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2.0 Needs (Your?) Help
Posted February 8, 2007 by Ted Kulp
CMSMS 2.0 is the largest project I've ever taken on. Not only that, I've basically signed myself up to do this solo. Well, at least the first large bits of work to the undercarriage will be/were done by me. Here is what is done so far:
- ORM
- Migrated javascript (mostly) to jquery
- Versioning on an object level
- Totally restructured API
- Function caching
- Full page caching
- Started installer
- Rewrite of content
- Smarty tags for module api functions
- Smarty tags for admin functions
- Rewrote how admin themes work (smarty templates) and how menus are loaded (xml file)
- Rewrote News to take advantage of module api changes
- Finish installer
- Multilanguage
- Versioning interface
- Workflow
- Permissions/ACLs
- Overhaul of language handling -- addition of the language manager to download translations
- Total rewrite of translation center to be database centric and able to create language files for download on the fly
- Admin interface overhaul -- especially content and permissions
- New block types, especially image
Modules and functions
Posted February 7, 2007 by signex
As a designer I love cmsms, its simple, its easy to use for editors, its stable and pretty clean. I found cmsms back when version 0.10 was introduced, now I loved it ever since but there is one thing that keeps bugging me. Cms Made Simple, by default, is pretty small but I for one don't like that the search module is shipped with it, in my opinion not even the news system should be shipped within. The install system (module manager) for modules is so easy that I don't see a reason why modules like news and search would be shipped with it, same goes for allot "user defined tags" off course I mean the ones not used in stock templates. When I build a small website I don't need most of these functions, and if I did I would just import them with the module manager. Most people with speed issues delete all unnecessary modules and functions to increase speed. Why not have it that way by default, its only a matter of seconds to import a module if you need one. This way cmsms would keep getting known as a simple system and easy to expand if needed. So for CMSMS 2.0 I would make the following changes to the module managing system. Make some changes to the module manager and get 3 tabs like.
- One list of top 10 most used modules. Which could be news, search, FEU, FCKeditor, etc.
- Functions list, all tested and stable functions ready to be imported for user defined tags.
- All other modules the same way it is now.
Finding a suitable webhost solution part 2/2.
Posted January 25, 2007 by signex
In Part 1 I wrote about choosing a hosting package (shared/VPS/Dedicated) this part I`m writing about how to choose a webhosting company. In my country(Holland) hosting prices vary allot, I've seen a couple USA hosts and it isn't much different, only difference is that bandwidth is way cheaper in the US then it is in the Netherlands. One of the problems with choosing the right company is that you cant always see who is behind the beautiful corporate looking website, because it just could be a 16 y/o just trying to make a quick buck, not caring about his costumers at all. Which makes it even harder is that prices vary so much, and off course nobody wants to spent too much on something that you can get way cheaper. The first thing for you to decide is how important is your website for you, or how much is your client willing to spent. You can get a shared hosting package for 10$ a year, but the same package costs 100$ a year somewhere else, so where is the difference? here's a small list of things that could make this difference.
- Do they make backups on a second server
- Do they use an A brand for their hardware
- Are their spare parts on the spot in case off hardware failure
- Which datacentre are they located in, try to find reviews or opinions
- What Control panel do they use, Directadmin is cheaper then Cpanel
- Do they have phone support, or only mail support
- Do they have a 24/7 phone support when your server is down
- What is their write-off period for a server, 3 or 5 years can make a big difference
- Find reviews from other costumers
- Ask about the hardware they work with
- Ask how long they exist
- Try out mail and/or phone support, is it fast enough for you
- Guaranteed uptime? then what is the compensation when they fail
- Prices to good to be true? ....they are
- Ask uptime reports from the last 6 to 12 months
Finding a suitable webhost solution part 1/2.
Posted January 25, 2007 by signex
I know this topic isn't really about CMS Made Simple, but I see quite allot topics in the forums with problems that would never occur if everyone had the right web hosting company for their CMS Made Simple website. Basically this post is split in 2 entries; Part 1: Finding out the right solution for your website which suits your needs. Part 2: Finding a suitable company, comparing price vs. options, testing the chosen company. Step 1: Decide what kind of website it will be, and what kind of hosting it will need. basically this can be divided in 3 options.
- A small personal website - Shared hosting will most likely fit your needs.
- A corporate website (small or medium sized) - Most company websites need to be more stable a need en more secure hosting platform, but sometimes a whole dedicated server just isn't worth it. Go for a VPS (Virtual private Server).
- A big community/corporate website - Go for a Dedicated machine just for you.
- Its very cheap.
- Less secure, if other people use broken scripts and a hacker gets in, most of the time the whole server gets defaced.
- Less stable your websites speed can be heavily affected by other users.
- Not really flexible in most cases.
- Cheaper then a Dedicated machine, more expensive then shared hosting.
- Way more stable then Shared web hosting, you'll get guaranteed RAM(on Linux vps'es you'll also get burstable RAM) and CPU. Therefore you are not affected by other vps users on the same server.
- More Secure, if another VPS on the same server crashes because of software errors or gets hacked, you`re not affected.
- More flexibility, you can choose your own Operating System, your own Control Panel, and basically all software you need.
- You can do remote Reboots, you can get SSH access (possible on shared hosting too, but not many web hosters will let you gain access).
- Pretty expensive, you cant divide Control panel licences to multiple users also.
- Most secure option .
- Most stable option.
- You can be in total control.
- Direct Admin ( easy of use, but not many function, its cheap though)
- Plesk ( not much experience with it but don't like the interface, more expensive then Direct Admin)
- Cpanel (Lots a functions but its really expensive)
- VHCS (Open source, when I found CPanel, this wasn't a stable control panel then, but have no recent experience)
- Helm / windows only ( No experience with that one at all)
- Apache when using Linux, or IIS when using Windows
- PHP 5.x (php 4 will run with the current cmsms but cmsms 2.0 will require php 5)
- MySQL Databases (only 1 Database is required for cmsms, but make sure you get at least 3 to 5, for testing other software, or beta's.)
- PHP safe mode OFF (This isn't required but Safe Mode ON in php, I think, really is annoying, and doesn't work well with CMSMS)
- PHP Memory Limit set to at least 16MB (default is 8MB, and this works well for simple CMSMS websites, but bigger ones with lots off modules will need at least 16MB)
- PHP Max Upload set at 10M (default is 2M, find a host which is willing to set this at 10M, again this isn't required though)
- GD or Imagemagick (not really required but very handy)
CMS Made Simple 1.0.4 Released!
Posted January 23, 2007 by Ted Kulp
Just a quick bugfix release. The reason is was pushed out quickly was because of issues installing on Windows machines, and had to be handled immediately. It also fixes two different problems with breadcrumbs that people were reporting. We've thrown in a couple of extra bugfixes as well. The ChangeLog looks like:
Version 1.0.4 "Lanai" -- Jan 23 2007 ----------------- - Fixed issue with number of queries not showing up properly at the end of index.php - Fixed issues with breadcrumbs, including nodes not showing up and duplicate nodes showing - Fixed the warning that showed up in the 25 to 26 upgrade script if you didn't have any events - Fixed bug with installer where it doesn't write windows paths correctly - Fixed issue with Search where it would mess with the letter case when showing the highlighted textThanks!
Upgrade 1.0.2 to 1.0.3
Posted January 20, 2007 by 3dcandy
Hey Guys n Gals, If you're running a good install of 1.0.2 here's the way I go about upgrading to 1.0.3. Works fine, and has been tested on both an IIS and an Apache install in the last couple of days. This update is recommended as some security issues have been fixed, and the contact form now uses Captcha which can of course limit spamming of your site. Download the upgrade zip or tar. Make sure that you are LOGGED OUT from your site admin! Extract the files in the archive somewhere safe and remember where it is! FTP, SSH or copy the files into the root directory of your site. If you now log into your admin with your usual username and password there will be an option in the main part of the admin interface to upgrade, so click away and you should be up and running in no time! Take care all, and enjoy 1.0.3 Ade (3dcandy)