Articles - Page 52

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

With a full release just on the horizon, SilverStripe proudly releases version 3.0 beta 3 for download and review. This update consists of many “under the hood” changes but the two most highlighted improvements are the new UI and a separate framework release.
<h4>The new “paint job”</h4>
SilverStripe is giving great attention to usability with the totally redesigned user interface. Users tested and SilverStripe listened basing many of their improvements off of the usability testing results. They have come up with a UI that allows content editors to easily update content and even site structure with simple text editing skills. This should allow for a shorter implementation to production time period. SilverStripe has also simplified the media embedding process. Whether it is from YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr or other sites it is simply a matter of inserting the media's URL and SilverStripe does the rest.
<h4>Framework release for developers</h4>
The beta release is unique also in that the SilverStripe framework is now also available. This allows developers to extend SilverStripe from just a website to a full blown web application. API's have been either replaced or improved to give developers advanced control. With namespace support, PHP 5.3+ support, and a responsive default theme, developers are given a head-start to begin building applications. Designers are not left out because this framework includes a “template engine” which keeps the PHP scripting in its place so front-end user experience experts can have complete creative control over HTML and CSS.
<h4>Need to see a demo?</h4>
You could always download the beta or SilverStripe has an online demo site so you can experience the CMS yourself without installing it on a test server.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/telerik_pb2myb.jpg" alt="SilverStripe_demo_screenshot" />
SilverStripe 3.0 beta 3 is available for download now. For more information on downloading, testing, and reporting any bugs visit <a href="http://www.silverstripe.com" target="_blank">www.silverstripe.com</a>.

SilverStripe final beta release for CMS and framework

mike-johnston

<h3>Communication is the lifeblood of relationships</h3>
Naturally a business that communicates well internally and with customers is going to be more efficient, supportive to clients, and will result in increasing revenue. With that being said, good communication does not always come naturally even in this age of information. A company needs the tools to facilitate easy communication to build connections and the sense of community. The buzz of excitement about DNN 6.2 has had many anticipating the availability of this highly “social” cms. With the promise of deeply integrated social community and collaborative features, the “buzz” and anticipation is justified.
<blockquote>“Organizations of all sizes now have a powerful WCMS combined with robust social tools – all at an affordable price,” stated Shaun Walker, CTO and co-founder of DotNetNuke Corp.  “Building an effective online community is a proven strategy to improve productivity and get closer to your customers.  With DotNetNuke, businesses now have the capabilities to deploy online social solutions much faster, that are fully integrated with their external and internal websites, without the high cost of customization associated with current enterprise offerings in the market.”</blockquote>
What are others saying about these features?
<blockquote>“As one of the most popular independent websites in Canada, we needed a web content solution that seamlessly supported a modern community model,” said Maggie Leithead, CEO of CharityVillage, Canada’s supersite for the non-profit worker.  “We chose DotNetNuke because the social software on the market today wasn’t good enough on its own.  We would have had to bolt on point solutions to get the integrated community experience we now have for our members, combined with an easy-to-use content management system for our staff.  DotNetNuke is making us more efficient and allowing us to adapt faster to the needs of our community.”
“Fostering a strong community is integral to building an engaging online experience today and marketers need easy-to-use social tools that are built into their Web content management system,” said Melissa Webster, Program Vice President, Content and Digital Media Technologies at IDC. “That way, they're managing users and activity feeds and social content the same way they manage the rest of the site's content. Social tools are also a boon for internal collaboration, helping to create highly engaged, effective teams.”</blockquote>
You can see the common needs: “integrated community experience” and “easy-to-use social tools that are built in…” With version 6.2, DotNetNuke is poised to deliver a solution. With online community features customers can interact with each other building relationships based on common interest in your company's product or service. DNN allows creation of a social intranet allowing the same collaborative experience within the company. This can result in a tight community of employees able respond quickly to business and customer needs with ease.
<h3>Alright show me some features and capabilities!</h3>
<blockquote>DNN 6.2 contains a number of new capabilities that are essential for creating internal and external social communities:
• Activity feed that powers user interactions in a familiar social model
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screen_shot_2015-11-01_at_18_46_06_noxast.png" alt="DNN_ActivityFeed" />
• Social groups and forums that increase team collaboration
• Facebook, Twitter and Google+ social login that drives community participation
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/160e647_hp2rxv.jpg" alt="DNN_social_auth" />
• ‘Friend’ and ‘Follow’ controls that encourage social relationships
• Private messaging that offers an alternative community communication model
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dnn_messaging-620x420.png" alt="DNN_messaging" />
• Interactive user profile that offers detailed personalization options
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dnn_profile-620x428.png" alt="DNN_profile" />
• Member directory that makes it easy to find and  connect with other people
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pardot3_kqgroa.png" alt="DNN_MemberDir" />
• Social API enables developers to make their apps social, drive visibility and usage
• SharePoint 2010 integration makes it easy to publish enterprise documents to external sites
• Fully localized platform in Dutch, French, German and Spanish enables customers to work in their preferred language</blockquote>
<h3>Communication, Collaboration, and Community Connectivity</h3>
No that is not just an impressive use of alliteration, it is a way businesses can move forward. Being connected closely to users, knowing the needs of customers, and swiftly responding enables you to provide solutions that work. DotNetNuke has provided this social web cms solution in an effort to make your job easier, not give you another job to do.
For more information visit their website at <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com" target="_blank">dotnetnuke.com</a>.

DotNetNuke 6.2 now available

Oxwall 1.6 was released recently and brings with it a number of new additions to the popular open source community software / social networking CMS.
With each new release of Oxwall, the team brings a new theme to the CMS and this release is no exception. The new theme, entitled München, is not only a shoutout to the town but also a great example of the attractiveness of the platform.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/munchen-1024x513845x0.jpg" alt="oxwall new theme" />
On the topic of theming, this release also introduces automatic theme updates directly from the Oxwall servers, just like their plugins currently do. This is a great addition and helps you stay on top of the latest changes.
In addition, the new social share plugin included in this release offers easily integrated share buttons beneath your content (see screenshot below).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/social_share845x0.png" alt="oxwall social share" />
The most important new change in this release, however, is the introduction of mobile responsiveness to the platform. This isn't just a responsive theme or hack to make your content mobile friendly, the entire platform has been redeveloped to ensure full functionality on all major phone browsers (including an increase in performance).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_4691.jpg" />
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_7274.png" />
Check it out today: <a href="http://oxwall.org">Oxwall Community Software</a>

Oxwall 1.6 brings new themes, social sharing and mobile responsiveness to their open source community software

Do you hear that? It's the “buzz” being generated by DotNetNuke as they gear up for the release of version 6.2. Should you be excited? Well do you like the idea of content management married in sweet matrimony to social collaboration? You do!!? Well, then you can officially get excited.With the release of DNN 6.2 beta in March, the focus has been on the social features of the release. Most would agree that integrating a social element into a CMS is a good road to travel. Successful websites thrive on interaction with current and future customers. DotNetNuke has shown that they have a strong understanding of the need to integrate social community features. Take a look at this commercial to see what we mean.<figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Qa4G5M5Wo"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l8Qa4G5M5Wo" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure>The official unveiling of DNN 6.2 is coming May 30th but for now we have a very good preview at dotnetnuke.com of some features we can expect from the release. Here are a couple of highlights:<h3>Social authentication</h3>How many passwords do you have to remember? Email, various social networking accounts, online banking, employment login, and on it goes. If you have to setup one more username and password you are going to scream right? DNN offers the ability to let visitors join your social community using credentials they already have. Most likely the goal is that visitors will say “Oh, its easy to join I'll just go ahead and do that.” You can envision your loyal community growing already.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/160e647_hp2rxv.jpg" alt="DotNetNuke" /><h3>Social Groups</h3>Instead of all members simply lumped together in one large bunch, DNN allows grouping. This can focus the conversations between group members and give the site owner valuable insight on what members are interested in. The “Awesome Cycles” example is perfect in this regard.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/hotel_zgjdtc.png" alt="DotNetNuke" />As the official unveiling nears we will keep readers informed. For further detail visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com">www.dotnetnuke.com</a>

A look at some of the features in the upcoming DotNetNuke 6.2 release

Love them or hate them, WordPress plugins are a big part of what makes the CMS so versatile. From event management, social syndication, and contact forms to performing backups and creating a social network; there is a plugin to fit almost endless needs. Lately the “code poets” at WordPress.org have made some changes to the Plugins Directory pages.
One of my favorite (ha pun intended) new feature is the ability to “favorite” plugins.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/update_ay89fe.png" alt="wordpress plugin directory 1" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/plugins_yn4rjs.png" alt="PluginFavorites1" />
Getting support is very important when choosing and implementing a plugin. Now each plugin has its own forum under the support tab on the plugin's page. These will support “sticky” posts as well so that FAQs can be nicely fit at the top.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/pluginsupport-620x389.png" alt="PluginSupport" />
A few other upgrades include visual changes such as authors displayed with larger gravatars. Stats will eventually display two months of information. Also these subtle but important updates:
<ul>
<li>“Plugin headers” or those cool graphics you see at the top of plugin pages have really taken off, there are over 1,600 active now.</li>
<li>You can now subscribe to get an email whenever a commit is made to a plugin repository even if it isn’t yours. There is no better way to follow the development of your favorite plugins. There’s nothing like the smell of fresh changesets in the morning.</li>
<li>Behind the scenes, we’ve dramatically ramped up proactive scanning of the entire repository to help authors fix security and other problems they might not even know about yet. The quality level of the repo has gone way, way up.</li>
</ul>
More changes may happen as more feedback is received. Find out more at <a href="http://manager1201.agilitycms.com/Dialogs/www.wordpress.org" target="_blank">www.wordpress.org</a>

WordPress refreshes their Plugin pages

Some good news crossing the wire for Vivvo and Newscurve founder, Boris Krstovic (<a href="/interview-with-vivvo-founder-boris-krstovic/">interview</a>). His company, Newscurve, has been acquired by the Neodata group. For those who are unaware, Newscurve is an excellent content analysis tool that has been on the market for almost a year now.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/newscurve_screen-620x270.png" alt="newscurve_screen" />
Developed as a decision support analytics platform for publishers, it allows editors to promote and demote content within a small window of time. Using real-time and social media analytics, the goal of the platform is to help increase the performance of content.
<blockquote>
“Neodata Group is the ideal organization to expand and leverage the Newscurve technology. They share our passion for innovation, so we're absolutely thrilled with the opportunities that this relationship will create,” said Newscurve founder Boris Krstovic. “This is a great time to be a Newscurve customer. With our complementary strengths and Neodata's global capabilities, we provide clients with the broadest range of technology-integrated solutions for the newsroom and the online publishing industry.”
</blockquote>
CMS Critic congratulates Mr. Krstovic and the rest of the Newscurve team on this acquisition and we're excited to see what the future holds for this excellent platform.
Source: <a href="http://www.newscurve.com" target="_blank">http://www.newscurve.com</a>

Newscurve acquired by Neodata Group

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

In today's market, there is certainly no shortage of cloud-based content management systems. In fact, offering a cloud-hosted service is becoming something of a necessity for all platforms across the board.
But of course, some products do it better than others. <a href="/the-winner-of-the-2014-peoples-choice-cms-award-for-best-cloud-cms-for-smb/" target="_blank">LightCMS were crowned the winners by the people</a> — and also qualified for in-depth coverage over at <a href="https://www.websitebuilderscritic.com/website_builders/reviews/lightcms/" target="_blank">Website Builders Critic</a>, but now it's the turn of the judges.
<img style="max-width:376px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bestcloudcmsforsmb-1.png" />
And the winner is…
<img style="max-width:250px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dotcms-250h.jpg" />
<a href="http://dotcms.com/" target="_blank">dotCMS</a> is a Java, open-source, content management system with a giant reputation. It has been in the running for a number of awards this year, and with the successful (and recent)<a href="/dotcms-3.0-brings-in-enhancements-tailored-for-java-web-developers/" target="_blank"> release of DotCMS 3.0</a>, it's not difficult to see why they've managed to bag this one.
Congratulations to everybody at <a href="http://dotcms.com/" target="_blank">dotCMS</a>!

2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner - Best Cloud CMS for SMB

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

2013 Critic's Choice Award for Best Free CMS

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

The Great #CMS Giveaway - Prize #1

Emails are a pain. Printed media is old news. To engage and communicate with your team, it’s time to migrate company-wide communications to a CMS intranet. 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/business-communications.jpg" />
It goes without saying that when you take the time to create content for your employees to read… You want them to read it! Regardless of your organization’s size, people respond to emotions. To get your message across, to even have your article clicked on, it’s absolutely crucial to keep your team’s emotional response in mind. After all, how many of you simply clicked on this blog because of the interesting picture? 
Truly great communication comes when emotional triggers are combined with robust content. Write something worth reading, and your people will read it. Whether you’re trying to communicate a complex organizational change, or simply sharing a fun story, we’ve created a few pointers below to get you on the right path.
<h2>Make Your CMS Intranet The Happening Place</h2>
First things first: stop bugging your staff.
Constant email updates interrupt your <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/forms-workflow-office-intranet/">team’s workflow</a> and clog inboxes. Solve this, by turning your CMS intranet into the place where all news is shared. Celebrations, wins, warnings, learnings—these should all be regularly posted on your intranet, creating a hub of activity. Enable the option for staff to save content and refer back to it later, maximizing the chance your update will be read. It won’t be long before your intranet becomes the cultural Bible of your organization, capturing all of the story-telling and history that epitomizes your company ethos.
Creating such a hub for company news and culture is especially helpful for new employees. During their first few days, they’ll be able to immerse themselves in recent history, as well as tune in to upcoming events around the office. It works both ways as well—when an existing team member returns from time off, they can quickly get back up to speed with what happened while they were hiking around South America. 
Make sure to stay organized. Updates should be easily searchable and well categorized. Although it’s fantastic having regular updates and engagement from staff, this can mean that those really important updates—you know, the ones from the CEO—can accidentally fall through the cracks. Choosing a CMS intranet that has the ability to publish different updates under different categories and pages is recommended, as long as there’s a straight forward navigation tool to keep these all visible. If you find your intranet is becoming swamped with content, it also might be worth restricting everyone’s ability to publish.
<h2>Add Value, And Have Fun At The Same Time!</h2>
Sometimes, we have to talk about boring things. Policy changes, <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/employee-intranet/">employee inductions</a> and tax updates aren’t exactly the most riveting of topics. 
Thankfully, there are ways around this to get those important, boring updates read. Besides catchy headlines, try pulling on the competitive strings of your staff, and turn engagement into a competition. ‘First one to spot the mistake gets their boss’s car for the day!’ ‘Comment your thoughts below, and go into the draw to win a paid day off!’ The possibilities are endless.
Be sure to use an engaging image up-front. It’s surprising how far images can go to boost readership. Other forms of media can be fantastic as a break from the usual as well—video introductions, interactive explanations, infographics, visual aids. Remember: half of the battle is grabbing initial attention.
Capturing initial engagement is all well and good, but it’s important to treat your employees’ time with respect. The kindest thing you can do as a writer is make your writing skim-able. Create content that can be easily digested, free from jargon, clunky paragraphs and technical language. Surprisingly, only 21% of communication professionals are intentional about this practise in average-performing organizations, compared to 50% in high-performing organizations. Improvements in the clarity and simplicity of your writing are low-hanging fruit—avoid clichés, cut out the acronyms, use subheadings and bullet points, write concisely.
<h2>Make Sure To Measure</h2>
All of our tips above could be leading you astray.
There’s only one way to know—measure the success of your updates. Unfortunately <a href="https://blogs.iis.net/">60% of organizations</a> have no measures in place for the effectiveness of their internal communication. Management 101 mandates that in order to manage or influence any aspect of your business, there needs to be a measure. You’re reading this article now because you want to improve your internal communication, so get measuring!
There are a few easy ways to dive into measuring the habits of your readers. Measure participation by looking at unique user logins per day. Peak times of day when readership is at its highest will be revealed by tracking when posts are opened. This kind of insight will allow you to publish important updates at the best time possible, ensuring they receive the attention they deserve. To understand which content is engaging your team the most, you can measure how long readers stay on a certain page, or which articles are shared the most.
Here’s a quick look at the most common types of measurement:
<ul>
<li>Engagement: Has your update created conversations? What level of activity is there in the comments section?</li>
<li>Relevancy: What were you trying to achieve with your article? Were you trying to spread a message wide, or get answers to a specific question—and did this occur? </li>
<li>Readership: How far did the article reach? What percentage of staff read it?</li>
<li>Readability: Use readability tests to measure the ease with which your message is digested.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Let’s Get Social!</h2>
There’s no need for your company-wide updates to be purely one-sided. Crowd-source your news to your team as a whole, and allow any important updates to be communicated in real-time by any employee. 
The days of static news are gone—today, social networks have empowered everyone to participate and interact with the news. Research has shown that as many as <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/07/new-pew-data-more-americans-are-getting-news-on-facebook-and-twitter/">63% of Facebook and Twitter users</a> get their news from social networks. Over half of millennials view social networks as the most important source of news in their lives. Engage your employees by harnessing this trend.
Rather than news being a one-way transaction, create a dynamic conversation. The principles of social media still apply in a business context. Allow employees to create, comment, share and interact, and they will feel included and engaged, viewing your business as more transparent, and feeling a sense of ownership.
One way of catering for social media is to embed your company social feeds (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) as a single page on your intranet. This not only drives higher engagement in the respective social platforms, but also saves time for your users, as they have just the one place to go for company updates.
<h2>So What Does All Of This Mean?</h2>
We’d be remiss to assume employees read every single piece of company-wide communication.
The onus lies with us, the content creators, to truly engage our readers. Create concise, enjoyable, informative information, on a platform the is visible and easily accessible, then measure the success.
We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.
Ready to create your own intranet news hub with intuitive navigation and embedded social media feeds? <a href="https://www.myhubintranet.com/">MyHub Intranet</a> can help! We provide a cloud-based, CMS intranet platform that will help ensure your news is read. Contact us to for a free demonstration.

Communication Made Easy With CMS Intranet

If you go to Ford’s website, <a href="https://www.ford.com/" target="_blank">https://www.ford.com/</a>, to buy a new car you can do it in one of two ways; you can buy a car from stock, or order one to your own specs.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture1.png" />
Building your own opens all kinds of possibilities, from custom paint jobs to unique wheel trims, tinted glass, and 24-speaker stereo systems. However, once your new car is out on the streets, nobody will know it was custom-built, unless you have tiger stripes or an orange car bra added.
Building a website is the same. You can use a website builder, or you can use a CMS such as WordPress to create your site. The crucial point is that customers can’t tell the difference and don’t even care as long as you can help them with their problems.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture21446x0-is.png" />
<h2>Using a Website Builder</h2>
Some web hosting companies <a href="https://www.lcn.com/instantsite" target="_blank">had begun providing simple website builders</a>, which allow for a quick website setup in a few minutes, but that simplicity is also their downfall because it means your site can’t be scaled easily. Most business owners know they need a website, but they lack the time to learn about WordPress themes, plugins and updates: They want everything simple. And they need it yesterday. Website builders are aimed at people who need a good-looking e-commerce site today. They are designed to be attractive to anyone who wants a website but doesn’t want the hassle of <a href="http://www.tgdaily.com/web/audience/starting-a-blogsite-here-are-5-tips-in-picking-the-right-hosting-service" target="_blank">finding a good hosting plan</a> along with the perfect web host.
<h2>Website Builders Are Simple</h2>
Users get a ‘Website in a box’ deal for less than $10 per month. The site does the job. It accepts credit cards, has beautiful pictures and appears in Google. That’s all that is required of it. There is no hosting to sort out, no thousands of themes to choose from, no endless pages of plugins that perform all manner of tasks you never knew you needed, and no designer necessary. The monthly price includes hosting, and may even include the domain name. Yes, it works out more expensive, especially if you want two or three sites, but for a business that requires a web presence, site builders work perfectly.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/picture31036x0-is.png" />
<h2>Using WordPress</h2>
WordPress is a V12, 12 litre, cross-country truck that you can pull levers and turn into a 45-foot RV with wings, complete with four bikes and a boat. WordPress can build anything, from a single-page author’s site to a 92,000-page authority site on the Solar System. And if you intend to create a gigantic and ever-growing authority site with multiple authors, a membership area, and an auction site, then you are probably better using a CMS rather than an instant site builder.
<h2>WordPress Is Complicated</h2>
Building a site with WordPress is the equivalent of building your car by choosing from 7,641 options in 97 different categories. You can do it, but it takes longer than just selecting a vehicle from a dealer’s stock. WordPress isn’t the perfect CMS that fans would have you believe. WordPress sites are customizable, but you need to know what you are doing. WordPress CMS enthusiasts would have you believe it is easy to build a website using the free WordPress software. It is easier than building a site using HTML, PHP and Java code, and you can have a website of sorts live in a few minutes, but it won’t look good, and it won’t be customized with your images, colors, and logo. Sites built using a non-proprietary CMS like WordPress or Drupal can be ported to another hosting service. Websites built on one host’s site builder are impossible to switch to another host: You have to throw them away and start again if you change web hosting companies.
<h2>The Short Version</h2>
There are two common ways to build a website; using site building software or using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. If all you need is a simple site, and you need it quickly, a free website building program is a great way to get it. If you are prepared to wait for your site, or you have someone in-house who is expert at using WordPress and weighing up the pros and cons of different hosting services, then WordPress is the way to go.

Building a Website Is Like Buying a New Car

WordPress 3.8 has been released and with it, comes a new look for the interface that everyone has come to know and love. From brighter colors to better usability on all devices, this new release promises a ton of inspired changes to the popular open source CMS. Let's take a look at what has changed.
To kick things off, check out this introductory video showcasing some of the main features of this release:
http://youtu.be/c5sq4NqwhsI
Some of the changes in this release include a refreshed look to the dashboard where you work. With spruced up colors and a more elegant design, it's a welcome change for those who've become bored of the old look:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/overview991x0.jpg" alt="wordpress 3.8 dashboard" />
Gone is the old font and in with the new. Open Sans is now the default font for the dashboard which gives the interface a clean and elegant look that is more visually appealing to the eye. The developers have also created new vector based icons that scale well with all devices to give everything a better look and feel regardless of how you may view them.
Another new change is the introduction of custom colors to the dashboard. While not a game changer, it's still nice to have options:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/colors991x0.jpg" alt="wordpress 3.8 dashboard" />
These are just a few of the major changes in this release, to explore more of these changes, check out the <a href="http://wordpress.org/news/2013/12/parker/">WordPress 3.8 announcement</a>.

WordPress 3.8 brings Interface Overhaul and Better Mobile Experience

eZ Systems has announced perhaps one of their biggest releases to date with an incredible suite of new offerings that turns their eZ Publish platform into an even stronger contender for publishers and producers of digital content. eZ Publish 4.7, or “Etna”, has begun the transformation of this web content management platform into a full customer experience management platform. Today, we take a look at this new product in our eZ Publish Review.
As part of this launch, they have also enabled the ability for customers to have eZ Publish served from the cloud with a new offering via their partner, Ixonos. This will enable the eZ Publish suite of applications to be served from a Red Hat Enterprise Stack.
<h2>What's new?</h2>
<h3>Smart Site Analytics with eZ odoscope</h3>
The first of their many offerings is the introduction of a new smart site analytics tool called eZ odoscope. This tool is essentially an analytics dashboard that highlights clickstreams of visitors pathways and journeys through a site and provides a filterable heatmap of their click behavior.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/imagescauzpt5i-1_2_chxbu2.jpg" alt="eZ Publish Review" />
With this new tool, customers now the ability to:
<ul>
<li>examine web behavior with visitor clickstream and pathways</li>
<li>apply filters to website visitors and create new user groups to monitor</li>
<li>analyze pathways across multiple media and different devices</li>
<li>design the dashboard for different users and functional views</li>
<li>build and distribute statistical reports for distinct stakeholders</li>
</ul>
Another part of the tool is the odosMap, which gives you a complete view as to how users are navigating their site with a representative flow.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/odosmap-620x437.png" alt="eZ Publish Review" />
Of course, everyone loves heat maps and they offer those too!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/drupal_logo-blue-1_400x0_bi5pmp.png" alt="eZ Publish Review" />
A full breakdown of what eZ odoscope can do can be found here: <a href="http://ez.no/Products/eZ-Market/Explore-the-eZ-Market/eZ-odoscope" target="_blank">eZ odoscope</a>
<h3>Real Time Content Trending and Optimization with eZ LiveViewer</h3>
One of the coolest new tools in the suite is the new LiveViewer, which is effectively a dynamic infographic of how content on your site is being used.
It is described as follows:
<blockquote>
The realtime info-graphic analytics allows content managers to visualize usage trends of the complete content repository within a configurable recency time period. eZ Live Viewer allows immediate actions to take place as best suits business needs. Users can enter straight into editing mode, push content to another block on the page, add high trending stories to other websites in the network, act rapidly with push notifications like social media or email alerts to build more traffic and then watch for changes in consumer response.
</blockquote>
If, as a publisher, you are not drooling over this next picture, we'll be surprised. Check this out:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ez-liveviewer-620x322.png" alt="eZ Publish Review" />
See? We told you you'd love it.
Full features of the new eZ LiveViewer:
 
<ul>
<li>Real-time article-level visualization of website audience
<ul>
<li>Actual audience</li>
<li>Historical info</li>
<li>Trends</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>All this information on one screen</li>
<li>No clicking and scrolling</li>
<li>Easy-to-interpret</li>
<li>Customizable, color-coded categories</li>
</ul>
Additional information can be found here: <a href="http://ez.no/Products/eZ-Market/Explore-the-eZ-Market/eZ-Live-Viewer" target="_blank">eZ LiveViewer</a>
<h3>eZ Exceed- a new extension for faster and more efficient editorial workflow.</h3>
This new extension is described as follows:
<blockquote>
The user interface is built for speed, with a top toolbar that covers all actions. Simply browse around your site, editing from the toolbar or directly from the page.
A sheet slides in, ready for you to edit. When working with media and related content a new interface sheet fluidly slides on top, making it easy and faster to work with complex content.
</blockquote>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logo_2-1_oyjywt.png" alt="eZ Publish Review" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/grow-and-expand_dtvki0.png" alt="eZ Publish Review" />This extension also improves the process of working with images on the site. When editing an image, a sheet slides into view to enable edits site-wide. Making an image crop? It can now be applied across the entire site, if needed. eZ Exceed can also be configured to store your media on a CDN.
<h4>Improved communication between team members.</h4>
Your editorial team can now communicate more effectively than ever. Users can send personal or group messages relating to content by clicking the chat icon from the toolbar, typing their message and hitting send. Collaborators will receive a notification, allowing them to open the applicable content item and start working instantly.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/collab-620x669.png" alt="eZ Publish Review" />As you can see, the eZ Systems team have put a lot of thought and work into this extension, simplifying the editorial process and making the experience more enjoyable.
Additional information about eZ Exceed can be found here: <a href="http://ez.no/Products/eZ-Market/Explore-the-eZ-Market/eZ-Exceed" target="_blank">eZ Exceed </a>
That's not all, however. Some additional features included in this release:
<ul>
<li>automated layout and design optimization with advanced multivariate testing.</li>
<li>enhanced auto-save, service dashboard, flexible content staging and delivery and team room functionality.</li>
<li>a new offering called the eZ App Factory that generates 3 app versions- iPhone, iPad, Android.</li>
<li>enhanced and improved adaptive technology solution for publishing content to mobile devices. Automatic rendering of content to small screens ensures that the reading experience on smartphones and tablets is optimized.</li>
<li>a connector integrating eZ Publish with the e-commerce engine from Magento.</li>
<li>geo-location of content delivery.</li>
</ul>
Needless to say, this is a big one. Check it all out on their website: <a href="http://ez.no/">eZ Publish</a>

eZ Publish Review - A Look at the New Features for Publishers

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