matic with Dougal Campbell.</li>
<li>Was recruited by CNET to work on WordPress for them. He dropped out of College at this point.</li>
<li>He announced bbPress, a forum software similar to WordPress in simplicity.</li>
</ul>
In 2005:
<ul>
<li>Left Cnet and launched Akismet.</li>
<li>WordPress.com became open to the public.</li>
<li>AutoMattic was announced.</li>
</ul>
In 2006:
<ul>
<li> Raised about 1.1 million for AutoMattic in funding.</li>
<li>The first WordPress conference occurred.</li>
<li>named #16 of the 50 Most Important People on the Web by PC World</li>
<li>Acquired Gravatar.</li>
</ul>
There's a ton more of course, such as WordPress.tv recently being launched and the acquisition of PollDaddy amongst others.
For someone who has just recently hit 25.. not a bad list of accomplishments.
We look forward to many more developments.
*date source: wikipedia

Focus on Genius: Matt Mullenweg

<img title="textpattern" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/textpattern.png" />You heard it right, a new maintenance release fixing bugs and glitches has been released by Textpattern. You can read about the specific fixes at the <a href="http://textpattern.com/weblog/332/textpattern-cms-408-released" target="_blank">Textpattern</a> website.
Here are some additional resources for Textpattern enthusiasts:
<a href="http://textpattern.com/featured" target="_blank">Textpattern featured sites</a> – This area of their website highlights specific sites based on Textpattern that have done well.
<a href="http://welovetxp.com/" target="_blank">We Love TXP</a> – This is a community-driven site that also highlights some fan favourites.
<a href="http://txpq.com/" target="_blank">The Textpattern Magazine</a>
And the obligatory screenshot:
<img title="Textpattern CMS" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/textpattern-php-20301.png" alt="Textpattern CMS" />

Textpattern has released version 4.0.8

Hotjar - Spot what confuses

Spot what confuses your users with Hotjar & AI

#ffffff

Zikula is the reincarnation of the content management system formerly known as Postnuke. I'm not sure why the name change has occurred or what the objective was but perhaps we can find out from someone within the project. This is an interesting project that has seen alot more activity as of late. We'll have to keep a watch on it to see how it proceeds. Let's examine this new incarnation in this Zikula Review and see if it's up to par.
After downloading and unpacking the latest release, we begin the install process and are greeted with the following screen:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula1.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" /> Note the quick links on the left side to the install guide and documentation, this is good. After selecting the appropriate language, we are greeted with the license agreement as shown below: <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula2.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" />
Proceed after accepting the license:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula3.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" />
If you are greeted with anything other than the green checkmarks above, you will have to make the necessary changes requested.
We then enter the database details:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula4.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" /> And proceed.. Here you are allowed two options, basic install or complete. Complete installs all available modules included with the download and basic just those required to operate. It's nice that they provide the option as there may very well be some users that do not like or utilize some of the built in modules: <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula5.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" /> We are then presented with the option to select a module to add to the start page. The default TOUR module is selected and since we selected “Complete” we have a large number of options which we can select from: <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula6.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" /> I feel the need to pat someone on the back for providing at least 3 default theme options to choose from. This is a nice simple touch that needs to be seen more often. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula71.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" />
Personally, I find the Seabreeze theme the most appealing so I selected that one. Here's the default look of the home page:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/zikula81.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" />
Not bad, much better than some of the other ones I've seen in previous reviews. Unfortunately, this is one of the few nice themes that Zikula has going for it that I know of. I've checked their theme repository and it's not very large or updated very often. Perhaps as they begin to expand in size, this will change but in the interim unless you are a designer, you may find it hard to find a large number of themes to choose from. Having said that though, I do believe most older postnuke themes should work.. although I'm not positive on that and haven't tried. If someone could confirm, that would be appreciated.
Here is the Admin Panel. It hasn't changed much from the Postnuke days.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/rsz_2009-01-09-1231535633_1280x800_scrot.jpg" alt="Zikula Review" />
The admin panel is pretty clean and easy to use, one thing I think needs to be done more on this system is it needs to be made more userfriendly in terms of verbage and perhaps popup hints as to what some of the menu items do. When navigating the admin panel, if you are new, it can get a little confusing to figure out where things are. It certainly serves its purpose but could be a bit easier.
Overall, I think Zikula is a good CMS that needs a bit more attention to get it on par with competing systems. It's nice but is lacking in module attention and themes. Would I recommend it? Yes, but only to people that have a bit of experience and aren't new. I don't think it's quite there yet for newbies.
I would love to see the default theme that the Zikula.org site uses in their themes listing for instance and I think that a few more like that will add the right touch.
Overall Ratings:
Community 8/10 – Pretty busy community with plenty of posts. Appears to be quite active.
Expandability 8/10 -Not a huge database of modules but definitely quite a few. Modules database needs to be cleaned up and some of entries re-worded to make the individual listings more understandable. Found it a bit confusing and overwhelming.
Themability 7/10-Themes are available but as I said earlier, I think it would be best if the Zikula team could create a few nice starter themes other than the usual Andreas, etc that are so common among CMS platforms. Uniqueness is a good thing.
Useability 7.5/10 – Perfectly usable, but a bit overwhelming for the new user.
<h2>Overall Score: 7.5/10</h2>

Zikula Review - A Look at the CMS formerly known as PostNuke

CushyCMS is a relatively new approach to content management that allows you to take any website and add editing functionality and management to it using a very simple and easy to use interface. Today we're going to examine this new system in this CushyCMS Review and give you an overall view of how it works as well as rate it.
In order to use Cushy, you do not install anything nor do you require another web host. You can use Cushy to manage your existing sites. To do so, simply add your site into Cushy and you've now got a usable interface for easy site management.
The way it works is simple, you visit the website <a href="http://cushycms.com/">CushyCMS.com</a>:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy1.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
One there, you login with your account and are presented with the Cushy Control Panel page:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy2.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
In this case, you can see I have a website added to it already, however, if you wanted to do add a new site, you could simply do so by selecting the add site button which will present you with the following page:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy3.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Once here, you fill in the details of you existing site and Cushy will import them into it's control panel which then allows you to edit them. Once you've told Cushy where the site is and how to access it, you then add pages to Cushy like so:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy4.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
We then have to tell Cushy what parts of your pages you would like to have editable. You do this by following these intructions:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy9.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Once you do this, you will be shown the pages detected by Cushy and be allowed to select which ones you would like to manage from the Cushy interface:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy51.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Simply click on the page you'd like to add, and add a Page Name:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy61.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Congratulations, you have assigned a page. Now all you need to do is click on the control panel button to get back to the main page and you'll see the page you just added:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy71.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
Now simply click on it's name and you will be dropped into the Wysiwyg editor and you can now start editing your site:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cushy8.jpg" alt="CushyCMS Review" />
That pretty much covers it. You can read more about the advanced features at the <a href="http://cushycms.com/">CushyCMS website</a> and there is also a great video on their front page that explains in more detail.
Items that could be improved upon are the detection of editable elements, if the team at Cushy could figure out a way to auto detect editable areas without the end user having to modify their html and define it, they would have an exceptional product. As it stands now, however, it's still a very very nice interface and a very good option for those who have moderate html experience and just need a simple easy to use interface.
Try out <a href="http://cushycms.com/">CushyCMS</a> on your site, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Overall, although this is very difficult to rate, I would say that Cushy gets:
<h2>8/10</h2>

CushyCMS Review - A New approach to Content Management?

Today we're going to take you through our Vivvo CMS Review. Vivvo is a commercial offering from Spoonlabs and is a well priced article publishing CMS primarily used for News, magazine or other sites where you publish large amounts of articles with pictures and other media.
Vivvo has been around for a while and has a very solid community and excellent support. Let's examine the install process and look at a few key elements of this system. We're going to review the Professional edition which was graciously provided by Boris @ Spoonlabs for review purposes.
First off, I'm unsure if this is a software concern or my host but when I first accessed our test URL, I was not greeted with the installer page.. instead I had to append it with /installer to get the installation going. Not a major concern but just something I wanted to point out. It would be best if it auto redirected on it's own.
I was then greeted with:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v1.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Once you've selected your language, you proceed to:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v2.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Looks like everything passed inspection. If you have anything come up with a red X it would be a good idea to get ahold of your hosting provider before proceeding.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v3.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Accept the license and continue:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v41.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Fill in your database details here.. make sure you append a database table prefix if you are using the same database as something else. Make sure you input your license number as well (you can get this by logging into your account at vivvo.net and you will see the license listed).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v5.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Plug in the obvious information like your website name, admin info. One thing I thought was a nice touch here was that the system will not let you choose an admin password of less than 6 characters. This is a nice touch.. I think it would be even better if it enforced some rules to password conventions to help new users secure their installation a bit more.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v6.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Now comes the fun part. Let's click on the View website link and see what our fresh install looks like:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v7.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Looks pretty nice! We have a login section, some featured article examples and you can see there is a sidebar with some nice tabbed boxes. Vivvo also has a decent selection of themes which are available for purchase from their site as well as some free ones which are available at <a href="http://www.vivvo.net/resources/">http://www.vivvo.net/resources/</a>. There are some free layouts for content as well as plugins to incorporate some other features into the system.
Let's take a peek at the admin section:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v8.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
Well laid out, easy to find what you need and well labelled.. just the way I like it. I also like the embedded statistics to give you a quick overview of number of visitors.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v9.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
I wanted to point out the above screen has a very nice simple feature.. Meta description and Meta keywords. This is a nice feature to let you quickly edit these to help your SEO score without having to manually edit the template files directly.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v10.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
This screen is another nice feature, you can preset the image sizes directly! That's very handy and gives you a ton of flexibility, again, without having to edit files directly. Nice touch!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/v11.gif" alt="Vivvo CMS Review" />
The above screen is the final one I wanted to show. This lets you easily edit SEO functions for each article. This is a really nice option and isn't often seen in a CMS where you can manually control your SEO options with ease. Good work Spoonlabs.
Overall, Vivvo is a really nice system. They've made it very easy to maintain a nice search engine optimized site with excellent content management and article publishing flexibility. The overall price of this system is very reasonable as well. Coming in at around two hundred dollars to start, which is very reasonable for this type of system. If you are a new startup looking to break into the world of article publishing or starting up a magazine or newspaper.. this system would be a very good selection.
There's an excellent community as well and support is prompt and efficient. What would help this system out a bit more is a wider variety of plugins and more free themes… personally, I'm not fond of buying themes for premium systems, as I think more free themes would make the investment a bit more appealing for some.. but some people may not have an issue with that. The cost of the average theme is on par with most other premium theme options for other systems (ie: wordpress and all).
Vivvo works well, has a nicely laid out and user friendly admin section and just seems to do the job well for the price tag they are asking.
Our ratings:
Community 9/10 (Solid community with prompt support.)
Expandability 7/10 (It needs more plugins and can't easily be used for much other than article publishing)
Themability 8/10 (Not bad. Some free themes and some paid ones but could use more free.)
Useability 9/10 (Very easy to use. 10 in my books due to the added functionality with SEO editing)
<h2>Overall Score: 8/10</h2>

Vivvo CMS Review

Today we're going to take a look at the latest release of PHP Fusion: Core Edition 7 in this PHP Fusion Review. This is an interesting release and has been long awaited as version 6 has consistently been in the running for the PacktPub CMS awards that are held every year.
I'm very eager to see what kind of improvements have been made. Let's examine some of the changes since version 6.
There is a new Smiley admin panel. The user group admin panel has been rewritten to be easier to use. Forums rewritten to include several new features such as forums polls, mass thread deletion, new admin interface, etc
This is just a teeny number of the changes, there is a nice feature comparison available here:
<a href="http://www.php-fusion.co.uk/infusions/features/index.php" target="_blank">http://www.php-fusion.co.uk/infusions/features/index.php</a>
Let's take a look at this new offering shall we?
After copying the appropriate files to your host (local or otherwise) you start the install process by visiting <a href="http://myhostname/setup.php">http://myhostname/setup.php</a>
You will be greeted with this screen:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion1-300x146.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
Once you've selected your locale (and do note that you can download additional ones from their website as well) you will proceed to this screen:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion2-300x212.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
On this screen if you notice anything not marked as green then you need to change permissions on the specified files. Be prepared to involve your hosting company if you do not have shell access or are unfamiliar with how to do this via ftp client. Once you've gone this far, proceed to the screen below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion3-300x142.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
Once you've completed these and if the installer can successfully access your database you should get the next screen:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion4-300x107.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
Once you've successfully done this stage, there's not much left.. so let's continue:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion5-300x165.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
The above screen is where you put in your admin settings. Note that it will not allow you to have the same password as both admin and login so you will have to differentiate the two (which is a good security move anyways and it's nice that they enforced it).. You will also note specific password rules should you try to put something in that's too easy.. which is another good feature.
We then proceed to:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion6-300x123.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
As suggested, it's a good idea to delete the setup.php file at this point so that a potential hacker cannot restart the setup process and potentially “pooch” (that's a technical term btw) your existing setup.
Overall, i'd say their install process is quite simple compared to some other CMS installs i've witnessed and it's a great improvement over previous versions. PHP Fusion has always been the best Portal based CMS i've ever used and continues to improve as they work hard to make it easier and more useful than ever.
Now you get to see the results of your actions.. What does your new homepage look like? Well here it is:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion7-300x175.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
Visually, it's a very attractive new look for them and in my opinion, much nicer than the default look that they had in previous versions. Let's examine a few more screens. Once you log into the system, either as an administrator or a user you'll receive a menu in the right sidebar that will look similar to below. Note that if you are not an admin, you will not see the admin panel choice here. There is also a nice shoutbox setup ready to go for you as well.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion8-179x300.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
Let's see what the Admin Panel looks like:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion9-300x204.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
With a very nice layout and easy to use tabs and icons to represent the various areas, this is one of the better admin panels and much improved over previous versions. I think the labelling of the icons is much improved and a lot easier to understand.
The newly re-designed user admin screen:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion10-300x96.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
and the Sysadmin panel:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfusion11-300x156.jpg" alt="PHP Fusion Review" />
One of the main downfalls this CMS suffers from is it's somewhat pidgeon holed into a portal type of CMS.. this isn't necessarily a bad thing though as there are plenty of them out there and they are definitely needed. There are a few themes that have taken PHP Fusion beyond this look but it's not as easy as some of the other platforms in this aspect.
Overall, this is a great new version of this already much touted CMS and i'm very pleased to say for a Portal, I can't think of anything better. Theme wise, there are tons available through a number of sources and modules are a plenty as well.
Overall, my ratings are:
Community 8/10 (Good community with quick response to issues and plenty of frequent visitors)
Expandability 7/10 (Outside of a portal, it's tough to use it for much else other than this type of site)
Themability 8/10 (Plenty of themes available and more coming daily)
Useability 9/10 (Pretty easy with a very low learning curve)
<h2>Overall Score: 8/10</h2>

PHP Fusion Review

One of the most prominent blog software platforms with one of the biggest communities in both the blog and CMS world, WordPress is a force to be reckoned with. Or is it? WordPress has been around for a long time and has/is growing like mad. It's like a weed. Except one you don't want to pull out of your garden because it keeps getting prettier, better and nicer. Today, we'll examine this popular platform in this review of WordPress 2.5.
Let's look at the ridiculously easy install. This is the first screen you see. Brings new meaning to the term “keep it simple stupid” doesn't it?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp1_1.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
WordPress then gives you the precursor screen below that tells you basically what to expect on the next couple screens.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp2_1_.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Now that you've been informed. You can fill in the info below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp3_11.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Enter your Blog title and email below: <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp4_1.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" /> Bam, done. Now that's a total of 4 screens to get installed. Insanely easy, very quick and ridiculously simple. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp5_1.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" /> Now log in with admin details provided on the screen above. And you can change the password after your first login. You have to love the sense of humor the lads at WordPress have. <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp6.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" /> After logging in you get to the admin screen or “dashboard”
Ok let's take a breather and review the dashboard. Here's where wordpress really shines. You want a blog that makes your life easy? You've found it. WordPress 2.5 has auto update capable plugins.. just click on the plugin link.. wordpress will automatically tell you if there's an update available and let you automatically download and install it. No effort required. Where do you get the plugins? Well they have 2200 as of this review. Yes, 2200. and it's a BLOG platform for crying out loud.
Need themes? There are thousands.. literally. You can't type anything in google without tripping over a wordpress theme about it. The control center has one click theme switching (with screenshots). Installing and updating a plugin consists of clicking a button.. The dashboard provides you with the latest wordpress news and the Wysiwyg editor just works beautifully.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp7.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Where does wordpress fail? I guess the default theme could use some work:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/wp8.gif" alt="review of WordPress 2.5" />
Can you tell I'm smitten? Seriously though.. for a blog platform… You simply cannot find a better solution than WordPress. Some will claim it's also very capable as a CMS.. while I think it would struggle in that area, mainly due to lack of forums integration and lack of CMS like themes (wordpress does LOOK like a blog after all).
Community? Massive. WordPress has a community larger than most CMS communities. Support is amazingly quick and there are tons and tons of sites with hints tips and more to get the eager blogger any info they need quickly. With the size of the community and the number of people using it, it's quite possibly the best supported blog platform that exists today.
Would you use it for a portal? Perhaps not. However, for what it claims to be able to do, it does it and more with ease.
Our ratings are below:
Community 10/10 (I said it before and I'll say it again, massive with a huge number of support sites around)
Expandability 9/10 (For a blog platform, very expandable. The only thing lacking is forums or some kind of discussion platform)
Themability 10/10 (Can't touch wordpress for themes.)
Useability 10/10 (Fabulous dashboard, easy install and simple theme switching, auto updating plugins. nuff said)
<h2>Overall Score: 9/10</h2>

A Review of WordPress 2.5

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Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

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