The Joomla Project has announced the availability of Joomla 1.6 beta.

Joomla! is one of the popular Content Management System’s around and it makes it easier for you to build websites and online applications. It is designed to offer enhanced site control and a more polished user experience. It’s extensibility has made it the most popular and downloaded open source website software in the industry today.

Key Features in Joomla 1.6:

• New Access Control System – Allows site administrators control over who can view and manage content.
• Unlimited Depth Organizational Model – Gives site administrators and content creators user-defined category levels that allow for the creation of a category tree with as many or as few levels for organizing articles and other content as needed.
• One-Click Extension Updates – Allows users to keep sites secure and controlled by simplifying the process of updating extensions.
• Semantic XHTML Layouts – Provides a better baseline for content presentation.

In addition, developers and implementers will enjoy the new ability Joomla 1.6 provides in allowing extensions to be built with granular control and permissions. This will make it easier to create more advanced, enterprise-focused applications and extensions for Joomla.

Source: Joomla! 1.6 now available

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

Magnolia is an open source content management system which is one of the leading Content Management System’s (CMS) known for its ease-of-use. It’s page editing interface enables authors to format content exactly as it would appear to the website visitors.

Magnolia is based on Java, which provides better scope for overall performance and better solutions. You might want to go through a comprehensive list of the features Magnolia provides. You can also check out a live demo of the Magnolia CMS.

Magnolia has released its new version 4.3 recently, which focuses on a new and flexible framework to make the administration of multi-site, multi-lingual website infrastructure easier. This new version of magnolia also includes full support for the Groovy scripting language and the launch of Magnolia Store.

Following is an overview of the new features in this release,

Ultimate Multi-Site Flexibility: This version of magnolia provides you with better flexibility for users looking to support and administer complex multi-site/multi-domain environments. For enterprise installations, Magnolia provides website administrators with a wide range of options for developing new web sites, re-branding existing web sites and content, through to creating entirely new websites with the ability to use existing syndicated content.

For instance, creating new websites for mobile devices from existing content, creating new microsites etc., can be made much easier with this new release.

Multi-Lingual Support: Website administrators will now be able to mandate one single site structure across multiple languages. A fallback mechanism allows local administrators to define a default language that will be displayed where translated content is unavailable.

Magnolia Store: A first version of the Magnolia Store has been announced, which introduces some basic functions to allow administrators and developers to view installed modules, download their latest versions and browse for new modules from within the administration interface.

Magnolia 4.3 now offers full support for Groovy. This is a dynamic language for the Java platform with features similar to those of Python, Ruby, Perl, and Smalltalk. Groovy allows for a much more agile approach to implementing new functionality for your web site, while retaining the full power, scalability and security of the Java stack.

Magnolia, latest version, provides clean and simpler template tags. The refinement of the tags architecture provides focus on a cleaner, simpler set of components, as well as a clean separation of the tag library implementation from the UI component rendering.

Read more about Magnolia, CMS version 4.3 press release.

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

Concrete5, an open source content management system has recently released its new version 5.4 with some major feature updates. You might want to go through more about Concrete5 here. Following are some of the major features updates in this new release.

Feature Updates

• Improved layouts and design: with a new layouts engine that lets areas be split into columns, allows for saving layouts into presets. This updated design engine lets areas and blocks take custom designs, and allows for saving of designs into presets.
• This version of Concrete5 has a better marketplace integration. It provides you with better search/filtering from within concrete5 dashboard. You can connect your web site once, rather than continuously login with your concrete5 account. You can also get support from your add-ons from a project page.
• Improved Editing Experience: It makes adding and editing of blocks, updating page properties easy through AJAX, without having to reload pages. Add Block Overlay can be filtered using the keyboard, ala OS X Spotlight/Google Live Search.
• One click upgrade, including the ability to download updates, and upgrade to them when you wish.
• Core updates, addon updates, news and guide updates are unified in system notifications, which are available from the dashboard home page and a new notifications area.
• Improved Sitemap performance, including a new sitemap “explore” mode that offers paging.
• Better Permissions: Added task-based permissions, including the ability to set who can log in as another user, edit page defaults, perform database backups, access the sitemap, un-install packages and search users.

Major Performance Improvements include,

• As ‘Page list’ and ‘Autonav’ blocks were causing problems when previewing on large sites – preview no longer loads on init in this release
• The loading performance of the dashboard has been improved by making feed load asynchronously.
• The number of queries have been cut down in this release, by using cache. Cache should now cache files, packages, page types, block types.

You migh want to check out add-ons and themes available at Concrete5 marketplace.

Read more about Concrete5 version 5.4 here.

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

JobberBase, which is an Open Source job board web software written in PHP/MySQL and which we have reviewed here is now out with a new version. If you haven’t tried out JobberBase yet, you can check out a live demo here. JobberBase version 1.9  is loaded with new features like admin panel redesign, support for more language files, performance updates and more!

Here are some of the new features in JobberBase 1.9:

• Proper support for Windows/IIS hosting. Read the install guide if you’re interested.
• Better multiple themes support, and a new theme in the default codebase — Hireme, from hireme.sg.
• Admin panel redesign, using the Cadify theme.
• Support for more language files — an important step towards full multi-language support.
• All email templates are defined in a single XML file, under the translations folder.
• Config system rewritten and improved.
• Performance updates and general cleanup.

You might want to check out the complete changelog of this new release.

Source: JobberBase Dev Blog

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

MODx Revolution 2.0, content management system, is out of beta and its first release candidate has been launched recently. It’s now available with many enhancements and 240+ bug fixes. MODx Revolution RC-1 offers a much faster compact Manager, easier installation, better Rich Text Editing (RTE), Package Management which allows you to install Add-ons directly within the manager, and a new native file browser that provides you with direct access of files and other site resources.

Briefly, MODx, open source content management framework, helps you build dynamic and user interactive web sites quickly, without any restrictions. MODx Revolution provides users with a completely customizable web content management solution on a modern, object-oriented core with a fully documented API for developers. It is backed by a robust data abstraction layer powered by xPDO.

New features in MODx, Revolution 2.0. RC-1 include,

• CSS/JS compression in the manager user interface
• Improved flow and error checking in setup
• Added toggleable auto-check for updates for downloaded packages
• Users can now drag/drop any Element into a Category
• Added Forgot Login to login screen for manager
• Cleanups and enhancements to RTE handling, and in-house file browser implementation
• Many fixes and improvements to Package Management, including a new View Package page, showing prior versions installed
• Over 240 bugs fixed and improvements added

You might want to go through the release notes for MODx, Revolution 2.0 RC-1.

Download  MODx Content Management System, Revolution 2.0 RC-1.

Source: MODx blog

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

Gravatars are popular among blogs and forums as a unique way to show your identity across the web. Whenever you wrote a comment on a blog, or sent an email – the administrator of that website could choose to use your details to display the picture that is associated with that specific email address.

Recently, Gravatar released its first step in bringing a whole lot more context and personality to your online presence. Every gravatar now supports the addition of full profile information against it. This new feature enables you to upload your favorite images to your profile.

Apart from that, you can verify your ownership of other online profiles and services like Digg, flickr, Facebook etc., and what you choose to share in your profile will be available for everyone.

Gravatar now sports some interesting features on new profiles:

You can make a gallery of your favorite images, add different contact methods, and link your other social network profiles to your Gravatar account. Every linked account is verified so you know it’s not an impostor.

As of now, you will only be able to view your own profile at Gravatar.com. If you remove all information from your profile, then other people will only be able to see your Gravatar.

Source: Gravatar blog

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

WordPress for iPhone version 2.3.1 is now available in the App store. This new version of WordPress for iPhone supports geotagging for WordPress.com blogs. Briefly, WordPress for iPhone application enables you to write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod touch. It has support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress (2.7 or higher).

For self-hosted WordPress web sites, you can post with geotagging turned on, but nothing will be displayed quite yet on your site, although the data will be saved.

In the near future, WordPress team mentioned that a plugin to provide geotagging display support for self-hosted WordPress will be released.

You might want to check out this video which gives you a quick introduction to this new release of WordPress for iPhone.

This version also includes a couple of improvements to the user interface, a bug fix for the “more” tag, and gives users the ability to load more posts and pages beyond the default number chosen in your blog settings.

Download WordPress for iPhone

Source: WordPress for iPhone

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

DotNetNuke Corp., the firm behind one of the popular web based content management platform for Microsoft® .NET, recently announced the release of the DotNetNuke professional edition version 5.3.

Briefly about DotNetNuke web content management platform: DotNetNuke open source project, is one of the widely adopted Web Content Management Platform for building web sites and web applications based on Microsoft .NET. DotNetNuke can be used to quickly develop dynamic and user interactive web sites and web applications.

This new release of DotNetNuke includes tools which target the needs of business-critical web sites – including page level content change approval workflows, new tools for editing pages easily , and a new ribbon bar control panel.

As mentioned in a press release, “The DotNetNuke platform, includes new features in version 5.3 such as a sophisticated taxonomy system, a new messaging capability and API, and an enhanced social media user profile feature for richer online user experiences.”

Some of the highlights of this new version of DotNetNuke are,

• Page Level Content Change Approval Workflows: Administrators can now create custom workflows, with an unlimited number of states and reviewers. At the page level, workflows can be set to require approval for any module changes on a specified page. Workflows can also be defined at the module level, which needs approval for changes to content modifications in an individual module.
• Ribbon Bar Control Panel: The new ribbon bar control panel enables content contributors with additional editing options in a convenient format, allowing users to create pages, install new modules, edit content, and preview pages quickly and easily.
• My Editable Pages: The new editing feature provides links to all of the pages and modules in the site that a content contributor has permission to modify, enabling more efficient page editing.

New features in this version of DotNetNuke include,

• Taxonomy: An advanced taxonomy system enables a web site administrator to create an unlimited number of vocabularies of terms to associate to pages or modules in a site. These attributes are stored in a common content store, which provides new ways to aggregate and publish content.
• Social Networking: A new, rich user profile forms the basis for advanced social networking applications. It allows users to upload photos so they can easily personalize their identity and supports templates for layout customization.
• Messaging Capability:  A new message repository and API allows messages to be delivered in different ways including real-time and batch. An inbox provides users with a view of the messages they have received and sent, as well as administrative tools to manage the messages.

Source: DotNetNuke Professional Edition 5.3 Launch

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

Joomla! is an award winning Content Management System(CMS) with a wide range of features. It’s a prolific CMS which is suitable for designing and maintaining any type of websites. Joomla has a modular architecture, providing the users with lots of options for extensibility. Apart from the fabulous modules, it is also well known for strong security, template’s system, extensive community support and the authorization framework.

Extensions for Joomla! provide further customization and aid in enhancing the functionality as well as the ease of administration. Joomla is a prolific CMS designed to organize and deliver content within a website environment.

Multimedia plays a key role in web designing and helps in providing wonderful user experience, but it requires effort and knowledge to utilize it effectively. We wanted to share an interesting book with you, Joomla! 1.5 Multimedia, which helps take advantage of this powerful CMS architecture to portray media-rich content on your websites.

Key Features

Learn to display multimedia content and build media-rich Joomla! based web sites.

• Build a media-rich Joomla! based web site by adding videos, audios, images etc.,
• Install, configure, and use popular multimedia extensions.
• With the help of powerful Joomla! extensions, learn to make your web site collaborate with external resources such as Twitter, YouTube, Google, and Flickr.
• Create feature-packed Joomla! web sites with step-by-step tutorials designed for easy understanding.

From this book, you will gain comprehensive knowledge on how to present text, images, video, and audio in your website content both by manually embedding content and by using automated methods. You will learn to create regular podcasts and utilize RSS to help publicize and deliver your site content.

This book will introduce you to some of the popular multimedia extensions for Joomla! and you can learn – how these extensions can be installed and configured to enhance your website functionality. Joomla! 1.5 Multimedia book will also help you to learn – how to interact and present web content from external resources such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter etc., for your Joomla! based web site.

This book teaches you everything you need to know about standard Joomla! CMS basics and provides you with tutorials on how to turn it into a design media-rich web sites.

The benefits of multimedia are highlighted and step-by-step tutorials for implementing popular media elements into your web site are made available.You will also learn about the accessibility of these resources and how to utilize them effectively.

What you will learn from this book

• Manage your Joomla! Multimedia elements using FTP and the Media Manager
• Learn the effects of fonts, characters, and text and how these elements can affect your web site
• Add and manage image content to make the best impact for your site visitors
• Enhance your web site by using video content effectively
• Manage all types of audio content including creating and managing Podcasts
• Collaborate with external resources such as Youtube, Flickr, Twitter, and Google
• Learn how Joomla! templates and scripts can enhance your visitors’ experience

Joomla 1.5 Multimedia, stands as a practical guide, which will help you with creating media-rich Joomla! web content using both Joomla! extensions and HTML.

This book provides you with comprehensive details for Joomla! administrators to create engaging media-rich Joomla! web sites. You will learn to utilize the core features of Joomla! CMS and the power of Joomla! extensions.

As mentioned on PACKT, ” this step-by-step guide will show you – how to include popular media elements into your web site and collaborate with external web resources”.

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.

e-Spirit extends FirstSpirit 4.2 with a new release. It sports more functions for editors and developers.

With FirstSpirit version 4.2 release 2, e-Spirit announced a new version of its content management system (CMS). It offers many new functions and upgrades for editors, template developers, and administrators. One of the highlights of this release is the support for Internet Explorer in the integrated preview of the FirstSpirit JavaClient.

Overview of new features with FirstSpirit 4.2R2:

Microsoft Internet Explorer for the integrated preview:

Now Internet Explorer(IE) can also be run on Windows systems alongside Mozilla Firefox for the preview function in the FirstSpirit JavaClient. Editors can switch between the two browsers at their leisure to see how a web page is displayed in the two systems.

Language Support

Now FirstSpirit applications JavaClient, WebClient, server and project configuration, and server monitoring are also available in Dutch along with six other languages.

Full-text search in FirstSpirit online documentation and Access API

This new version offers a full-text search feature, which can also be used to search online documentation and the FirstSpirit Access API. Search results can be filtered by target groups (administrators, users, developers).

Using FirstSpirit on Mac OS X

With 4.2R2, e-Spirit implemented some important features and optimizations for the planned release of the FirstSpirit application on Mac OS X in future versions. The look and feel of the JavaClient and the application for the server and project configuration have been adapted to blend in with the familiar Mac menus.

Filtering, search, and limiting of displayed data records

To make it easier for editors, who manage large quantities of data records, release 2 introduced a limiting and filtering option for displaying results.

Read more about this press release here.

©2013 MyTestBox.com :: web software reviews, news, tips and tricks. All Rights Reserved.