What’s new

Joomla 2.5 is a significant release and there are plenty of new features and improvements across the platform.

Highlights include:

• Enhanced developer framework for easier third party themes and plugins
• Improved ‘Smart Search’ website search
• Enhanced offline/maintenance mode
• CAPTCHAs for user registration
• Mobile enhancements
• User notes functionality
• Subcategory filtering
• Custom menu usability changes
• Updated MooTools compatibility

To find out more about the new features (with detailed explanations of the changes), go here.

How to install

If you’re a web hosting customer, simply log into your hosting control panel and scroll down to the Joomla 2.5 icon to install via our one-click installer.

MODX is extremely versatile and has been a popular customer request, so we’re happy to tell you it can now be installed in seconds from your control panel.

Features

MODX’s many features include:

• Responsive design for both your site and your control panel
• Intuitive, highly customisable manager
• Search engine friendly out of the box
• Ability to password protect content across various levels of user access
• Excellent caching mechanism for fast loading
• Flexible add-on system
• Multi-lingual support
• No need to know PHP; make changes using HTML
• Active and enthusiastic community

Screenshots

MODX in action

Editing a page in MODX

Demo

Give MODX a test run by accessing the live demo at http://www.trymodx.com.

Installing MODX

If you’re a web hosting customer, simply log into your hosting control panel and scroll down to ‘MODX’ to install via our one-click installer.

Textpattern

Textpattern is a standards-compliant content management system with an intuitive admin control panel and an active community. It’s surprisingly powerful yet simple to use, and benefits from a wide range of plugins and unlimited authors per install.

Features include:
• Direct, easy to follow interface
• Browser-based organization and upload of files and images
• Articles can be protected with a password
• Flexible engine for all kinds of websites, from blogs to corporate sites
• Anti-spam comment system that works well
• Human-readable clean URLs help SEO and visitors

Read more about the features or try the demo.

Pixelpost

If you’re into photography yourself or have clients who want a gallery or photoblog, then Pixelpost may be the perfect solution. You can get set up and running in seconds with our one-click install, and there are plenty of free templates to choose from if you don’t want to create your own.

Features include:
• Full multi language capability (including image title, description, categories and tags)
• Image commenting with strong spam protection
• Post Calendar
• Pages can be easily re-designed with CSS or by editing the templates by hand
• A bunch of free ready-to-use templates are available for download
• Multiple categories
• Smooth installation assistant
• Easy upgrade procedure

Check out the demo.

Mantis

Need to track bugs within your internal systems or for the software you create? Mantis is a great free bug tracking system with a large array of features.

Features include:
• Customizable Issue Pages
• Multiple Projects per instance
• Users can have a different access level per project
• Search and Filter
• Built-in Reporting (reports / graphs)
• Email notifications
• Export to csv, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word

Play with the demo or have a look at the full feature list.

PHProjekt

Looking for a way to get more organised? PHProjekt is a full-scale project management system ideal for agencies and businesses who have multiple projects on the go. PHProjekt is extremely well-structured and ideal for tracking project progress and keeping all the team members up to date with developments.

Features include:
• Modular Structure
• Different stages of privileges
• List of projects with tree structure
• Includes phases, milestones etc.
• Considers project dependencies
• Timeline/Gantt diagram of all projects
• Cost management
• Table view of all project members
• Calendar, chat and forum

Take PHProjekt for a test drive.

phpMyFAQ

Add a FAQ or knowledge base to your website in seconds with phpMyFAQ. It’s easy to get set up and running, and you retain full control over the look, feel and functionality as it’s self-hosted.

Features include:
• Content Management System
• User and group based permissions
• Active Directory support
• Social networks
• Revision system
• Templating system
• Powerful search
• User comments
• Browse by Category or Tags
• Search engine optimization

See full feature list. Take a look at a site using phpMyFAQ.

Updates include:

• WordPress 3.2.1
• Joomla 1.7.1
• Drupal 7.8
• AWStats 7.0
• Open Web Analytics V1.4.1
• OpenCart 1.5.1.3
• Concrete 5.4.2.1
• Prestashop 1.4.4.1
• phpBB 3.0.9
• And many (many) more!

If there are any you would like to see installed let us know and we will look in to it.

Click the graphic to zoom in. This is representative of the American market but UK trends tend to be very similar with the top three Search Engines.

Many modern mobile phones are capable of reading QR codes with pre-installed software and acting upon what they read.
The marketing advantage of QR codes becomes immediately apparent. If you have an advert in a magazine or newspaper, or a display stand at a show or conference then you can display the QR code that represents your web address. This enables mobile users to visit your website instantly without even having to enter the address. You could print your QR code on your menus, business cards, company vehicles and products. See some examples below:

On a rug

On a wine bottle

On a billboard

As you can see, the uses for QR codes are only limited by your imagination.

If you wish to create a QR code then feel free to use our free online QR code generator.

Web Hosting
Your place on the Internet. Much like renting a house you need to rent some space on a computer that is permanently connected to the Internet. This is where your website will live.

Bandwidth
Simply put this is the amount of data that your website is allowed to transmit usually over a given period. Many hosts limit bandwidth in their hosting packages to encourage users to upgrade to a more expensive package.
How does this affect you? If you have a website that has photographs or is rich in graphical content you may find your bandwidth being used up quickly. Each time a new user views an image or the browser accesses a file it is consuming your bandwidth. Generally the more graphics, photos or media on your site, the more bandwidth you will require.

Web Space
The amount of disk space that is available to your website. Like bandwidth, if you have a lot of graphics or other media then you will use more disk space. Again, a lot of web hosts limit disk space as an incentive to upgrade your hosting package.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol – this is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another over the Internet. You commonly use a FTP program to move files from your computer to your website.

Email Boxes (POP3)
An email box is a place where your emails are delivered and stored. These differ from forwarders in that they are the end point for emails delivered to your domain. You can commonly access mail stored in them via a browser-based client and you can download and archive messages using a common mail client.

One-click install
A simple way to install popular web-based scripts and tools. Simply click a link and follow the instructions and your software is installed on your website without you having to download the software from the vendor and then upload it to your website.

Need anything else clarified? Leave a comment below.

Piwik Analytics

Quite a few people have requested this open source web analytics solution, so we’re pleased to announce it’s been added to our library. It’s a good alternative to Google Analytics and Open Web Analytics, or can be used alongside them for a wider scope of information.

Features include:
• Real time web analytics reports
• Powerful API
• Easy to use interface
• Customisable dashboard and widgets
• Build your own plugins or take advantage of those on offer
• Large, active community

See the demo

Simple Machines Forums

If you’re looking for an attractive message board solution, Simple Machines is definitely worth checking out. It’s already a popular choice with plenty of our customers, and now you can install it quickly and easily

Features include:
• Template system for easy editing
• Advanced permissions and user management
• Multi-language support
• Open and well-documented source code
• Tracking of new and old unread topics
• Designed for optimal performance and scalability
• SEO friendly
• Package manager for automatic install/uninstall of mods
• File based caching for better performance

See the forum being used

Zen Photo

Zen Photo is ideal if you want a user-friendly and hassle-free way to present your photos online. This gallery software can be used for displaying digital art as well as photos, so it’s one to consider if you’re a designer or photographer. It’s also a good choice for family albums.

Features include:
• Lightweight and low maintenance
• Easy to use
• Good variety of plugins/extensions
• Photo commenting
• Stats to automatically show the number of clicks per album and per photo
• Search capabilities
• Search engine friendly URLs

See the demo

Status.net

Microblogging is huge at the moment, so creating your own network is a great way to share information and communicate, whether it’s within your business or simply with your site’s visitors. Collaborate, ask questions, and share resources in real-time using Status.net software.

Features include:
• User profiles
• Activity streams – incorporate content from business processes, applications, content streams etc.
• Public and private user group functionality
• Direct messaging
• Upload and share documents, images and video
• Searchable conversations and archives
• Follow topics of interest
• Taggable content
• 3rd party application support
• iPhone and Android apps available
• Integrated analytics
• Plugins and extensions available

See a website using status.net

Lime Survey

If you’ve ever spent ages searching for free survey software only to be frustrated by the limitations, then Lime Survey is for you. Whether you’re conducting extensive research or simply want to ask your visitors a few questions, Lime Survey is packed with useful features and, best of all, lets you create unlimited surveys.

Features include:
• Unlimited questions and participants in a survey
• Unlimited surveys at the same time
• Multi-lingual surveys
• 20 different question types
• WYSIWYG HTML Editor
• Image and video support
• Conditions for questions depending on earlier answers (skip logic/branching)
• Anonymous survey options
• Open and closed group of participant surveys
• Sending of invitations, reminders and tokens by email
• Option for participants to buffer answers to continue survey at a later time
• Survey expiry dates for automation
• Enhanced import and export functions to text, CSV, PDF, SPSS, R, queXML and MS Excel
• Basic statistical and graphical analysis with export facility
• Screen reader accessibility

See the demo

The article quoted online entrepreneur Charles Duncombe who has been “shocked at the poor quality of written English”.
It is very plausible that misspellings and poor grammar will put off customers, especially if you are selling a service that may be to produce some form of written copy for your customers.

A classic example is the web design business. If your web designer makes basic errors on their website copy it’s highly likely that they will do it on yours; but how commonplace is poor spelling in our industry?
We took a look at our closest competitors and were quite surprised at some of the errors we found*:

Spelling mistakes should be a thing of the past in this day and age; the majority of software packages include spell checkers. It really is worth taking the time to review what you’ve written and pass it to another to proof read; after all this is the first impression that you make to your potential clients.

A good web designer will correct your copy for you and point out errors, but once it’s in your hands the responsibility to maintain good copy is yours.

Permalink to the BBC article.
*Hopefully they’ll read our article and correct their errors!

Open Web Analytics

Open Web Analytics is a great way to track your website statistics if you’re looking for an alternative to Google Analytics, or an additional source of information about your visitors. Packed with features and fully open source, OWA is a great tool to improve visitor experience as well as helping you keep track of what’s popular and what needs more work. We’re pleased to announce that it’s now available as a quick and easy one-click install from your control panel!

Features include:
• Open source, running on PHP, MySQL and JavaScript
• No limits on data logging
• Ability to track multiple websites
• Heatmaps, conversion goals and goal funnels
• Mouse movement tracking
• Optional command line interface for admins
• PHP and JavaScript tracking clients
• Full integration with WordPress and MediaWiki without the need for third party plugins
• Plugin support for Drupal

And much more!

Try the demo

PrestaShop

We’ve had a lot of requests for the award-winning PrestaShop, so if you’re looking for an ecommerce solution then it’s one to check out.

Features include:
• Wishlists and customer review functionality
• Customer groups feature
• Referral program and loyalty system
• Returns management
• PDF invoices and delivery slips
• Extensions available
• Pre-configured support for PayPal, Hipay, Moneybookers and more
• In-depth visitors stats
• SMS alerts
• Multi-language support

See the demo

TomatoCart

As an ecommerce software finalist in the 2010 Open Source awards, TomatoCart is renowned for its user-friendly admin panel and lightweight framework. It’s another option for ecommerce websites looking to focus on usability and speed.

Features include:
• Well-designed and intuitive admin panel
• Multi-language support
• Gift certificate and discount coupon integration
• Customer reviews, newsletter and wishlist functionality
• Integrated Piwik web analytics
• Lightweight
• Complete content management system

See the demo

Simple Invoices

If you have a business, whether it’s web hosting, web design, or even offline, you can use Simple Invoices to bill customers, track payments and much more – for free.

Features include:
• Browser-based, so accessible from anywhere (great if you want to create, update or print invoices for clients whilst you’re with them)
• Send invoices as PDFs
• Export to Word, Excel or plain text
• Total and itemised invoices available
• PayPal payment support
• Recurring invoices
• Create receipts, estimates and quotes as well as invoices
• Payment tracking and reports

See the demo

Vanilla Forums

Another requested one-click install, Vanilla Forums is an attractive and user-friendly solution for anyone wanting to add discussion functionality to their website.

Features include:
• 500+ plugins
• WordPress and Blogger integration
• Easy embedding
• Lots of themes
• Social network log ins
• Full mobile compatibility
• Easy imports from popular software such as phpBB and vBulletin
• Ability for users to upload files
• Free community support

See Vanilla Forums in action

Pligg

Ever fancied creating your own Digg-style website? Now you can install a script to do just that in under a minute. Your visitors can submit links and rate other people’s, and you don’t need to be able to code or have to pay someone to do it for you.

Features include:
• Groups for members
• Private messaging
• Ability for users to rate and comment on articles
• Free and paid modules available to extend Pligg’s capabilities
• Smarty templates for easy modification
• Easy upgrades
• Well-integrated RSS functionality

See the demo

Moodle

Moodle’s an open-source software veteran with over 44,000,000 users, so it seemed only right that we add it to our list. If you’re looking for a learning-based content management system, Moodle is your best bet. As well as being suited to educational sites, you can also use if for your own courses, tutorials, tutoring and more to increase your authority in your industry.

Features include:
• Scalability
• Additional activity modules (e.g. forums, databases and wikis)
• Support community
• In-depth developer documentation
• Multiple language support
• User-friendly
• Easy to organise courses, modules, assessments
• Support for images, videos and other downloadable files for easy access

See the demo