Articles - Page 63

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

Growth and positive change are always welcomed in professional organizations and endeavors. However, sometimes this can also present new challenges.
Particularly when an individual or organization has gotten used to a content management system, upscaling can be tough. Adding new content types, new clients, new members, and new devices can present certain struggles that those using the system must overcome.
Every CMS has its own level of scalability and its own features to help usher in growth. Knowing what to look for (and what to watch out for) during this expansionary period is important.
<h2>Beware of Compatibility Issues</h2>
When it comes time to expand your use of a CMS, you should be aware of potential compatibility issues. Let’s say the system you have is optimized for creating spreadsheets or ledgers for tracking financial data. If you’re looking to use a new type of document or file extension in the same program, you should check to make sure its supported.
Many of the top CMS programs on the market are designed to be flexible with the types of files that can be used. But this doesn’t mean that is always the case – check ahead of time and see if there are any add-ons that you need to install to make sure your CMS keeps working as intended.
There’s also the possibility that you may want to add new devices and new locations. Cross-platform functionality is a popular feature of the top CMS providers out there, but its always good to make sure your system supports the changes you want to make.
<h2>Ensure You Can Manage Permissions Properly</h2>
Let’s say you’ve just landed a new client, or hired a new employee, and you want to make sure they can use your CMS comfortably for collaborative projects.
However, you may not want the new party to have access to all information within a system. They may have a specific area where they need to work or a specific type of data they need to access. When you’re adding people to your CMS, you need to make sure you can give them the appropriate permissions to access only the information they need.
Keeping permissions and account management under control is vital for maintaining organizational privacy and making sure information doesn’t end up accessible by unauthorized parties.
<h2>Make Sure the Support is There</h2>
No matter how you want to expand your use of a CMS, you need to make sure you can get your questions answered quickly.
Ensure that you have resources on hand to help you troubleshoot and debug any problems you encounter. This will help you upscale easier and make the experience simpler every time from then on out. See if your CMS provider offers email and phone support, or, better yet, in-person techs to help you with your upscaling activities.
When you’ve gotten comfortable with a CMS, you want to ensure you can keep using it even as your operations grow. Though scaling up does present a few curious problems, the benefits it offers can make it well worth the added effort.

What to Watch Out for When Upscaling with a CMS

mike-johnston

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the three main social media platforms that guide most of the traffic from a wide audience. Yet, those media platforms have rules, agendas, and limitations that can be constricting to certain businesses, people, and viewpoints. Whether it is the lack of individuality inherent in these easily recognizable social networks, or simply because the company or cause sees something greater, utilizing a social networking content monitoring system (CMS) platform to create a social network is an intriguing option.
Here are five of the best social networking CMS platforms available use today.
<h2>SocialEngine</h2>
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/social-engine" target="_blank">SocialEngine</a> started in 2007 and was co-founded by Charlotte Genevier and Alex Benzer. Originally, this now open-source social networking CMS was created simply to help businesses create their own branded social network platform. This system boasts having no limits in customization, in-depth analytics, built-in security, and anti-spam.
SocialEngine also has two distinct options when it comes to specifically how you want to build your social network.
<h3>SocialEngine PHP:</h3>
SocialEngine PHP is designed to be downloaded and utilized in a format that is created completely by the individual user. Having a license to utilize this software means that the social network that a person creates is completely their own. Since this product was the first out of the duo, it is an extremely in-depth, extremely analytical, completely personalized response from your social network platform.
<h3>SocialEngine Cloud:</h3>
SocialEngine Cloud boasts an instant setup, total social integration and, while less in-depth and slightly less customizable than it’s PHP counterpart, it is also a simple, faster way to start an online network. The cloud version is easy to link to existing websites and if you need more than one social network, this platform can be enabled to host different social networking accounts.
<h3>Pros:</h3>
The biggest advantages that SocialEngine is known for is their customization and the ownership of the data that is put on the network. While SocialEngine hosts the platform on which the social network is built, all the contents, in addition to the network itself, is owned by the user.
<h3>Cons:</h3>
The biggest issue with SocialEngine is that many third-party plug-ins are not compatible with the platform. Therefore, the customization, although vast, can be dampened significantly by this inability.
Also, there are reports that despite multiple users complaining about this and other issues, the platform is slow to initiate change.
<h2>phpFox</h2>
In January of 2018, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/out/phpfox" target="_blank">phpFox</a> released its latest and biggest update, phpFox 4.6.0. This tells users that this is a platform that is keeping up with the times and always improving. Regardless of how good software is, complacency can hastily become their terminal downward spiral into tech history.
Therefore, one of the biggest ways phpFox continues to stay afloat is their focus on relevance; which is a theme that is inherent throughout their website and platform design.
phpFox has a free demo that allows their potential social networking creators to try out their basic service before committing to buying a license.
<h3>Pros:</h3>
The highlights of this system are their affordability, the abundance of features and their user-friendly interface.
With a one-time fee of their three-tiered system that allows social networkers to choose the capability of their network, such as whether to have video chat, makes it highly affordable.
The abundance of features makes customization and the ability to make a platform unique easy and accessible. Many of these features are available in the first tier of their pricing.
Last, the user-friendly interface, that has recognizable similarities to Facebook, make it appealing to the eye and recognizable.
<h3>Cons:</h3>
The biggest issue with phpFox is the customer service. While this platform has good representatives who are helpful, once you get ahold of them, the help is generally frustrated by their service pricing and schedule.
Customers who wish to get in touch with the company to help them with an issue must pay for their service (even those on the highest pricing tier).
Additionally, their scheduling for customer service representatives is strictly between business hours. This means that globalization of this platform is at a major disadvantage and, more importantly for the individual networker if you have a pressing issue after they close, or on the weekend, help will likely not arrive until the next business day.
<h2>eXo</h2>
The idea for <a href="https://www.exoplatform.com" target="_blank">eXo</a> was conceived in 2002 and was initially supposed to be an open-source project. However, after a lot of hard work and determination, in 2003, the project morphed into a company, taking on the US Department of Defense as their first client.
For the pricing platform of eXo, there are three main options, which are decided by the number of people who utilize your platform.
The first is the Professional Plan, which is available up to 200 users. The second option is the Enterprise plan, which services up to 1,000 users. The third option is the Enterprise Plus tier, which hosts an unlimited number of users.
<h3>Pros:</h3>
Considering that many users tend to have a good experience with eXo, there are many benefits to utilizing this platform. However, these pros are the most common:
eXo is hailed for having excellent content management, high sociability tools, and easy to use customization.
eXo has a reputation for being a complete platform, having perfected the balance between a social and collaborative effort. While there are a pleasing amount of add-on and exclusive features that can be easily integrated into the user’s social network, the open source programming gives users the freedom to build their network exactly as they see fit.
Plus, the customer service is always helpful, with a quick and detailed response (at no additional cost). 
<h3>Cons:</h3>
The only true disadvantage that eXo has on a wide scale, is that they offer so much, sometimes some of the larger features can slow the network down. While this is possible to fix, the completeness of such a true open source network makes it hard for some new users to navigate.
<h2>BoonEx</h2>
<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/boonex" target="_blank">BoonEx</a> was started in 2001 by Andrew and Julia Boon. Originally, the couple only sought to focus on the software community. However, over the span of a decade, which is now reaching close to twenty years, the company has morphed into a reliable social CMS platform.
The company’s main product is often what people refer to the company as Dolphin.
With the full name of BoonEx Dolphin, this platform has gone through four major updates, the most current of which is Dolphin Pro.
*Fun Fact: With each update, the company ‘adopts’ a dolphin and pays for its care, in addition supporting many other animal, environmental, and human disability foundations.
<h3>Pros:</h3>
BoonEx is hailed for withstanding the test of time and updating itself to stay relevant. Some unique pros for this system are the membership ads, the ability to create a blog right on the platform and the ability to collect payments.
The way that their ad space is filled up is by the members. This keeps the network growing and expanding, while individual networkers are getting noticed on the platform that they chose to work with.
Also, in addition to being fully customizable, both with templates and social media connectivity, BoonEx also allows networkers to plan and present their own content. Members are easily able to add and update blogs to their network, create custom RSS feeds and even share documents.
Third, BoonEx allows network users to collect payments through their social network. It is easy to set up and makes the network, especially for a charity or other like-minded idea, look extremely put together and professional. For some networks, this could change the entire way they operate, simply by the ease of being paid right through the social network they created.
<h3>Cons:</h3>
The major issue with this platform is the lack of options for certain functions, such as templates. While they do have a marketplace that negates that con slightly, having to pay for something as simple as a template, when a networker is already paying for a membership is cause for annoyance.
<h2>NING</h2>
<a href="https://www.ning.com/" target="_blank">NING</a> started in 2004 and is proud to be one of the major CMS platforms in the industry. The company boasts a simple, customizable, drag and drop design that is completely socially integrated, mobile, and refined by up to date SEO and analytics features.
Even though they are a company conceived in the USA, their globalization is on point, with the ability to read the contents of their website in six different languages proudly displayed on their website.
<h3>Pros:</h3>
The benefits of using NING are that they have a reputation to be easy to work, the content tends to show up high on Google searches, and the platform can easily be monetized.
The NING platform is synonymous with being easy to work with and seamless in its customization. This platform is always striving to keep up its relevance and achieves this goal through apps, plenty of features and affordability.
Secondly, NING focuses its efforts on staying SEO savvy, which helps the contents for all the platform’s users to show up high on Google searches. This is useful, both for seasoned networkers and those who are still trying to build their user base.
Additionally, NING is one of the CMS platforms that has made monetization of the network a priority. If a possible networker is looking to sell ad space, this is a good option, especially for those who are just starting out.
<h3>Cons:</h3>
NING is not without faults, however. While it has its benefits, there are also a few complaints among the users.
The first of which is that although the packages are affordable, they come with limited bandwidth, which once a networker has exceeded, they must upgrade their package. This tends to get frustrating extremely quick.
Secondly, since the NING site is integrated with each individual social network on the platform, there is a higher possibility for spamming. To rectify this situation, NING limited the number of friend requests a networker can send to fifty. This helped a little bit but the aggravation for the legitimate networker was heightened.
Also, another one of the most prevalent issues that users seem to have with NING is that the platform has a reputation for being inexpensive. While it is far from looking cheap, some people seem to have that opinion of the platform. Thus, if the networker intends to use the platform for its monetary capabilities, they might be faced with issues, simply because of the affordability of the platform.
Nevertheless, if a networker can build a reputable social platform, it won’t matter where the site is hosted. 
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
In conclusion, there is no CMS platform on this list that is necessarily better than another. At the end of the day, there is a social networking CMS platform that is better suited for every business. After all, each business is unique and therefore, deserves to choose an equally unique platform on which they host their social network. However, hopefully, this list has shed some light on the options that are available and helped make that decision a little more manageable.

5 Best Social Networking CMS Platforms

JotForm, a popular tool for creating online forms, today announced <a href="https://www.jotform.com/cards/">JotForm Cards</a>, which replaces traditional web forms with a singular card format that greatly improves response rates. Using mobile-focused, individual questions, JotForm Cards make the form completion process fast and simple.
Users have traditionally gravitated toward JotForm because of the ease at which they’ve been able to create forms using the platform. But the end product basically just looked like any other online form. JotForm Cards changes that, with a distinct, bold design that focuses on the experience of the form respondent.
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/md7GNQfEwsdLG-5-syyt4WfPq0QgFAOUiXRbvHgCKVGgtJvBbBszsHeWbpaLZkmKTBYvZLN5F0nwBCIiYCQsU_CjApc6flPchk2QXyWkUTuHZAW7oZkh_sbAQNrIMg-h08N-4yZP" />
Noteworthy JotForm Cards features include:
<ul>
<li>
One question per page, to improve respondent focus
</li>
<li>
Micro animations that interact with the end user
</li>
<li>
A motivating progress bar that turns green when answers
</li>
<li>
A smart embed feature to match the form to any embedded site
</li>
</ul>
JotForm user testing showed that JotForm Cards forms improved completion rates by 36 percent — a significant boon for organizations needing better data. A big reason for this is the mobile friendliness of the forms, which show up incredibly well on any device. A swipe left from a phone or tablet shows the next question on a form.
The new product marks a big change for the company, which was founded in 2006. Before, when a respondent would fill out a traditional JotForm form, they wouldn’t necessarily know it was different from any other form they’ve filled out, which was the point. But JotForm Cards forms are very unmistakable from any other type of web form circulating the internet. And the emphasis on a friendly UI means a big win for JotForm users needing more responses to their forms.
To try JotForm Cards, visit <a href="https://www.jotform.com/cards/">https://www.jotform.com/cards/</a>.

JotForm Unveils New Form Style for Improved Conversions

In this digital age, the need for a business to keep a unique and compelling conversation going with their customers is more prevalent than ever. Not only do businesses need to have a strong email marketing strategy to have this conversation, but they also need to be comfortable enough with that platform to trust it, almost implicitly, to handle and home their marketing needs.
However, regardless of whether the business is just opening its doors, or has been around for generations, finding an email marketing platform that synchronizes well enough with the business that the owner is willing to invest in this kind of trust is hard. There are many factors to consider and while there are leading platforms, there isn’t one that is perfect for every business.
So, here is a comprehensive list of the best and the worst aspects of 6 top email marketing platforms, so that every business owner can decide what is the best option for their business.
<h2>MailChimp</h2>
Founded in 2001, <a href="https://mailchimp.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MailChimp</a> started as a side project for a variation of web developer but has grown into a trusted ally among millions of businesses, worldwide. With the businesses (and individuals) that utilize this platform ranging in size, experience, and email marketing need, MailChimp covers the scope of the market and has become a leader in the industry. This platform is known for having a welcoming, fun, and engaging atmosphere, while still being able to lend a serious advantage to businesses; especially those that are just starting out.
Pros:
MailChimp is extremely easy to work with, having a simple design and a cute disposition. (Who doesn’t like a monkey wearing a hat?) Yet, the whimsical nature of this platform does not dampen the pros for their professional function ability.
Two of the best pros going for MailChimp is their awesome freemium plan and they're thorough, yet easy to comprehend reporting methods for tracking the success of a company’s email marketing campaign.
The first is the ample amount of free content that is available to users with under 2,000 email subscribers. Complete campaigns to this number of subscribers, sending 12,000 emails per month is an exceptionally large girth for businesses who are looking to build up their marketing. There is a limited amount of options that require users to upgrade to the fee-based subscriptions, so long as the business stays within the free-subscription requirements.
The second, piggybacking off the first pro is the depth and ease of reporting that comes with MailChimp’s service. Garnering reports on how a campaign is doing, or did, especially in terms of the free subscription is extremely useful and user-friendly on this platform.
Cons: 
Unfortunately, while simple design is great for learning and exploring a platform, it doesn’t bode well for creativity and while the platform is functional, the more in-depth features are lacking.
One of the two major issues with MailChimp is the lack of originality in their email templates. For a savvy email subscriber, it is easy to spot an email created on this platform. While there is a host of templates to choose from, the ability to truly customize an email template is a difficult feat to overcome.
The other major issue with MailChimp is the high price point for fee-based plans, versus the low quality of email automation. When a subscriber upgrades to a service, they expect to get better more than what they had before. While the freemium plan is generous and with it, people don’t seem to care so much about the lacking email automation, when businesses start to pay for MailChimp, they are disappointed to find that they still cannot accurately automate their marketing strategy.
<h2>Constant Contact</h2>
<a href="/products/constant-contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Constant Contact</a>, founded in 1995 under the initial name, Roving Software started out as something of an early social media platform. Initially, it was simply a way for friends to keep in contact with one another online. However, instead of becoming the initial Facebook, this company utilized their platform to help small businesses compete with large corporations in terms of marketing and communication.
Constant Contact is the father of the email marketing platforms we have today, while continuously developing to keep up with their ever-evolving predecessors.
Pros: 
Constant Contact is easy to navigate, it is tried and true with over and has a lot of niche features that other platforms do not offer. One feature is event management. This feature is extremely useful and as easy to navigate as the rest of the platform. Therefore, if such a unique feature is a good fit for your business, this platform might be a good fit for you.
Secondly, the physical approach that Constant Contact takes to helping businesses learn about their email marketing is unique for their niche market. Constant Contact employs the use of seminars and training sessions that have experts touring the country, speaking in different venues to spread information. This direct link to a company, especially a digital company, is extremely rare and people respond well to this tactic; especially their constituents, considering business owners are not always tech-savvy. Therefore, having the ability to talk to a real person, during an event close to their home or business is important.
Cons: 
While being revolutionary has its benefits, eventually, what was once novel becomes commonplace and with a reverence that Constant Contact deserves, the cons of this platform stem from their age.
Two major cons for this platform include the fees for Constant Contact being vastly overrated, for service that has become the status quo for most of the other companies and the virtual customer service.
The first is the price point that Constant Contact is working with. While they do offer a generous 60-Day free trial of either tier of their service, once that time is up, the fees are top heavy, compared to the service that is received. Based entirely on the number of email subscribers the packages start at twenty dollars per month, for up to 500 email subscribers and goes up from there. However, the basic plan, regardless of how many subscribers, doesn’t offer email automation at all.
The second issue with Constant Contact is their virtual customer service. While their physical customer service tactics are on point with what business owners want, their virtual customer service leaves much to be desired. Unfortunately, customers have often found the service they received to be completely unhelpful; that is if they can even find the link to get to the service desk they are trying to reach. It has even been reported that people have encountered links that don’t work, or lead to an error screen. 
(Ouch!)
<h2>Drip</h2>
<a href="https://www.drip.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Drip</a> was started in 2013 by a man named Rob Walling, who was trying to create a better email marketing platform. Along with co-founder, Derrick Reimer, Drip grew into the first, self-proclaimed, ECRM (E-commerce CRM). This means, that instead of focusing completely on the inner-workings of the business, this customer relationship management (CRM) system also integrates the e-commerce of the business. This is meant to smooth the transaction between customer service and e-commerce. The website is colorful, eye-catching, strangely 90’s sitcomish, meets millennial but it is also clean enough to be professional. The appearance of Drip’s marketing is unique, but it works.
Pros: 
Drip is known for having excellent automation capabilities and marketing collectivity, which is what Drip set out to do when it was created. 
The automation capabilities are excelled and the information sharing that is available on the platform is enlightening. The ease in which different automation can be executed, based solely on how the individual customer reacts to an email is unmatched. The setup for this automation, as well as the rest of the platform, is straightforward and since the automation is so in-depth, the reports that it works from are exponentially useful to the business owner as well.
The second major pro for Drip is the marketing collectivity and connectivity. Instead of simply being able to set up email campaigns, this platform takes marketing to a new level by truly integrating different facets of marketing strategy. Instead of having to force the social networking, the email subscribers, and the website contacts to work together, Drip’s platform allows seamless connectivity and the sharing of information. Once it is set up, the CRM portion of the ECRM connects customers while the E-commerce portion individualizes those customers, based on their spending habits.
Cons:
Drip is, by all accounts a solid email marketing (ECRM) platform, but that doesn’t mean it exists without faults; after all, this platform, like all platforms, isn’t for everyone. Two major issues users have with Dip is the price point and the complexity of the platform.
The first con is the price point. While there is a free option to use Drip, if the platform reaches over 100 contacts, which is easy to do, the minimum paid fee is $41. That fee is undeniably heftier than the other top email marketing platforms. However, if you are utilizing all the functions instead of having an email marketing platform and a CRM system, this price point can possibly be rationalized. Yet, if this price point isn’t in your budget, especially for new businesses, then it doesn’t matter what the ECRM can do for you because you won’t be able to use it.
The other problem is the complexity of the platform. While on the surface Drip is simple to use, there are a lot more cogs to this platform than others. With the integration feature, as seamless as it may be, still brings the baggage of depth that some beginning email marketers might be overwhelmed by. Additionally, considering the amount of the integration this system can do, businesses could end up overpaying for a service they don’t even know they’re not using to its full capacity.
In summation, email marketing platforms are as vast as the businesses they serve. These three email marketing platforms are the most reliable, affordable, and versatile on the market today. Ultimately, the decision can only be made by the business owner, as it is important that every business finds the email marketing platform that is right for them.

3 Top Email Marketing Platforms

Today, <a href="https://www.zoho.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Zoho</a> launched a new version of its DIY website builder, Zoho Sites. The new, clutter-free interface offers a range of advanced features, including pre-built website sections, dynamic backgrounds imagery (videos and parallax images), and more page elements. This update also expands the customizations available in the product, allowing users better creative control over their design. 
“This major release makes Zoho Sites a true no-code platform, helping users create beautiful websites by supporting all major design elements and features,” said Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist, Zoho Corp. “With rich design layouts, templates and customization options, the new builder provides a tailored experience that caters to the website needs of any business category.”
Highlights of the New Zoho Sites:
Pre-built Website Sections: Zoho Sites now offers a selection of layout templates that help users structure and design web content. The templates cover various categories, such as Heading, Image, Icon, Newsletter, Box, Tab, Accordion and Carousel. Users can simply drag and drop the desired section into the page builder.
More Page Elements: Additions to the Elements tray provide users with more creative tools for experimenting with their page design. The new page elements include Content Containers, Icons, and Dividers.
Dynamic Backgrounds: Users can now add videos and parallax images to the background of a webpage. By placing compelling visual imagery behind static page content, users can create a more engaging and immersive browsing experience.
Access Restriction: Users can make their website private and manage their website's visibility from both the public and within the organization.
Quick customization pop-up: Whenever users add an element or section, a pop-up offers them design and formating options to personalize content layout and properties. The tools in the pop-up are layout-specific, which makes customization quicker and more precise.
New UI: The new look and feel of Zoho Sites strikes a balance between clean design and robust usability. Navigating within the website builder is straightforward, and all integrations are just a click away.
Integrations with Zoho and third-party products: Users can get to know their audience better by using integrations with Zoho SalesIQ, Zoho CRM, Zoho PageSense and Zoho Campaigns. These integrations allow website owners to engage with visitors via live chat, collect user data via forms, observe visitor activity via Zoho PageSense and keep visitors in the know via newsletters.
Pricing and Availability
The new Zoho Sites is available immediately. The free version includes access to a full range of website building tools, while the paid versions offer more advanced functionality. Paid subscription starts at $5/site/month for an annual subscription of the Essential Plan, increases to $12 for the Professional Plan and $20 for the full-featured Ultimate Plan. For more information on Zoho Sites, please visit: www.zoho.com/sites.
Zoho Sites is also part of Zoho One, the company's all-in-one suite of applications for running an entire business.

New Version of Zoho Sites Helps Users Build Beautiful, Modular Websites with Advanced Customization Options

Heads up for any Joomla site owners / developers. There is a new bug fix release available from Joomla. This is a security release for the 3.x series of Joomla addressing four security vulnerabilities and including over 100 bug fixes and improvements.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-384.jpg" />
This release fixes a few XSS vulnerabilities, an SQLi vulnerability as well as a few bug fixes. Here are some of the ones that have been handed:
<ul>
<li>Contact form loses data after submission with error <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/17743">#17743</a></li>
<li>Smart Search performance improvement for common words <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/12450">#12450</a></li>
<li>Performance improvement in Smart Search indexing process <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/17390">#17390</a></li>
<li>Update jQuery Autocomplete to 1.4.7 <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18113">#18113</a></li>
<li>Update CodeMirror to 5.33.0 <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18880">#18880</a></li>
<li>Update srcset url conversion to handle commas and spaces <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18327">#18327</a></li>
<li>Custom Fields: Handle tag items properly <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/19006">#19006</a></li>
<li>Fix filepath to PHPMailer language file <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/19072">#19072</a></li>
<li>Display category title as page heading and page title when no menu item for com_content category <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/19195">#19195</a></li>
<li>Respect access level in com_content <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/18417">#18417</a></li>
<li>Miscellaneous PHP 7.2 compatibility fixes</li>
</ul>
Visit GitHub for the full list of <a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/milestone/29?closed=1" target="_blank">bug fixes</a>.
Grab your updated copy of Joomla 3.8.4 today from <a href="https://www.joomla.org" target="_blank">https://www.joomla.org</a>

Joomla 3.8.4 Bug Fix Release Now Available

It can be both timely and somewhat alarming to realize that the technologies once refined to science fiction are now having a very real impact on our world.
It shows just how much technology has evolved and causes some people to step back and consider their age. Though artificial intelligence and machine learning have been around in some variety for years, they’re seeing more serious development today than ever before.
The notion of “smart” machines and “cognitive” programs is alarming for some, but others see potential in this trend. For content management systems, where personalization and adaptability are key, AI could be a driving force in the future.
<h2 style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0cm">How the CMS Model Has Changed Overtime</h2>
AI isn’t the only technology that has seen big changes in recent history – every CMS developer on the market knows that their own systems are being pressured to adapt and keep up with an ever-growing technological landscape.
CMS software has largely been looked at with a marketing mentality in the past, especially by developers. The idea of putting out a better software package than your competitor used to be the only major concern to be had. Now, with content spread across various devices, platforms, and interfaces, adaptability is the new must-have characteristic for any successful CMS.
Content management can now mean a number of different things. The phrase has morphed into an umbrella term, which can refer to any given number of types of content management along the cloud, on a company website, and even within the hard drives of in-house systems.
<h2 style="margin-left:0cm;margin-right:0cm">People Value Personalization, and AI Can Deliver</h2>
The idea behind a CMS is convenience. People like being able to keep track of and monitor their content no matter what device, OS, or system they’re using.
AI is about helping programs and devices learn to make decisions – to think, and to reason, based on information inputted into them. This means if a CMS uses AI technology, it could theoretically adapt to the use patterns of its controllers.
If a company has taken to streamlining all their content to a website via WordPress, for example, a CMS could theoretically offer that as an option every time, or at the very least keep the users’ settings on hand and set things up for them beforehand.
A CMS excels when it is able to meet the needs of users, and what better way of doing that then tailoring the system to user preferences?

Will Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Change the CMS Landscape?

Volusion today announced it is bringing Apple Pay, with the addition of a Buy Now button, to its merchants and their customers. Apple Pay is transforming mobile payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay that’s fast and convenient. Volusion now enables its merchants to provide their customers with seamless payment integration from their Apple devices, eliminating the need to enter their payment, shipping, or contact information each time they make a purchase through an online store.
Security and privacy are at the core of Apple Pay. When a consumer uses a credit or debit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on your device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.
“In our daily conversations with the merchants we serve, we’ve learned that seamless and secure payment options are top priority, and we are happy to announce that Volusion merchants can now provide Apple Pay as an option to meet that need,” said Kevin Sproles, CEO and founder of Volusion. “We know merchants using Apple Pay see two to five times higher conversion at checkout compared to other payment options and see more than 50% faster checkout times. We are excited to be able to provide this for our merchants and their customers.”
Volusion has also added the option for merchants to integrate Buy with Apple Pay button to product detail pages in their online stores. This feature allows customers to purchase the product with Apple Pay directly from the product detail page. The Buy with Apple Pay button eliminates the extra steps involved in a traditional checkout process of adding an item to the cart, navigating to the cart and filling in billing and shipping information.
Earlier this year, Volusion launched a significant upgrade to its core technology, to give small businesses a one-stop shop with all the tools they need to successfully sell online. Features of the new platform, V2, include quick store building to help merchants sell faster, hosted checkout within merchants’ domains included in all Volusion plans.
Apple Pay is easy to set up, requires no contract or fees, and users will continue to receive all of the rewards and beneﬁts offered by their credit and debit cards. Online shopping in apps and on websites accepting Apple Pay is simple with Touch ID, or just double-click the side button and glance at your iPhone X to authenticate with Face ID. There’s no need to manually fill out lengthy account forms or repeatedly type in shipping and billing information with Apple Pay. When paying for goods and services on the go in apps or Safari, Apple Pay works with iPhone 6 and later, iPhone SE, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 and later. Users can also use Apple Pay in Safari on any Mac introduced in or after 2012 running macOS Sierra and confirm the payment with iPhone 6 or later or Apple Watch, or with Touch ID on the new MacBook Pro.
For more information on Apple Pay, visit: <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-pay/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://www.apple.com/apple-pay/</a>
To learn more or to start creating your business on Volusion, visit <a href="http://www.volusion.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.volusion.com</a>.

Apple Pay Now Available for Volusion Merchants

CMS Summit 26

Find out at CMS Summit 26, May 12 - 13 in Frankfurt, Germany

What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?

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Contao version 3.5.33 is available. This is a bugfix release that restores the PHP 5.4 compatibility and fixes problems with MariaDB 10.2.4+ and MySQL 8.
Even if Contao 3.5 still supports PHP 5.4, they strongly advise against using outdated PHP versions. Contao 3.5 is compatible with the latest PHP versions, therefore – if the installed extensions allow it – you should run it with PHP 7 or at least PHP 5.6.
The developers have also revised identifier quoting, which has been had added to Contao 4.4.10, and ported it to Contao 3, so Contao 3.5 should be compatible with MariaDB 10.2.4+ and MySQL 8 now.
For more information on Contao and to grab the latest version, <a href="https://contao.org/en/news/contao-3_5_33.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">head to their website</a>.

Contao 3.5.33 is available

The folks at Concrete5 have released their latest update. This release is recommended for anyone using 8.3.0, and those who have wanted to update to 8.3 from an earlier version.
This version further fixes problematic updates from earlier versions of concrete5 as far back as 5.7.5.13, updates CKEditor to the latest version, and provides a number of small but important bug fixes. 
Here's a sampling of some of the changes:
<h2>Feature Updates</h2>
<ul>
<li>Updated CKEditor rich text editor component to 4.8.0 (thanks MrKarlDilkington)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Behavioral Improvements</h2>
<ul>
<li>Improvements to coding standards and PHP documentation (thanks mlocati, HamedDarragi)</li>
<li>Scan the SRC directory within the application for translatable strings (thanks matt9mg)</li>
<li>Fixed users being able to delete core and active themes (thanks deek87)</li>
<li>Removal of inline block JavaScript to facilitate more performant websites (thanks Remo)</li>
<li>Certain text field database indexes will be preserve across the upgrade process, leading to better performance (thanks mlocati)</li>
</ul>
<h2>Bug Fixes</h2>
<ul>
<li>Express Entity attribute type was not installed due to a bug in 8.3.0 and 8.3.1. This is now fixed.</li>
<li>Improvements to the upgrade process: fixes to missing database tables under certain conditions (thanks mlocati)</li>
<li>Fixed bug where blocks were not having their output added to the output cache, leading to general slowness, and a slow Dashboard Welcome page.</li>
</ul>
To see the rest, check out the <a href="https://documentation.concrete5.org/developers/background/version-history/832-release-notes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">release notes</a>

Concrete5 8.3.2 is Now Available!

Emails were once considered the quickest and most efficient form of digital communication – of course, this was when digital communications were young.
Now there are multiple chat platforms for both personal and professional use. Social media sites, apps, and enterprise resource management suites all give people the chance to communicate quickly and reliably across multiple devices.
Does this mean the email is dead? Not by any means.
But it does mean the email has moved toward a certain format. What it lacks in speed and convenience, it makes up for in formality. It’s the digital world’s version of a letter – but just like real mail, there’s usually a mix of good content and junk floating around.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/adobestock_91528736761x0-is.jpeg" />
Email marketing is still a popular field. Even beyond things like search engine marketing and social media marketing, emails can be very effective at presenting offers. So how do successful email marketers avoid the junk folder and make their campaigns a success?
<h2>Good Email Marketers Send Good Content</h2>
The best way to stay out of the junk folder? Don’t send junk.
There’s a fine line between presenting someone with a professional offer at an address set up for these inquiries and spamming their inbox with cash-grabbing schemes.
Good email marketers don’t target inboxes where they aren’t welcomed. This isn’t just a matter of character – there’s some strategy involved as well. Once an address or a brand gets a bad reputation for spamming, it can be hard to shake it. While it could take seconds to switch to a new email, it could take much longer for a brand to recover.
Looking professional is a big part of the task. A reader will be much more at ease, and thus much more receptive to inbox inquiries that look like they have something realistic to offer.
<h2>Use Recognizable Brand Names and Email Service Providers</h2>
If a business or entrepreneur is at the point where they’re sending out emails to clients and trying to implement a marketing campaign, they should have an established brand.
This could be conveyed in the form of a nice title, which ties into things like the email signature, an included website, and other sources that further show the sender is trustworthy. This also shows the sender, who is marketing their services, has likely delivered these same services (successfully) to other clients in the past.
It can be tempting to make custom email addresses that use the business’s title. While it is possible to get certifications that tie into an associated website and mark the email address as secure, using a more common email service provider is often a better idea. It’s safer, and seeing Gmail, Yahoo!, or Hotmail may be less likely to arouse suspicion in a reader.
If you must use a custom email address, look into solutions like ReturnPath to get certified as a trusted sender. And as always, test your ideas first. If your email marketing campaign looks fishy to you, it will likely end up in spam – either automatically or by the recipient’s own hand.

How Successful Email Marketers Avoid the Spam Folder

The Washington Post’s Arc Publishing has signed an agreement with <a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/">Le Parisien </a>to power the publication’s digital presence. Founded by the French underground during World War II, Le Parisien is known outside Paris as Aujourd’hui en France (“Today in France”) and is one of the largest newspapers in the country, reaching more than 20 million monthly unique visitors and with the largest general national news daily print circulation of more than 320,000.
“We are so pleased Le Parisien has chosen Arc to realize their digital ambitions and help position them for future success, ” said Scot Gillespie, CTO at The Post. “With this partnership, Arc will power sites on four continents and operate in multiple languages. We look forward to another year of tremendous growth and continued investment in the platform.”
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/download.png" />
The Arc engineering team will migrate Le Parisien to the Arc platform, building a new site for them and integrating Arc tools including PageBuilder and Websked into their newsroom’s day-to-day workflow.
“Le Parisien is choosing Arc for offering a complete publishing platform solution which will support and enable significant site performance improvements,” said Sophie Gourmelen, General Manager of Le Parisien. “The many capabilities of Arc will furthermore allow us to focus our time and the efforts of our teams on product innovation.”
About The Washington Post’s Arc Publishing Arc Publishing (<a href="https://www.arcpublishing.com/">https://www.arcpublishing.com/</a>) is an award-winning, state-of-the-art digital platform and suite of tools that’s engineered to meet the needs of modern publishers. Built by engineers and designers at The Washington Post, Arc technology solves complex publishing needs, including video, mobile web and apps, syndication to distributed platforms, automatic content testing, data mining and monetization. Arc has powered the digital transformation of clients both large and small across the globe. At its core, Arc is about speed and innovation: for readers, the newsroom, brands, advertisers and developers.

The Washington Post’s Arc Publishing signs Le Parisien

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perfectsensedigital.com%2F&amp;esheet=51743952&amp;newsitemid=20180117005124&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Perfect+Sense%2C+Inc.&amp;index=1&amp;md5=ac4998a47d5e2c1998217bd7e635e7b7" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Perfect Sense, Inc.</a>, provider of digital content management solutions and services through its platform, <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brightspot.com%2F&amp;esheet=51743952&amp;newsitemid=20180117005124&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Brightspot&amp;index=2&amp;md5=fa05454d3427853adbd85667e9d18db8" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brightspot</a>, today announced it has appointed DC-based software technology enthusiast Jenifer Kern as its first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).Kern brings more than 20 years of technology marketing and sales experience with both SaaS and software-enabled services firms. She most recently served as CMO at Tracx, a social media software company in Bethesda, MD. Prior to Tracx, she built the marketing and inside sales function from the ground up at Celerity where she was integral to driving its rapid growth, resulting in the successful sale of the company.
“While technology innovation continues to speed ahead in every industry and for every role, enterprise web content management solutions have lagged behind,” said Kern. “Digital content editors, marketers, and publishers remain frustrated with the speed and ease at which they can manage their web presence in real-time, while taking advantage of the most current technology trends. Perfect Sense created Brightspot to solve that very problem and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of this product and customer-focused company.”
In her role at Perfect Sense, Kern will be responsible for developing sales and marketing strategies and implementing programs to drive scalable revenue growth through its digital content management platform, Brightspot, which will be launching a major upgrade in April, coinciding with the company’s <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perfectsensedigital.com%2Fabout-us%2Four-story%2F&amp;esheet=51743952&amp;newsitemid=20180117005124&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=ten-year+anniversary&amp;index=3&amp;md5=8e1074159cab443c414dbcdd48cb0196" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ten-year anniversary</a>.
“What I saw at Perfect Sense was a different kind of company, one that was purpose-built to make people’s lives easier when it comes to managing their digital presence. The origin of the Brightspot name is rooted in our mission to be a consistent bright spot in the daily lives of web publishers, marketers, communicators, developers, and all of its users.”
The appointment of Kern comes one year after the company announced a <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perfectsensedigital.com%2Fblog%2Fperfect-sense-announces-22m-round-of-funding-from-carrick-capital-partners&amp;esheet=51743952&amp;newsitemid=20180117005124&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=%2422M+investment&amp;index=4&amp;md5=0593e2e03253ed471fcc2c081bccd54e" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">$22M investment</a> from Carrick Capital Partners. Her hire rounds out a series of strategic executive team hires, including that of CFO <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.perfectsensedigital.com%2Fpeople%2Fkami-ragsdale&amp;esheet=51743952&amp;newsitemid=20180117005124&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Kami+Ragsdale&amp;index=5&amp;md5=a2b09e6fafc3b7df0f160ef06ddb3861" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kami Ragsdale</a> earlier in 2017.
Kern is a frequent speaker and has served on several marketing association boards, including Women in Technology (WIT), Marketing Leaders of DC, and AMA-DC. She was recognized as Outstanding Female Speaker of the Year by HubSpot’s INBOUND conference for <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGq3TI38EVbo&amp;esheet=51743952&amp;newsitemid=20180117005124&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=her+presentation&amp;index=6&amp;md5=6e59182f486ca3cbccc08f586ed2deb4" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">her presentation</a> “Getting Sales Jazzed about Inbound Marketing.”
About Perfect Sense
Founded in 2008, Perfect Sense was created to deliver enterprise digital platform solutions in a more thoughtful way. Offering a suite of publishing-based products, as well as digital consulting services, Perfect Sense serves many marquee brands including Walmart, Johnson &amp; Johnson, Sotheby’s, Univision, U.S. News, Politico, and Scripps Networks Interactive.
Its digital content management platform, <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brightspot.com%2Fcapabilities&amp;esheet=51743952&amp;newsitemid=20180117005124&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Brightspot&amp;index=7&amp;md5=c8de188ab28f3aaeac8372265e00a3a0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Brightspot</a>, was purposefully built to put flexibility, customization, and sanity back into the lives of web producers – moving away from rigid and inflexible CMS architectures. Its evergreen and modular foundation enables digital content teams to quickly embrace new publishing trends and tools, enabling continuous improvement of their digital properties and customer experiences.
Headquartered in Reston, VA, Perfect Sense maintains a strong focus on giving back to the community by supporting local and national organizations including Special Olympics, The First Tee, YMCA and Troops First Foundation.

Perfect Sense Announces Enterprise Software Executive Jenifer Kern as Chief Marketing Officer

Hotjar - Spot what confuses

Spot what confuses your users with Hotjar & AI

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 - 63