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Craft CMS Article

<a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/" target="_blank">Craft</a> has made itself accessible in a new, faster, and much easier way.
Recently, Craft came out on top as the <a href="/2014-critics-choice-award-winner-best-php-cms-for-small-to-midsize-business/" target="_blank">2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner for Best PHP CMS for Small to Midsize Businesses</a>. This news comes just a few weeks after <a href="/craft-2.3-arrives-with-flurry-of-features/" target="_blank">the release of Craft 2.4</a>.
The all-new <a href="https://demo.buildwithcraft.com/" target="_blank">Craft Demo Website</a> allows users to try out the dedicated demo site is called, “Happy Lager”. Each user who signs up will get a personalized version of the site — so there's no having to share the demo with the rest of the community. All users need to provide is a name and an email address.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-1700x0.jpg" alt="Craft" /> 
Essentially, it's a super-easy way to try out Craft for yourself, and perhaps introduce it to friends or co-workers.
Furthermore, <a href="https://github.com/pixelandtonic/HappyLager" target="_blank">Craft have open sourced Happy Lager via GitHub</a>, so you can freely tinker with it on a deeper level.
To find out more, c/dir/products/craft/heck out <a href="http://pixelandtonic.com/blog/meet-happy-lager-crafts-new-demo-site" target="_blank">Craft's blog announcement</a>, and of course <a href="https://demo.buildwithcraft.com/" target="_blank">the demo website itself</a>.
Plus, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/craft-cms/" target="_blank">Craft via our CMS Directory</a>.

Craft Launches New Demo Site

mike-johnston

Today, I'm going to announce the winner of the 2014 Critics Choice CMS Award for Best PHP CMS for Small to Midsize Business.
<img style="max-width:188px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/bestsmbphpcms2014.png" />
After much deliberation, the judges have chosen the winner of this year should be none other than…
<a href="https://buildwithcraft.com/"><img style="max-width:201px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/craft.jpeg" /></a>
Flexibility, simplicity, control. You’ve never seen them come together in a CMS like this before. At last, you can deliver a content management experience that is precisely tailored to meet the site’s unique content needs, with a workflow that is incredibly simple and straightforward, all while maintaining complete control over your markup and styles.
Congratulations to the team at Craft CMS on their win. Check them out in our CMS directory here: <a href="/products/craft-cms/">Craft CMS</a>.

2014 Critics' Choice Award Winner - Best PHP CMS for Small to Midsize Business

<a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/" target="_blank">Craft CMS</a> has just released its latest version, bringing about a wide range of updates. It's not a “major” update, but it's definitely not a minor one either.
Flexibility, simplicity, and control are the three buzzwords Craft use to describe themselves. With tailorable sections, custom fields, and content creation tools, Craft is designed to be able to suit the needs and wants of each user.
Craft 2.3 brings about over 230 new features, improvements, and APIs. Impressive. Here's a video, followed by the highlights.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/113308175?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>Index Page Editing &amp; Matrix Revamped</h2>
With Craft 2.3, it’s now possible to make changes to your entries, categories, assets, or users right from their index pages. You can edit a user from a modal window, update the status on a batch of entries, replace a file with a new one, bulk-delete a few unneeded categories, and so forth.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/entry-index-editor_2x700x0.png" />
Matrix fields also have a new look, and it’s now possible to reorder, expand, collapse, enable, disable, and delete multiple blocks at once. Plus, Craft's Matrix block type fields can now have instruction text.
They are also no longer required to have names, helping to streamline block creation.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/matrix-field-batch-menu_2x700x0.png" />
<h2>More Scalable, Extensive &amp; Understandable</h2>
Craft's Control Panel has been enhanced in a number of areas. According to Craft, the control panel is now better equipped to handle sites with thousands of entries, categories, users, and assets.
For example, plugins can now add their own tools to element index pages using the new <a href="https://buildwithcraft.com/features/%7Bentry:plugins/element-actions%7D">Element Actions</a> APIs, and there are some <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/docs/plugins/hooks-reference#modifyEntryTableAttributes">new hooks</a> that make it possible to customize the index pages’ table columns.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/assets-index-in-hebrew_2x700x0.png" />
Finally, the Craft Control Panel is now as accessible as ever. It has been translated into five new languages: Simplified Chinese, Hebrew, Korean, Spanish, and Swedish. That brings Craft's grand total up to <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/help/cp-languages">15 supported languages</a>.
For more information on Craft CMS 2.3, <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/" target="_blank">check out their website</a>, as well as their <a href="https://buildwithcraft.com/features/new" target="_blank">roundup of what's new</a>. The full release notes can be found <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/updates#build2615" target="_blank">here</a>.
Plus, you can discover more of <a href="/products/craft-cms/" target="_blank">Craft via our CMS Directory</a>.

Craft 2.3 Arrives With Flurry of Features

<a href="https://craftcms.com/" target="_blank">Craft</a> has announced the latest version of their core product, as well as a brand new product in the form of CraftCommerce.
<a href="https://craftcms.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/craft-logo-200x107.png" /></a> 
In 2014, Craft was selected as the Critic'c Choice Winner for Best PHP CMS for Small to Midsize Businesses.
Craft CMS 2.5 is the update that brings about 280 new features and additions to their platform. <a href="https://craftcommerce.com/" target="_blank">CraftCommerce 1.0</a>, on the other hand, is something totally new. It' a first-party eCommerce solution that fits snugly into of Craft's core product.
Let's take a closer look at both.
<h2>Craft CMS 2.5: What's New?</h2>
Well, to begin with, Craft has released a smart introductory video:
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/147139440?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Most noticeably, there's a brand new and customizable dashboard where users can manage widgets.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/new-dashboard_2x688x0-is.png" />
That level of customization stretches elsewhere, too. Admins can now reorder the sidebar sources for element indexes, customize the source headings, and even customize which table columns should be visible.
Furthermore, new elements can now be created right from element selector modals, which should drastically speed up content creation workflows when the content needs to relate to other content that may not exist yet.
Craft 2.5 brings about hundreds more new features, and you can <a href="https://craftcms.com/news/craft-2.5" target="_blank">read about them here</a>.
<h2>Introducing CraftCommerce</h2>
The eagerly anticipated eCommerce platform for Craft CMS is finally here.
<a href="https://craftcommerce.com/" target="_blank">CraftCommerce</a> is the vendor's first foray into the world of eCommerce. The product was in private beta for some time, tested by around 200 participants.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/edit-product-page_2x713x0-is.jpg" />
Features include; Live Preview, custom fields everywhere, Twig templating, mobile support, inline product creation, one-click updating, order processing workflows, and more.
CraftCommerce will set users back $999 per site, although its also free to download, upload and play around with (until you want to start accepting payments, anyway).
To learn more about CraftCommerce, <a href="https://craftcommerce.com/" target="_blank">check out the dedicated website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/craft-cms/" target="_blank">Craft via our CMS Directory</a>.

Craft 2.5 & CraftCommerce 1.0 Unveiled

<a href="/products/craft-cms/">Craft CMS</a>, one of the winners of our CMS awards for Best Small to Midsize Business PHP CMS, has announced a slew of new updates with their 2.4 release. Here is a quick breakdown of some of the changes and additions you can expect from this great CMS.
<h2>Customizable Selection Buttons</h2>
Assets, Categories, Entries, Tags, and Users fields now make it possible to customize their selection button/input labels.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/craft24.png" alt="craft 2.4" />
<h2>Redesigned User Permissions</h2>
Each section of user permissions now has a “Select All” button which will immediately select all of the permissions in that group.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/permissions_2x.png" alt="craft 2.4" />
<h2>Two New Languages</h2>
The Control Panel has been translated into two new languages: Czech and Slovak. That brings the grand total up to <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/help/cp-languages">18 supported languages!</a>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/slovak_2x.png" />
<h2>And More!</h2>
Check out the <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/updates/2.4">release notes</a> for a complete list of all that’s changed!

Craft CMS 2.4 - Chock full of Improvements and Additions

<a href="https://craftcms.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Craft CMS</a> 2.6 and Craft Commerce 1.1 are here, bringing about eager-loading support, along with several other refinements.
<a href="/craft-2.5-craftcommerce-1.0-unveiled/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">CraftCommerce was only released for the first time back in December 2015</a>, so this marks the first semi-major update for Craft's eCommerce solution. Let's take a look at what's new.
<h2>Eager-loading &amp; a New Charting Library</h2>
Craft say they've added <a href="https://craftcms.com/docs/templating/eager-loading-elements">eager-loading support</a> for elements, which has the potential to drastically reduce the number of SQL queries required to render pages with nested element queries.
Eager-loading, according to Google's adopted definition, is, “the process whereby a query for one type of entity also loads related entities as part of the query.”
Users will now find that the following things are eager-loadable:
<ul>
<li>Relations via Entries, Assets, Users, Tags, Categories, and Commerce Products fields</li>
<li>Matrix blocks</li>
<li>Commerce product variants</li>
<li>Image transform indexes</li>
</ul>
Plus, third party element types can implement their own eager-loading support via the new <a href="https://craftcms.com/classreference/elementtypes/IElementType#getEagerLoadingMap-detail">getEagerLoadingMap()</a> method, and third party field types can also add eager-loading support by implementing the new <a href="https://craftcms.com/classreference/fieldtypes/IEagerLoadingFieldType">IEagerLoadingFieldType</a> interface.
Craft CMS has also gained a new charting library. We’re using it to draw a big Revenue chart at the top of Commerce’s Orders page, as well as a new “Revenue” Dashboard widget. Craft Pro sites can also start keeping track of new user signups with the new “New Users” widget.
For more of the nitty gritty details of both releases, <a href="https://craftcms.com/news/craft-cms-2-6-commerce-1-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">you can check out the official announcement</a>, or jump striaight to the <a href="http://craftcms.com/changelog/2.6">Craft CMS 2.6 release notes</a> and <a href="https://craftcommerce.com/changelog#build1196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Craft Commerce 1.1 release notes</a>.
<h2>A Colorful New Look</h2>
Craft also went to the trouble of re-designing their <a href="https://craftcms.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">home page</a>.
I've always maintained the importance of a strong home page and website for a CMS vendor. I begin all of my CMS reviews by checing out the main website,before I even think about moving on to the product.
It helps you get a feel of the vendor, what they see as important, and their level of attention to detail. Plus, it's a chance to be convinced that the CMS you're about to use is going to sweep you off your digital feet. And everybody likes that feeling.
Craft's homepage does a fien job of looking modern, and also gets the job done in terms of telling visitors what Craft CMS is all about. It's bold, informative and colorful. I like it.
For more info on Craft CMS, you can check them out <a href="/products/craft-cms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">via our CMS Directory</a>.

Craft CMS Rolls Out Craft 2.6 & CraftCommerce 1.1 With Eager-Loading Support

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