Articles - Page 92

Agentic AI for Agencies in 2026

bmckeiver

Ever since the <a href="/subrion-cms-3-now-more-powerful-flexible-than-ever-before/" target="_blank">release of version 3</a> back in 2013, the <a href="http://www.subrion.com/" target="_blank">Subrion CMS</a> has steadily improved. Now, a new set of enhancements have arrived to further polish the platform.
Developed by <a href="http://www.intelliants.com/" target="_blank">Intelliants</a>, Subrion CMS is an open-source content management system with a beautiful user interface and a range of scripts to help users quickly build niche website types, like directory websites, coupon websites, and so forth.
Subrion's latest improvements come in a set of four, Let's take a look at each.
<h2>New Visual Mode &amp; Enhanced Permissions</h2>
1. Visual Mode Improved 
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/subrion320_presentation_visual700x0.png" alt="Subrion CMS" /> 
Users can now make use of the tried and tested drag-and-drop system to configure content blocks in different positions. You can visualize them using different predefined positions before switching everything around with ease.
According to Subrion though, the most important part of this feature is the ability to disable/enable positions for specific pages. Let's say you don't want a sidebar on a specific page. All you need to do is open Visual Mode and go to said page, click “Edit” and then disable the sidebar for that page specifically. The same can be done for all content block types.
2. Enhanced Permissions System 
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/subrion320_presentation_permissions_edit700x0.png" alt="Subrion CMS" />
Subrion users can now easily configure permissions for usergroups and individual members. Permissions can be given to allow access to the admin panel, and setup ACL for both frontend &amp; admin dashboards. Custom permissions can be added too, using plugins &amp; packages.
Administrators can quickly find out which members have which permissions, filter them, and edit them. Plus, different parts of the website can be configured for different usergroups. For example: specific blocks can be only configured for members or guests.
Finally, administrators can configure advertising blocks to be displayed to guests only.
<h2>Improved Sponsored Plans &amp; New Templates</h2>
3. Sponsored Plan Improvements 
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/subrion320_presentation_plans700x0.png" alt="Subrion CMS" />A new recurring billing system allows to view / create  / manage subscriptions via paypal and other payment gateways.
Administrators can configure sponsored plans for members and setup paid memberships quickly and easily. Also, the system automatically handles invoices and re-sends necessary emails when requested by the member in question.
4. New Templates 
 
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/subrion320_presentation_templates700x0.png" alt="Subrion CMS" /> 
Last but not least, Subrion has released several new templates, all of which look pretty snazzy.
The default template has changed, and is now called <a href="http://demos.subrion.com/startup/" target="_blank">Startup</a>. Furthermore, there are new templates dedicated to the Subrion CMS yellow pages script and articles script.
To learn more about <a href="http://subrion.com" target="_blank">Subrion CMS</a>, check out their website, and their <a href="http://demos.subrion.com/startup/" target="_blank">live demo</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/subrion-cms/">Subrion via our CMS Directory</a>.

Subrion CMS Unveils New Visual Mode Alongside Range of Improvements

mike-johnston

This week, via the Liferay Symposium event being held in San Francisco, Liferay Portal 6.2 was officially announced.
Liferay, Inc, provider of the world's leading <a href="http://www.liferay.com">enterprise-class open source portal</a>, which is trusted by numerous Fortune 500 companies, have now enhanced their flagship product with a number of direct changes and additions, making it easier for enterprises to engage with their audience.
Attendees of the North America Liferay Symposium event are getting their hands on Liferay Portal 6.2 for the first time, with live demos on the floor and sessions tailored to highlighting key uses of new features. Let's explore exactly what those attendees will be experiencing.
<h2>More Modern, Intuitive &amp; Flexible</h2>
Liferay Portal 6.2, which is now available as part of the Liferay Enterprise Subscription, has introduced a higher emphasis on flexibility, by offering modernized support for both mobile and web apps.
All websites and content created with Liferay Portal 6.2 will now automatically display correctly on mobile devices in a responsive fashion. Administrators can make use of  mobile device previews right from the interface, enabling them to quickly see how pages look on smaller screens. Different rules can also be defined to handle specific devices and families in various ways.
To compliment these mobile enhancements, a new mobile Software Developer Kit (SDK), currently in the works for 6.2, will help developers build custom native apps that incorporate Liferay Portal functionality, including collaboration applications and integrated back end systems.
Accompanying these announcements, the Liferay CEO, <a href="http://www.liferay.com/about-us/leadership/bcheung" target="_blank">Bryan Cheung</a>, had this to say:
<blockquote>“Today’s enterprises need to interact with their customers, partners, and employees through compelling, seamless experiences across several channels. Liferay Portal 6.2 is a modern, intuitive platform designed to help enterprises understand and reach their customers across mobile, web, and live contexts.”</blockquote>
<h2>Better Mobile Engagement, Smoother Interfaces &amp; More</h2>
With increased mobile readiness with responsive layouts, one-click mobile previews, mobile device rules and a Mobile App SDK, Liferay have certainly added a new dimension to their Portal's mobile engagement. But there's more.
On top of these flexible mobile enhancements, Liferay Portal 6.2 users will also get to enjoy an entirely new, smoother interface with Twitter Bootstrap theming. Users also have access to the Bootstrap theme library, plus a new Control Panel theme with streamlined site administration features.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/liferay_-_liferay_portal_6_2_app_manager700x0.png" alt="Liferay Portal 6.2" /> 
Additionally, the update brings about an improved web management experience, thanks to Site Hierarchies for managing both content and users across multiple sites, along with Application Display Templates, which allow developers to quickly customize the look and feel of their applications.
Multi-Language support has also been enhanced for content, URLs and applications.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/lifeary_-_liferay_portal_6_2_control_panel700x0.png" alt="Liferay Portal 6.2" />
Finally, Liferay Portal 6.2 also brings increased platform stability through portlet sandboxing, and greater modularity in Liferay Portal architecture with ability to manage multiple versions of libraries. This improved modularity also makes it easier to share libraries across multiple plugins, upgrade and rollback portlets from version to version.
To find out more about what Liferay Portal can offer you, check our <a href="http://www.liferay.com/products/liferay-portal/overview" target="_blank"> Liferay's official breakdown of their popular product</a>. If you want more information on Liferay's current North America event, including agendas and speakers, you can find everything you need to know right here.
Additionally, you can learn more about <a href="/products/liferay/" target="_blank"> Liferay via our CMS Directory</a>.

Liferay Portal 6.2 Announced at Liferay's North America Event

With the myriad of commercial forum solutions on the market, it can be challenging to figure out which one might be the best and our goal is to make that decision easier.
Businesses everywhere rely on powerful community solutions that offer flexibility, affordability and customization capabilities in order to provide powerful solutions for their customers and audience.
This is where forum solutions come into play. Today, we're announcing the 2014 People's Choice CMS Award for Best Commercial Forum Solution.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best_commercial_forum_solution220x0.png" />
Contenders this year were Vanilla Forums, NinjaPost and IP.Board.
The winner this year was none other than <a href="http://vanillaforums.com">Vanilla Forums</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/logo-vanilla.png" />
Looks like Vanilla has cleaned up this year with both free and commercial forum wins!
Congrats to the team at Vanilla. Check them out here: <a href="http://vanillaforums.com">http://vanillaforums.com</a>

The Winner of the 2014 People's Choice CMS Award for Best Commercial Forum Solution

Today, we had the pleasure of having a conversation / interview with <a href="http://jxtended.com" target="_blank">Louis Landry</a> of the <a href="http://joomla.org" target="_blank">Joomla!</a> project. During our discussion Louis takes us on a journey through his time with the Joomla! project and his thoughts on the project and it's future. It is one of our favourite and most fascinating interviews to date.
Thank you to Louis for taking the time, enjoy the read everyone.
CC: What is your background with the Joomla! project? Can you tell us a little about your time on the project and what got you involved in the first place?
LL: I started using Mambo back in 2001, I believe. It was the 4.0.14 release and I had need for building a site for a friend… and was simply tired of doing everything in Dreamweaver. I existed around the edges of the Mambo project, harassing some of the developers with feature requests and a patch here and there right through the split to Joomla.
This coincided with Hurricane Katrina … which had a heavy blow on my life and direction.
During the split I was in close contact with a couple of the core team members and in the short period after Katrina I started working more closely with the developers and found myself spending a great deal of time working with Joomla.
I was asked onto the core team in late 2005 and joined in early 2006 and started off as a developer. I was an architect of the Joomla Framework that Joomla 1.5 was built on and was elected a Project Manager in 2007. I held the role for a little over a year, at which point i stepped down for someone else to take it on.
I have been the communications team lead and have since relinquished that role as well. Now i serve as a development coordinator and am focusing on future endeavors.
CC: Without getting too personal,  how did Hurricane Katrina come into the fray direction wise?
<img title="louis-avatar" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/louis-avatar.jpg" alt="louis-avatar" />LL: Well i was born and raised just outside of New Orleans and was in the final stages of signing on to work for NASA as a computer security engineer at <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/stennis/home/index.html" target="_blank">Stennis Space Center.</a>
I was supposed to go in for the last meeting before paper signing the Monday after Katrina hit. It was an interesting time.
I lost everything i owned as well as the job i might have had as Katrina wiped the buildings i would have worked in off the map ?
What it did for me was give me time and what i did with that was to find something positive to focus on, that was Joomla!
CC: So in a way, Joomla was somewhat of an outlet initially then for you?
LL: Ultimately i think it was just one of those situations where, to borrow a cliche, God closed a door and opened a window.
Joomla is something i was loosely involved with before  but it was something i could grasp on to. It helped me keep my mind sharp and there was obviously no programming jobs or work to do.
I graduated the year earlier with a computer science / history degree and i wanted to stay sharp. it was an outlet the people were great, the coding was fun and the purpose was positive.
CC: How do you feel about it's progression since you came aboard? Do you have any regrets or wish you had not left some of your previous roles?
LL: Thats a good one ? I think for me, I don't particularly have a lot of regrets… and I have tried to give as much as I can along the way. Project Manager was a tough role when i held it. I was dealing with project issues 14-16 hours a day most days… which seriously cut into my ability to make a living. I was glad to do it and I think I achieved most of the things I set out to achieve along the way.
I feel the progression is good, its in the right direction, but as with anything as big as Joomla… change happens slowly. We are still a very young project and it's easy to forget that because of the scale of things. We are going through growing pains, and finding our best processes as we go.
None of us have really done this stuff before, and I think given the amount of time people have to give… and the overall direction of things I believe we have done a good job. I would say, we are on the right path… with the right direction.
There are lots of changes happening in the project and not all of them are readily apparent I would say, and some of them require mindset changes so they will take a while to really sink in. Culture change is the hardest to come by ?
CC: You speak of changes coming to the project, are you referring to directionally or within the people themselves?
LL: I think Joomla is going through an evolution of sorts. What we are seeing right now … from the inside-out is a transformation where we are looking for ways to bring more people in and open up previously closed processes we are working through ways of solving problems in more of an “open” approach.
I'll give you an example.
Traditionally, development has been done by a relatively small group of people. Patches have always been “accepted” but in practice have never really been a part of our process. It's always been about a group of around 15-20 people with commit access just hammering away at the core code base and of those people there are generally about 5 that are highly active and driving the direction. We've had closed mailing lists and while the source was open, the process wasn't.
We've been actively trying to change that culturally and it takes a while. We have opened up 3 new development mailing lists and have published processes for getting feature patches accepted into the core and are looking to change the model altogether.
We are currently working on another initiative that will hopefully help to open up development even further by providing a sort of “playground” for joomla developers to play with technology in a common sandbox. This process is something that is happening all over the project, and will take time to implement and grow but i do think its in the right direction.
Oh and as for people… there is always an ebb and flow
CC: It sounds like somewhat of a maturing of the organization as a whole, which takes time like any good project. What can be said for sure is that it's remarkable how much of an impact Joomla! has had on the open source market. Exposure wise, I doubt anyone could have expected where it would be today in comparison to some of the other players.
LL: I think i would agree with that characterization and the shock in that impact is certainly not lost on the project leadership. I am personally looking beyond CMS because I think the traditional CMS is probably not going to be the focus of the web in the near future.
CC: As you are aware, there was a lot of opinionated commentary on my recent article entitled “What everyone ought to know about Joomla!” What points did you most strongly disagree with and why?
LL: In reference to #1, Poor out of the box SEO: I think that evidence will show that the SEO out of the box is actually not poor, but then again I think SEO is such a generalized term that you could say it is poor of any system depending on how you frame the topic. I would say that our standard markup is less than ideal and certainly not semantic there is a good reason for that.
The URLs you mention, very nice URLS can be achieved “out of the box” in Joomla 1.5 (1.0 was a mess), but I would certainly agree that improvements can be made. One of the biggest issues we have with that is that we do not have a unified content model with Joomla. All components are black boxes with respect to each other and with respect to the Joomla application, because of this it is difficult to solve the problem “correctly” in a complete way.
Its something we are certainly aware of and are working towards but I would say that there are lots of Joomla sites all over the web that are very well search engine optimized out of the box without needing hacks.
Again though, I would certainly acknowledge that improvements need to be made
#2 with respect to the vulnerability causing plugins, I would say that this is the danger of any open platform accepting third party plugins. I will say this though, we do need to do a better job of educating people about best practices and security. I think one of the odd positives that I see in this is that amateurs feel comfortable developing on our platform.  Granted, they should learn best practices.
We do unpublish all extensions as soon as a vulnerability is reported. We need better systems and we know that, but there is only so much you can do with a distributed model like that
#3. We do not have a figure head, we have a body of leaders. I don't think we would be comfortable as an organization with a figure head. I actually think culturally this may have arisen out of the mambo/miro fiasco.  If you have a group of open source developers and they have an overlord, even if its percieved, and they are decieved by that overlord they will be really weary of having anyone take on that role again.
I liken it a little to the US government i guess. When the colonies revolted, they didn't have a king, so many of the leaders didn't want one. Largely I think because of the bad experiences they had under one.
Whether thats true or not I don't know, but we do seem to generally work pretty well as a team and we build consensus around things. We do need to do a better job of having contact/press details. We used to have a page for that i think on joomla.org and in the redesign last year, it got lost.
I don't believe we need to have a figurehead
Who is behind joomla? The community, not a person. A collective.
We get flack for not living up to that all the time but its what we strive for.
CC: It is indeed an interesting arguement. I think one of the things that people seemed to come under the impression that I was implying is that there needs to be a central figure for Joomla! as a whole. More so, I was attempting to point out that without someone at who people can point and say “that's the man to talk to”.. for someone new to the organization or project, it can be a little confusing and discouraging trying to find the right people. I agree that Joomla! needs to be a community and as a community that is how it has gotten to where it is today..
LL: I do think we don't do a fabulous job of directing traffic like that its sort of luck of the drawbut at the same time most of us don't do Joomla full time. I mean… the president of our non-profit is a university professor in sociology and she gives more time than she should ?
One of the most passionate contributors I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Most of us should make ourselves more available. I think on some level we see it right now as not a big priority. I guess i should speak for myself but right now my principle concern is sorting out any organizational issues we have to facilitate the growth of the project and the evolution of culture. Outreach isn't something most of us have been involved in lately and as you rightfully point out to our detriment.
At the very least we should have a more available contact us form or something ?
LL: #4 Ease of use. This is such a difficult topic. I've heard so many people scream to the rooftops how much easier Joomla is than Drupal.
I think you hit on one of my biggest gripes in usability for #4 . Just adding a page takes too many steps. Its on our minds for sure but as far as what is easy or not i think thats more attuned to what flavor ice cream you like.
There are people who think Joomla is dead simple. People who think Drupal is and EVERYONE thinks wordpress is ?
Ultimately its all about the mental model you have and how that maps to the software. If joomla was exceptionally hard to use we wouldn't have the download numbers and the installed userbase.
As they say, people talk with their feet but… again, you hit the nail on the head in a couple of areas where we could really use some improvement.
What is not spelled out well is that the “menu manager” is really closer to a “page manager” than it is a menu manager. It's just somewhere in the middle, in limbo.
CC: Rewind 1 year. What would you change about a) Your current situation within the project b) The project itself?
LL: One year ago we were a month or so past the 1.5 release. If i were to do it all over again, I would probably have tried to rally the troops more. 1.5 was an epic release, it was 2+ years in the making and most everyone was just exhausted and took a long (and deserved break).
I think we lost a lot of momentum there and i think from a development perspective we didn't pick up quickly enough and get back into the saddle. Maintenance processes have been great, our Joomla Bug Squad is spectacular but as far as innovation and building to the next releases it all sort of stagnated and it didn't have to.
I guess if i had it to do over again i'd have likely gotten more dirty with development and helped encourage new things for the next release and tried to rally people around that.
CC: What areas of the project do you feel need the most focus at the moment? I ask on the chance that someone reading may wish to contribute in some way.
LL: Well, I am single minded at the moment… and that is development. I think we need to focus on building the platform such that it can stay relevant and innovative in the years to come, and for that we need developers.
CC: What is the biggest change forthcoming in 1.6?
LL: By and far the biggest change in 1.6 is the much anticipated access control system.
CC: Can you elaborate on the access control system for us?
LL: Certainly.
The system is inspired in design by phpGACL and has an inherited model. With 1.6 we have not exposed the entirety of the system because we don't believe it to all be necessary but all the power is underneath, and we believe that third party developers may come in and provide interfaces to it to do more complex things.
It adds configurable user groups that inherit permissions, assets, rules and asset groups. What we have done is provide an easy way for third party developers to attach the ACL system to their existing systems and built it to scale such that many things other than just the Joomla CMS can use it.
CC: Can you provide me an example of how you envision this being used?
LL: The way your average user will use it is that they will create “access levels” in the member manager. An access level will have a name and some number of user groups. When managing content or menu items they will apply that access level and only people in those user groups will be able to view those items.
Its much akin to how Joomla currently has the hard coded access levels of “public, registered, and special.” There will also be a provision for site administrators to choose which user groups can edit and/or manage different areas of the site.
CC: Will it offer tie ins to more traditional systems such as AD (active directory)?
LL: Great question! One of the things we are doing with this system is allowing you to sync up user groups via plugins in the same way you can sync up users in 1.5 via plugins. This is being built specifically so taht you could manage your users/usergroups in AD or LDAP and then that will be mirrored in Joomla.
Thats the extent of it as i know it, but with plugins, anything is possible
CC: Do you see yourself taking on any other roles in the future?
LL: I don't think so. I am pretty well happy in where I am and what I want to do. I suspect I may emerge as more of a platform advocate in the future but that will likely be still within my role as development coordinator.
Traditionally i have gone where the pain is. ?
CC: Does Joomla have any financial backing?
LL: Nothing formal. We have google adsense on our sites, some of them. We get some donations from individuals and we have a great hosting partner that donates so much time and infrastructure.
CC: If someone wanted to donate, how would they?
LL: Well the most important donation we can ask for is time

A Conversation with Louis Landry of the Joomla! CMS Project

For this month's newsletter, we spoke with Vern Imrich, CTO of <a href="http://www.percussion.com">Percussion</a> to get his thoughts on the growth of the CMS market and more. Read on for some valuable insights.
CC:  Please tell us a bit about yourself and your background leading up to working with Percussion.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/lemonstand_ucvyum.png" alt="Vern Imrich" />
VI:  My formal training and degrees are all in engineering, numerical methods and computer simulations.  But all along I was heavily involved in publications, running engineering magazines and other periodicals.  I became a pro at SGML, desktop publishing systems, and even typesetting languages.  Then, while in graduate school at MIT, SGML suddenly became HTML and the Web exploded onto the scene.  I ditched the numerical simulation code and grad school altogether and went full time to the Web, building sites, doing web applications. When I arrived at Percussion in the mid 90's, it was a “data to  documents” company looking for a new market to expand in.  I spurred the company's move to the Web, and by 1999 we had adopted XML  as our new core technology.  We quickly saw the core value proposition for this technology as helping companies publish web sites and web content quickly and cost effectively, and released our first Web Content Management System in the spring of 2000.  There have been many ups and downs as the Web bubble burst, morphed several times over, was reborn with Web 2.0 and into the social media explosion of today.  My experience combining the technical rigor of engineering with the free form creative processes of content publishers and editors has allowed me to guide Percussion to keep pace with the Web market all throughout.
CC: What makes Percussion a strong option for companies to consider in the market?
VI:  What we hear from our customers and prospects is that they choose our software because its highly usable, and because we deliver functionality as a product (rather than a set of complex customizations) which make our product supportable, flexible and upgradeable. This is a fundamentally different way to deliver the CMS than what you are hearing from other vendors in the market that require far more customization services. And we offer everyone a cloud-based evaluation to prove that the demo they just saw is really out of the box functionality. If I may say, it’s really a sad commentary on the state of the CMS market that prospects are often jaded by knowing that the sexy demo’s they see so often are really just “demo-ware.” They know that the vendors show up to their kick-off with nothing more than a bag of parts and a large consulting contract.
We think there is fundamentally a better way to manage your content, drive customer engagement, and manage your content marketing. We believe that simplifying all of that complexity into a highly usable out-of-the-box product that marketers and content owners can actually use to get their job done, CM1 solves a fundamental need and drives a real business outcome. If companies can’t use their web efforts to scale their business, then they are missing out on revenue. Our products breakthrough that wall.
CC: What do you feel was your greatest technical achievement over the last two years?
VI: Without a doubt the CM1 user experience is the key breakthrough that we are most proud about and the one that our customers love us for. “Finally,” they tell us, “something that we can actually use!” Believe it or not, we just had a prospect tell us during a demo that they felt like a caveman staring at fire for the first time! Now not sure we should go THAT far, but it’s definitely been a major breakthrough.
And we really believe that user experience is not about how pretty the interface looks (though we know that ours is pretty sexy looking!). We know that design can be fleeting, you can refresh how your product looks at any time, and many vendors have, but we took the time to completely rearchitect how you use the product based on how users actually want to do work. And by users, we mean the people actually managing the content, not the technical team in charge of the app.
This is a real breakthrough in user experience. It puts the power over the content back in the hands of the content owner. It creates flexibility, allows marketers to be more agile in their activity, and gives them the flexibility to take on whatever comes next.
Further the dashboard creates a comprehensive connection between analytics and action. Now teams can go from simply reading and reporting on the analytic data to a much more powerful “Read and Act” in the moment based on what’s working, or what’s trending in the market.
CC: From a technical standpoint, how does Percussion fare for customers with multiple infrastructure types within their corporate landscape?
VI: Our core DNA since we first launched WCM back in 2000 has always been as a decoupled system. Even as we add delivery-tier services like dynamic tagging and categorization, comments, ratings, personalization etc we treat the architecture the same and keep them decoupled. This creates limitless flexibility for our customers with their infrastructure and existing applications. Move to the cloud? No problem. Integrate with a custom built delivery side database? No problem. Integrate CRM or ERP or Marketing Automation connections? Also no problem.
And as important, because we don’t require you to change your current web infrastructure, you don’t have to redesign or re-architect your site to use our product. This is a key driver for many organizations that have heavy investments in their web technologies.
CC: A fair portion of the code utilized for Percussion was derived from Open Source projects; What was the reason for choosing to build off of these projects?
VI: As with any software initiative, we know what we are good at. And where things exist already that can be leveraged to deliver a high quality experience, we would rather start there than build it ourselves. We are constantly looking for ways to expand our use of Open Source because it frees our technical team to focus on what we do best.
CC: How has Percussion given back to the open source community?
VI: We do publish our common code back to the community, but a lot of where we innovate involves pulling together all this great technology in such a way that folks can use it easily and cheaply. In other words, we're often the “last mile” to the user, so the code we publish tends to be widgets, gadgets and other plug-ins for our WCM offering.  Still, we're always looking for areas where we can share more.
CC: For customers looking to integrate with multiple third party applications such as Salesforce and ERP solutions, how does Percussion fit in?
VI: As I mentioned earlier, our hallmark has always been our ability to integrate with other applications that our customers use. Some of our most successful customers like Autotrader.com, Weather.com and BabyCenter.com have really complicated applications running their business. They appreciate our ability to easily connect to those systems.
We take a classic widget/gadget approach to integrating applications like SalesForce which allows us to frequently add new integrations either on client demand, or because we know they will be popular. Soon, we will also extend the capability to create new Widgets or Apps to our key development partners and will deploy them in an App-Store type model. This is a really exciting development because you gain true network momentum as more and more people come on line with CM1 and CM1 widgets, gadgets and Apps.
CC: Can you give us a preview of what we can expect from upcoming releases of the software?
VI: We hear from our prospects all the time that they have a very hard time managing their content and driving a true content marketing strategy with their current technologies. However, they can’t always get their senior team to understand why that matters. Some of the near term things being rolled out as part of our advanced content marketing dashboard will draw a much cleaner picture for executives on what kind of value they are getting from their content operations. By exposing data about how content is turning into revenue, or even reducing costs, we change the dynamic from “my job is hard, this will help me do it better” (which sadly is never a winning business case) to a “here is where we are driving value to the business.”
I already mentioned the concept of an App Store. This will be a really exciting development in the coming months as well.
CC: Do you have any parting comments or final thoughts?
VI: You know, I would just say that historically people thought of one-size-fits-all WCM. It was really complex, and it was really hard, and it was really expensive. Smaller companies aspired to afford it, but it was always the domain of the monied class. But we are seeing a widescale revolt against complexity. Users just want something that works, and preferably works now. And smaller companies are realizing they can get full-functioning content systems in an affordable package, they don’t need to suffer in silence any longer.
CC: Thank you for your time Mr. Imrich.

Interview with Vern Imrich, CTO of Percussion

Are you a DNN fan? Perhaps you are looking for tutorials to help you with your DNN installation? If so, check out <a href="http://www.dnnhero.com">DNN Hero</a>. 
DNN hero is a Video Tutorial site about the CMS called DNN (previously known as DotNetNuke). You get access to a host of awesome tutorials for a monthly subscription fee.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cape.jpg" />
DNN Hero offers tons of tutorials such as:
<ul>
<li>How to install DNN</li>
<li>How to manage DNN modules</li>
<li>How to manage pages</li>
<li>How to work with skins</li>
<li>and much more.</li>
</ul>
To get started, visit <a href="http://www.dnnhero.com/">http://www.dnnhero.com/</a>

DNN Tutorials by DNN Hero

CMS Summit 26

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

What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?

#ffffff

E-Commerce Solutions are super popular these days with millions of online stores selling everything from arts and crafts to memorabilia and much, much more. It's no surprise that this newly created category for Best ECommerce Solution had such an active amount of voters and nominees.A solid E-Commerce solution needs to offer multiple payment gateways, solid support, an easy-to-use builder, and excellent reporting. All of these items are well showcased in the amazing products that were nominated for this years Best ECommerce Solution award.Here is the list of nominees for 2013:<ol><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.shift4shop.com/index2.html">3dcart</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=aspxcommerce">Aspxcommerce</a></li><li><a href="/products/bigcommerce/">BigCommerce</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://business.adobe.com/products/magento/magento-commerce.html">Magento</a></li><li><a href="/products/shopify/">Shopify</a></li></ol>All of the above solutions are incredibly popular but it came down to two very popular solutions; Magento and Shopify.In the end, one winner rose to the top and that was…<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-ecommerce-solution150x0.png" />Shopify!Shopify has really been gaining market quickly and is one of the top ECommerce solutions out there. If you are in the market or considering starting an online store, you'd be remiss not to try out their offering.With an excellent interface and tons of customization, it's no shock they won People's Choice for Best ECommerce Solution.Check out our <a href="/shopify-review-ecommerce-only-simpler/">Shopify Review</a>, <a href="/products/shopify/">Learn more about Shopify</a> or visit <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shopify.com/">them on the web</a>

2013 People's Choice Winner for Best ECommerce Solution

SilverStripe, originally cofounded by Sigurd Magnusson is a small CMS with incredible potential. Despite the amount of competition in the Content Management market, they have managed to continue to maintain a steady flow of new projects such as the Democratic National Convention which chose their CMS as its choice to host its website, as well as having recently won the 2008 Most Promising Open Source CMS Award. Today, we bring you our SilverStripe CMS Review!
In their latest release, they promise the addition of the increasingly popular Mollom (the SPAM fighting company founded by Drupals' Dries Buytaert) as well as some very nice improvements to its SEO functionality. We've been meaning to do a review of this system for quite some time, but chose to wait for this release.
<h3>The Installation</h3>
Ladies and Gentleman, be prepared for the worlds longest screenshot. Beginning the SilverStripe install, we are presented with the following ‘all-in-one' screen:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/silverstripe1.png" alt=" " /> So we made our selections and clicked on the Install SilverStripe button and off went the installer:
And ladies and gentleman, thats all their is to the installation process. Amazingly, SilverStripe has managed to create the fastest installation we have ever seen of a CMS including that of the venerable WordPress. That is, indeed, something pretty remarkable. We can recall previous releases that we've tested being more involved but it's definitely nice to see that the SilverStripe team has put forth such a solid amount of effort towards making this an easy to install system.
<h3>Post Installation</h3>
There have been some other notable changes as well like the addition of the “click here to delete installation files” option, which is something we've been mentioning and asking for from all CMS' for quite some time. It would appear that SilverStripe has spent a good amount of time listening to people and their suggestions. Kudos to them for this simple, yet time saving addition:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/silverstripe3.png" alt=" " /> Once we chose to delete our install files, we were offered the option to enter the CMS itself and take a look at the administrative interface.Upon choosing this option, we also made note that it appears SilverStripe has worked to improve the load times required by their admin engine as it seemed faster than previous versions.
I've always liked the SilverStripe admin engine, I find it very appealing and well organize:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/silverstripe5.png" alt=" " /> SilverStripe is different from other CMS platforms we've used in that it separates themes and widgets completely from the CMS. Meaning, installation typically involves grabbing an extension from http://silverstripe.org/extending-silverstripe/ and uploading it to your site directory and flushing the database. This may sound more complicated than it is, but believe me, it's very simple.Each page also has a tab for Metadata which allows you to instantly edit page titles, keywords, url and descriptions directly. You can even create redirector pages with the click of a button, which is another nice addition.Media management is also very simple, just upload your files from the Files and Images tab and you can change and preview details on each of them directly from there with a few simple clicks.Comments can be managed from their own screen and viewed by Approved or Spam flags with minimal effort.Creating and editing Security groups and individual users is very very simple with this system. It gives you complete control over individual permissions:
And it doesn't stop there, you can tell they have put a lot of thought into security because they've even gone so far as to add  restriction of accounts based on IP address, as you can see here:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/silverstripe7.png" alt=" " />
There help system is also very good with a quick click you are on their help site with a fully searchable database of instructions. The forum is well administered and active with fast replies and they have a nice, close knit community of users who don't just use SilverStripe, but promote it and actively engage in the forums.
Overall, it's an exceptional system worthy of the attention its been getting. SilverStripe is not just a the little CMS from New Zealand, but a strong competitor and with their continuing efforts towards improvements, it wouldn't surprise us at all if in a few years they became a top contender in the Open Source market.
Homepage: <a href="http://silverstripe.org" target="_blank">http://silverstripe.org</a>
Corporate Presence: <a href="http://silverstripe.com" target="_blank">http://silverstripe.com</a>

SilverStripe CMS Review - The Open Source CMS from New Zealand

Another week, another big twist in the enterprise CMS and DXP battle for market dominance.
This time, it’s Sitecore making waves, proving there’s only one thing better than acquiring a strategic company – and that’s buying two at the same time.
Just weeks after unveiling a <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-embarks-on-1-2b-investment-plan-to-accelerate-growth/">$1.2 billion investment plan</a> to fund innovation and accelerate growth, Sitecore <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/company/news-events/press-releases/2021/03/sitecore-acquires-boxever-and-four51">announced</a> it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire <a href="https://www.boxever.com/">Boxever</a>, a SaaS-based Customer Data Platform (CDP) providing decisioning and experimentation, and <a href="https://four51.io/">Four51</a>, a digital commerce pioneer that powers custom, highly scalable e-commerce B2B marketplace solutions.
When Sitecore originally announced its daring yet elusive investment plan in mid-January, there was a great deal of speculation about their strategy. Very little was revealed about how the funds would be used, or if any acquisitions were on the horizon.
With this move, Sitecore has answered a big part of the market's questions – and positioned themselves to better compete at the top with the likes of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-digital-commerce-unifies-data-content-commerce-and-digital-merchandising/">Acquia</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-to-acquire-optimizely-the-worlds-leading-experience-optimization-platform/">Optimizely</a> (formerly Episerver), and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a>.
<h3>Adding Customer Data Platform (CDP) capabilities</h3>
One of the gaps that every CMS and DXP is racing to address exists around customer data. As brands and organizations demand greater personalization to optimize value and loyalty throughout the buying cycle, customer data is fueling the experience management engine – and having a CDP strategy is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
Boxever has been on a roll with its CDP offering. The platform provides a rich, 360-degree view of customers with advanced segmentation, real-time decisioning, and experimentation capabilities. The system acts as the “brain” within an organization’s marketing stack, rendering every customer interaction more relevant and engaging.
With Boxever’s multi-dimensional capabilities, Sitecore will be able to enhance customer intelligence with AI-driven personalization tools, making it easy to capture, unify and activate customer data and deliver personalized experiences at scale.
<h3>Elevating headless e-commerce</h3>
As the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation, brands discovered <a href="https://www.historyofheadlesscommerce.com/">headless commerce</a> – and leaned on its extensible framework to rapidly power their omnichannel strategies.
Four51’s API-first, headless e-commerce solution enables organizations to quickly and easily deliver engaging shopping experiences, helping them improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.
According to Sitecore, Four51’s feature set will complement their existing B2C commerce capabilities, enabling them to define the digital experience market in new ways. Additionally, the combined offering will require less upfront investment, with a horizon of continuous innovation and a dramatically shorter time to value.
<h3>Competing in a growing field of Digital Experience Platforms</h3>
For Sitecore, the pandemic has highlighted the need for a flexible and modern Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to provide organizations with both agility and intelligence to keep pace with changing demands.
While CMS platforms have begun to migrate their capabilities to meet the definition of a DXP, the goalposts continue to move – driven by rapidly accelerating innovation and consolidation.
Like its competitors, Sitecore recognizes the gaps and is making bold moves to shore them up. By integrating Boxever and Four51 with their proven suite of capabilities, Sitecore will be positioned to deliver a true content-to-commerce, SaaS-based DXP.
The resulting solution would enable businesses to deliver real-time, personalized digital experiences across every touchpoint, including the full buying cycle from order fulfillment to service beyond the sale. Technical organizations will also get an open stack built for modern architectures, with applications that are more intelligent, agile and always up-to-date.
<h3>Buyer’s remorse?</h3>
In their announcement, Sitecore acknowledged the skepticism surrounding the recent trend of acquisitions and consolidations in the marketing technology sector.
Still, the CDP train seems unstoppable. Gartner has <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3983209/market-guide-for-customer-data-platforms">predicted</a> that “70% of independent CDP vendors will be acquired by larger marketing technology vendors or will diversify through M&amp;A of their own to enter adjacent categories such as personalization, multichannel marketing, consent management, and/or MDM for customer data.”
But is all this activity paying off? Unfortunately, the data suggests that most of these strategic acquisitions have left customers feeling disappointed with the feature sets, particularly around personalization.
In fact, Gartner has further <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-12-02-gartner-predicts-80--of-marketers-will-abandon-person">predicted</a> that 80% of marketers who have invested in personalization will abandon their efforts due to the lack of ROI and distrust from consumers due to growing privacy issues. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/03/google-says-it-wont-track-you-directly-in-the-future-as-it-phases-out-cookies.html">Google’s recent news</a> that it will phase out browser cookies for ads is the latest sign that the data privacy landscape is changing rapidly, and the impact on personalization will continue to evolve.
<h3>Consistent positioning from Gartner and Forrester</h3>
With the acquisition of Boxever and Four51, Sitecore is hoping to do more than just stay in the game – they clearly want to uplevel it. Perhaps these two pieces to the puzzle will prove highly advantageous to their near and long-term goals by offering a SaaS-based, API-first Digital Experience Platform that expands the breadth of their data and commerce capabilities.
<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/01/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms-2021.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms-2021" /></figure>
Recently, both Gartner and Forrester issued their 2021 reports for enterprise DXP and CMS. While Sitecore celebrated its fourth year in a row as a Leader on <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>, it fell slightly behind both Acquia and Episerver (now Optimizely).
<a href="https://www.contentful.com/resources/forrester-wave-agile-cms-2021-report/">Forrester’s Q1 Wave Report for Agile CMSes</a> paints a similar picture. Since 2019, Sitecore has elevated its Strong Performer status, now straddling the fence of the Leaders circle with a wider market presence. But like the Gartner MQ, they are lagging behind Acquia and Optimizely – with Adobe maintaining its clear dominance in the category.
<h3>The impact of the CDP revolution</h3>
The recent announcement from Sitecore codified one thing: that CMS and DXP platforms are feverishly racing to add CDP to their core offerings.
According to <a href="https://learn.segment.com/customer-data-platform-report-2021/">Segment’s industry report</a> released last month, 73% of companies reported that a CDP will be critical to their customer experience, and integrating that capability can enhance the value of a content management or digital experience platform.
As a side note, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/twilio-acquires-segment-for-3-2b-adds-market-leading-cdp-for-building-data-driven-apps/">Segment was acquired by Twilio</a> in November 2020 for $3.2 billion. This move further demonstrates that CDPs are broadly viewed as a strategic acquisition for a multitude of technology platforms – particularly in a COVID-19 world where organizations require more access to data-driven tools to grow and compete.
The explosive growth in this category is made abundantly clear in the graph below:
<img style="max-width:700px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/segment-cdp-report-data-1024x695.png" alt="Segment cdp report data" />
<h3>What’s next for Sitecore?</h3>
They say timing is everything. When Sitecore announced their ambitious investment plan, it was just the latest in a high-intensity cycle of headlines from across the martech stack – and may have been perceived as a response to other newsworthy activities.
Unlike their rivals, the lack of clarity around their $1.2 billion investment stirred questions about their market goals, compounded by growing competitive friction and setbacks. But behind the scenes, they clearly had their sights set on key acquisitions that would accelerate their growth and address the aforementioned gaps in their strategy.
With the integration of Boxever and Four51, Sitecore can now deliver what the market needs: industry-leading content and customer data management, omnichannel delivery, headless commerce, testing, journey optimization, and more. With these capabilities in their toolkit, they are better positioned to compete at the top of the market.
The acquisitions are expected to close before the end of March 2021, and financial terms are not being disclosed. Upon completion, the CEOs of both Boxever and Four51 will take on leadership roles – and Sitecore expects to invest and expand in both Boxever's Dublin, Ireland and Four51’s Minneapolis, Minnesota locations.
Now, which marketing technology vendor is bold enough to score a hat trick... and buy three companies at once?
<h3>About Sitecore</h3>
Sitecore delivers a digital experience platform (DXP) that empowers the world’s smartest brands to build lifelong relationships with their customers. A highly decorated industry leader, Sitecore is the only company bringing together content, commerce, and data into one connected platform that delivers millions of digital experiences every day. Leading companies including American Express, ASOS, Carnival Cruise Lines, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oréal, and Volvo Cars rely on Sitecore to provide more engaging, personalized experiences for their customers. Learn more at <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/">Sitecore.com</a>.

Sitecore Acquires Boxever and Four51

cms-critic-staff

Image of hand tapping on a mobile phone with Sitecore, Boxever, and Four51 logos on the front

When it comes to content management systems, there's one platform that makes headless "like butter."
Of course, we're talking about <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/dynamic-landing-pages-with-components-and-buttercms/" target="_blank">ButterCMS</a>, an aptly-named brand that's been making solid gains over the years, particularly around the rise in popularity of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/" target="_blank">JAMstack</a> and MACH-related microservices. The platform powers static site generators like <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/gatsby-unveils-v3-0-cloud-hosting-and-more-at-gatsbyconf-2021/" target="_blank">Gatsby</a>, for example – and makes it incredibly easy to connect their CMS to a fast, secure, high-performing frontend site.
Recently, the company announced some slick new additions to its <a href="https://buttercms.com/features/#fastcontentupdate-localization" target="_blank">content localization capabilities</a> that aim to simplify the workflow, allowing users to translate content to any language right within the Butter UI.
Not to spread it on too thickly (pun intended), but this is exactly the kind of feature that CMS platforms need to serve global initiatives. The new functionality empowers international teams collaborating on projects to access information and quickly translate it for their specific region – all with just a few clicks. It also prevents any duplication of effort, allowing projects to be completed faster and more efficiently.
We've got more details below, but we'll butter you up with a little something extra: a brief Q&amp;A with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lumetta/" target="_blank">Butter's CEO, Jake Lumetta</a>. Read what the company's founder had to say about their new localization capabilities, composable CMS, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/" target="_blank">JAMstack</a>, and the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-free-headless-cms-platforms/" target="_blank">headless</a> frontier. So grab your toast and dig in.
<h2>A new tool for clients with international teams and topics</h2>
There's no question that the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2021/12/27/this-is-the-future-of-remote-work-in-2021/?sh=6f9e6f441e1d" target="_blank">growth of remote work</a> – and consequently, the rise of remote teams. This has been felt on a local level, but international teams have been working from a distance for quite some time.
According to Butter, companies with growing international interests need products that make working with their remote teams easy and effective. As such, their new localization enhancements are targeted at taking the work out of managing distributed teams, specifically marketers and translators across the globe.
The expanded set of features is a big leap forward in both speed and convenience for ButterCMS customers, giving them the option to import content in English – or any other language – as a base template to work from for any project. Once this base version is created, individual users can then copy that content and translate it for any region using simple features in the navigation menu.
<h2>Butter CMS localization: process and options</h2>
On a more granular level, the process of importing and translating content in ButterCMS is designed to be very intuitive. For example, when modifying content for a specific region, a user can select “Copy From” in the menu, and import existing content from any other locale. There's also a scrollable drop-down menu that includes all the languages that have been configured in a user's account, making it easy to select options on the fly.
After the base content has been imported, the content can be translated manually by local experts, via API by Google, or through another third-party service of your choice. Another point of convenience: regions that have already been translated are highlighted for quick recognition.
<img style="max-width:706px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/09/image001.jpg" alt="localization settings - languages dropdown" />
There's no limit to the number of languages you can support. That means your team members from any corner of the world can translate content to accommodate local languages and meet cultural-specific content requirements.
From a permissions perspective, another new feature is the ability to <a href="https://buttercms.com/kb/enabling-localization-and-creating-localized-content" target="_blank">control editing privileges</a> for various regions at the user level, allowing teams on the ButterCMS Enterprise plan to ensure that only approved members in a designated region can make changes to their specified content. This feature streamlines the interface for international teams, minimizes confusion, and prevents unauthorized changes.
<img style="max-width:502px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/09/image003.gif" alt="locale access checkboxes" />
<h2>Additional CMS features and updates</h2>
For Butter, "convenience" has always been a key attribute. Their interface is familiar and intuitive, making it easy to learn and use. Along these lines, they've made several recent updates that improve the content production process – making it more flexible and less time-consuming.
For example, there’s a new <a href="https://buttercms.com/features/#fastcontentupdate-preview-changes" target="_blank">resizable preview panel</a> that lets users preview live content inside the same window where they are currently editing. You can also use the same click-and-drag functionality to control the size of the API explorer window. This prevents the hassle of toggling back and forth between windows while working.
<img style="max-width:600px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/09/image004.gif" alt="Resizable review panel" />
<a href="https://buttercms.com/features/#flexiblecontentmodeling-components" target="_blank">Reusable components</a> help keep the development process as simple as possible with a unique component picker tool, allowing marketers to build dynamic landing pages using pre-defined, pre-styled components. It’s a powerful feature for building dynamic landing pages without relying on a developer.
Another is Butter’s pre-configured <a href="https://buttercms.com/features/#flexiblecontentmodeling-blog-engine" target="_blank">blog engine</a>, which makes it really easy to add an SEO-friendly blog to an existing website or app. It supports all of the popular frontend frameworks, with drop-in SDKs for any language.
Users can also take advantage of Butter's native <a href="https://buttercms.com/features/#medialibrary" target="_blank">Media Library</a> to host all the files necessary for a blog, app, or website. The Media Library can hold images, videos, audio files, PDFs, and more – and all files are distributed securely via <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/" target="_blank">Amazon CloudFront’s CDN</a>.
<h2>Summary and pricing</h2>
ButterCMS has just upped its game with some great content localization enhancements. Whether you’re managing content for a mobile app, a hybrid web app, a static site, or just a blog, the platform provides an array of tools and features to improve your development and marketing efforts.
When it comes to pricing, there are several <a href="https://buttercms.com/pricing/" target="_blank">plans</a> available that meet the needs of everyone – from freelancers and startups to enterprises and agencies – and can be scaled as your organization grows.
<h2>Q&amp;A with Jake Lumetta, CEO and founder of ButterCMS</h2>
CMS Critic had a chance to connect with Butter's CEO and founder, Jake Lumetta. We asked about their growth opportunities, composable and reusable CMS trends, and what makes their headless CMS stand out in the crowd.
<hr />
CMS Critic (CC): With localization being such a key focus in your recent update, it seems fair to say that ButterCMS is growing globally. What are your core markets? Where are you seeing the most growth internationally?
Jake Lumetta (JL): Butter has customers around the globe and in every vertical you can imagine.  If you need to manage content for a modern, highly performant application, then Butter is a great fit for your team. We've seen amazing growth in e-commerce, marketplaces, SaaS, e-learning, and financial services.
CC: Composable and reusable components are becoming essential to a CMS. Can you tell us more about your component strategy? What aspects are low code/no code? And how customizable is the framework?
JL: We heard early on from our customers that they wanted to build with components in Butter.  We built a field type called Components which enables our users to group related fields together in an intuitive way. A simple example might be an SEO component that contains all SEO meta information you might want to control for a page.  Butter Components work nicely alongside the concept of reusable components for your Front-end.  Design and marketing can work hand in hand to determine and build out beautiful and customizable experiences using Butter Components. We've made using Components really intuitive for non-developer users with another concept called a Component Picker as well. This allows any marketers to build out a custom, unique page or section of a website or mobile app using any components that they need.
CC: Headless is fast becoming the focus of the CMS market. What would you say is Butter’s most unique advantage when considered against the landscape of options – particularly those that are growing rapidly in the JAMstack?
JL: One of Butter's unique advantages is our laser focus on superior customer support and experience. Our customers want to get their hands on the product and quickly get a proof of concept running with their preferred tech, and we allow every person to easily do that. Our Customer Success team aims to promptly support all folks at any stage of using Butter. We provide resources for learning, using, and scaling the use of Butter so that people can answer their own questions quickly. Our product is also simply more intuitive than most on the market – for both developers with our straightforward API and for marketers with our intuitive and clean interface.
<h2>About ButterCMS</h2>
ButterCMS offers a modern content management solution that helps companies across several markets tackle projects and manage content with ease. Their API-driven headless CMS has enjoyed strong success in several verticals, including e-commerce, agencies, SaaS, and marketplaces. Butter offers extensive documentation and a convenient API explorer interface for quick and painless integration with any application or website. If you need additional help, they offer live, personalized support for all clients.

New Content Localization Capabilities from ButterCMS: Q&A with CEO Jake Lumetta

SetSeed 8 adds an all-new interface with improved mobile experience and new APIs that allow web designers and agencies to use SetSeed to power an own-branded website builder product.
SetSeed was designed by Ben Vallack to solve problems associated with WYSIWYG-based CMSs.
<blockquote>
“WYSWIG editors are simply not the right tool for the job. Websites are dynamic and responsive. Unlike print, webpages look different on different devices. Therefore, there can be no ‘What You See Is What You Get' because everyone gets something different.” Said Ben Vallack, SetSeed's designer and developer. “SetSeed uses an entirely different approach. Content is presented in a single portable list. It's presented without any of the style and layout that is shown on the actual website. This makes it really easy to work with your content in a way that works for the modern web.”
</blockquote>
Several APIs are also included with SetSeed 8 that for the first time allow SetSeed CMS to be used as a website builder.
More and more end-users are looking for a turnkey website builder product instead of shelling out for a bespoke website. As a result, web designers and agencies are looking to cash-in on this trend by offering their own website builder solution. Up until now, creating a website builder has been an extremely complex process, often requiring complete custom development to achieve. SetSeed makes it possible for web designers and agencies to launch their own website builder with very little time or cost investment.
SetSeed 8's new user interface is designed to welcome beginners from the start.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/setseed.jpg" alt="SetSeed CMS 8" />
The new side-by-side live preview system clarifies and builds on SetSeed's beyond-WYSIWYG approach and allows all dynamic content to be seen in context on the webpage. Drag-and-drop an image, contact form, gallery or product into the content ‘blueprint' and see it in the live preview straight away.
<blockquote>
“Now that SetSeed 8 can be used as an automated website builder, it's crucial that new users can start using SetSeed to manage their content without needing any training.” said Ben. “Content management for a modern, dynamic website can be very complex. But SetSeed's simple concept of Storage and Webpages makes it easy to grasp – even for novices”.
</blockquote>
SetSeed 8 also brings many improvements to the experience of editing content on mobile devices and tablets. Other CMSs often only offer feature-limited stand-alone apps to allow content management on the go. SetSeed CMS is a ‘responsive' web application that runs just as well on a small touch-screen device as it does on a large mouse-based desktop. This means end-users can enjoy the full SetSeed CMS feature-set wherever they are.
Visit setseed.com to learn more about what's available with <a href="http://setseed.com/">SetSeed 8</a>.

SetSeed CMS sees major update with version 8

Ah, Social Networking. We love it so much that we just can't stay away. Some people love social networking so much that they want to start their own and there are more and more niche networks opening up every day.
For all of this activity, you need a great platform and this year, we have several amazing solutions competing for the People's Choice Award for Best Social Networking Solution.
As a reminder, here is the list of nominees for this year:
<ol>
<li><a href="/products/dnn-evoq-social/"> DNN Evoq Social </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/phpfox/"> PHPFox </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/oxwall/"> Oxwall </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/socialcore"> SocialCore </a></li>
<li><a href="/products/social-engine"> Social Engine </a></li>
</ol>
We are very excited to announce that we've had a huge turnout this year in both the nomination stage and the voting stage and we're looking forward to even more exposure for these great products for the 2014 awards season.
The winner for this year, according to your votes, is…
<img style="max-width:150px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/best-social-networking-solution150x0.png" />
Social Engine!
Social Engine is a popular social network software that comes in two editions: SocialEngine Cloud and SocialEngine PHP (non-hosted). SocialEngine is completely unbranded and can be changed in any way you like. There are plenty of addons and themes and the community is large. SocialEngine Cloud, their hosted solution, is far different from the PHP edition and we’d recommend you try out the demo to get a taste for what it is and how it works.
They offer a 14-day free trial which is a great way to test out the software prior to purchasing so we’d suggest you take a look if you are considering getting social network software in the future.
<a href="/social-engine">Check out Social Engine</a>

2013 People's Choice Winner for Best Social Networking Solution

Running an organization with a large number of employees is no easy task, especially when regular staff training needs to be carried out to ensure that industry knowledge is not just maintained, but also increased.
<a href="http://learncore.com/" target="_blank"> LearnCore</a> is a modernized learning management system built from the ground up to offer a user-friendly experience to both administrators and learners. The LearnCore platform can enhance the training content your organization already offers, via personalized course and test creation, direct user management, social features, and even constructive gamification.
Thanks to a careful blend of these features, LearnCore is a training platform that actively engages the user on a number of levels, making the overall learning experience a far more effective one.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/URdf9Jc-_J4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>A Powerful Learning Environment</h2>
LearnCore offers administrators every essential tool needed to build a comprehensive course and testing system for corporate staff.
Administrators can quickly and easily construct questions, tests and courses based on existing staff training materials. Various forums of content can be uploaded and arranged into bite-sized modules, perfect to help staff brush up n their industry knowledge.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/2700x0.png" alt="LearnCore" /> 
LearnCoredoesn't stop there though. Administrators have access to detailed analytics and tracking features, which can relay updates on the progress of different staff members, including their course completion rates, average scores and all other activity within the LearnCore platform.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/11.png" alt="LearnCore" />
Organizations also have the freedom to create specific user types, giving each type different levels of access to various features and modules. Users are created extremely quickly using the user management interface, requiring only a full name and corresponding email address.
<h2>Keeping Staff Trained, Yet Entertained</h2>
Any software that seeks to modernize the way users interact with information, will need to ensure that it is moving with the times in terms of accessibility – and that's exactly what LearnCore has done.
For example, the platform is perfect for teams who are regularly on the move, relying on mobile devices to keep on top of their work. As a SaaS (Software as a Service), LearnCore lives in the cloud, which frees it up to be accessed from any device connected to the Internet, including smart phone and tablets. LearnCore's responsive nature means that no matter which device is used, the user will experience the platform in a smooth, device-tailored way.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/3700x0.png" alt="LearnCore" />
Additionally, LearnCore has an integrated both social and gamification features in ways which will promote learning and discussion between team members.
The discussion forums existing within the software, enable administrators and general users alike to ask questions, share information and interact with each other in a constructive fashion.
Accolades and credentials can also be awarded to team members whenever they pass modules or courses, which will help keep users engaged, and entertained as they get through their educational content at office, at home or in the office.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/4.png" alt="LearnCore" />
What's more is, LearnCore has cleverly integrated gamification features, including credentials and accolades which can be awarded to users whenever they pass courses.
These awards, along with the social forums and mobile accessibility, will all help to keep users engaged, and entertained as they get through their educational content at office, at home or in the office.
To learn more about what LearnCore can offer your organization in terms of revolutionizing your staff training programs, <a href="http://learncore.com/" target="_blank"> visit their website</a>.
Additionally, you can find some more key information about LearnCore via our CMS Directory.

Revolutionize Corporate Staff Training with LearnCore

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