MODX Revolution 2.2.2 Released

Jay Gilmore tweeted me this morning to be sure that I made a note of the latest version of MODX Revolution that was released a couple days ago. MODX Revolution 2.2.2 includes a number of important fixes, some performance improvements, and two new wizards to make it easier to create User and Resource Groups in the CMS.

If you're using MODX Revolution and have not upgraded to 2.2, you will find that it has been one of biggest releases for the MODX folks to date. There were also notable improvements and enhancements included in Revolution 2.2.1.

Some of the highlights in the MODX Revolution 2.2.2 release:

New wizards for creating User and Resource Groups
xPDO change to improve performance, specifically with getResources
Upgrades from command line no longer require all settings in the config file
Added User duplication for the easy creation of Users and to preserve settings
New prompt to login to regain access to work in progress after timeout
Improvement to URL handling
Further performance enhancements via xPDO method changes.

For further details, please read the release announcement found at MODX.com. MODX Revolution can be downloaded via the MODX download page.

MODX Revolution 2.2.1 Released

Yesterday, MODX Revolution 2.2.1 was released and this new version offers several small enhancements while addressing 85 issues with fixes. New in 2.2.1 is Sudo users. Sudo users is a setting on a user account that gives unrestricted access to the MODX install. This new feature lets site administrators maintain a user account that cannot get locked out of the site while creating access policies for other site administrators and users.

MODX Revolution 2.2.1 is also intended to prepare MODX Revolution for MODX Cloud. MODX Cloud is being billed as "the ultimate MODX platform" that lets you build sites properly without having to worry about the infrastructure at all. I'm not sure of all the changes that Revolution has gone through to prepare it for MODX Cloud but I would imagine that it may have something to do with making it more compatible with the available API of MODX Cloud.

Here are the highlights of the 2.2.1 release:

CMS Expo 2012 coming to Chicago this May

On May 8th, 9th, and 10th, you and I have the opportunity to attend 2012 CMS Expo which is held once a year in Chicago. This event is billed as as CMS "Learning & Business" conference showcasing some of the world's leading Content Management Systems and the people who power them. Whether the CMSs featured are proprietary or open source, focused on small business or enterprise, non-profit, government or commercial applications, there’s something for everyone at CMS Expo.

Last year, CMS Report attended the conference for the first time and we were literally blown away with the diversity of people attending the conference. Lots of people like to focus on the software and design (and that's fine), but for me content management is also about people. CMS Expo has historically been the place for CMS leaders, CMS developers, site users, and business owners to meet all under one roof. CMS Expo offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to learn about today's leading CMSs, and get to the truth about what works, from both a vendor and a user perspective.

There are over a dozen content management systems that will be showcased at CMS Expo. The CMSs that we are aware of include; Joomla!, Drupal, DotNetNuke, Mura, MODX, TYPO3, Sitefinity, Wondercode, Hannon Hill (Cascade Server), Liferay, Pyro, Movable Type, and Cloud CMS. We're telling you this is the conference not only to learn more about your favorite CMS but also to possibly discover your next CMS that is right for your business.

If you plan to attend, do not forget to register for CMS Expo 2012. Registration grants you FULL ACCESS to all sessions, panels, keynotes and expo hall, so you won't miss a thing. Your ticket also includes breakfast & lunch each day, plus "endless" coffee (or tea), snacks and more, plus entry to all business & social networking events.

As with last year, CMS Report is a proud media sponsor for the 2012 CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference.

CMS Report's Ten Additional Stories for 2011

The problem I have with top ten lists is that inevitably there is a story that should have made the list but didn't. Last week, I posted CMS Report's Top Ten Stories of 2011 and wished I could have included additional stories. The articles listed were ranked by popularity based by how many times viewed and the rate that they were viewed through the year. Popular stories do not always signify well written articles and they aren't always an indication of my personal favorites.

In case you missed these stories the first time around, below are ten additional content management articles we published in 2011. Every article deserves a second chance to be highlighted or tweeted again.

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.

So in Oprah style, welcome to CMS Report's Book Club. The first book of this new series is Bob Ray's MODX: The Official Guide. This is the first book published by MODX Press and represents how much the MODX community recognizes the need to get quality CMS books about their projects into the hands of developers and users. I've had a couple conversations with MODX's Jay Gilmore and have witnessed the huge effort and level of support taking place to get this book published.

Becoming a publisher is no easy task but we felt no-one else was going to do it as well as we will at this stage. We have at least 3 other books including one that is nearly complete in the works for release over the next 3 quarters from MODX Press. The first one is the hardest. [Gilmore]

MODX Adds Microsoft SQL Server Support to Revolution 2.1

MODX, LLC, the company behind the open source MODX content management platform has released a major update to its flagship MODX Revolution with version 2.1. This release extends MODX’s reach beyond the traditional Open Source server infrastructure and into the Microsoft channel by adding support for Microsoft SQL Server.

"Now you can run MODX Revolution on a full Microsoft stack including Microsoft SQL Server. This is a tremendous opportunity for MODX Solution Partners in being able to sell into environments dominated by commercially licensed software and servers," said Ryan Thrash, CEO of MODX, LLC. "Microsoft shops should also realize major benefits from our software: an agile web content platform, total creative freedom and a reliable upgrade path between releases. They get this backed by a solid company with Commercial Support and an SLA, making for a very boardroom-friendly choice."

IDC reported Microsoft Windows leads in server share with 48.9% of revenue in Q1 2010. Microsoft invested companies can benefit from the most flexible open source content management platform while working with the servers and infrastructure already in place, leveraging existing in-house talent, expertise and tools. This leads to cost savings, mitigates risk and delivers faster ROIs by eliminating platform shifts.

TipsFor.US: Wordpress vs. MODx

Everett Griffiths recently wrote a comparison between WordPress and MODx over at TipsFor.US. In the article he walks the reader through various CMS comparison factors such as installation, templating, menus, plugins, architecture, custom content, security, and support. This comparison specifically focuses on WordPress 3.1 and MODx Revolution.

Everett writes:

There are a lot of Content Management Systems (CMS’s) out there, so I wanted to give a blow-by-blow analysis comparing two of them: MODx and WordPress. I feel oddly qualified to do so: Brian and I just authored a book on WordPress plugin plugin development (WordPress 3 Plugin Development), and I am a MODx Solution Partner who was invited to speak at the MODxpo conference in Dallas last year. I’ve used both flavors of MODx (Evolution and Revolution) and WordPress while building somewhere around 50 web sites over the past couple years, and I like both systems. I have even contributed a couple plugins for both systems (e.g. Custom Content Type Manager for WordPress). So after the urging of some friends and colleagues (like Kris), I’m organizing my techno-ramblings into a coherent article.

This articles is a fair comparison between WordPress and MODx. If you're interested in reading the details of the article you should read the original article, WordPress vs. MODx, at the TipsFor.US site.

Judging Five Open Source Content Management Systems

Last fall, I once again had the privilege of participating as a member of the judging panel for Packt Publishing's Open Source Awards. For the 2010 event, I participated by voting for the category of Open Source CMS Awards. In that award, the winner was declared by the panel to be CMS Made Simple, with SilverStripe as first runner up followed by MODx as second runner up.

I received a lot of inquiries asking me how and in what order did I rank the content management systems. Each of the judges on the panel, selects and ranks their top three CMS from the five included in this category. The judges are given a lot of reign for how they rank the CMS and may consider a number of factors including performance, usability, size and support from community, accessibility, ease of configuration, customization, scalability and security.

It has been my history to be transparent to all with how I rank each CMS as my vote will have some differences to those of the panel. This time around, I find myself hesitant and under personal protest with me providing information on how I ranked the five content management systems.

I question whether we're doing any good by declaring one CMS as better than another CMS. Dean Barker discussed on his blog some time ago this same uneasy feeling you get when you judge a CMS without having some reference to real world requirements. None of these content management systems would I consider losers and all of them remain worthy of future consideration. Yet, I'm disturbed that people will look at the numbers and interpret the results in a ways I never intended my rankings to be used.

My rankings for the Five Best Open Source CMS (with number one being the highest) were:

SilverStripe
mojoPortal
MODx
XOOPS and CMS Made Simple (Tie)

I'm not a firm believer in ties when it comes to ranking content management systems. Yet, this year I did just that for XOOPS and CMS Made Simple. All five content management systems that were reviewed I would consider as a candidate for a future project. None of the CMS would I consider a "last place" CMS so I refused to do so. It is also important to note that neither Drupal, Joomla!, or WordPress competed in this ranking as previous winners in this category duke it out in the Hall of Fame category.

CMS Report's Top Ten Content Management Stories of 2010

What a great year 2010 was for content management. Open source CMS projects seemed to have grown up this year while proprietary systems appeared to continue in their evolution. While social publishing systems may not have conquered the traditional content management system, the CMS definitely took notice by integrating as many social media features developers could come up with.

Below are the top ten stories of 2010 that were posted here at CMSReport.com. The stories in this list were ranked by the number of views per month since the articles first appeared at CMS Report.

Top Ten Content Management Stories of 2010

As you can see, stories on Drupal, Joomla!, Sharepoint, SilverStripe, and MODx brought a lot of visitors to the site. Not all the stories listed above would have been one of the ten I would have personally picked, but I'll respect the numbers behind their ranking. I personally, don't like "versus" articles yet readers seemed to flock those articles. Unfortunately quality of writing doesn't appear to always matter as there were some very well written articles we posted in 2010 that didn't make this list.

The year 2011 will undoubtedly bring change and new stories to the world of content management systems. I think the year will also be a year of decision for the direction we take CMSReport.com. I feel as if this site of ours is stuck somewhere between our roots as a niche blog and a potentially popular CMS news site. I'm hoping we make some changes in the new year that all our readers can appreciate and value.

MODx Revolution 2.0.5 is released

As yesterday's press release mentioned, MODx Revolution 2.0.5 has been publicy released. I thought I would briefly focus on some of the specific changes in this minor release update from the MODx team. Over 175 issues and improvements were addressed in Revolution 2.0.5.

Some of the highlights of Revolution 2.0.5 include:

Form Customization Revamped
New Access Policy Templates
Tighter, more stable code with regards to multiple contexts and filemanager_path settings
Many xPDO (a newly adopted standard for database persistence in PHP) improvements and fixes
A number of user interface (UI) fixes, such as Resource Tree enhancements, more phpthumb options, drag/drop improvements
Fixed issues with APC, WinCache, eAccelerator and other caching systems
Tightened Security against XSS (cross-site scripting) by adding sanity checks on data transmission
Fixed issues with radio TVs, resourcelist TV, and other rare TV conflicts

The MODx team recommends that you read Upgrading to Revolution 2.0.5 before upgrading, especially if you use Form Customization, have a Custom Access Policy, or use the extension_packages setting. Revolution 2.0.5 can be downloaded from the MODx CMS website.

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