SMACKDOWN :: Who were the Open Source Content Management System (CMS) market leaders in 2008?
Jul 31, 2008 by Mircea Goia Content Management, MyTestBox News
When it comes to life online, we all use content management systems in one way or another: blogging, building websites, maintaining websites, marketing them, etc.
If we are not web experts, we usually just use software tools to develop websites. We may not even know what it is that powers the websites—what is actually doing the back-end work. Now it’s time to discover Content Management Systems (or CMS systems), and which ones are used most frequently.
I came across an interesting study about who are the leaders in open source content management systems market in the year of 2008.
The study was just released to the public and it was conducted by Ric Sheves from Water & Stone web development company (cool name, by the way). The company specializes in open source content management systems, particularly Drupal, Joomla!, Mambo, osCommerce and WordPress. Ric lives in Bali, Indonesia (talking about working from cool places).
At 50 pages, there is a significant amount of data in this study that should be of use to developers or to anyone who is looking to commit to a web publishing system. You don’t want to bet on a dead horse, do you?
But first let’s see WHAT is a content management system.
According to Wikipedia a content management system is:
- …a computer software used to create, edit, manage, and publish content in a consistently organized fashion. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators’ manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. The content managed may include computer files, image media, audio files, video files,electronic documents, and Web content.A web content management system is a CMS designed to simplify the publication of Web content to Web sites, in particular allowing content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files.
Because the theme of this site is web software (software which runs on a web server and in a browser – not desktop software) we will concentrate on web content management systems. And because we do like free things (who doesn’t?) we will present this study which took in consideration only the open source web content management systems (and only the publication-oriented CMSs, not e-commerce like osCommerce and not enterprise portals like LifeRay). Commercial or hosted products are excluded too.
Below are more details about this study.
—————————————————————————————————————
This whole exercise began by brainstorming through various methods of assessing popularity and adoption rates. While there are a number of indicators, there is no standardized metric to gauge market share in this particular segment — there is simply no way to get an accurate fix on how many systems are actually in use on the web right now.
For this survey the research results were broken down into two broad categories:
• Rate of Adoption
• Brand Strength
In each of the areas, they used a multi-faceted approach, assessing a wide variety of measures to identify broad trends and patterns from which we can draw conclusions with some
degree of confidence. Among the many metrics they sampled are a number of non-traditional indicators, such as Twitter Prominence and Social Bookmarking statistics.
Rate of Adoption
The team began their examination of the open source CMS market by attempting to measure the relative rates of adoption of the systems in the sample set. For reasons discussed below, direct evidence alone is not sufficient to allow them to draw firm conclusions.
As a result, they were forced to look at a variety of metrics in hopes of building a more complete picture of the current state of the market:
- Downloads
- Installations
- Third Party Support
- - Developers
- - Publishers
All these three metrics are explained in details in the study.
Sphere: Related Content
Tags: b2evolution, cms, content management, drupal, elgg, joomla, mambo, market share, mediawiki, modx, phpnuke, pligg, plone, study, survey, tikiwiki, typo3, wordpress
Congratulations, phpMyAdmin! And I bet sys admins are loving you even more!
Jul 31, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
phpMyAdmin, the MySQL web based administration tool, won two category awards at 2008 SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards!
It was close to win the hearts of the developers too, but in the end it was only a finalist (Notepad++ took the cake).
The categories in which this web software won are:
* Most Likely to Be the Next $1B Acquisition (wow! Well, why not after all? I’m wondering who would buy it though…)
* Best Tool or Utility for Sys Admins (you deserve the love, that’s for sure! But be aware of the competition too… )
The team didn’t enjoyed too much the celebration and they are back to work with a new release: 2.11.8
This new phpMyAdmin release is a security release: a Cross Site Framing vulnerability was found by Aung Khant (member of YGN Ethical Hacker Group).
In the past it was permitted to display phpMyAdmin’s frames inside another page, opening potential phishing or fooling possibilities.
Now, a parameter “AllowThirdPartyFraming” must be set to TRUE in “config.inc.php” to allow this behavior.
Also, XSS (Cross Site Scripting) was possible for someone who could overwrite “config/config.inc.php” during the time this file is present in this directory.
The latest release, phpMyAdmin version 2.11.8.1, is identical with 2.11.8, except it includes a fix for a notice about “lang”.
Check out their security advisory.
About phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin is a MySQL database web based administration tool written in PHP (GPL license distributed).
It is one of the most popular MySQL database administration tool in the world (if not THE most popular – no wonder it won the “Most Likely to Be the Next $1B Acquisition” category at 2008 SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards).
The tool is available in 55 languages, an impressive achievement by the community of the translators which really shows the popularity of this project.
See if phpMyAdmin is translated in your language here!
Grab the latest copy of phpMyAdmin here!
Sphere: Related ContentTags: administration tool, database, mysql, php, phpmyadmin
A rising star: Elgg, the content management system and social network creator
Jul 30, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
Elgg, the content management system and social network creator, reached the version 1.0 Beta, finally (after spending some time in the versions 0.x…).
Soon the team will announce the stable release (at least for now because I am sure that, even after the release, bugs will be found by the rest of the users – like always it happens in software development).
It seems Elgg became a rising star among open source content management software systems according to this report: http://www.waterandstone.com/downloads/2008OpenSourceCMSMarketSurvey.pdf
- The Elgg project has shown increasing mindshare and brand strength since inception. Recently
publishing activity and awards can only boost name recognition. The evidence shows in the social bookmarking metrics, where Elgg finished near the top of the list. Yet despite those positive signs, engagement in the blogosphere is sadly lacking — a troubling statistics given that
this system is focused on Web 2.0 social interactivity. Elgg also faces challenges in terms of developer support, though this is perhaps not yet a source of concern given the relative youth of the project.
According to that report WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal are the most used open source content management systems today (phpNuke and Mambo are the things of the past, it seems – you are a king one day and a peasant the next day if you don’t keep up with the demands. And that happened to phpNuke and Mambo – Mambo seems again has internal troubles among the team members. A new project called miaCMS spawned from Mambo.).
So, congratulations Elgg! And work harder to become a king! I wish you success!
Now, some updates from Elgg…
Elgg had one of the most powerful features from the day it was built: the access control. Whatever you create in Elgg (a blog post, an uploaded file, an element of your profile, etc.) can be restricted to as many or few people you want (very granular control).
Which is maybe one of the reasons Elgg, at the begining, started to be used as a social network creator in schools where the privacy is a big thing.
Now, in the latest version 1.0, they’ve refined that even more: creating collections of friends is easier even before. If you are not satisfied with Elgg’s individual-based access model you can swap it with something else: a roles-based access, for example.
More details about the access control and version 1.0 update on their official blog.
You probably are eager to test the new version, right? Well, hold your horses! The version 1.0 will be released to the public sometime this summer.
In the meantime you can still get older versions of Elgg CMS: 0.2 to 0.9.
Sphere: Related ContentTags: cms, content management, elgg, open-source, php, social network
Dolphin Smart Community Builder 6.1.4 Security Patch Release
Jul 30, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
BoonEx (the australian company behind Dolphin Smart Community Builder and other software) release a security patch for its dating and social network software.
This fixes the XSS (Cross Site Scripting) vulnerability found the last week (Orca version allows inserting malicious code into a new topic title).
It is an easy patch to apply so you should do it immediately!Here are the steps to be followed:
* Backup the Orca and groups/orca folders (a regular backup never hurts anyway!)
* Get the patch named Dolphin 6.1 Patch 4. This is compatible with any Dolphin package: SmartPro, AdFree, Free
* Unzip the archive and upload its content to the folder where you have Dolphin installed (overwriting the files with the same names)
Example: Open the “orca” directory on your server, and at the same time open the “orca” directory in the extracted patch on your PC. Upload all files contained in the “orca” directory of the patch to your server’s “orca” directory overwriting those with the same names.
* Edit the build number in the inc/header.inc.php file, replacing $site['build'] = ’3′; with $site['build'] = ’4′;
* Go and login to the admin panel and recompile Orca languages as described there.
After all these steps you should have Dolphin 6.1.4 patch successfully installed.
The company can be contacted for support, if you need to at, support@boonex.com (you can also login to their Forums and ask questions or see the Answers questions)
About Dolphin community builder
Dolphin Smart Community Builder is a free, open source software that allows you to build any kind of online community. Social networks, dating sites, content sharing portals…all these can be created very easily and deployed in an instant. You can have Myspace, Youtube, Flickr, Facebook and Match combined in one package.
With a huge variety of features & options, you can quickly develop your very unique and successful website. Checkout the full features here!
It is written in PHP/MySQL so it runs well on Unix/Linux but also it can run on Windows (but you have to use Apache for Windows, not IIS web server).
See a demo of their product here: http://www.boonex.us/ (a demo of their admin section is here)
Download Dolphin smart community builder here! (the free version, you can also order a paid version which will be ad free).
Sphere: Related ContentTags: boonex, community software, dolphin, security, social network
Pandora releases iPhone upgrade (version 1.1)
Jul 29, 2008 by Melissa Worcester MyTestBox News
Pandora, the web music streaming application, released an upgraded version of their iPhone software on Friday. Users of Pandora can also enjoy streaming music on their computers, about 30 other smart phones and a host of other devices designed to bring this Internet music streaming service directly into the home.
Version 1.1 of Pandora’s iPhone software also works on the iPod touch.
It fixes several bugs and has new features including:
* Streaming in stereo when Pandora is accessed over WiFi (still mono when using 3G, unfortunately).
* A new feature called Station Resume which brings you back right where you left off if Pandora is interrupted to take a phone call or if you switch to a different app.
* Auto-complete when searching for a song, artist or composer.
* Sort your stations alphabetically or by the date you created them.
* Register for Pandora right on your iPhone if you’re not already a member (apparently, with the prior version you had to sign up on the computer before using Pandora on your iPhone).
One of the best things about this new version is that, if you have an iPod touch, you can dock it in a stereo speaker dock and listen to free streaming music in stereo from Pandora’s music service.
But even if you don’t have an iPhone, you might want to check out Pandora, if you haven’t before, because you can use it in your computer’s browser to play music for free. Also, if you buy additional electronics, it can stream music in your living room without a computer.
Billed as “radio from the Music Genome Project®,” Pandora’s best feature is that it introduces you to songs similar to ones you’ve told it you like. You set up a custom radio station by choosing a few artists, and Pandora plays songs by similar artists as well as playing the artists you chose. But it gets better than that, because you can help it zero in on your musical tastes by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to the songs it plays.
In addition, you can bookmark or share songs, and you can share your custom stations too. Not only that, but when you find a new song you like, you can follow links from Pandora to iTunes or Amazon where you can buy a digital copy.
What might be even more exciting is that Pandora has partnered with several electronics manufacturers to develop devices you can use to listen to Pandora’s streaming music without a computer or an iPhone. Presumably, you have to go to the site and set up at least one station first, but then you can sit on the couch and listen to their free streaming music.
You can start using Pandora right now in your browser or download the new iPhone version, or, if you don’t have an iPhone, check to see if your phone is supported.
Or just visit Pandora’s website: www.pandora.com or read their blog
Sphere: Related ContentTags: iphone, pandora, software, upgrade, web music
MODx announces MODx Evolution release: version 0.9.6.2 (the MODx Revolution is in the works)
Jul 29, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
The team behind MODx (the content management system software) launched the version 0.9.6.2.
Go here to download this new release.
This new version is completing the original vision team had for MODx. From now on, their legacy code base got a new name: Evolution.
But the team now is working on the new release “0.9.7″ which will be probably named Revolution and the version number re-named 1.0
These new names will get new logos, site architecture, support resources and website design.
The MODx Evolution code base (0.9.6.x) will be supported for long time (according to the team) because there are hundreds of thousands of installs around the world and the team is commited to provide the website owner with the peace of mind knowing they are not left out in the dark.
A future release of MODx Evolution will start to see it correlate directly with the Revolution lingo (e.g., “Resources” becomes “Elements”), and also bring a much more svelte core distribution.
MODx Revolution 1.0 version (the future version) has a massively improved code and the version 2.0 will have a 100% new and unique code. The team also developed migration tools which will help convert old sites to the new version without too much trouble.
MODx Revolution also brings a very clear distinction between the core (API, parser, data access, base access controls, etc.) and the add-ons (Ditto, Wayfinder, content et al). MODx has traditionally been distributed with baseline content and a selection of resources.
Check out more info about this future release: http://modxcms.com/roadmap.html (if you have suggestions the team is glad to hear them)
Because the add-ons are splitted from the core more frequent updates will occur. A slimmer distribution, harmonizing some terminology, and a dedicated separate installer for Elements (currently “Resources”), will serve to further ease the transition when people ultimately choose to adopt the MODx Revolution 2.0 code base.
More details here: http://modxcms.com/the-evolution-of-a-revolution.html
About MODx
MODx is a content management system software and a PHP application framework developed by a group of talented people adamant about not creating Yet Another Portal System.
More info can be found on their website: www.modxcms.com
It is licensed under GNU GPL which translates into free for anyone to use. It’s built in PHP, uses a MySQL database backend and runs on pretty much any version of either released in the last few years (it will work also on Apache or IIS web servers). Its Control Panel (Manager) runs on pretty much any modern browser, including Safari. It also allows to quickly leverage the lastest rage of AJAX/Web 2.0 technologies.
For more details about its features click here: http://modxcms.com/features.html
Download the latest stable version here: http://modxcms.com/downloads.html
Tags: cms, content management system, evolution, modx, mysql, php, revolution
Magento 1.1.1 production release is here. Any users of the new version?
Jul 29, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
Magento team released the production version 1.1.1 several days ago. This is a major release of this e-commerce software and it is focused on expanding Magento’s product configuration options, increasing the flexibility of the core tax module to allow for Canadian and EU tax rules, streamlining integration between strategic Magento modules and external applications and boosting the overall performance of the Magento platform.
Magento has been downloaded over 400,000 times and this gives it a strong presence on the ecommerce market (it has strong competition though, among them are well known names from the open source world). But as this e-commerce platform matures it will be a very good contender in this space (especially with the Web2.0 features it has on the backend).
What did they add or improve in this new version?
Well, here’s the short list (taken from their blog):
* Create more product-types
Merchandisers can now create a few new product types:
- Bundles (most commonly used in kitting or in the built-to-order product model)
- Virtual Products – products that don’t require shipping information
* More ways to configure products
- Custom Product Options – allow merchants to designate a SKU to a base item and add attributes instead of having to create a unique SKU for every combination of options (simple products).
- Personalized Products – a new product configuration feature in Magento 1.1 that allows customers to personalize products by adding text, such as embroideries, engravings, etc.
* Integrate with any application via Web Services
Magento 1.1 features a new Webservices API with methods for easy integration between Magento’s Catalog, Customer and Sales modules and any third party application. More about the Magento API here.
* Speeding up the process(ing)
One of the main goals for Magento 1.1 was to examine bottlenecks in the platform and improve performance. In the production release of Magento 1.1 performance was improved by as much as 40% in the catalog and sales modules, and by optimizing when and how data loads, responsiveness of the Admin UI was also increased significantly.
View full list of features in Magento 1.1
Upgrading an existing Magento version
(take their advice seriously! Especially regarding using the new version on your live environment.)
It’s now possible to upgrade your existing Magento installation to 1.1 through the Magento Connect Manager extension.
Here’s how to do it:
* Do NOT use your live or production site. We suggest making a copy of your site and upgrading that copy first.
* Log into your Magento Connect Manager.
* Select the ‘Setting’ tab.
* Change the Preferred State to ‘Stable’, and save settings.
* For the Mage_All_Latest package select upgrade.
* Click on the ‘Commit Changes’ button. The upgrade should start.
* After upgrade is complete click on the ‘Refresh’ button.
* You should now have Magento 1.1 installed.
Read also the users’ comments on their blog! You might find useful tips for installation and upgrading from those who already tested the new version.
There is a wiki post available detailing how to upgrade your Magento theme to take advantage of the new release.
Download the latest version here! (registration required)
By the way, congratulations to Magento team for winning the “Best New Open Source Project” at 2008 SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards!
Sphere: Related ContentTags: ecommerce, magento, open-source, php, platform, software
Joomla community releases the version 1.5.5 (codename: Mamni)
Jul 28, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
Joomla! version 1.5.5 was just released to the public. This address a Duplicate Title error from the version 1.5.4. This new release also has important SEF URL improvements and fixes for “com_content”. And, of course, it contains other bug fixes and improvements.
Joomla! 1.5.5 has been out only three weeks since version 1.5.4 was released, which shows how quickly the Joomla community responds to the demands of the users.
Here are some of the fixes and improvements the community has made to this current release:
* Fix Duplicate Titles Bug
* SEF URL improvements and fixes for com_content
* “Register to Read More” fixes for Newsflash
* Category Blog pagination and Link List corrected
* Installer fixes for updates to Components and Modules
* Fixed Contact Item Bad Word parameter that prevented email
* mosmsg now used by 1.0.x extensions
* Private Messaging Search now returns results
* Fixed error restricting Search to Article content only
* Improved 403 reporting for Submit Article and Web link permission issues
* Category List Menu Item and Frontend now allow List length selection
* Page Break and Read More fixes
* Archived Articles now link correctly with SEF URLs
* JA Purity Hornav position, login token code, and language string fixes
* BEEZ fieldset alignments for Search and Read More link corrections
* SWF Banner correction allowing definition of dimensions
Below you have some instructions on how to deal with this new Joomla version:
- For a new install follow the steps here: http://help.joomla.org/content/category/48/268/302/
- To upgrade your current 1.5 installation follow the steps here: http://docs.joomla.org/Upgrading_1.5_from_an_existing_1.5x_version
About Joomla content management system (CMS)
Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications. Joomla! is anopen source software solution available to everybody for free. It is programmed in PHP
Joomla! is used all over the world to power everything from simple personal homepages to complex corporate and e-commerce web applications.
Below some examples of how people are using this software:
* Online commerce
* Corporate websites or portals
* Magazines and newspapers
* Small business websites
* Personal or family homepages
* Government applications
* Non-profit and organizational websites
* School and church websites
* Community-based portals
* Corporate intranets and extranets
* the possibilities are limitless…
Joomla! can be used to easily manage every aspect of your website (adding content and images, updating a product catalog, taking online reservations, etc.).
Joomla CMS can be enhanced by add-ons written by third party developers (Joomla extensions directory can be found here: http://extensions.joomla.org/).
Learn more about Joomla! here.
Download the Joomla 1.5.5 version (including the update packages) here!
Sphere: Related ContentTags: cms, content management system, joomla, mysql, open-source, php
Django (Python web framework) version 1.0 alpha released!
Jul 27, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
On July 21 the team behind Django released the alpha version of their Python framework software. Acording to their roadmap they plan to release the oficial 1.0 version on early September.
With this alpha testing release they are one step closer to their objective. This release includes all of the major feature due for inclusion in the final Django 1.0, though some lower-priority items are still scheduled to be included before the 1.0 feature freeze, which will occur with the first beta release next month.
Of course, this release being a testing version is advisable NOT to use it in a production environment. The target are the developers interested in checking out the new features and helping in identifying and resolving bugs prior to the final release. Django 1.0 alpha version won’t receive long-term support and won’t be updated with security fixes. And that’s understandable, it’s just a step towards the final release (which many Python developers are expecting it).
Download the alpha version here: http://www.djangoproject.com/download/
If you are interested in contributing to Django project then read here more: http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/contributing/
The next step on the roadmap is the release of a beta version of Django (sometime at the begining of August – August 5, more precisely).
About Django project
Django is a high-level Python Web framework that oriented to rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. It was developed and used for over two years now by a fast-moving online news operation and it handles two major challenges: the intensive deadlines and the stringent requirements of the experienced web developers who wrote it.
It allows you to build high-performing, elegant web Django focuses on automating as much as possible and adhering to the DRY principle (Don’t Repeat Yourself – which means “Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system”).
It is open source and it is released under the BSD license.
Checkout more about Django Python web framework here: www.djangoproject.com
Python web programming language is a very powerful open source dynamic object-oriented programming language that can be used for many kinds of software development. It offers integration with other languages and tools, comes with extensive standard libraries and it can be learned in days (at least that’s what they say).
Most of the source code is copyrighted by the Python Software Foundation (PSF). A few files have a different copyright owner, but the same license applies to all of them. The license is OSI approved which makes it free, even for commercial products.
One of the well known users of this programming language is Google (it uses this internally and externally).
Learn more about Python here: www.python.org
Sphere: Related ContentTags: alpha version, django, open-source, project, python, web framework
MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) release candidate 1.13 is available now. Try it out!
Jul 26, 2008 by Mircea Goia MyTestBox News
MediaWiki just released the 1.13 version of their wiki software (this is a release candidate which means it’s not recommended to be used in a production environment, just for testing purposes). MediaWiki is a free open source wiki software (server based) which is licensed under GNU (General Public License). It comes from Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia.
Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia and one of the most visited websites on the Internet, is powered by MediaWiki, This wiki software it is designed to run on a large server farm for a website which can get hundreds of thousands (and even millions) hits a day. It is a powerful piece of software, scalable and feature-rich wiki implementation. It is written in PHP scripting language and uses the MySQL database for storing the data.
MediaWiki writes to a database the pages edited by the users but without deleting the previous version thus allowing easy reverts in case of spamming or vandalism (and that surely can occur!).
It can handle multimedia files (audio, video) and images, which are store in the filesystem. And, to be scalable even more, it can uses caching and Squid proxy server software to handle tons of users.
Check out MediaWiki in action on Wikipedia! (Mediawiki’s website is at www.mediawiki.org)
The release comes with a wide range of improvements:
* Drop-down AJAX search suggestions ($wgEnableMWSuggest)
* New special pages: FileDuplicateSearch, ListGroupRights
* The search box in the MonoBook sidebar can be moved up by editing
[[MediaWiki:Sidebar]]
* More options on Special:Recentchangeslinked and Special:WhatLinksHere
* Double redirects created by a page move can be fixed automatically
* Friendlier behaviour for users who click a red link but can’t edit
* Image redirects are now enabled by default
* Special:UserRights and Special:SpecialPages have been redesigned
* Search results show image thumbnails
* Can hide categories with __HIDDENCAT__
* New parser functions: PAGESINCATEGORY, PAGESIZE
Full release notes can be found here:
http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/tags/REL1_13_0RC1/phase3/RELEASE-NOTES
It seems Mediawiki changed their development model option now for a “continuos integration” model (with quarterly snapshots releases).
Their latest development code is always kept ready to run (and it’s integrated right away in Wikipedia).
The old release branches will still get security updates for a year or so, starting with the first release. But the less important bug fixes and feature developments will be made on the development trunk and show up in the next quarterly release.
Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN
Sphere: Related ContentTags: mediawiki, open-source, php, wiki software, wikipedia
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