Onxshop CMS goes fully open source

Onxshop, a CMS and e-commerce package created for web developers, is now available for free download following its open source launch.

The newly released Onxshop CMS provides one of the simplest options currently available on the web for combining traditional content management and an eCommerce store.

It was made available for free download last month after almost a decade of use on the web projects of its creator Norbert Laposa, of Belfast-based Laposa Web Solutions.

The platform has been operating since 2002. In that time it has processed more than 50,000 e-commerce transactions worth £1.5 million.

Norbert explained: “The product is stable and has been functioning successfully for several years. It continues to be in active development and I will be providing regular updates.

“Onxshop uses state of the art web design principles, such as Fibonacci based layout, semantic HTML and CSS, and progressive enhancement.”

The platform aims to provide a framework that web professionals can put their own design stamp upon, but also a common-sense system for end users.

While experts can easily alter the CSS to create their own designs, at its simplest level the system offers a series of professional multi-column layouts and content building blocks for easy insertion of rich text, photo galleries, HTML and much more.

The Onxshop system is already in use on around 40 business websites and other sites, including the Waitrose HTML and CSS templates, were built using Onxshop.

JING Tea, another retailer currently using Onxshop, won Google’s Best of British Web competition last week for its use of the system.

Norbert is now eager for other developers who find Onxshop useful to contribute to the source code.

He added: “We are a small company, so it's a very good opportunity for others to jump on the wagon. We’re not a big corporation. People can deal directly with me, the main developer, and get support from me.

“We want to listen to what people think about the system and make any changes that are going to improve Onxshop as an open source CMS.”

Try Onxshop for yourself by downloading it from http://onxshop.com/download or try the online demo at http://onxshop.com/demo.