Content Management

How CMS Websites are Overcoming Modern Day Development Challenges

CMS websites are now the norm as the preferred content management and delivery solution. Nevertheless, many CMS web applications face scalability issues. However, when a CMS is put in the cloud, it theoretically resolves the scalability issue to obtain a complete benefit.

But, if a cloud platform is not configured to match the particular needs of the CMS, it will need to work harder. This will result in higher loads than what is actually needed to serve the incoming traffic. Therefore, in most cases, it is sensible to cache the static content. The issue that one faces here is whether the cloud is able to tell the difference between a user who has signed into an application and is therefore being served with dynamic content and the one who has not yet signed into the application.

At the same time, a CMS presents many other challenges other than scalability due to the paradigm shift from the traditional model of sharing files from a central repository.  The reason behind this is that websites no longer operate isolated or in standalone mode. They must be able to interact with a range of other business applications that range from ecommerce business solutions to CRM databases to a range of reporting as well as analytics tools. To cut a long story short, websites have become increasingly data and content hungry because of their complex nature and the requirements of their users.

Managing such websites is now a full-time job.  Earlier in the traditional hosting scenario, the site owner had to figure out how to look after the application, but also the servers, backups, databases, and others.  Now, the platforms are specialized, so handling a web application which was a full time job can now be addressed by a person who can pay full-time attention.

XOOPS 2.5.4 Final Released

The XOOPS Development Team is pleased to announce that a new version, XOOPS 2.5.4 Final, is available for download and testing. In addition libraries have been updated to their latest versions:

  • phpMailer 5.1
  • TinyMCE 3.4.6
  • jQuery 1.6.4
  • jQueryUI 1.8.16
 
The major focus of this release is on updating all Core modules (PM, Profile, Protector) to our new ModuleAdmin GUI, so all of them have a consistent "look & feel": 
 
XOOPS Module GUI
 
The new Module GUI will be the official GUI for all modules supported by XOOPS, and  will drive:
 
  • Increased productivity
  • Decreased training and support costs
  • Reduced development time and costs
  • Reduced maintenance costs
  • Increased customer satisfaction
 
As next step, we'll be working on a "Basic Module Pack", which will contain the most popular XOOPS module in one user-friendly package, all with the new Module GUI. 

Book Club: Pro Drupal 7 Development

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm currently playing catch-up in discussing all the good books sent my way this past year. Many of the books have been sent by the authors and publishers themselves for review and some of the books I've bought on my own dime. There should be no further evidence that I'm a procrastinator in posting book reviews than this particular review of Todd Tomlinson and John K. Vandyke's Pro Drupal 7 Development. This book was published almost a year ago, and I'm only now finding the time to blog about this book.

New OpenCms 8.0.3 available from Alkacon

OpenCms 8.0.3 is now ready and available for download.

OpenCms is one of the most popular Open Source Content Management Solutions. This new version was developed by Alkacon Software GmbH with the support of the international OpenCms developer community.

OpenCms 8 contains a greatly improved user interface for content managers and numerous other enhancements.

With OpenCms 8.0.3, many important and useful additional features and improvements have been added to the core system and a number of issues that persisted in the 8.0.2 release have been fixed.

MotoCMS Updated to the Version 1.6

The World Day of Interconnectedness on November 11, 2011 became a very special for MotoCMS and its users. That day, the company released the new major Version 1.6 of its powerful Flash CMS.

The new version is probably the most significant from all MotoCMS releases - it is 100% based on the users' feedback.

This update introduces many new powerful features and improved functionality, including:

DotNetNuke 6.1 Simplifies Delivery of Mobile Websites

DotNetNuke Corp. has announced the immediate availability of DotNetNuke version 6.1 which makes it fast and easy for organizations of all sizes to deliver tailored online experiences for thousands of unique mobile devices.   For the first time, DNN 6.1 also provides a site group capability, which dramatically simplifies and speeds up the management of permissions and profiles across multiple desktop and mobile websites.

Webnodes CMS Version 3.7 features Schema.org support

Oslo, Norway - Webnodes AS, a company developing a .NET based semantic content management system, announced the release of version 3.7 of their CMS. This new release improves the system in a number of key areas.

Fully integrated dynamic Schema.org support

With this release, Webnodes is the world’s first CMS with fully integrated and dynamic Schema.org support. This means that all content classes and properties in Webnodes can be mapped to corresponding types and properties in Schema.org dynamically.

Book Club: MODX The Official Guide

At this moment, I have a tall stack of unread books related to content management systems sitting in front me. Publishers and authors apparently like my review style because new books continue to be sent my way. However, reading a book from cover to cover for a review (the last one being six months ago) takes time and I just haven't been able to keep up with the required reading. So with admission that I haven't read every page of these books, I've decided to at least start posting mini-reviews of select books and hoping that this move is still a win-win-win for publishers, authors and readers.