Articles

Joomla Article

<hr /><h4 id="snapshot">Snapshot</h4><ul><li>Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress have formed the new Open Website Alliance</li><li>The organization coalesced after the group penned an open letter to the EU regarding the Cybersecurity Resilience Act</li><li>This marks the first leadership-led coordination to establish a shared structure around common values</li><li>Goals focus on supporting the advancement of FOSS and leading with a “choose open source first” message</li><li>Future plans include greater collaboration and the development of open source standards and best practices</li></ul> The term alliance receives a fair amount of love in technology circles. It makes perfect sense: software companies and organizations have long relied on partnerships to build awareness and grow channel relationships, and having friends can make it easier to scale. One might call such agreements “pacts” or “treaties,” especially if the partnership is between two competitors – or my favorite permutation, cuspetitors. But alliance evokes something distinctly positive. A spirit of assembling strengths, building consensus, elevating numbers, and rallying around a common vision or goal.Of course, as a well-documented Star Wars fan (read any of my previous pieces, I guarantee there's a nod in most), I can’t help but associate alliance with the idea of rebelling against something, of bringing unlikely bedfellows together to stand against an existential threat… like an Empire. Sometimes, it's a bit of David versus Goliath – Luke versus Vader – and there’s an implied scrappiness to that. One that’s indelible to the ethos of the cause.In the case of the new Open Website Alliance, an interesting confluence of ideologies is at play. The newly formed cabal betwixt the world’s leading open source CMSs – <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/drupal">Drupal</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/joomla">Joomla</a>, <a href="TYPO3">TYPO3</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a> – is very clear in its charter to advance open source interests. But there’s more, and it has to do with the very real challenges that exist for these platforms in an uncertain future of regulatory governance.To get an inside view of the freshly-minted alliance, I spoke to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathias-bolt-lesniak/">Mathias Bolt Lesniak</a> – an open source evangelist at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.toujou.com/">toujou</a>, a SaaS website building platform with TYPO3 services based in Norway. Mathias also has TYPO3 in his DNA; he is a previous consultant for the organization, a key part of the TYPO3 association, and a leading voice for the Open Website Alliance. I’d say a trusty blaster is good in any fight. But Star Wars references aside, an alliance is a solid place to start when building a movement. And if any part of the CMS market is focused on “freeing the system,” it’s the open source community. <h3 id="building-on-a-coordinated-response-to-the-eu’s-cyber-resilience-act">Building on a coordinated response to the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act</h3>Perhaps it’s apropos that <a target="_blank" href="https://typo3.org/project/press/press-releases/open-website-alliance/english">TYPO3’s press release</a> announcing the Open Website Alliance was issued from Switzerland. The idea of “neutral ground” further reinforces the compact that connects these otherwise competitive CMSs – which collectively power 50% of all online websites today.As the press release points out, the Open Website Alliance was founded to promote choice across the open source software marketplace and facilitate collaboration between free and open source (FOSS) web content management projects – thus furthering the core values of openness, trust, and quality. But where did this air of collaboration begin? As Mathias pointed out, the Alliance owes its genesis to a coordinated response from the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.drupal.org/association">Drupal Association</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.opensourcematters.org/">Open Source Matters (Joomla)</a>, the <a target="_blank" href="https://typo3.org/project/association">TYPO3 Association</a>, and the <a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress Project</a>. The organizations pooled their collective resources to pen an <a target="_blank" href="https://typo3.org/project/press/press-releases/open-letter-to-eu-legislators/english">open letter to the European Union</a> regarding its concerns about the EU’s proposed <a target="_blank" href="https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act">Cyber Resilience Act</a>. “The Open Website Alliance started out with this letter to the EU,” Mathias said. “We weren't an alliance six months ago, but that was really when Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress got together at a leadership level to do something together. Because we shared a concern – and we had shared values. Of course, there's been collaborations between our communities previously, but this was really the first time that we met on a leadership level – board members and executives, meeting together on one call.<hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="“i-think-if-you-want-an-open-web,-you-also-want-to-work-differently-with-your-partners-or-friends-in-open-source.”">“I think if you want an open web, you also want to work differently with your partners or friends in open source.”</h4><hr />At question was the Act’s ban on what it classified as ”unfinished software” and a bevy of muddled definitions surrounding “commercial activity.” In the original text, there's an implicit obligation for software to address all known exploitable vulnerabilities, and maintain a secure default configuration. The latter is particularly problematic, as there’s no way of knowing where and how open source software will be used in projects.  With FOSS products unaccounted for in the original language, open source systems could be liable for safety and security in an untenable manner. These regulations – while viewed as important for maintaining security standards – could potentially hamper European innovation and, as TYPO3 pointed out, drive activity toward U.S. tech giants.“With the Cyber Resilience Act, we discovered there was a real danger for operating as a nonprofit, free and open source content management system – and within the EU, that might actually become very, very hard,” Mathias reflected. “And what hadn't been mentioned yet were two things: first, content management systems within the EU actually represent a little more than half of all websites. Many small to medium-sized businesses use our systems – also larger ones – but that means it would have a great financial impact. The other thing that we saw was that being free and open source means we have certain values, things that we believe in, like openness and free speech. These values very much aligned with the core values of the European Union, so we thought it was an important message to give. It isn't just about business, it's also about the values behind what we do.”The open letter to the EU was issued in July of 2023. In early December, the language of the Cyber Resilience Act was agreed upon, paving the way for its adoption this year – and obligations being phased in through late 2025 and into 2027. As the Act continues to unfold, the Open Website Alliance aims to stand in solidarity against any measures that might impact their collective viability – and together, help shape solutions for all open source communities. <h3 id="collaborating-at-a-leadership-level">Collaborating at a leadership level</h3>In addition to the general community participation, the Alliance is guiding its breadth of members on a leadership level. This means the respective organizations can more easily coordinate on strategy and actions, creating a unified platform that powers new and existing cross-community collaboration projects.Leadership of the organization is also based on collaboration. While by-laws and other institutional practices have not yet fully gestated, the presidency will rotate among the members, and all decisions will be consensus-based. That said, it is by no means an established authority with centralized control or governance. Given that, I asked Mathias how he might describe its makeup and structure. “The Open Website Alliance is a very simple construction,” he relayed. “It doesn't have a formal legal body, so it’s more of a collaboration space – a community of communities, as we say. So it’s up to each member to do what the Alliance encourages.” While still nascent, Mathias did share that some of the operational components of the Alliance are already taking form. As someone who has been involved with numerous associations like this – including the well-established <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-publishes-first-annual-report-showcases-industry-impact-and-plans-for-2024">MACH Alliance</a>, which shares common traits with this new organization – I’ve seen how the right operational bedrock is key to building success.<h3 id="expanding-to-include-other-open-source-cmss">Expanding to include other open source CMSs</h3>I asked Mathias about the roadmap beyond the quintet of founders. While the four open source software communities represent a significant part of the market, many other technologies have embraced FOSS. As part of its charter, he said that the Open Website Alliance is also encouraging other FOSS CMS platforms to apply for membership.“We have seen interest from other free and open source projects or content management systems that would like to join the Alliance,” Mathias reported. “So it's open for anyone who has an <a target="_blank" href="https://opensource.org/">OSI (Open Source Initiative)</a> and a verifiable free and open source license. But in addition to that, the charter also specifies that members have to agree to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.drupal.org/association/open-web-manifesto">Open Web Manifesto</a>, which I know that Drupal and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/buytaert/">Dries Buytaert</a> (CTO and founder of Drupal and Acquia) have been promoting previously.”It's true: the vision of a free and modular web has long been part of the open source zeitgeist, due in no small part to the contributions of Dries Buytaert and the Drupal community. As Mathias said, the Alliance has taken the core Drupal manifesto and generalized it – a bit – to render it less specific to a single platform, and more reflective of the Alliance makeup.“I think if you want an open web, you also want to work differently with your partners or friends in the open source.”<h3 id="standing-together-for-open-source">Standing together for open source</h3>The <a target="_blank" href="https://typo3.org/fileadmin/t3o_common_storage/documents/press_releases/2024-02_Open_Website_Alliance/Open_Website_Alliance_Charter.pdf">purpose statement</a> the Alliance has developed provides the most basic tenets of its goals. It states, “members commit to jointly encourage prospective website owners and developers to always choose open source software over proprietary systems, and to educate why this decision is the first and most important one in a website project. Through this advocacy, we are expanding opportunities for all open source CMS projects.”As previously noted, the collaboration also seeks to benefit the public perception of open source projects – that they lean on the reliability of open source software, and are supported by the “quality and safety of open source communities.” This community aspect is key, as it speaks to the potential for members to share and discuss best practices in an open source vein. But there’s more. Accounting for the distributed and collaborative nature of open-source software – even beyond content management – the Alliance strives to support the growing reality of upstream dependencies. I asked Mathias to elaborate on this, and he focused on the evolving need for standards.“We see upstream dependencies that are increasingly dependent on much of the same technology, but in different ways,” he said. “That will be interesting as soon as we get in Alliance members that don't use PHP, but I think it's also at an idea level. If you look at what the European Union is doing today, they are putting requirements on people who work with open source, just as they do with closed source – and that means we have to develop standards. We have to develop common ways so that we're not all standing by ourselves when there's suddenly a [new] requirement for data interchange, which is a part of the new data regulation."By being proactive, Mathias believes the open source communities of interest can now plan more effectively and coordinate how they work. Through consensus, they can agree on suitable standards to help govern things like security and maintenance, which involve increasingly more upstream dependencies. “It means that we have to care just as much about each other as we care about the systems that we use.”<h3 id="what’s-next?">What’s next?</h3>As someone who has built and managed projects in both Drupal and WordPress, I’m deeply familiar with the advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of their inherent differences – or how proprietary systems might challenge them – I’ve always viewed their “open sourceness” as an innate strength. Perhaps the most valuable asset for each is its fiercely loyal community, which represents the real power and potential for the Open Source Alliance to realize change at an industry and regulatory level. When I make the obvious comparison to other industry alliances, I can’t help but think of lofty goals woven around voluminous mission statements. But open source is a different beast, beating its own drum and operating at times like a distributed hive mind. The users and contributors are vast and diverse, and the wheels of change often grind more slowly in these corners. At the same time, they're also tacitly independent – part of its democratic appeal, in truth – and that could stymie the adoption of rules and practices.I asked Mathias a logical question: what’s ahead? What do the next 12 months look like? His answer was refreshing – because it was simple and honest:“We don't have that written down,” he said, “but there are things we are talking about at a leadership level. Having an Alliance means that it's much easier for us to say, well, we want to do something together to improve how we standardize security, and then that can be disseminated from a leadership level down into the community. Another is a very simple thing, and that is attending each other's conferences. I've been attending a few other CMS conferences, and there is so much we can learn just from how our communities are organized. So community best practices are a very important thing to improve quality. We have good quality, but we can always improve on that.”For Mathias, education is also a big part of the equation. From his perspective, shifting the narrative is paramount, and leading with an “open source first” mentality is key to helping businesses, agencies, and users make better decisions. “I had the idea that what we need to do is educate the bits,” he said. “Tell people first what open source is instead of haggling about which system is best versus proprietary. So we agreed to collaborate on promoting open source as sort of a ‘white label’ thing that incorporates a lot of benefits that are common [to] all our systems, and that's where choosing open source first came in. We encourage decision-makers who are looking for content management systems to make that choice first. And once they're there, they have a lot more choice.”Mathias reinforced that collaboration underscores everything, and how the founding systems and communities are going beyond sharing best practices and working to understand each other better. “We think it's a benefit for all open source that we know each other, and that we can help every client choose the best open source CMS or find the best agency that has the experience that they need.”Alliances often present themselves as business opportunities. But sometimes, they emerge at a moment of great change or crisis, when hope is running low and great threats stand in the way of progress. When considering the more altruistic motives of open source – of the free and open web – it’s clear that this new alliance is focused on more than just the financial implications of impending regulation. In this case, open source is more like an open force for good – and one to be reckoned with.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Drupal, Joomla, TYPO3, and WordPress Join Forces in New Open Website Alliance

matt-garrepy

The third Beta for Joomla 3.4 has been released, indicating that the final version is edging closer, with a date currently set for February 24th 2015.
More than 3 percent of the Internet runs on <a href="http://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">Joomla</a>. It powers everything from websites to blogs to custom apps to Intranets.
The Joomla team has also been busy recently. The CMS giant greeted 2015 by <a href="/joomla-now-offers-free-hosted-websites-via-joomla.com/" target="_blank">unveiling Joomla.com</a>, providing the public with a quick and easy way to start a hosted Joomla website — for free.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla_logo_slogan_700x0.png" />
Version 3.4 will address the following areas.
<h3>Front-end Module Editing</h3>
Editing modules will be faster and easier in Joomla 3.4. Incorporating Font end Module editing allows you to to edit modules directly on the page without the need to use Joomla's admin dashboard. Naturally, this new feature simplifies the administration of websites, making them far easier to edit.
<h3>No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA</h3>
Google introduced a <a href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2014/12/are-you-robot-introducing-no-captcha.html">no CAPTCHA CAPTCHA API</a> in December 2014, and Joomla has now responded to stay up to date.
Version 3.4 brings about an updated reCAPTCHA plugin to protect your login and registration forms against spam. While still supporting the old reCAPTCHA 1.0, you can now also use it for the new reCAPTCHA version 2.0. A significant number of your users can now attest they are human without having to solve a CAPTCHA. Instead with just a single click they’ll confirm they are not a robot.
<h3>Core en-GB standardisation</h3>
The official language of Joomla is en-GB, and the goal is to standardise all the en-GB language strings in the core of Joomla based on the style guide. This will ensure consistency throughout Joomla. It will provide translation teams with an easy framework and guidelines to create their own style guides to ensure consistency throughout the project across the world.
To find out more about Joomla 3.4, <a href="http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5584-joomla-3-4-beta-3-released.html" target="_blank">check out Joomla's latest beta announcement</a>.
And of course, be sure to check out <a href="/products/joomla/" target="_blank">Joomla via our CMS Directory</a>.

Joomla 3.4 In Late Stages of Beta

mike-johnston

Introducing the Winners of the 2021 CMS Critic's Choice Awards

cms-critic-staff

Featured image of the 2021 CMS Critic Critic's Choice Awards badge with text that reads "2021 WInners"

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It's hard to follow an act like the <a href="https://www.oscars.org/" target="_blank">Academy Awards</a>, especially after Sunday's "<a href="https://pagesix.com/2022/03/27/will-smith-chris-rock-to-work-out-slap-incident-after-oscars-2022/" target="_blank">slap heard 'round the world.</a>"
But hey, we'll give it a shot – and do it with decidedly less controversy and no long-winded speeches:
Today, we're proud to announce the winners of the 2021 CMS Critic People's Choice Awards!
From our entire editorial staff, we'd like to start with a big THANK YOU to our amazing community of CMS vendors and their incredibly passionate users. We had some, shall we say, "colorful" conversations across social media during the nomination period, and we enjoyed every opportunity to engage with our readers.
It was incredible to see the outpouring of love from people around the globe for their products of choice. That kind of brand loyalty seems increasingly rare. It says a lot about the people using these technologies, and the investment that CMS and DXP platforms are making to really listen to users – and bring them together. 
Before we announce the winners, let's do a quick review of the rules so you know how we got here:
<ul>
<li>First, our annual People's Choice Awards celebrate the top platforms that YOU – our readers – select. As they say, we have no dog in this race.</li>
<li>In late December of 2020, we invited everyone to nominate their favorite platforms across a set of categories on our website. </li>
<li>The top three nominees were selected and featured for general voting in each category.</li>
<li>Participants were able to vote only once, and companies that offered incentives of any kind were disqualified (there were no such shenanigans, BTW). </li>
<li>While we don't offer any golden statues, we do feature the winners on our website for posterity. And of course, you always have bragging rights. </li>
</ul>
We had a fantastic response to the People's Choice Awards this year, and participation has been off the charts since we released the final nominee list. It's always great to see this level of community engagement, and because this is a democratized experience, you never know what to expect from voting – so be prepared for some surprises.
Enough rambling, right? Let's draw back the curtain and proudly present the winners of the 2021 CMS Critic People's Choice Awards!
 
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<img style="max-width:600px;max-height:156px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/contentstack-logo-white-bg.webp" alt="Contentstack logo" /> 
 
<h2>Best Enterprise CMS: Contentstack</h2>
This year's "Best Enterprise CMS" award goes to <a href="https://www.contentstack.com/" target="_blank">Contentstack</a>, a leader in headless and agile content management. Contentstack has huge momentum, and it's great to see emphatic support from its community of users. 
 
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<img style="max-width:600px;max-height:156px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/adobe-experience-manager-logo-1.webp" alt="Adobe Experience Manager logo" /> 
 
<h2>Best DXP: Adobe Experience Manager</h2>
Given that <a href="https://www.adobe.com/cy_en/marketing/experience-manager.html" target="_blank">Adobe</a> has been the undisputed leader in <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/key-takeaways-from-gartners-2021-magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms/">Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a> for the fifth year in a row, winning our "Best DXP" honors wasn't a shocker. The Adobe brand is ubiquitous and recognized as a top contender across multiple technology categories. It also has a deep ecosystem of tools and partners. 
 
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<img style="max-width:400px;max-height:90px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/joomla-logo-white-bg.webp" alt="Joomla logo" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best Free CMS: Joomla</h2>
Surprised that <a href="https://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">Joomla</a> carried this category? Don't be. They've cultivated an enthusiastic fan base with a rising fervor for their favorite platform. Joomla continues to have a strong community of open source users, making it one of the top three most popular content management systems in the world - and winner of our "Best Free CMS" category. 
 
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<img style="max-width:400px;max-height:100px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/grav-logo-smallsvg.webp" alt="Grav logo" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best Flat File CMS: Grav</h2>
This was a tight race with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-flat-file-cms-platforms-for-building-simple-websites-fast/" target="_blank">Kirby</a>, but in the end, <a href="https://getgrav.org/" target="_blank">Grav</a> took top honors. A consistent winner of our People's Choice Award for "Best Flat File CMS," Grav is also featured in our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-flat-file-cms-platforms-for-building-simple-websites-fast/">Top Flat File CMS Platforms</a> article.
 
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<img style="max-width:400px;max-height:90px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/joomla-logo-white-bg.webp" alt="Joomla logo" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best Open Source CMS: Joomla</h2>
Despite the far-casting shadow of WordPress, <a href="https://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">Joomla</a> won big with its community – in no small part to its continued investment in innovation. In fact, 2021 saw a host of new features added to the "Best Open Source CMS" platform, including the <a href="https://www.joomla.org/4/" target="_blank">Joomla! 4.0</a> release with notable improvements. We would like to congratulate the Joomla development team on their win in two categories.
 
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<img style="max-width:400px;max-height:100px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/alfresco-logo.webp" alt="Alfresco logo" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best ECM (Enterprise Content Management): Alfresco</h2>
<a href="https://www.alfresco.com/" target="_blank">Alfresco</a> took home the gold for the "Best Enterprise Content Management" solution, proving its continued authority in the ECM space. Alfresco has enjoyed a successful run over the last few years, including <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/hyland-acquires-alfresco-focuses-on-cloud-and-global-expansion-of-enterprise-cms/">an acquisition by competitor Hyland in 2020</a>. Despite being under the Hyland umbrella, the company still maintains its brand identity. 
 
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<img style="max-width:400px;max-height:100px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/hikashop-logo-resized.png" alt="HikaShop logo" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best E-Commerce Solution: Hikashop</h2>
This was an interesting one, but the people have spoken: <a href="https://www.hikashop.com/" target="_blank">HikaShop</a>, the e-commerce solution for Joomla, was triumphant over two worthy competitors – <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-10-open-source-ecommerce-platforms/">WooCommerce</a> and PrestaShop. While the competition was tight, there were surprisingly more fans from the Joomla community throwing their support in the ring. 
 
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<img style="max-width:400px;max-height:90px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/shopify-logo-white-bg.webp" alt="Shopify logo" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best Headless Commerce: Shopify</h2>
<a href="https://www.shopify.com/" target="_blank">Shopify</a> has been giving Amazon a run for its money and earning loyal fans along the way. As the leading platform for building e-Commerce solutions – and doing it headlessly – Shopify has become one of the strongest and most trusted brands on the planet for creating online stores and digital commerce experiences.
 
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<img style="max-width:600px;max-height:156px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/contentstack-logo-white-bg.webp" alt="Contentstack logo" /> 
 
<h2>Best Headless CMS: Contentstack</h2>
We have to hand it to the Contentstack crowd: you really brought the rain! Congratulations on cleaning up in both the "Best Enterprise CMS" and "Best Headless CMS" categories! While most notably a headless platform, Contentstack is also one of the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/mach-alliance-releases-study-on-adoption-of-mach-technologies-by-tech-leaders-qa-with-sonja-keerl/">founding members of the MACH Alliance</a>. 
 
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<img style="max-width:200px;max-height:100px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/yootheme-logo.webp" alt="YOOTheme logo" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best Website Builder: YOOtheme</h2>
Always a perennial fan favorite, the "Best Website Builder" category has evolved to include some amazing tools that are getting progressively easier to use. This year, the crown goes to <a href="https://yootheme.com/" target="_blank">YOOtheme</a> - the popular page builder for WordPress and Joomla. While other popular platforms like Webflow and Gantry were in the running, YOOtheme won out with a sizable margin. Congrats to the community of fans that made YOOtheme a winner!
 
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<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/hugo-logo-wide.svg" alt="Hugo logo" /> 
 
<h2>Best Static Site Generator: Hugo</h2>
The battle was hard-fought – and Gatsby has certainly been a fixture in our coverage over the last few years – but <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/">Hugo</a> brought the votes... so congratulations! As a leading static site generator, Hugo has touted its incredibly fast framework for building websites. It's clear that its community of users is continuing to grow and thrive, and showing the love for their favorite JAMstack frontend generator.  
 
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<img style="max-width:400px;max-height:100px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/03/uniform-logo-white-bg.webp" width="auto" height="auto" /> 
 
<h2>Best Composable System: Uniform</h2>
We had a battle royale brewing in the newly minted "Best Composable System" category between <a href="https://uniform.dev/" target="_blank">Uniform</a>, <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/" target="_blank">Sitecore</a>, and <a href="https://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank">Acquia</a> – but there can be only one! Congratulations to Uniform for taking the throne and becoming our inaugural winner in this new and exciting segment. With big wind (and big investment dollars) at their back, Uniform is already making bold moves from a hiring and acquisition perspective, and we'll be looking for big things in 2022.  
 
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<h2>And that's a wrap for the 2021 People's Choice Awards! </h2>
<div>See that? Not a single moment of uncomfortable stage antics. That's just another benefit we have over the Oscars. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>While the pandemic threw us all for a loop, it's great to be back to a more normal and predictable cycle with our awards program. We look forward to this event every year because it gives us an opportunity to engage with our readers and learn about what platforms are scoring high in their books. At the end of the day, it's about honoring not just the winners, but our entire CMS community. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>There were some tight races going on in the year's competition, and a few surprises that gave us a moment to pause. But that's what makes the People's Choice Awards so exciting: in any given year, fans can come out of the woodwork and elevate their platform to the top echelon. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Tomorrow, we'll be posting our Editor's Choice Awards. You're bound to see some alignment in certain categories, and you might be in for a few surprises as well. Our editorial staff made their picks based on a wide range of factors, and we're excited to share them with you. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Thanks again to everyone for participating in the 2021 People’s Choice Awards. See you later this year!</div>

Oscar Who? We're Celebrating the Winners of the 2021 CMS Critic People’s Choice Awards 

Image of the 2021 CMS Critic People's Choice Awards logo with the Text "2021 Winners" to the right, all against a background image of fireworks.

<a href="https://www.joomla.com/" target="_blank">Joomla</a>, one of the world's most popular content management systems, has opened its digital doors wider than ever before by offering up free, hosted website solutions.
Make no mistake, this is big news from one of the biggest players in the CMS world. Joomla is an open-source, award-winning platform, powering millions of websites and online applications across the world.
Now, thanks to a partnership with hosting company Siteground, anybody can sign up for a free Joomla website via <a href="https://www.joomla.com/" target="_blank">Joomla.com</a>.
<h2>Joomla In Just A Few Clicks</h2>
<a href="https://www.joomla.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-19700x0.png" alt="Joomla.com" /></a>
To make Joomla.com removes hosting fees, lengthy installations and some expandability options. The result is that a Joomla website is now just a few clicks away from the average person and business. Here are the feature highlights:
<ul>
<li>Hosting for all Joomla.com websites is totally free.</li>
<li>Free site name at the joomla.com subdomain (for example: mywebsite.joomla.com).</li>
<li>Comes pre-installed with additional extensions, templates, and all available languages.</li>
<li>Automatic updates.</li>
</ul>
Joomla.com doesn't offer everything that <a href="https://www.joomla.org" target="_blank">self-hosted Joomla</a> users can get, though.
As of right now, Joomla.com includes a set of pre-selected templates and several very useful pre-installed extensions like Google analytics, Google maps integration, Disqus powered comments and social media sharing options. However, Joomla.com wouldn't be suitable for a user looking to build an advanced website with custom code and a wider choice of templates and extensions. Then again, that's what Joomla.org is for.
Having said that, Joomla has claimed that websites started at Joomla.com can easily be developed later into full-fledged self-hosted Joomla projects without any limitations on extendability.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-20700x0.png" alt="Joomla.com" />
The President of Open Source Matters Inc. (which provides legal and financial support to the Joomla project), Sarah Watz, made these comments upon the release of Joomla.com:
<blockquote>“I’m very excited because the new service at joomla.com makes Joomla! CMS a more accessible option than ever.”</blockquote>
I take my hat off to Joomla, for this step towards greater accessibility is precisely <a href="/cms-in-2015-what-we-want-to-see/" target="_blank">what I called for from the world of CMS in 2015</a>.
For more information on this release, <a href="http://www.joomla.org/announcements/general-news/5580-joomla-offers-free-hosted-website-solution-on-joomla-com-in-partnership-with-siteground.html" target="_blank">check out the Joomla announcement</a>. To get your free Joomla website, head over to <a href="https://www.joomla.com/" target="_blank">Joomla.com</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/joomla/" target="_blank">Joomla via our CMS Directory</a>.

Joomla Now Offers Free Hosted Websites via Joomla.com

Joomla Review - An In-Depth Look at the Popular CMS

In the open source world, there are primarily three content management systems that hold the top spot when it comes to word of mouth, popularity and implementations. While WordPress far outpaces the other two; Joomla and Drupal; when it comes to installs and user base, they still maintain a pretty hefty following. Just because these systems are at the top, however, does not mean they are always the best option (see my previous post entitled <a href="/wordpress-joomla-and-drupal-are-not-the-best-cms/">WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are NOT the best CMS</a>.Today, I'm going to  outline the top 7 mistakes people make when choosing WordPress, Drupal or Joomla for their CMS.<h2>7. “Someone recommended it, so I chose to use it.”</h2>A very common mistake I see being made on websites nowadays are blanket recommendations of products from people with experience using only that product or, even worse, people who just want to offer an opinion for the sake of doing so. Take a look on Q &amp; A websites like Quora for instance and you'll see tons of foolish recommendations to people that offer little to no information.Here is a typical question on Quora asking for CMS recommendations with a fantastic response from someone who is smart enough to not recommend a product without more information:<figure class="image"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/snapshot1.png" /></figure>What I didn't show you is the list of answers with responses such as “The best one is WordPress” from someone who has no idea what the requirements are. Sadly, there are tons of people throwing out these types of recommendations. I appreciate when people like Mr. Memud above step up to try to put some clarity to the questions.You should never just choose to go with a CMS because someone recommended it, regardless of whether that person is someone with experience or not. Make sure you explore the product fully, try it out in a demo environment and see if it suits your needs BEFORE implementing it as your CMS of choice. Most people wouldn't buy a car without a test drive and you shouldn't get a CMS without one either.<h2>6. It's one of the top three open source CMS.</h2>Never choose something just because of word of mouth because honestly, it doesn't mean much. Popularity of a product has nothing to do with whether it's the right product for your job. Always make sure you take the time to explore the product and get a run through from someone in the know before you make a selection. There's a reason why the typical RFP process for CMS selection takes several weeks to several months.<h2>5. They have a plugin that I want to use.</h2>Never, ever, ever choose a CMS just because it works with your favorite plugin. Believe it or not, it's not that expensive to hire a freelancer to code you an integration if you really need it and you'll not be forced to make a compromise in usability.<h2>4. I found a pretty theme!</h2>There are theme developers all over the world that can hash out beautiful designs for minimal cost. Don't choose a CMS just because someone developed a pretty theme you like.<h2>3. It's free.</h2>Never choose a product JUST because it's free. If cost is a factor and you absolutely have no budget, that's fine but do make sure you take the time to explore ALL of the free products on the market that fit your requirements. Use resources like our CMS directory to find a number of great products.<h2>2. It's open source.</h2>Are you an open source promoter? Do you prefer open source products? Fantastic. Is that a reason to choose a product for your business? No, it's not. You should be responsible and take the time to make sure you explore the products that best suit your projects needs first. If an open source solution happens to be one of them and it comes down to that being a deciding factor AFTER vetting out that it fits your base requirements and needs then perfect but never make it a primary factor in your decision.<h2>1. A website I like is using it, so I should.</h2>No. Just no. As with every other point I've made above, make sure you always test out each product thoroughly and that it first your requirements first and foremost.—In a nutshell, in case you haven't figured out my point by now… don't choose a CMS just due to a single reason. Always make sure you explore all of the available options out there. If you aren't sure what options there are, use tools like our <a href="/products/">CMS directory</a> or ask us in the forums. If you need more in-depth assistance, <a href="/contact/">drop me a line</a> and I'd be more than happy to give you a hand. We offer top notch <a href="/contact">CMS consulting</a> based on our many years of experience using the many products on the market. When it comes to consulting, no other group can offer as much insight into the products on the market than we can.

The Top 7 Mistakes People Make when Choosing WordPress, Drupal or Joomla

Shopify - The global commerce platform

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

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

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

<a href="http://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">Joomla</a> has rolled out a maintenance release for their 3.x series, addressing some issues introduced with Joomla 3.3.2.
Joomla is one of the world's most popular content management systems, powering over 8% of all websites with known content management systems. That's around 3% of all websites on the Internet.
The Joomla team have encouraged users running servers with PHP 5.3.10 or later to update immediately to Joomla! 3.3.3 via either the one-click update or the <a href="http://www.joomla.org/download.html." target="_blank"> download link</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/do-more-33.png" alt="Joomla" />
Joomla 3.3.3 brings about four fixes, with the e-mail cloaking code and user configuration options not applying correctly with Joomla 3.3.2. These fixes are as follows:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/3954" target="_blank">GitHub [#3954] – Change the cloak container from div to span</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/3956" target="_blank">GitHub [#3956] – Class attributes are not included in mailcloak</a></li>
<li><a href="http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemEdit&amp;tracker_item_id=33984" target="_blank">JoomlaCode [#33984] – Getting a 500 when trying to sort users by User Group in Modal</a></li>
<li><a href="http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemEdit&amp;tracker_item_id=33987" target="_blank">JoomlaCode [#33987] – User settings for Editor ignored</a></li>
</ul>
To download Joomla 3.3.3, you can either grab the <a href="http://joomlacode.org/gf/download/frsrelease/19665/160049/Joomla_3.3.3-Stable-Full_Package.zip" target="_blank">full package</a>, or the <a href="http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/frs/?action=FrsReleaseBrowse&amp;frs_package_id=6930" target="_blank">upgrade package</a> if you're already running Joomla.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/joomla/" target="_blank">Joomla via our CMS Directory</a>.

Joomla 3.3.3 Released

<img title="joomla_logo" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/03/joomla-product-logo.jpg" style="max-width:150px" />Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM), the not-for-profit organization that supports the Joomla! Project, today announced that Microsoft ® has signed the Joomla! Contributor Agreement (JCA), the project’s new general public license (GPL). As a result, Joomla! users will experience improved Internet Information Services (IIS) compatibility and support in Joomla! 1.5.16. In addition, key Microsoft code contributions will be included in the trunk of the upcoming Joomla! 1.6, allowing the system to benefit from increased speed and efficiency by leveraging the Windows® Cache Extension for PHP.
“Microsoft signing the JCA is big news for the Joomla! community. Not only is this the largest organization to ever contribute code and to agree to the terms of our contributor agreement, but this means Joomla! users will get improved performance and usability of Joomla! on Microsoft’s IIS,” said Ryan Ozimek, President of Open Source Matters. “We’ve always had a portion of our community that has been IIS-based, yet we haven’t been able to offer the ideal level of IIS support and integration. With the new agreement in place, Joomla! will not only offer tighter ties with IIS, but our community can better work with Microsoft to make improvements or address future engineering issues. We're very happy to have Microsoft as part of our GPL development community.”
Joomla! community members have been working closely with the Microsoft team and have integrated the Joomla! package with Web Platform Installer. In addition, by utilizing Microsoft test environments, the team has been optimizing Joomla! to run better on IIS. With the release of Joomla! 1.5.16, the community has solved some long-standing compatibility issues that will allow the system to be supported on the same level as Apache. Furthermore, Joomla! 1.6 will include code for Windows Cache integration, further improving speed and code efficiency.
For those interested in trying Windows Cache integration now, you can get more information on how to run it with Joomla! 1.5 at <a href="http://blogs.iis.net/donraman/archive/2010/03/05/performance-improvement-in-joomla-using-wincache-user-cache.aspx" target="_blank">http://blogs.iis.net/donraman/archive/2010/03/05/performance-improvement-in-joomla-using-wincache-user-cache.aspx</a>
About Open Source Matters, Inc. and the Joomla! Project 
Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM) is a not-for-profit organization that helps to manage and support the Joomla! Project. Joomla! is the industry’s leading open source content management system (CMS). For more information visit <a href="http://www.opensourcematters.org/" target="_blank">www.OpenSourceMatters.org</a> or <a href="http://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">www.joomla.org</a>.

Microsoft and Joomla! working together

The Joomla development team is forever tweaking and adjusting for a better user experience. Among the improvements to Joomla's recent 3.4 release are front-end module editing, extension beta testing, decoupled com_weblinks, and composer integration. They've also has cleaned up their reCAPTCHA, making it easier for us non-robots to navigate the web. The release of Joomla 3.4 brought a new development strategy to the table, with more frequent updates in shorter intervals.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla_logo_horz_color_slogan500x0-is.png" />
Of course, with every CMS upgrade comes bugs – usually lots of them. As of March 2015, the Joomla team resolved approximately 150 issues after the new release. For those who were hoping that your recent upgrade would take care of all the little quirks, think again. Newer and less-experienced Joomla users will especially benefit from learning how to handle these minor, but nonetheless, frustrating issues.
<h3>Style Formatting</h3>
Joomla users of any version may be familiar with frustrating style issues in the editor. You might try to make a line of text into a heading, while Joomla seems to ignore your request completely. Or maybe you've clicked “Times New Roman” 500 times only to see that on your website, the font is obviously displaying as Verdana.
Essentially, you want to pay attention to exactly what coding is being used and where. <a href="https://www.pcwdld.com/firebug-alternatives-javascript-debugging-tools" target="_blank">Firebug</a> is a great tool for Firefox browsers that allow users to inspect and edit CSS, HTML, and Javascript on any website. (If you don't have Firefox, download Firebug Lite for other browsers).
Once you have an application like Firebug installed, you can view the code to see what styles are in what hierarchy. Make sure there are no styles specified in the &lt;header&gt; section, as these will override any changes you try to make in lower hierarchy style sheets. Always remember that if your editor doesn't seem to be listening to you, you can manually insert style codes by simply toggling the HTML editor – in this case, it has to listen to you.
<h3>Slooooooooow Going</h3>
If you recently upgraded to Joomla 3.4 and grabbed a new theme, you might be wondering why your website is loading painfully slowly. This isn't the fault of Joomla, and has more to do with the content of your site.
<a href="http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt" target="_blank">Pingdom</a> is a great tool for measuring the speed of your Joomla site. You can review your results instantly, and determine what is causing the slow loading on your page. Whether it's HTML, CSS, text, redirects, or images, you'll have a much better understanding of your site after performing the test.
Another option is to log in to your Joomla account and switch GZip Compression on. Go to the main menu, click Global Configuration, and then click the Server tab. Switch GZip to “on” if is isn't already. This can be especially helpful for users with lots of images on their site.
If you want your loading speeds automated without having to worry about them, consider the Joomla extension, <a href="http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/extension/hosting-a-servers/database-management/optimize-your-tables" target="_blank">Optimize Your Tables</a>, which is now available for 3.4. The extension checks in once every day to ensure your speed is optimized by removing MySQL overhead.
<h3>Pasting Content</h3>
This is an old and well-known issue in Joomla, but if you think upgrading to the latest version will suffice, you'll probably be disappointed. Copying and pasting content from Word documents into Joomla's editor can cause some odd glitches to occur on your website. Content can disappear, appear with inappropriate formatting, and needlessly confuse your code.
So how do you know if the problems you're experiencing are related to some accidental copying and pasting? The first thing to do is single out the problem area: Is your whole site acting funky, or just one page? Is it a recently edited page, or something you haven't touched? In some 3.4 themes, links to PDF or Word documents can cause unexpected errors.
Next, toggle the code and see if there is anything that shouldn't be there. If you see “if gte mso 9,” in your code, get rid of it promptly. This is leftover code from Microsoft Word, which directs your site to only display that content in Internet Explorer 9 or higher.
Joomla 3.4 does have a “paste as plain text” option in the Article Manager, but some have reported issues with this feature. The simplest solution is to get into the habit of always copying and pasting your text into Notepad first. This will remove all formatting and allow you to paste from Notepad to Joomla without problems. Alternatively, you can save your Word document as a text file (.txt.) to remove unwanted formatting that way.
If you keep getting caught up with errors that are over your head, check out <a href="https://www.siteground.com/index.htm?afcode=4414e5e2bb3a9b580cba4638686fc849" target="_blank">SiteGround</a> for tutorials and videos on building your site, migrating your site, and performing basic tasks in Joomla 3.4.

Joomla 3.4: Problematic Quirks and Simple Solutions

With the release of Joomla 1.6, we decided now would be a good time to do a followup to our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/joomla-1-5-review/">previous review</a>.
Installation hasn't changed and is the same number of steps so we won't cover this during our review. One thing that would be nice to see in future versions and that we would have liked to see in this release would be the automatic removal of the /installation directory at the end of the install. Right now, the installer expects the user to delete this when removing it automatically would make things slightly more convenient.  This isn't a major issue at all, just a simple nice to have that would be good to see in future releases.
The default theme that has been present for years in Joomla releases has been changed to a much plainer one:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/phpfox-580x421_f7kerk.png" />
I couldn't find any mention as to why this was changed in the release notes but it has been. I personally welcome the change, it's nice to see something different for a change. Whether you think it's actually better or not is up to you.
The administration interface has a slightly newer feel to it and some minor changes visually:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/percussion_wykes-199x300_xisnoq.jpg" alt="joomla 1.6 - 2" />
When compared to 1.5, you can see there have been some changes to the default icons such as the addition of the extension manager and a new Edit Profile icon. For comparison purposes, here's a screenshot of the 1.5 admin interface:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-1_5-1-580x258.png" alt="joomla 1.5 - 1" />
Once of the most touted new features to this release is the addition of much needed ACL functionality. As you add new articles, you'll notice the new section below the editor:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/f772689190b08068bff2c0c6dd8db184_wix_mp_fiuz2g.png" alt="joomla 1.6 - 3" />
It's great to see this level of customization has been added and it puts Joomla in a much better position to contend with some of the other options (both commercial and open source) that are on the market today.
The settings are very straight forward and easy to configure and most users should find their comfort level fairly quickly with regards to setting them up.
Users do not have to configure these individually, however. In the Article Manager, when clicking on the Options button at the top of the screen, you can set defaults for all articles as well:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cmsc2i-300x145_qgqd2r.jpg" alt="joomla 1.6 - 4" />
There is also a new button that allows editors to save their article and immediately start a new one. A simple addition but a welcome, time saving one.
ACL can also be managed on a per category level, per module and also on individual media itself so there's definitely a solid level of granularity to the controls users now have.
Thankfully, the development team has seen fit to get rid of the Sections altogether. This is a very welcome change and has been a major annoyance (in my opinion) for a number of years. No longer is this an issue.
Moving on to the menu management module, another new addition has been made available. Users can now see which modules are linked to each specific menu. This is a very useful addition and seems to be on mark with the development teams goals for this release which include improving usability and making the system easier to use:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-1_6-5.png" alt="joomla 1.6 - 5" />
User management also shows a few new additions. Namely, the ACL functionality is present (obviously) and there is also a new function to set a default backend template style. This is a handy addition and allows the designer/developer the additional ability to further customize the experience on a per user basis.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-1_6-6-580x402.png" alt="joomla 1.6 - 6" />
Access levels and groups are a new addition as well and can be found under the new user menu:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-1_6-8.png" alt="joomla 1.6 - 8" />
As you can see, there is also the ability to mass mail users from within the backend. This is especially handy and works like a charm:
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-1_6-9-580x272.png" alt="joomla 1.6 - 9" />
Under the components menu, there is a new Redirect option which allows administrators to configure 404 redirects on a per item basis or in bulk. No more 404 pages for users who follow an old link that has changed.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/cmsc3i-580x262_hixvgn.jpg" />
Moving to the management of extensions, there is now the ability to update extensions and find updates.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/joomla-1_6-7-580x93.png" alt="Joomla 1.6 -7" />
For more info on this functionality, here's a video showcasing the new capability:
Developers are also available to distribute multiple modules in a single zip file to easy installation. This is a great time saver for the administrator of the system.
From a template point of view, all core output files are written in XHTML 1.0 Strict. HTML 5 is also supported in Joomla! 1.6 which brings Joomla up to date with current standards. Furthering that, you can easily create minor template variations, which can then be assigned to specific pages on the website.
Overall, I have to say that the Joomla! development team has done an outstanding job improving the system with this release. Joomla 1.6 is a significant improvement and brings with it functionality that lifts it to a new level of competitiveness with commercial competitors.
There is no doubt that the developers were focused on improving usability and ease of use. Their commitment to doing so is very evident and I strongly recommend Joomla! as a viable alternative to those looking for a powerful content management solution.
The Joomla! development team should pat themselves on the back for a job well done.
I've no doubt there are additional changes that I didn't catch. Share your experiences in the comments.
Grab your copy from <a href="http://www.joomla.org">http://www.joomla.org</a>

Joomla 1.6 Review

<a href="http://virtuemart.net/" target="_blank">VirtueMart</a>, one of the most successful eCommerce solutions for <a href="http://www.joomla.org/" target="_blank">Joomla</a>, has just released its newest version, VirtueMart 3.
Compatible with Joomla 2.5 and Joomla 3, the open-source eCommerce solution has undergone “thousands of man hours” in order to make it compatible with Joomla 3, clean up the architecture, increase stability and performance.
VirtueMart concede that, “looking superficially at VirtueMart 3 it looks and works almost as VM2”. However, they say that the feeling and handling of the platform is different. Let's take a look at what they mean.
<h2>Smoother Shopping</h2>
This new update brings about enhanced speed, add to cart buttons in the category browse view, and a simpler checkout system. VirtueMart merchants will notice the enhanced backend speed and simplified custom fields, along with many more tools to fulfill the wishes and needs of customers.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/virtuemart3.png" alt="VirtueMart 3" />
Here's an overview of the back end improvements:
<ul>
<li>The most advanced VM available to date</li>
<li>Increased backend performance</li>
<li>Simplified process for adding and implementing product customfields</li>
<li>Enhanced parameters for displaying related products and categories</li>
<li>Additional parameters for the views in the joomla menu configuration</li>
<li>Easily add and configure your own shopperfields directly useable in the shopping cart</li>
<li>Increased ability to Restrict/Manage employee access to key functions using ACL</li>
</ul>
Meanwhile, the front end will provide a smoother shopping experience, thanks to:
<ul>
<li>Improved page load speeds</li>
<li>The ability to add products and their variants to the cart directly from the category browse view</li>
<li>Simpler checkout process helping to reduce cart abandonment</li>
<li>Predicted shipping costs prior to full address entry</li>
<li>Cart contents for logged in users are stored to allow checkout at a later time</li>
<li>For multilingual stores, we now have a language fallback to the default language for non-translated text</li>
</ul>
To find out more about VirtueMart 3, and to download it for yourself, <a href="http://virtuemart.net/news/latest-news/465-virtuemart-3-is-here" target="_blank">check out the official announcement</a>.
For more information about Joomla, visit <a href="/products/joomla/" target="_blank">Joomla via our CMS Directory</a>.

VirtueMart 3 Released

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What's ahead for CMS in the agentic era?