Articles - Page 67

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

matt-garrepy

Over the last week Joomla (see our <a href="/tag/joomla/">joomla review</a>), the enormously popular open source CMS, was downloaded for the 22 millionth time.
22 million. That's an incredible number to achieve, but that's not the only impressive number they've been able to boast about.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bizzthemes_com-demo-nail-care-1-596x1024_ue0mgt.png" alt="Screenshot taken from Joomlacode.org as of 3/24/2011 9:48AM MST" />
Here are some others:
<ul>
<li>The number of extensions (essentially applications for Joomla) has grown nearly 20% in a little over 4 months.</li>
<li>2 months after the launch of Joomla 1.6, the new CMS has already been downloaded almost 1 million times</li>
<li>Joomla.org reached 7.5 million visitors in February, representing a 25% growth in Web traffic over a 4 month period</li>
</ul>
Impressive stats indeed. Joomla currently powers about 2.7 % of all websites on the net and has seen huge growth since the release of 1.6.
What are you experiences with Joomla? Do you consider it the #1 choice for content management? We'd love to hear your experience and thoughts in the comments below.

Joomla showing heavy growth in 2011

mike-johnston

<a href="http://www.telerik.com/" target="_blank">Telerik</a> have announced a brand new release of Sitefinity, bringing about productivity and information governance enhancements.
<a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">Sitefinity</a> is a Web Content Management (WCM) platform by Telerik with a 70,000-strong user base. It offers responsive web design, mobile websites and mobile apps – all from one CMS user interface.
Here are some highlights of the new release, along with some further details about the information governance and productivity enhancements:
<ul>
<li>The System Audit Trail which provides a measure of transparent protection and full accountability by helping organizations supervise processes while managing digital assets.</li>
<li>The newly-released Recycle Bin functionality complements the framework’s comprehensive versioning system by helping content authors archive and revert content items.</li>
<li>XML sitemaps to make content more discoverable, content duplication, which helps content authors copy and repurpose content items, and template thumbnails to help users quickly find the templates they need.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sitefinitylogo_wtagline_rgb-1700x0.png" alt="Sitefinity" />
<h2>Enhanced Information Governance</h2>
Every day, more private critical business and customer information goes online.
Accordingly, using an automated and streamlined environment to manage digital assets and deliver digital experiences is now nothing less than a necessity.
The System Audit Trail – now available in the Telerik Sitefinity CMS – provides a measure of transparent protection and full accountability by helping organizations supervise processes while managing digital assets.
Additionally, Sitefinity's new Recycle Bin functionality complements the framework’s comprehensive versioning system by helping content authors archive and revert content items.
<h2>New Productivity Features</h2>
Alongside Sitefinity's newly implemented information governance enhancements, this new Telerik Sitefinity CMS release also boosts developer productivity.
The framework now offers XML sitemaps to make content more discoverable, along with content duplication which helps content authors copy and repurpose content items. Also, template thumbnails have been introduced to help users find the templates they need faster than ever before.
Regarding this new Sitefinity release,  Martin Kirov, Executive Vice President, Telerik Sitefinity, had this to say:
<blockquote>“With the current release of Telerik Sitefinity, we are aiding our customers in their quest to properly govern important customer data. Coupled with an array of productivity advancements, Telerik Sitefinity CMS is even more aligned with better business practices. These are not only practical in implementation, but also critical to business success.”</blockquote>
To find out more about Sitefinity's new features, check out <a href="http://www.telerik.com/company/press-releases/2014/07/22/telerik-enhances-information-governance-with-latest-sitefinity-cms-release" target="_blank">their announcement</a>, and their <a href="http://www.sitefinity.com/" target="_blank">official website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/sitefinity/" target="_blank">Sitefinity via our CMS Directory</a>.

New Sitefinity Release Brings Improved Productivity & Information Governance

<a href="http://www.ezoic.com/" target="_blank"> Ezoic</a> – a fully-automated website optimization and A/B testing platform – has officially launched after a one year closed beta period. 
 The purpose of Ezoic is to help website owners determine the best layout for their content and page elements.
Content and website layout has a big impact of user experience, and Ezoic provides the tools required to test different layouts at once, whilst measuring efficiency in terms of visitor experience, ad income, conversions, and so forth.  
 Over 1000 small publishers benefited from Ezoic's year-long closed beta, where it was used to test over 1 Billion web pages, helping to boost ad income by a whopping 730%. Mobile ad revenue was also increased by an even more impressive 960%.
<h2>Five Steps to Optimization</h2>
To use Ezoic, you can either point your name servers to Ezoic's servers, or place a simple script on your website pages. 
 Here's a video which helps break down the five steps between your website, and your website with Ezoic's optimization tests in place:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/95669945?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>A Tool For One &amp; All</h2>
Perhaps the most exciting part of Ezoic's emergence, is the fact that it is not just for enterprise clients.  
 Ezoic has a free plan, an affordable business plan and a plan based on ad revenues for clients with bigger budgets. What's more is that all three plans include a 60-day no-obligation, unlimited-use free trial. <a href="http://www.ezoic.com/" target="_blank"> <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ezoic700x0.png" alt="Ezoic" /> </a> In the wake of Ezoic's launch, John Cole, Ezoic’s Chief Customer Officer, made these comments:
<blockquote>
“We solve a problem that many small publishers don’t even know they have. They’re missing out on millions of dollars each month in lost ad revenue, as well as unnecessary bounced or frustrated visitors, all because their website layout isn’t efficient.
Leading eCommerce sites such as Amazon have been endlessly testing and optimizing their sites for years to get users to buy more online, however, this technology hasn’t really filtered through to publishers of content sites, who should be working on usability.   
 Either they just don’t know about it, or they don’t have the time, money or technical expertise. We handle all this technical ‘heavy lifting’ so they can focus on what they do best – creating great original content.
We give ordinary people the freedom to earn a living through a subject they’re passionate about; their site is often their main source of income and Ezoic technology can increase it almost eightfold. It’s life changing money.”
</blockquote>
To find out more about Ezoic, and to sign up for free, <a href="http://www.ezoic.com/" target="_blank"> visit their website</a>.

Website Optimization Platform Ezoic Launches After Year-long Closed Beta

Open Source CMS are extremely popular choices for many users. With huge communities and plenty of support from developers around the world, they are a great choice for those looking to learn content management systems or to contribute as developers. This year, we had three very popular CMS competing for the Best Open Source CMS award; MODx, Concrete5 and Django CMS.
Of course, only one can win and it's with great pleasure that I announce that the winner (by a significant margin of several hundred votes over the competition) is…
<a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en/" target="_blank">Django CMS</a>!
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-open-source-cms300x0-is.png" />Congratulations to the developers and community that supported Django CMS on their win. For those of you who have never had a chance to try Django, there's never a better time than the present. Head on over to their website and give them a whirl, you might just find yourself a new favorite!
Their website: <a href="http://www.django-cms.org/en/" target="_blank">Django CMS</a>

Announcing the 2015 Winner for Best Open Source CMS

After nearly two months of beta and RC stages, Vivvo 4.5 is now officially in Gold release. It is available for purchase and download, including the new theme (shown below).
<img style="max-width:110px" title="vivvo" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/vivvo_zpfv4t.png" alt="vivvo" />
For those of you who missed – here's the “What's New” tour: <a href="http://www.vivvo.net/whatsnew">http://www.vivvo.net/whatsnew</a>
All valid license holders can download the software from the Client area. Installation instructions are available in docs section of the website.
Also, the Vivvo team are giving away a free plugin with every purchase:
<blockquote>Giveaway: w/ every Business Edition – Banner Manager for FREE
To spice things up just a little bit, and make our newest edition to Vivvo family more loved and welcomed by everyone – we decided to give away FREE <a href="http://mailer.spoonlabs.com/link.php?M=13052&amp;N=11&amp;L=10&amp;F=H" target="_blank">Banner Manager</a> plug-in ($39.95 worth) with every purchased Business license! We know the importance of having good ad server tightly integrated with CMS software, and we know this will make a perfect bundle for all publishers.</blockquote>
Check it out at <a href="http://www.vivvo.net">http://www.vivvo.net</a>

Vivvo releases version 4.5 Gold w/Giveaway

Through the years, CMS products have generally been built as a coupled CMS. This architecture includes everything in a single application: the content repository, the back-end UI for editors, the templating system, and all your custom code. It’s a popular approach because it requires only a single environment, and is easy to set up and manage.
<h2>Coupled Architecture Has Its Issues</h2>
In the coupled architecture, the CMS code is tightly connected with your templates and custom code. Because of this, both your code and the CMS code need to be maintained at all times (during installation, with upgrades and hotfixes, during code versioning, with continuous deployment, and so on). And, you need to be aware that the CMS code is exposed on the public server. This increases security risks, while the load on your website impacts the performance of your content management back end, and vice versa.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/coupled-cms.png" />
<h2>Better Separation of Concerns with Decoupled CMS</h2>
A decoupled architecture has been introduced by some vendors to iron out the limitations experienced with a coupled CMS. This architecture is based around two environments—the content management environment, usually protected by a firewall, where you make your changes, and a content delivery environment, with which you synchronize the content. With the decoupled architecture, you get better security, much better separation of your custom code, and easier scalability.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/decoupled-cms960x0-is.png" />
<h2>But It’s Not the Ultimate Solution</h2>
Despite the advantages of the decoupled architecture, it still does not solve all the issues. It still consists of multiple environments that need to be managed, which increases the costs of infrastructure, maintenance, and software licenses. And, there are always potential issues with having to synchronize content, especially if your website allows members to contribute their own content.
<h2>Headless CMS—the Solution for the Multi-channel World</h2>
CMSs were originally built for websites and, therefore, provide content in the form of a page. But websites and pages are no longer the only digital medium that content is created for. In the last 10 years, we have started consuming ever-increasing amounts of content through mobile applications. And the new advancements in VR, bots, digital assistants, and Internet of Things have made it even more complex with the possibility of displaying content on multiple devices and via many different formats. How we manage and publish content requires an entirely new approach. An approach that requires us to think of content as a set of components that can be pulled together from a single content repository and displayed in the ways native to the channel and device they are consumed on. The traditional page content model will not suffice anymore.
The answer is headless CMS and component content modelling. By eliminating the front-end, the presentation layer is much more flexible, only needing its API to deliver the content. Also, a good headless CMS empowers users with the tools to model structured content effectively using modules or components that can be displayed as a web page on a traditional website or content elements on a mobile application, or presented in a completely different way when displayed on an in-store kiosk. A combination of delivery and content modelling is what makes headless CMS the ultimate solution for the multichannel world we live in.
<h2>Why Is Headless CMS Architecture Better?</h2>
It’s a new architecture and approach for some people. But here are some of the benefits that the headless CMS architecture brings:
<ul>
<li>Multi-channel and multi-device content use is easy with the API.</li>
<li>You are not restricted by programming language, tools, or development processes when creating your websites or mobile apps.</li>
<li>You are in control without any worries about the CMS code.</li>
<li>Security and scalability are vastly superior.</li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/headless-cms944x0-is.png" />
When learning about headless CMS, it is also important to know that some people use the term API-first CMS. It is intended to indicate that the CMS was built with an API approach in mind, rather than a traditional CMS that just added an API layer and then claimed to support the headless approach.
<h2>Cloud-first Headless CMS: It Doesn’t Get Much Better Than This</h2>
The headless CMS approach does, of course, work with on-premise CMSs, but you will find the biggest advantages when you use it in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. In fact, it was the headless approach that enabled CMS vendors to provide content management as a true multi-tenant SaaS service.
The cloud-first approach means building the CMS from scratch with the cloud in mind from the very beginning and not just an afterthought like with many traditional CMSs. The cloud-first headless CMS merges the best of headless with the benefits of the cloud. The cloud-first headless CMS approach lets you focus on your website or mobile app while the CMS vendor takes care of everything else, such as the underlying infrastructure, databases, and content delivery network, the installation, upgrades, hotfixes, backup, availability, performance, and security. You still have some work to do, but you don’t need to worry about the CMS code in your environment. It is much easier to secure your code, and the main workload is taken by the cloud CMS, meaning you can handle high traffic levels, even with a modest web server configuration.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cloud-first-headless-cms972x0-is.png" />
<h2>Headless CMS Fits Most Scenarios</h2>
Headless CMS offers many benefits, and there are very few reasons or situations in which not to use it:
<ul>
<li>A simple website based on a stock template with little custom design—website builders such as Wix or Squarespace may be a better option.</li>
<li>You need to get your website operational quickly with off-the-shelf functionality.</li>
<li>Content editors want to use the page-oriented approach, or want to customize page layouts by themselves.</li>
<li>Your website and content repositories are highly regulated and strict rules and laws dictate that cloud storage is not permitted.</li>
<li>You prefer a robust, all-in-one solution that provides content management, marketing automation, e-commerce, online marketing, and many other features rather than building your solution using multiple services.</li>
</ul>
For almost everything else, headless CMS is the clear option. That's why we created <a href="http://www.kenticocloud.com">Kentico Cloud</a>, the cloud-first headless CMS for digital agencies and their clients. Try it for yourself and see why you should be thinking about a cloud and headless approach for your next project!

Cloud-First Headless CMS: What It Is and Why You Should Use It

Kentico CMS is one of those content management systems that has continued to impress me with each new release. With version 5.5 R2, some of the additions made to the CMS include new document and project management, Microsoft Azure support, WebDAV, Workgroups and Sharepoint 2010 support.  Does it continue to impress? Read on to find out in today's Kentico Review.
In this review, I will be looking at the new features that have been added. If you are looking for a review of the back end functions and page editing, you can read my <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/kentico-review-net-at-its-finest/">previous review</a>.
First on the list of new features is…
<h3>Project Management</h3>
To access the new Project Management features of Kentico 5.5 R2, you need to log into your CMS desk. Once inside, navigate to the tools tab and you will see the new section:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cms-desk-tools-project-management.jpg" alt="Kentico Review" />Click on the header to enter the new Project Management section.
Once inside, you will see a list of any existing projects as well as a number of tabs labelled: Projects, Tasks, Configuration.
On the main tab, Projects, the screen looks like this:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/piwik_newfeat_histreport-620x428_bz7kmt.png" alt="Kentico Review" />
As you can see, I already have a Test Project which I've added here. It shows the name of the project, the deadline, any progress that has been made and of course, action icons to edit or delete the project.
If you want to add a new project, you simply click on the link and will be taken to a page where you can enter the new project's details.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cms-desk-tools-project-management-new-project_2011-03-14_09-43-19.jpg" alt="Kentico Review" />
As you can see in the screenshot above, you have a number of options to configure for the project. The name, code name, goals of the project as well as the start date and deadline. If you wish to assign an owner different then yourself, you can do so using the selection dialog and you will be given the option to choose another user from within the CMS.
There are a number of status options such as On track, At risk, Finished, etc. that can be changed as the project progresses. There is even an option to select a specific page from within the CMS to use as a project page. As an example, let's say you work for a large corporate entity who has a number of projects going on at any given time.
You have the ability to custom design a page that is not published to the the public facing side of the website and use it as a basis for your project. You could incorporate any of Kentico's many features into this page and assign page specific security if you like. This gives your project managers a great deal of flexibility.
To modify your project, click the Pencil icon beside the project name and you will see a screen similar to this:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/piwik-2-620x393_uycukc.jpg" alt="Kentico Review" />
Within the Tasks tab, you will see a list of each task within the project, including their assignee, progress and status. To get a description of the status, simply hover your mouse over the status icon.
On the General tab you can edit your project details and the Security tab gives you access to Kentico's powerful security options for the project.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/piwik-4-620x445_t0vjwq.jpg" alt="Kentico Review" />
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the Project Management component in a nutshell.
<h3>Document Management</h3>
Managing documents on your site can be done using a web part or component that you add to the site.
Once added, you gain full document management capabilities such as:
<ul>
<li>Direct editing using Microsoft Office or other applications via WebDAV</li>
<li>File management – Copy/Delete/Open/Edit/Upload</li>
<li>Permissions management per file and per document library</li>
<li>Check-in/check-out</li>
<li>Workflow</li>
<li>Document archiving</li>
<li>Version history</li>
</ul>
Within the module, you are able to manage the library, add new documents and manage existing ones directly on the page.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/piwik-7-620x114_hlmada.jpg" alt="Kentico Review" />
Clicking on the dropdown to the left of each of the individual documents brings up a context menu with a number of options:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/firefox-13-thumbnail-page-620x468_xjwijl.png" alt="Kentico Review" />
From within this menu, you can view everything from Version History to the properties of the document itself. You can even archive or modify the permissions directly from here.  The Document library allows you to upload translated versions of the document in other languages. This is great for a multilingual website.
Security Permissions are set with simply check boxes as shown below:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/document-properties-small_bmp_aspx_.png" alt="Kentico Review" />
This is a very welcome addition to the CMS and adds a new level of capabilities to an already capable system.
<h3>Webdav Support</h3>
For those who are unfamiliar with Webdav, it is a protocol that has been incorporated into this version of Kentico and allows you to edit documents within Microsoft Office and save directly back to the document repository on the CMS.  The Kentico website describes it as follows:
<blockquote>Kentico CMS comes with built-in WebDAV support which allows you to open, edit and save documents from Kentico CMS using Microsoft Office and some other applications. It means you do not have to save the document on the disk, make changes locally and then upload them. So it greatly simplifies the way you work with documents published on your website or intranet.</blockquote>
This is one of those handy additions that further enhances the user friendliness of the CMS and works exactly as one might expect. More details can be found here: <a href="http://www.kentico.com/cms-asp-net-features/Modules/WebDAV-Support.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.kentico.com/cms-asp-net-features/Modules/WebDAV-Support.aspx</a>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
The addition of these new features put Kentico a level above it's competitors. The development team continues to impress and add user friendly functionality that puts creativity into the hands of the end user with style and simplicity.
Learn more at <a href="http://www.kentico.com/home.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.kentico.com</a> or try their <a href="http://www.kentico.com/Demo.aspx">Demo</a>.

Kentico Review: A look at the new features in 5.5 R2

<a target="_blank" href="http://modx.com/">MODX</a> has pushed out a new update for its in-house hosting service, MODX Cloud.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modx-color.png" /> The cloud hosting service provides MODX users with an environment to build websites using MODX servers across the world, the most recent of which was unveiled in Frankfurt, Germany.This latest update brings about improvements to the backup process. Let's take a closer look.<h2>Backup Retention Schedule Tweaked</h2>MODX has updated the backup retention schedule for each Cloud instance.Users can set them to as low as a single nightly backup, or increase them to up to 30-days of retention on a rolling basis. For safety purposes though, there's no option to disable backups completely, which is nice. To adjust the schedule, users only need to click on the name of the Cloud from the Clouds view, click the Backups tab, and then position the slider.Saving is automatic and the schedule will be adjusted for the next round of backups later that same night. Pretty smooth stuff.MODX itself is built to handle a range of project types, from multi-domain global presences to a mobile API. I'm sure this update will come in handy for all those working with the PHP-based platform, no matter the size of their project.To learn more, check out the <a target="_blank" href="https://modxcloud.com/userguide/using-modx-cloud/backups.html">Backups in MODX Cloud</a> section of the MODX User Guide. To find out more about this update, check out the <a target="_blank" href="http://modx.com/blog/2016/01/07/better-backups-in-modx-cloud/">MODX Cloud blog</a>.

MODX Cloud Gets Improved Backup Process

CMS Summit 26

Find out at Open Source CMS 26, October 20-21 in Utrecht, Netherlands

What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

#ffffff

Over my many years monitoring the CMS / Website Builder space, I've seen a number of solutions come and go. I remember when products like Concrete5 launched and how much of an impact it made on the market. Few products, however, land on the market with such an impact as PageCloud. What I found surprising wasn't the 2.2 million dollars in seed funding they raised before launch but rather the impressive $1 million plus presales they managed to achieve before the product even went live.
If you haven't seen a demo of PageCloud, you may not understand why people are so excited about it. Rather than try to explain it myself, I think this video below from TechCrunch Disrupt will do a bettter job:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/127926346?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>
If you watched the above video and didn't get excited about the possibilities, I'd be surprised. I've had my finger on the pulse of this market since 2007 and I have yet to see a product that initially impressed me so quickly. With such a significant amount of buzz surrounding PageCloud, I was eager to reach out and get more insight into the reasoning behind the product, where it came from and where Craig and his team plan on taking it. Read on to find the results of that conversation with Craig.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? What experience have you had in the web design / development space prior to PageCloud?
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_0878300x0-is-hidpi.jpg" />Well I got my first computer at age 9 and from then I was hooked. By age 16 I knew what I wanted to do with my career – build products that people loved. The great thing about thinking of your career as a child is, it’s not about money or adult concerns. It’s simply about ‘how do you want to spend your life?’. By the time I got to University age, I had a portfolio of software I’d written as a hobby, that got me my first job as a professional developer at age 19. So I quit school and never looked back. That first gig was unusual in that there were 2 designers for every developer. All the lessons they taught me would be a guiding influence for the rest of my career… PageCloud represents the 7th startup I’ve been a part of. 2nd time as a founder, and 5th as an executive.
What spurred you to enter the website builder market /What do you feel was lacking before your product came out?
10 years of frustration! In using the products that everybody used, I intuitively knew they were broken. Too few people could figure them out, when compared to desktop publishing, which is essentially the same problem. My philosophy has always been “walk up and use” – that you shouldn’t need a computer science degree to use software on a daily basis. Setting up hosting, DNS, CMS’s – all that is too much for most people to put up with. Though, PageCloud started just as a hobby for me. I personally never wanted to hand-code HTML again. It was really just solving a personal problem. Only as I was leaving another startup and looking around for my next phase, did I start shopping the product around to judge response. And things blew up from there.
To what do you attribute the success of your presages? 
There’re always 2 attributes to being successful in business: 1) you need to have something that actually makes a difference to peoples’ lives. Not incremental, but substantial. 2) almost more importantly, you need to be able to package it up and demonstrate that to people in a compelling way – and reach them at scale. In other words, product + marketing. I’d like to say the product sells itself, but no product does. During our pre-sale campaign, we got really good at reaching people and demonstrating the product in a way that made people feel something. The TechCrunch stage demonstration was the perfect packaging.
Can you talk a bit about how your product has been received since the official launch?
We’ve gotten beautiful voicemails and emails about how PageCloud has changed things for people – that they are now able to create and share on the Web where they never could before. It has exceeded expectations. Of course, there’s a lot of feature feedback and things people would like to see. That’s normal. I find it interesting how we are immediately compared to the giants (WIX, WordPress, SquareSpace) who are pushing 10 years old and billion dollar status, and we have been in market for about 6 weeks. It’s a blessing and a curse. But we are off to a great start.
What is your target audience?
The market is a spectrum. Our sweet spot is sites between 1 and 20 pages, for professionals and small to medium sized businesses. In other words, most of the internet. While the biggest (enterprise) sites get most of the web traffic, in terms of publishing, the vast majority of pages are on the long tail of sites. Professional designers stand a lot to gain – there are so many world firsts baked into the technology that is a designer’s dream. Like being able to copy layers straight out of PhotoShop and paste them right onto a web page.
What makes your product the best choice for said audience?
It’s not what we do, but how we do it. I’d say simplicity, but everyone says that, so it’s meaningless. There are really 2 industry changing advances: 1) spot edit: the ability to press and edit button, drag something around or make a quick change, and hit save. There is nothing on the planet that can match this speed and ease. 2) create from scratch: while we have templates like everyone else, the main point is the ability to not be restricted by them – in most other CMS’s you can’t even move an image one inch to the right – the templates won’t let you without writing code.
How do you plan to compete against the big players like Squarespace, <a href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> and Wix?
We deliver the Web the way people have always wanted it – as familiar as desktop publishing. There’s not much of a comparison on that basis. We’re only 6 weeks into market, so we’re fast and furiously adding capabilities, but the fundamental principle is our advantage. At 14,000 paying customers 6 weeks in, we’re growing quickly, despite all these alternatives.
What should we expect to see from PageCloud in 2016?
You’ll see the product mature to parity with some of the other CMS features people like to see that weren’t in our Minimum Viable Product. At that point, people will get the best of both worlds. CMS feature sets in a PageCloud experience. We are also working on our own app store and canvas (template) store, to open the platform up to 3rd party developers.
What do you think of products like The Grid? Do you consider them as the future or more as gimmicks?
The Grid has some awesome features. My favourites are intelligent color selection, and font selection. However, it’s based on a belief that people don’t want to create their own vision, they just want a robot to do it for them. Our belief is that people have an innate desire to create and share – like they do on the desktop. Different philosophies.
Any final thoughts you'd like to share.
We are just getting started!

Interview with PageCloud CEO & Founder, Craig Fitzpatrick

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.phpfox.com/">PHPFox</a> has kicked off 2016 with some promise. Last week, <a href="/phpfox-4-2-on-the-horizon/">I reported on their upcoming PHPFox 4.2 release</a>, which promises a number of improvements.Now though, they're unveiling <a target="_blank" href="https://docs.phpfox.com/">a totally revamped knowledgebase</a> to help get new users up and running, and to help existing users out of any trouble they might face.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfox-emblem.png" />Let's take a look at what that means for the average PHPFox user.<h2>A Complete User Manual</h2>So far, PHPFox only have a User Manual uploaded, but they claim to have Developer Documentation on the way, too.On top of being responsive, the documentation page looks well populated, and it's also easy to navigate thanks to page-trees on the left and an alphabetical menu on the right.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfoxdoc867x0-is.png" /> Interestingly, documentation is now totally downloadable, segment by segment. Users can choose to download each article as a PDF or even export it to Word. Quite handy.This may seem like a slightly trivial update, but in fact, a strong level of documentation is what can set two products apart. As I've been harping on about for months now, <a href="/the-world-of-cms-highlights-from-2015/">the online community building space needs to inspire itself</a>, and improvements like this are encouraging to see.It's the relatively small and simple moves just like this one that make the entire platform that much more approachable.To find out more about the new PHPFox knowledgebase, <a target="_blank" href="http://blog.phpfox.com/2016/01/07/introducing-our-new-knowledgebase/">check out their official announcement</a>.

PHPFox Introduces New Knowledgebase

Since its launch in 2006, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shopify.com/">Shopify</a> has come to be one of the most respected ecommerce solutions on the web, supporting over 50,000 online stores to set up, sell and market their products.Shopify enables you to build an ecommerce website in seconds, upload or import your products, market yourself and track your growth in a variety of ways. The store itself is hosted by Shopify, although you may use your own unique domain name if you so wish.On June 4 th 2013, Shopify finally announced the arrival of Shopify 2, an updated, smoother version of its former self. The update came after a beta period lasting a few months, bringing with it a new admin interface, and an array of over 60 new features.<h2>The Impact of Shopify 2</h2>With the recent introduction of Shopify 2, the platform's admin panel has seen a complete revamp of its interface, along with the addition of a live theme preview editor. The update brings about a wide range of new, more intuitive administrative abilities and options.Shopify’s new host of features includes the ability for merchants to freely specify meta descriptions, offer partial refunds without having to use PayPal, as well as enjoy a newly improved search functionality to find order and customer information faster than ever before.Arguably, the biggest Shopify enhancements is the live theme preview, which allows merchants to build and customize the look of their store in a live preview window before publishing any updates. Colors, fonts, spacing, images and so on can all be refined instantly, yet no changes will be made until the admin is happy with the store's new look.Additional features include product bar codes, which allow for a seamless Google Shopping integration, along with easier page, product and blog editing.Aside from aesthetic and functional updates, Shopify 2 also bring two new price plans along with it. A new Starter plan valued at $14 per month, plus an Enterprise plan for $1000 per month. These pricing additions will help Shopify to appeal to both less experienced merchants, as well as the merchant who knows exactly what he or she is doing – and then some.<h2>Initial Thoughts</h2>Shopify is all about appealing to the masses. Upon entering the website, you are professionally presented with the Shopify sign up form, accompanied by the introductory video, which exemplifies the accessible nature of the ecommerce CMS.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/1700x0.jpg" alt="Shopify, review, ecommerce" />The sleek look and feel of the home page is carried on throughout the set up process and beyond. From the admin panel to the store themes, everything is tailored to suit both ecommerce novices and seasoned veterans.All Shopify plans include secure, unlimited ecommerce hosting, all via their in-house servers. This eradicates the need for the user to hunt for a good hosting plan elsewhere, making it ideal for merchants looking to build their first online store.<h2>Getting Started</h2>Signing up to Shopify is a piece of cake. After naming your store and entering some personal information such as your full name and email address, Shopify will spend no more than a few seconds to create your online store.Once the set up process is complete, Shopify will present you with your brand new, glossy admin panel. Rather usefully, it will also provide you with a short six step guide to get your store up and running as quickly as possible.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.jpg" />The six steps illuminate the path to a successful store launch for those who have no experience, and also makes life easier for those who understand all there is to know about launching websites and configuring content management systems.Although the dashboard houses the six tutorial steps, it may have been beneficial for new, less experienced users to undergo an optional tour or interactive tutorial of the admin panel. Unfortunately, no such option exists, so once you leave the dashboard, you are very much alone.<h3>Adding Products</h3>To add products, you will need to navigate over to the “Products” button located on the left-hand side bar. Once there, you will be given the choice between manually adding new products, and importing products in bulk via CSV files, or through another platform.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/3.jpg" />For those of you who are migrating from another ecommerce CMS, importing your products from your previous platform will save a huge amount of time. Currently, Shopify allows users to import products from Magento, Volusion, eBay and WordPress. To begin the importing process, you will need to click “Import Products”.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4700x0.jpg" />If you do not already run an online store on another platform, you can go ahead and add your products manually by clicking “Add Products”. The process of adding products from scratch is easy to understand, with plenty of room to expand on the product's description, price, and so on. One of the newly introduced features of Shopify 2 also allows you to add a meta description for each new product, which helps with optimizing the product for the search engines.<h3>Themes</h3>Heading over to the “Themes” button on the left-hand side bar will allow you to tinker with the standard Shopify theme – named “Radiance”, or to visit the Theme Store.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/5700x0.jpg" />All of Shopify's themes can be refined via their own theme settings, or by directly editing the HTML, CSS and JS files.Accessing and using the theme settings page is easily done. Colours, fonts, buttons and more can all be customised and previewed thanks to the newly introduced live theme preview feature.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/6700x0.jpg" />Shopify's Theme Store makes it easy to browse and select new themes for your website. The themes themselves appear elegant and professionally constructed, ensuring that whichever look you decide to go for, you won't be compromising on quality.However, it must be said that the pricing of the themes is questionable. Although there are a range of free themes available, anybody wanting to opt for more complex, paid for option will find that the price jump is a steep one. Aside from the free options, the cheapest theme comes in at $80, reaching up to $180.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/7700x0.jpg" />Such prices are certainly not unheard of when it comes to professionally designed ecommerce themes, but the gap between completely free and paid-for is quite a large one, which is slightly surprising.In comparison, Magento's themes are available from $49, whilst Woo Commerce offer a small selection of free themes, with their paid-for themes being capped at a price of  just $70.<h3>Domain names</h3>Upon creating your store, you will be given a Shopify sub-domain, looking something similar to “my-store.myshopify.com”.However, you can choose to buy a new domain name through your Shopify admin panel, or link your Shopify account to a domain name which you may already own.<h3>Shipping, Taxing and Payment options  </h3>Configuring your shipping, taxing and payment information is essential when opening an online store, and Shopify does a good job of simplifying the process.By clicking on “Settings” on the left-hand side bar, followed by “Taxes”, you will be presented with the option to set tax rates for your home country, as well as the rest of the world. Shopify will also offer to calculate the tax rate per sale using its own formula. Via this page, you can also choose to tax shipping charges, or add sub-region taxes.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/8700x0.jpg" />Heading over to the “Shipping” page, which is now located on the left-hand side bar, you can set the shipping rates for different countries and regions, as well as for products which weigh above a certain amount.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/9700x0.jpg" />When it comes to setting up your payment options, Shopify yet again does a great job of catering for the less experienced.Payments can be taken through PayPal, as well as via a range of credit and debit cards, with each one being extremely straightforward to set up. Additionally, payment methods such as cash on delivery and bank transfer can be configured.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/10700x0.jpg" />On the same page, you are given the option to write up your returns policy, terms and conditions, and other general notes which can be accessed by your customers just before checkout.<h3>Pages</h3>Being able to easily create and modify different web pages to round off your online store is vital. Pages such as the “About” and “Contact” page can make or break a sales conversion. Thankfully, Shopify once more rises to the challenge.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/11700x0.jpg" />By clicking the “Pages” button on the left-side bar menu allows you to add new pages and edit existing ones with ease.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/12700x0.jpg" />The text editor is well designed and easy to use, allowing you to insert images and exercise a range of different formatting styles. You can also configure SEO settings for each individual page.When you have successfully uploaded of your products and configured your various store settings, you will be all set to begin your online selling venture.All of the above steps are the essential for getting your ecommerce store up and running, but now is the time to launch, tweak and market your store to the masses – and Shopify provides everything you need to do a good job of it.<h2>Apps &amp; Extras</h2>Once you have hurdled the basics and launched your store, you will notice that Shopify offers a fair amount of extra apps and widgets which can be found via their <a target="_blank" href="http://apps.shopify.com/">App Store </a>, or by clicking the “Apps” button located on the left-hand side bar within your admin panel.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/15700x0.jpg" />There is a healthy amount of free and paid-for apps available, coming in categories to do with sales, marketing, social media and more.To make life even easier, Shopify doesn't need you to download or upload any files to install apps on your website. instead, you can add all apps directly from the app store almost instantly.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/16.jpg" /><h2>Marketing Your Store</h2>Refining your marketing strategy is an important part of launching and sustaining your online store's presence. Shopify offers a few ways to engage with new customers, and lure old ones back to your checkout page.<h3>Discounts</h3>By heading over to the “Discounts” section located on the left-hand side bar of your admin panel, you will be able to configure a selection of discounts and special offers which you can make available to your customers for marketing purposes.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/17.jpg" />Using this feature, you can set date ranges, discount codes and a variety of discount types, all of which are useful when it comes to marketing and generally reaching out to both old and new customers, enticing them back on to your online store.<h3><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/18700x0.jpg" /></h3><h3>Blogging</h3>Blogging is a great way of ranking in the search engines and attracting new customers. Shopify provides a blogging platform which is exceptionally easy to get started with, even for users who have never published a blog post before.By clicking on the “Blog Posts” button on the left-hand side bar, you can immediately begin writing and publishing blog posts.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/19700x0.jpg" />Much like pages, blog posts are simple to set up, write, modify and publish. SEO settings are also provided to ensure you get the most out of your blogging. Once again however, it would have been useful to point out the relevance of blogging to ecommerce. With no guidance, many merchants will fail to reach the potential of their new blogs, if they use it at all.<h3>Tracking Orders and Customers</h3>Shopify does well to provide customer and order records and to help you keep tabs on the growth of your online store, and to help you understand its shortcomings.Both “Customers” and “Orders” buttons are again located on the left-hand side bar of your admin panel, allowing you to track all customer activity and information. The neatly presented metrics provided within these pages help merchants to track trends and gain insights from site traffic and sales.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/22.jpg" />Additionally, another update introduced alongside Shopify 2 allows you to review information arround abandoned checkouts via the “Orders” page. This information tells you about the customers who have abandoned the sale at checkout, giving you the option to email them to offer more support or perhaps a better deal.Generally, Shopify offers a great deal of marketing tools. Discount codes, Blogging, order metrics and even Shopify Apps – which can help with email marketing and social media, all combine to create a stellar marketing strategy.<h2>Getting Help</h2>When using any CMS, being able to seek help needs to be quick, easy and effective. Yet again, Shopify complies with the criteria.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/20.jpg" />Via the admin panel, the “Need Help” button is clearly visible, and offers the three useful options of getting in contact with customer support, visiting the discussion fourms, or even hiring a Shopify expert.Having said that, an FAQ section within the admin panel would have been a good idea, especially for those with no experience with setting up or using a CMS or online store.<h2>Price Plans</h2>Before Shopify 2, just three price plans were available to merchants. Such a limited pricing system, which originally started as high as $29 per month, priced out many merchants looking to get started in the world of ecommerce.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/21700x0.jpg" />However, Shopify 2 has brought with it two <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shopify.com/pricing">new price plans</a>, which consist of the “Starter” plan, valued at $14 per month, plus an “Enterprise” plan for $1000 per month. These new plans will certainly attract merchants looking to test the waters of ecommerce, whilst also catering for the executives and giants of the online world of commerce.Despite the relatively reasonable monthly prices, Shopify imposes a 2% transaction fee on both the “Starter” and “Basic” plans, reducing it to 1% for the “Professional” plan, and removing it completely thereafter. On top of the monthly fees, plus the standard PayPal transaction fees, it is not unfair to conclude that using Shopify alongside Payal – which will surely be a popular combination, is almost financially unfeasible.Also, in relation to the competition, Shopify's price plans are not the most favourable. Magento asks for similar monthly fees, starting from $15 per month, all the way up to $124 per month. However, the key difference is that Magento charges no transaction fees on any of its plans. Additionally, Woo Commerce is a free and open-source platform, charging no transaction fees.<h2>The Verdict</h2>Overall, Shopify does everything a good ecommerce CMS should do, and more. Undoubtedly, the release of Shopify 2 has propelled the platform to new heights, posing a serious threat to competitors such as Magento, WooCommerce and <a href="/products/bigcommerce">BigCommerce</a>.Getting your store online can be done in minutes, and all Shopify stores have the potential to look unique, with our without user knowledge of HTML or CSS. It does a brilliant job of appealing to both ecommerce novices and experts alike.<h4>Pros</h4><ul><li>Shopify is extremely quick and easy to set up, creating your store within minutes.</li><li>The updates of Shopify 2 greatly expand the potential of Shopify, bringing new features and capabilities to merchans on a variety of levels.</li><li>Migrating your store from a host of other platforms, or uploading products from a CSV file is incredibly easy.</li><li>The wide range of themes on offer can be customized in terms of colour, font, images, and even more thanks to theme HTML, CSS &amp; JS access.</li><li>customer and sales trends and insights can be gathered via the admin panel</li><li>The new admin panel is incredibly easy to use, understand and navigate, allowing you to upload products, make blog posts and create customer discounts in no time at all.</li><li>Enhanced abilities including partial-refunds, improved search filters and SEO friendly meta descriptions help round off Shopify's robust platform.</li><li>Customer support, discussion boards and even specially hired Shopify professionals are al on hand to provide assistance.</li><li>Google Shopping integration is easier than ever before, thanks to Shopify's introduction of product bar codes.</li><li>No third-party hosting required.</li><li>A 14-day free trial helps you get used to things before committing your payment details.</li></ul><h4>Cons</h4><ul><li>The two cheapest price plans each come with a 2% transaction fee, whilst the third offers a reduced 1% fee. These fees, alongside PayPal fees and Shopify's original monthly subscription, amount to quite a hefty sum, which will no doubt eat into any profits.</li><li>Shopify offers just 19 free themes, with the rest of the selection ranging in price from between $80 and $180.</li><li>An FAQ page within the admin panel, or an optional guided tutorial would greatly benefit merchants who are only just exploring the world of ecommerce.</li></ul><h2>Final Remarks</h2>Shopify does a remarkable job of making life simple for the ecommerce new comers who need constant guidance and simplification, whilst offering more a range of more advanced options and features for seasoned ecommerce professionals.Although many will find the ecommerce CMS to be pricey, others will argue that you get what you pay for. The release of Shopify 2 has made the platform easier to navigate and better to look at, whilst adding a huge array of extra features to an already robust set of functionalities.Shopify's revamped interface is well polished and gives attention to detail in areas where many other ecommerce CMS fail to touch upon. Without doubt, Shopify is a platform worth serious consideration for anybody looking to build an online store.<blockquote><a href="/products/shopify">Try Shopify</a>  </blockquote>

Shopify Review: Ecommerce, Only Simpler

For those of you who've recently updated to WordPress 5.1, you may be screaming in frustration due to an issue getting back to your dashboard once the upgrade is complete.
Numerous users are reporting issues with this particular screen below creating a loop and preventing them reaching their dashboard.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/screenshot-2019-02-22-at-81110-am.png" /></figure>
If you click continue on the screen above, it redirects to your homepage and a second attempt to enter your dashboard will reach the same screen.
<h2>The Fix</h2>
The only way to fix this is to log into your cpanel or hosting provider back-end and find the object-cache.php file located in the /wp-content/ folder and rename it to object-cache.php.bak.
Once you've done this, retry accessing your dashboard. You'll get the same screen telling you you are up to date. Click continue and you should now be able to access everything.
I have to say I'm rather shocked that this major issue slipped by the QA process but hopefully Automattic will get their butts in gear and resolve it quickly.
Let me know if this helps and if so, spread the word for others!

WordPress 5.1 "No Update Required" Bug - We've got the Fix!

Are you tired of having a CMS that just doesn’t do what you want it to? Do you feel like you are just babysitting your CMS, taking care of the web servers, upgrades, hotfixes, backups, and constantly dealing with a growing list of plugins? Isn’t it frustrating when you have to rewrite your awesome code because your CMS just refuses to play nice? Are you tired of creating different versions of the same content to optimize it for various channels? Wish there was another way? Now, there is.
Kentico Cloud is the cloud-first headless CMS for digital agencies and their clients.
It’s Not Just a CMS Dropped into the Cloud
Many CMS vendors have caught onto the Cloud movement that is currently occurring. But what most do is simply to pick up their CMS and drop it into the Cloud. Sure, it works, but it lacks the elegance and agility of a truly cloud-first CMS. In fact, in 2013, we created Kentico+, which was just that—a CMS deployed in the Cloud—but we could not make it work efficiently for all users. We realized that if we wanted to provide agencies and their clients with all the benefits of the cloud, we needed to go back to the drawing board and rethink the entire CMS architecture.
Kentico Cloud is a completely new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product. By taking care of the service, it allows agencies and their clients to focus on what matters most—driving their business goals by creating truly wonderful digital experiences.
Manage All Your Content in the Cloud
Kentico Cloud works as a centralized content hub where you can produce all your structured content in one place. It provides customizable content types, taxonomy, site map, workflow, versioning, and comments—everything you need to work and collaborate on when creating your content.
Once the content is ready, you can either export it to your existing CMS (if you do not want to redesign the site) or use our content delivery API to publish the content directly on your website or in your mobile application.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico_draft1063x0-is.png" />
Deliver Content to Any Website or Mobile Application
Kentico Cloud provides a super-fast API for developers to display the content on websites, mobile apps, IoT devices, and any other channel. It uses the headless approach, which means you have full control over your presentation layer.
As a developer, you can use our API on any platform, using any programming language, and with your favorite development tools—just the way you like it.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico_deliver869x0-is.png" />
Provide a Personalized Experience
Kentico Cloud goes beyond content management. It allows you to personalize the content displayed to customers based on their profiles. It allows you to track customers on your website and personalize their experiences based on the data it collects. It can tell you which pages the customer visited, which forms they submitted, and what they bought.
Unlike with traditional web analytics tools, Kentico Cloud also creates profiles of individual users with a complete history of their activities. You can then use it to personalize the content on your website or export the data to other systems.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/kentico_engage_profile869x0-is.png" />
Kentico Cloud—the Solution to Digital Agency Problems
Kentico Cloud is a set of fully integrated cloud services built from the ground up in the headless CMS architecture. As a hassle-free cloud platform that eliminates complex technology, Kentico Cloud helps agencies and their clients to be more productive while also increasing the scope of content delivery to any device or platform. Instead of wasting time looking after your CMS, put that time to greater effect and focus on delivering successful, profitable projects for your customers.
The Future Is Now
Stop babysitting your CMS and get started with Kentico Cloud now. It allows you to tackle the future of the digital landscape head on and gain a competitive advantage. From websites to virtual reality, bots to digital assistants, and augmented reality to Internet of Things devices, the possibilities are endless. Let Kentico Cloud make it easy for you—go to <a href="http://www.kenticocloud.com">www.kenticocloud.com</a> and sign up for a free trial.

Kentico Cloud - What’s It All About?

Shopify - The global commerce platform

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

The global commerce platform

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 - 67

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What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

The global commerce platform