Php News & Articles

Open source Web CMS, ImpressPages (news, site), has created a tool to preserve the formatting of your words but get rid of the underlying code that can screw up your pages when cutting and pasting.

On July 12, EllisLab finally released EE2.1, the first non-beta version of ExpressionEngine 2. This is part two of an indepth review of the latest version, including a look at the engine, add-ons and what's gone.

Perhaps the "2" stood for 2 years.

On July 12, EllisLab finally released EE2.1, the first non-beta version of ExpressionEngine 2, a massive change from the EE 1.x line that changes all the underlying code of the software itself, adds an impressive array of new features both large and small, and (EE developers hope) brings to an end a long plateau in the evolution of ExpressionEngine.

Historically, Microsoft (news, site) has shown active hostility to open source, referring to it as a cancer among other things. These days, however, the company has been dipping its toes in open source CMS waters to rather mixed reactions.

Last year, Microsoft released a PHP Toolkit for ADO.Net Data Services enabling PHP applications to to connect and leverage the various services offered in ADO.Net Data Services. Now they offer the ability to add some business intelligence capabilities to those same applications, thanks to SQL Server 2008.

The upgrade to Bitrix’s Virtual Appliance for Amazon EC2 from 1.4 to 1.5 adds a number of improvements that the company says will enhance the user performance of its content management and enterprise content management software.

With a whole pile of pre-configured settings to nip any software compatibility issues in the bud, Bitrix (news, site) says the new release will speed up all the processes and increase the performance of all the components through its built-in mechanisms.

This version allows users to install Bitrix Site Manager and Bitrix Intranet Portal, or any other applications that use the PHP platform, quicker and more efficiently than previous versions. It also includes the most recent version of the Bitrix web environment with optimized memory usage.

It is protected by both Amazon EC2 security settings and by an integrated firewall which is set up automatically. It also now supports all three data center location regions -- US Standard, US N. California, EU -- Ireland -- after recent EC2 development.

However, that is not all you get. It also comes with the beta release of Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Device) customized for Bitrix users giving them 1TB of back-up power for web projects and intranet portals.

Bitrix’s Virtual Appliance is free to download once you have logged in to Amazon Web Services.

Martin Aspeli of the Plone (news, site) project recently sat down and evaluated a "whole slew" of web content management systems. From there, he's digested his observations and shared them in the form of a fairly extensive writeup. While it's obviously Plone-centric, there's a lot that applies to anyone who's trying to choose what Web CMS they want to work with.

A free and open-source Web CMS from ImpressPages in Lithuania makes an instant impression with its drag-and-drop approach.

For most of us, a good day is being able to go about our business without any annoyances getting in our way. Unfortunately, when your business involves the Internet, mere annoyances rate much higher on the "good" scale than, say, discovering your Web CMS was hacked at least six months ago and you've been leaking critical user data like a sieve.

If that user data involves sensitive information such as medical data, credit card numbers, bank account information or anything else that is subject to either regulations or sleepless nights over losing your shirt, you should at least investigate security add-ons.

Billed as a content platform for Web developers, here comes BitsyBox offering data stores, easy editing and a content delivery network in one hosted Web CMS.

Hooked on Microsoft or just tied into ASP.NET? Bitrix (news, site) comes to your aid with its new Site Manager CMS in just your flavor.

It's that time. Time to have a look at the finalists for the Packt Publishing (news, site) 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. Announced in August, the Open Source Awards offers US$ 24,000 in prizes to the best in open source content management solution.

Here's a look at who made the finalist list and what happens next.

Although many might question the true nature of the newly announced CodePlex Foundation, they can't deny that Microsoft is coming out with solutions that demonstrate their ability to interoperate with open source technologies.

We told you about their new PHP Toolkit that helps PHP developers access ADO.NET Data Services. Now Microsoft demonstrates a cloud interoperability scenario where data stored in the cloud can be accessed via PHP using that toolkit.

This Azure cloud scenario was demonstrated at Gov 2.0 Summit last week to "explore how technology can enable transparency, collaboration and efficiency in government". So how does it work?

Microsoft loaded publicly available government data into an Azure cloud storage. An OGDI application was then built to expose the data, and then this data was made available via a REST interface using ADO.NET Data Services.

Data Interoperability Scenario in the Cloud
 

This scenario is not only a good example of how the PHP Toolkit works, but also the OGDI interactive SDK.

You can read a little more about this scenario here and get links to the applications to give it try yourself.

Another step in Microsoft's goal for better interoperability. They have released a PHP Toolkit for ADO.Net Data Services. As its name suggests, the toolkit enables PHP developers to connect and leverage the various services offered in ADO.Net Data Services.

Two days ago, eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System, otherwise known as the XOOPS Project (news, site) released XOOPS 2.4.0 Beta 1 after seeing 25,000 downloads of XOOPS 2.3.3 in the last five months (from sourceforge).

Like its predecessor, v 2.3.3, this release focuses on bug fixes and usability improvements. However, as a community effort, the final release of v2.4 depends on the goodwill of the people involved. Looking at some of the traffic on their forum, it might be awhile before the final release happens.