“What if there was software with the elegance and extensibility of WordPress but all the features you’ve come to expect from social networks like Facebook? Now there is: check out BuddyPress. BuddyPress is an official sister project of WordPress. The idea behind it was to see what would happen to the web if it was as easy for anyone to create a social network as it is to create a blog today. There’s been an explosion of social activity on the web, it’s probably the most important trend of the past few years, but there’s been a dearth of Open Source tools that enable the social web. In WordPress we have a robust and extensible base that can scale to many millions of users, and BuddyPress is essentially a set of plugins on top of WordPress that add private messaging, profiles, friends, groups, activity streams, and everything else you’ve come to expect from your favorite social network, like a Facebook-in-a-box.”

To take a look at the BuddyPress demo site, visit: http://testbp.org/

BuddyPress includes user profiles, private messaging, friends / buddylists, groups, activity streams, a wall / stream like section called “the wire” for status updates and tweet-like on-site micro-blogging, in addition to multi-user blogs and forums. I use this same profile quite a lot in building social networks with Drupal using Panels, Advanced Profile Kit, Buddylist, Private Message, Flag, Activity Stream, Views, CCK, Content Profile / Bio, Organic Groups, and other modules. Because of the multiple development teams managing the combination of modules needed to build the working equivalent of this in Drupal, and the 5.x / 6.x / 7.x development cycle variations + all the time assembling, theming, and debugging a social network install in Drupal… the out of the box offering from BuddyPress will be a strong challenge.

For examples of sites that have been built with BuddyPress, see:

Sample demo profile page: http://testbp.org/members/galen/

WannaNetwork – Online Real Estate Community: http://wannanetwork.com/

Flokka – Women in Business: http://flokka.com/

GrungePress – Online Music Community: http://grungepress.com/

Working daily with both WordPress and Drupal both for web publishing and building social networks for clients, I have long felt WordPress had many advantages for single user blogs (really nice themes, for example) vs. Drupal, but lacked the module expandability to allow the construction of social networks. BuddyPress completely changes that and offers out of the box what is very challenging to build in Drupal. It could save 2 to 3 weeks development time on a complex social network site, and allowing the designer to focus work on the theme and content rather than building the module architecture.

My hope is that Acquia (or another company or developer) will release a “social network” installation profile for Drupal that is similar to this. Despite the large number of social networks built with Drupal, I don’t think there has been anything close to an “official” social networking profile like BuddyPress. One reason for this – and it may be related to the release of BuddyPress as a “sister project” rather than just a collection of modules that plugin to WordPress, is to create a complex social network site that deploys on an installation profile you need to install in a way that the database is pre-populated with all the correct settings, permissions, and everything is automatically positioned in the site by block, section, menu, etc. To do this in Drupal, you basically have to include a mySQL database map with the installation profile – something that I also haven’t seen often, but we are working on at TypeHost. Then you have to have a GUI layer that makes it easy for the user to transform the archetypal site structure into a personal site. From the way it looks, Automattic has done this perfectly with BuddyPress.

In terms of branding, the name is not the absolute best choice here in my opinion, but there must have been a clear reasoning behind not just releasing it as another version of WordPress, like “WordPress – SN (Social Network)” vs. “WordPress (Blog or Standard version).” Also it is interesting that the projects seem to be on independent / co-dependent / inter-related development paths, but that BuddyPress is not being considered “the next” version of WordPress. Again, similar to Drupal, there is some decision making that sees these not as “core” modules – despite the fact that many people see them as core to the functionality of the CMS. WordPress functioning as a full social network may not be needed by the majority of single user blog publishers who use the CMS as a platform, but this release is going to make a big difference on the web. It will be interesting to chart the usership statistics of BuddyPress vs. WordPress over the next year to see how many sites adopt the new changes.

Summary: combined with WordPress themes and publishing ease, the addition of full social network functionality to the platform with the release of BuddyPress 1.0 is a slam dunk / home run for Automattic, bloggers, traditional WordPress users, and social network developers. Look to see this on even more websites than WordPress in the future, and to pull a lot of development away from Drupal, which still lacks a unified offering that builds a social network as simply and easily as BuddyPress.

This is a post from Web Dev News, a site brought to you by Xavisys Web Development.

Automattic releases BuddyPress – Official “Sister Project” to WordPress

The LifeRay Portal is composed of two main sections: the LifeRay Journal and the LifeRay Collaboration Suite. The LifeRay Journal is the content management system of the portal, allowing web publishers to easily post content, manage pages, create hierarchical menus, and site structure. The LifeRay Collaboration Suite is the social networking aspect of the portal, which includes forums, wiki collaboration, blogs, email, calendars, and tagging. Both of these can be extended by open source “portlets” that add increased functionality to the system.

The LifeRay Journal:

LifeRay Journal is LifeRay Portal’s built-in content management system (CMS) ready to deliver portal-based web publishing and document management.

• Web Publishing
• Document Library & Image Gallery
• Java Content Repository
• Image Gallery
• Portal Publishing
• Searchable Pages
• Tagging
• Easy Article Creation

The LifeRay Collaboration Suite:

Forums:

• Message Boards
• Sticky Posts
• Statistics
• Recent Posts
• RSS
• Email-based Subscriptions
• Avatars
• Threads Management
• Permissions

Blogs:

• User Blogs
• RSS Support
• Threaded User List
• Guest Comments
• Email Notifications of Blog Replies
• Tags and Labels
• Entry Rating System
• Social Bookmarking Links
• Blog Aggregator

Wikis:

• Built-in User Management
• LDAP Integration & Permissions
• Multiple Wikis per Installation
• Versioning and Reversion Capabilities

Other Features:

• Mail
• Microformats Support
• Shared Calendaring
• Enterprise Instant
• RSS
• Tagging

Portlets:

• Administration
• Content Management
• Collaboration
• Community
• Entertainment
• Personal Tools
• Shopping Tools
• Developer Tools

There are many benefits to the LifeRay Portal software, first and foremost of which are its open source code base and large community of international users. LifeRay provides an intuitive and collaborative user experience and allows publishers to consolidate, organize and access all their data and applications via a single point of access. It is also a cost effective way to optimize your development costs and adapt to the demands of a changing market.

The LifeRay CMS has one of the most impressive client lists of any open source portal software. From IT, Financial Services, and Retail Companies, to Non-Profits, Educational Groups, and Governmental Agencies, LifeRay CMS has hundreds of thousands of web sites deployed with its architecture. The professionalism, scalability, and affordability of LifeRay make it a wise choice for any web development department.

Online Demo:
An online demo of LifeRay is available at:

http://demo.liferay.net/web/guest/home

Download Page:

http://www.liferay.com/web/guest/downloads/portal

Additional Files:

http://www.liferay.com/web/guest/downloads/additional

Official Plugins:

http://www.liferay.com/web/guest/downloads/official_plugins

Community Plugins:

http://www.liferay.com/web/guest/downloads/community_plugins

Technical Specs:

http://www.liferay.com/web/guest/community/tech_specs

This is a post from Web Dev News, a site brought to you by Xavisys Web Development.

LifeRay – Social Networking & CMS Web Publishing

In September SILEX has been installed in the following countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Korea, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia.

Also in September, on the 1405 downloads, 141 installations have been made online and about 400 on local computer. For the online websites: Europe 60% – North America 30% – (27% France – 26% USA)

Over 30% of these installations have been made by webdesign agencies.

In October SILEX has been downloaded 2454 times, 75% increase as of September and 173% increase as of August.

New on silex-ria.org

With the new “subscribe” button on the silex-ria.org home page, choosing your mailing list is no longer a mission.

For this occasion, you have 2 tutorials (in French for now, still looking for translators):

• How to put a “Join the newsletter” button in a SILEX website
• Use a contact form in SILEX

You can find samples in the package “silex-samples” on SILEX website.

New documentation pages

- How to create a page? Yes, with an icon! (in French for now, still looking for translators)
- Tutorial “create a return button” for lovers of the past

Join us

- Positions are open for translation, design, animation, development, tutorial …
=> contact@silex-ria.org

Links

Archive news
SILEX official website
Download SILEX
SILEX Resources
List of themes
List of samples
Vote for SILEX feature requests (beta version)

+++ SILEX team

——————————————-

Silex en rajoute !

Le petit cafouillage entre Mailing List et Newsletter est rétablit. Mais rassurez vous, d’autres surprises vous attendent…

En avant les stats

En septembre Silex a été installé dans les pays suivant : Allemagne, Australie, Bangladesh, Belgique, Bosnie Herzegovine, Bresil, Canada, Colombie, Corée, Danemark, Espagne, Estonie, Etats-Unis, Finlande, Grande-Bretagne, Grece, Hongrie, Italie, Japon, Lituanie, Pays-Bas, Perou, Pologne, Portugal, Roumanie, Russie, Serbie.

Toujours en septembre, sur les 1405 téléchargements, il y a eu 141 installations en ligne et environ 400 en local. Pour les installations en ligne, la répartition est :
- Europe 60 % / Amérique du Nord 30 %
- France 27 % / USA 26 %

Plus de 30% de ces installations sont faites par des agences de webdesign.

En octobre il y a eu 2454 téléchargements soit une augmentation de 75% par rapport à septembre et une augmentation de 173% par rapport à août.

> les stats silex

Du nouveau sur silex-ria.org

Avec l’apparition du bouton “s’inscrire” sur le site silex-ria.org, choisir sa liste de diffusion n’est plus une mission. Le déchiffrage se fait en douceur.

Pour cette occasion, vous sont proposés 2 tutoriels.
- mettre en place un composant d’inscription à une mailing list
- faire un formulaire de contact dans son site SILEX

Vous trouverez les samples qui leur sont associés dans la distribution “silex_samples”.
Liste des samples

Du nouveau dans la doc

- Comment créer une page ? Oui, avec une icone !!!
- Tutoriel “créer un bouton retour” pour les amateurs du passé

Joignez vous à nous

- L’appel à contribution : traduction, design/animation, developpement, tutoriels
=> contact@silex-ria.org

Liens

Archives des news
Site officiel de SILEX
Téléchargement
Les ressources
Liste des thèmes
Liste des samples
Voter pour les futures fonctionnalités (version beta)

+++ SILEX team

This is a post from Web Dev News, a site brought to you by Xavisys Web Development.

Some more SILEX – usage statistics & new ressources (en / fr)

http://wpdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/wf-dashboard_v002_093008jw.pdf

What major changes will we see in the new 2.7 WordPress release? The biggest is that the main navigation menu has been shifted to the left side. The logic here is to reduce the amount of scrolling needed on pages and to increase the amount of content space in the main section. The header size has also been reduced and “includes breadcrumb navigation links in place of the large screen headline in the work area”. I see this as a nod in many ways to the trend highlighted by the release of Google Chrome, which includes quite a bit more active space in the main frame of the browser compared to IE and Firefox, and of course to the continued rise of AJAX in user interfaces to dynamically load content without refreshing the page.

WordPress 2.7 looks also to bring back a customizable “widget” configuration for the composition section, which will allow for the dragging and dropping of navigation elements to create a personalized admin area. There is also more ability to turn on and off elements in the write panel display. The “Add Media” buttons are condensed to a single widget, and is expected to include buttons for video, flash, and other file types as well as standard image files. A new feature is the “Quick Press” option, through which you can publish posts without going through the main editor page. The “What’s Hot” module is being evolved into a more comprehensive feed reader, and elements from the newly acquired “IntenseDebate” related to threaded comments are already being incorporated into the new release.

The main theme seen through most of the changes is condensation of all the page elements to fit on the screen without the need to scroll. This includes the ability to collapse and remove navigation elements to streamline the display. This is being applied to the category management, tags, media library, comment moderation, and post editing sections as well as the composition section and main dashboard. There has also been some renaming of major site sections, particularly related to the “Design” menu which will now be known as “Templates”. A new menu section for “Utilities” will be added, and a centralization of all the “Content” management sections under one tab.

The initial reaction from bloggers and alpha testers on the redesign announcements has been positive. For example, Allen Sterns of Information Week writes:

“The administration interface in the 2.7 release looks amazing. While I find the current version very strong, the new version makes the process of managing a blog even easier. There’s more flexibility for publishers to provide only the necessary features for different users. Another major change is the ability to install plugins with one click. The plugin gallery is now available directly from within the admin panel. Plugins can be installed with one click — no more download, unzip, upload, install. They are working to make the theme gallery function the same way so you can install a theme with one click. The navigation is now docked on the left side of the page and nearly all of the components can be shifted to make the perfect layout for your needs.”

Or as Mark Evans states:

“For all the excitement about WordPress 2.5 with its pretty new design, WordPress didn’t change all that much for me. The layout was different, the design (provided by hot-shot consulting firm, Happy Cog) was a lot more user-friendly but WordPress continued to be WordPress. By that, I didn’t do much with it other than install a few plugins – after getting used to the new widget system. Most important, I continued to ignore WordPress’ publishing tool; using Ecto as my publishing tool. But judging by what I saw yesterday at WordCamp Toronto, that could all change with WordPress 2.7, which Matt Mullenweg announced will be released next month. In particular, the dashboard and the writing tool are going to be overhauled in a major way that I think are going to be a lot more interesting and exciting than WordPress 2.5.”

While some have suggested the new system will be difficult to learn, and that major design and navigational changes should have been pushed back to a 3.0 release, it is certain that there is already significant buzz rolling about the new changes in WordPress 2.7 and the new design looks certain to cement the CMS’s reputation as the favorite of bloggers around the world.

For more information on the wireframes, see the official WordPress blog at:

http://wordpress.org/development/2008/10/wordpress-27-wireframes/

This is a post from Web Dev News, a site brought to you by Xavisys Web Development.

WordPress 2.7 Wireframes Released – Previewing New CMS Design

The top 10 Open Source Content Management Systems:

1. Drupal
2. WordPress
3. Joomla
4. Media Wiki
5. Liferay
6. TYPO3
7. Moodle
8. Dolphin
9. Pligg
10. Movable Type

Honorable Mention:
Xoops, Geeklog, e107, Mambo, Nucleus

1. Drupal:

Drupal gets the top nod because of its ease of use, vast number of modules, great user, developer, and support community.
License: GPL
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: core CMS, Views, CCK, Organic Groups, & huge library of contributed modules.
Disadvantages: complex, needs more top quality themes, frequent security upgrades.
Outlook: Huge potential to continue growth and expansion on this platform over time.
Website: http://www.drupal.org/

2. WordPress:

WordPress is a simple and elegant CMS, perfect for single user blogs, with a large number of themes and modules available online.
License: GPL
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: Easiest CMS to use, customize, and extend.
Disadvantages: Lacks many of the social networking functions, ecommerce, forums, wikis, etc. used on more expansive sites.
Outlook: Best for personal publishing, huge user community, will continue to be the preferred choice of bloggers for years.
Website: http://www.wordpress.org/

3. Joomla:

Joomla has one of the largest user communities of any CMS, everything you need and more to develop social networks, ecommerce, & archive sites.
License: GPL
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: Professional standards, internationalization, customization.
Disadvantages: too many commercial products for Open Source development, difficult to learn.
Outlook: Strong challenger for the top CMS spot, commercialization of extensions should continue to provide many income opportunities for 3rd party developers.
Website: http://www.joomla.org/

4. Media Wiki:

Media Wiki invented a whole new way of working on the web, and is a CMS for collective authoring of documents, used to power the one of the largest and most popular sites on the internet, Wikipedia.
License: GPL
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: If you need a wiki, it is the best.
Disadvantages: Does not include many other functions / extensions of other CMS platforms, doesn’t theme well, most sites look the same.
Outlook: Follows the model to success of doing one thing extremely well, has the support of the Wikipedia Foundation, very popular authoring model.
Website: http://www.mediawiki.org/

5. Liferay:

Liferay is a popular new CMS that is great for building portals, and offers a professional look and feel that sets it apart from the other platforms.
License: MIT
Programming Language: Java, PHP, Ruby
Main advantages: collaboration, calendars, internationalization, design.
Disadvantages: More closely tied to a commercial outlook / corporate structure than most Open Source projects.
Outlook: Not as well known or implemented as some of the other CMS platforms, but nice design & features to set your sites apart from the crowd.
Website: http://www.liferay.com/

6. TYPO3:

One of the most complex and professional CMS platforms out of the box, TYPO3 is popular for business websites, especially with European companies.
License: GNU
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: design, extensions, customizations, flexibility, professionalism.
Disadvantages: too difficult to learn for most, too many proprietary conventions.
Outlook: Strong CMS for web development, sure to continue with a core of specialized developers and corporate clients, but loosing support and market share to other platforms.
Website: http://www.typo3.com/

7. Moodle:

Moodle is one of the most unique CMS platforms on this list, designed specifically for Course Management and Education, and used for online learning platforms.
License: GNU
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: Huge user and development community, online education, no real competitors or similar products, extremely powerful.
Disadvantages: not really applicable for most web design purposes.
Outlook: Look for this “Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment” to continue to be the standard online operating system for education and spawn many interesting mashups with other CMS platforms as well as many more modules & extensions.
Website: http://www.moodle.org/

8. Dolphin:

Boonex Dolphin is popular among web designers who want the latest in social networking, with an industry standard look and all of the features of the popular online communities out of the box.
License: Creative Commons
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: Plug-n-Play user community with all the bells & whistles.
Disadvantages: not really Open Source, must pay to remove ads, requires specific hosting requirements, difficult to install, buggy.
Outlook: Look for Dolphin to continue to be a popular choice for social networking, though its “cookie cutter” design runs the risk of becoming stale with too many sites implementing the same design.
Website: http://www.boonex.com/products/dolphin/

9. Pligg:

Pligg is a Digg clone that provides social bookmarking functionality for websites, allowing users to post links, vote them up or down, and leave comments.
License: GPL
Programming Language: PHP
Main advantages: Best for Social Bookmarking, can be themed and extended to build top quality sites like Mixx, Redditt, Del.icio.us, etc.
Disadvantages: difficult to install, mod rewrite problems, poor support on community boards, questionable Open Source future.
Outlook: With the 1.0 release of Pligg upcoming within a couple of months, look for a big surge of use back to this platform but watch out for increased commercialization.
Website: http://www.pligg.com/

10. Movable Type:

Movable Type is the main challenger to WordPress for a personal blog platform, and supports multiple users, Themes, and Tags.
License: GNU
Programming Language: Perl
Main advantages: Blogs
Disadvantages: Too closely tied to commercial products and services compared to most Open Source communities, Perl.
Outlook: Look for MT to fall off the list as other of the blogging platforms below increase in popularity, but sustain development as PR for the company’s commercial offerings.
Website: http://movabletype.org/

Honorable Mention:
Xoops, Geeklog, e107, Mambo, Nucleus

This is a post from Web Dev News, a site brought to you by Xavisys Web Development.

The Top 10 Open Source Content Management Systems