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Recent Happenings on the Open-Source CMS Market

The open-source community always seems to be quite busy so it should be no surprise that many new CMS projects are in the works.  Here are a few platforms and vendors that have recently been making noise in this vibrant segment of the software industry.

DotNetNuke

September was a very busy month for the DotNetNuke project.  Shaun Walker, co-founder and Chief Architect of the project, was appointed on the Board of Directors for the Microsoft CodePlex Foundation, where he will lend the expert perspective that helped DotNetNuke become one of the most successful open-source CMS platforms built on the Microsoft technology stack.  Last month also saw the launch of the DotNetNuke Fusion Partner Program, a partner program that offers Registered, Certified and Gold memberships to web hosting providers, system integrators, web designers and training partners.  The most noteworthy news was DotNetNuke’s anointment as a Network Partner in the Microsoft Website Spark program.

eZ Systems

In September 2009, software vendor eZ Systems released version 4.2 of its eZ Publish CMS.  This version release emphasizes usability, better performance and more advanced capabilities for built-in search.  There are also many new extensions as well as a new version of the eZ Find tool, the company’s innovative search engine.  eZ Systems plans to keep itself occupied in the month of October by attending the IFRA Expo in Vienna, Austria on from the 12 to 15^th and hosting its own seminar in Paris for its French base of users and customers on the 16^th.

Hippo CMS

In October, the Hippo team will be organizing an International Forge Friday dedicated to the communities of Hippo and Jetspeed Portal.  The purpose of these gatherings is to bring, developers, system administrators, technical support staff and others together to discuss plugins, add-ons, components and other items that could become Hippo Forge projects.  The event is taking place on October 30 at 9 am to 2 pm PDT from the Hippo San Francisco office and 14:00 to 21:00 CET from the Hippo Amsterdam office.  Interested parties can also attend the event online.

Movable Type

The latest version of Movable Type, 4.32 was just released last week.  This version is mainly a bug release fix as it addresses a number of small bugs.  Version 4.32 also includes the Zemanta plugin, which acts as an editorial management tool that recommends content relative to your blog entries.  The latest version of Movable Type is available free at the official website.

Nuxeo

This October, software vendor Nuxeo will launch a new release of its Nuxeo EP CMS.  Some of the most notable features of the release include a new tag service, an enhanced import/export function, support for Microsoft SharePoint, OpenSocial widgets and a CMIS implementation based on the Apache Chemistry platform.

Xoops

This past September, the Xoops CMS project launched the RC (release candidate) of version 2.4.0.  The enhancements targeted for this particular version emphasize productivity and better usability, focusing on areas such as a new graphical user interface for administrators, the ability to modularize and extend the core via preloads, a much improved installer and centralized support for jQuery among others.  The final release for Xoops 2.4.0 is expected very soon.

Amaxus CMS Gets a Serious Upgrade

The Amaxus content management tool has been on the CMS market since 2001.  However, isn’t wasn’t until September, 2009 that the product was properly introduced to the web.  The platform has improved considerably with the release of Amaxus 4.0 and this version could be exactly what BoxUK needs to makes its web CMS a true competitor on the market.

Noteworthy Improvements and Features

Amaxus officially got its start about eight years ago and actually utilized an early version of the popular development technology now known as AJAX.  Since the initial release, the platform has undergone major changes through four version releases, each attempting to keep up with the rapidly evolving web technology and fast changing times.  Amaxus 4.0 currently focus on six main factors:

1. Streamlined User Interface – Amaxus has been designed from the ground up, focusing on usability to help the user get tasks done in a much easier way.

2. Universal Search Capabilities – Locating content and information on an Amaxus site is made simple by a built-in search system that performs much like a traditional web search engine.

3. Content Support – Axamus is capable of handling all types of content.   A content and classification module gives the CMS the ability to intelligently publish and manage content types that range from simple text and documents to rich media and databases.

4. Workflow and Versioning – Axamus offers all the administrative features you would expect from an enterprise CMS.  This includes content versioning and rollback, advanced workflow, a role-based permission system and more.

5. Control – With Axamus, you can manage far more than basic content.  You can also control functionality, site design and various other elements all through an intuitive graphical user interface.

6. Enhanced Search Engine Rankings – Amaxus offers a number of integrated features designed to help improve search engine rankings.  This includes an SEO checking tools customizable URLs and standards compliant page output.

Social Networking Capabilities

The Amaxus CMS puts a lot of emphasis on social networking and content distribution.  It also has several features to help you distribute your content to other sites.  Some of the most notable include the ability to publish an unlimited number of RSS feeds, automatically publish your content in the form of Tweets, and a REST API that allows you to publish content on popular social networking sites such as FaceBook and YouTube, as well as another tool that allows visitors to promote your content on social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon.

Conclusion

You can learn more about the Amaxus CMS by visiting the official website.  The site is easy to navigate and offers a tour on how the product can be used to power your own website.  It explains the features and benefits and also talks about the technology behind the platform and the advantages of its open-source nature.  In addition, the website offers a Showcase and Resources page that contains case studies and screen casts of the product for users who need a little more convincing.

Introducing the IntelBuilder CMS

Content management tools can do a lot these days, but few are able to match up to the exceptional default capabilities of IntelBuilder.  This software acts as a CMS and social media platform, offering users the best of both worlds when it comes to content publishing and serving as a viable web application framework environment.  Here is an overview and a little more on what IntelBuilder has to offer.

The Content Management Aspect

The IntelBuilder content management system is developed and maintained by software creator Vesta Digital.  Like most CMS products, the software has the ability to create and manage basic content.  IntelBuilder is geared more towards the inexperienced user, designed to be easy to use and managed.  It makes it simple for administrators to add and edit existing content, delete content and add an unlimited number of pages to a website.  Some of the most notable benefits IntelBuilder offers include:

- Built for search engine optimization with SEO-friendly URLs and meta data management.

- Cross web browser compatibility

- Automatic submission to major search engines.

- Built-in support for Google Analytics

- Integrated reporting and web statistics.

In comparison to other proprietary commercial CMS products, IntelBuilder distinguishes itself through ease of use, a rich set of features and a high level of global compatibility.  Being a new solution, it is uncertain whether IntelBuilder will evolve into the award-winning content management solution its developers think it will be, but so far, it appears to be simple and powerful enough to suit the needs of most users.

The Social Media Aspect

IntelBuilder offers a social media platform that enables users to achieve a goal that is becoming increasingly popular on the web: being able to effectively distribute content.  Once your content has been published, the platform lets you distribute it over popular social networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter as well as social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Digg.  It also allows you to send out content to major guns such as Google News and other prominent news and media outlets.  IntelBuilder gives you the ability to effectively manage your audience of readers and subscribers along with tools for monitoring your website traffic and statistics.

Price and Availability

In all honesty, the features and capabilities mentioned in this article can be obtained from a number of CMS products through various add-ons for free.  However, when going with a proprietary solution such as IntelBuilder, they will cost you some real money.  The software is available in a variety of pricing plans with the most affordable coming at $49.95 per month with a one-time setup fee of $295.  The platform is module heavy and very extensible, but the default installation comes with features such as a text editor, site map, RSS news, search functionality and Google Maps among others.  IntelBuilder could turn out to be worth every penny but before making an investment, we recommend examining the product a little closer to determine if it can suit all of your content management and social media needs.

Drupal Hosting: Not Just for Techies

As a website grows larger and more complex, many webmasters discover that static HTML pages make it much harder to update and keep track of the content it contains.  At the same time, several webmasters assume that keeping up with a dynamic site is such a challenge that it can only be maintained by technical geniuses.  This is especially true if you own a large site with a lot of content.  Although managing such a site requires some level of skill, the curve of complexity can be shortened significantly with a software package like the Drupal CMS.

A CMS (content management system) is a specialize piece of software that allows you to efficiently maintain and update all the contents of your website.  Drupal is one of the very best at this, offering tremendous out of the box functionality along with support for a number of additional modules that can be used to extend its default capabilities.  Being an open-source software application, a community of users have contributed many components and modules for the overall betterment of the project.

Easy to Install and Set Up

Installing Drupal on your web hosting account is simple, especially when using an easy to use application installer such as Fantastico.  After installing the program, you can go through the process of designing your site and select from the array of content types that it will be compromised of.  A comprehensive wizard is available to walk you through the entire process and when setting things up, you are able to see a preview of what your site will look like when it is done.  This gives you the luxury to go back and make edits at any point during the design process.  Learning how to master the basic functions and options of Drupal is something that can literally be done in a matter of minutes.

The Benefits of Drupal Hosting

Due to its soaring popularity, Drupal has become a mainstay on the hosting market as several hosts now offer the software in their service plans at no additional cost.  Even though it has a reputation for being more complex than similar packages such as Joomla, all it takes is a basic level of technical skills to create a powerful and professional Drupal site.  In fact, if you can work with a simple word processing application and web browser, you can excel from the default functionality this dynamic CMS has to offer.  Drupal requires no programming knowledge of PHP or HTML to either create, maintain or update your website.

Conclusion

Drupal is a robust software package that offers the ability to create, manage and update various types of content.  It is primed for Web 2.0 applications so you can easily implement desirable features such blogs, forums and much more.  There are many CMS hosting solutions on the market and honestly, Drupal may not be suited for your needs.  For this reason, you should evaluate this product in and out to determine if it can meet your content management requirements.

A New CMS for ASP.NET Lovers

The market for ASP.NET CMS products is expanding rapidly.  Users now have another option for blending content management and the power of ASP.NET with Webaptive.  Just released by developer Striquent, Webaptive is an enterprise CMS available in premium and community versions.  The biggest draw to this program is its ability to incorporate content management functionality into existing applications without the implementation of third-party software development kits.  This is made possible by the presence of IIS and the stack of Microsoft .NET technologies.

Creating ASP.NET Applications

Webaptive works closely with the web server to add CMS functionality to your applications.  From within IIS, you can choose the application you want to enhance. Once you make your selection and a database is automatically created, you can then enable existing applications or develop new ones.  Because the method in which Webaptive associates itself with applications is specific to the ASP.NET framework, it is strongly recommend that you create your pages and applications using standard ASP.NET programming practices.

CMS Features

Though rich in ASP.NET functionality, Webaptive offers many of the same capabilities found in other CMS products.  For instance, it has a built-in WYSIWYG editor for easily creating articles and blog posts, a CSS editing facility, and support for multiple authors.  Some of its more advanced features include localization and campaign management as well content inheritance options for managers and administrators.  Another unique quality of Webaptive its seamless integration with Perifigure, Striquent’s sister product.  Perfigure is a powerful analytic tool that analyzes site performance and provides detailed statistics on traffic, marketing campaigns and several other business related activities.  These capabilities alone make Webaptive a very attractive CMS for business users.

Standing Alongside and Out from the Crowd

Marketed as a CMSaaS product, Webaptive shares a few qualities with similar hosted SaaS CMS solutions such as CushyCMS and Surreal CMS.  Many of these platforms work by mildly blending content management features into a web page or website.  Though effective for the most part, they are not all that intrusive in regard to the core technologies and as a result, only provide limited CMS functionality.  Although Webaptive performs in a similar manner, it goes beyond the basics by digging into the code at the ASP.NET application level.  This gives it the ability to interact with ASP.NET controls as well as the standard HTML elements.  When all components are properly configured, this CMS can truly help you take your web applications to the next level.  Another difference is that whereas most SaaS CMS platforms are hosted solutions, Webaptive can be downloaded, installed and configured on your own server.

Availability and System Requirements

The Webaptive CMS is currently available in three versions: Community, Express and Enterprise editions.  In terms of functionality, the Community and Express versions are nearly identical.  However, the community version is free and therefore does not come included with reliable technical support.  The Enterprise edition is the most powerful version of the product as it is equipped with many advanced back-end versions and of course, paid support.  In order to run Webaptive, you will need the Windows Server 2003 operating system or higher and an SQL Server database.  These elements are needed to support your ASP.NET applications and web pages.