Pixie is a relativily new open source content management system that bases off it’s simplicity and very simply calls itself “the small, simple, site maker”. The simplicity of the backend design for end users makes this open source CMS very attractive to many. You can kind of see what i’m talking about by looking at this screenshot of the backend below.

Let me give you an idea of what this content management system can do for you by giving you the list of features that are mentioned on the projects features page. This may help you in finding out whether or not this is a system that you can use for one of your next web projects!

1. Clean URL’s
2. CSS Themes
3. Free & Open Source
4. Modules, Themes, Plugins & Blocks (very similar to Drupal)
5. Multilingual
6. It’s Portable
7. Robots.txt for SEO
8. RSS 2.0
9. Search Engine Friendly
10. Sitemap.xml
11. It’s Small
12. Spam Protected
13. System and Referral Logs
14. User support with privileges
15. XHTML Compatible Rich Text Editor (WYSIWYG)
16. Jquery Support
17. File Manager with Tag Support
18. Database Backups

Yes I know you are probably thinking, “another content management system? I already have Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, why do I need another content management system?” Well if you are an open source geek like myself, you are never satisfied with the current limitiations that all content management systems give you. And you are always willing to try out these new projects when they come along. You never know when what content management system will be the next Wordpress, Joomla, or Drupal?

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Alright I must admit, I am jumping on the Drupal bandwagon (if there is such a thing). I just have to admit that it is so much better than Joomla (the other CMS heavyweight at the current time). And I mean so much better. My top ten reasons to use Drupal really do stem from my few frustrations of Joomla and how Drupal has solved those frustrations for me. This is nothing to harsh against Joomla! I think it’s a wonderful open source project that I hope continues on. I would love to find reasons to use Joomla more often. There are just some areas that they have need to improve. Anyways, here are my ten reasons to use Drupal:

1. SEO Friendly URL’s - This is a pain in the butt with Joomla! It’s automatically built in with Drupal and very very easy to use.
2. Easy To Use Admin Interface - I think Joomla tried a little too hard in this area. Drupal found a way to just make things more simple and not so overwhelming for the beginner user.
3. Built In Blog - The blog that’s built in to Drupal is very easy to use and customize. Joomla really does not give a good blogging option at all surprisingly.
4. Web Forms Plugin - This is a terrific plugin that I suggest you use. Just do a search for it on the Drupal.org website. Let’s you create as many of your own customized forms as you need. Very easy to use and very comprehensive.
5. User Management - User roles and access control is so much easier to manage and maintain using Drupal. It makes multi-user websites easy to create rather than a pain in the neck.
6. Ubercart - I just recently wrote about this shopping cart plugin for Drupal. Hands down the best shopping cart you will find for any content management system period.
7. Drupal Taxonomy - Drupal’s way of categorizing content is such much better than Joomla. You can tell that it was way more thought out beforehand. This is important for anyone creating content rich websites.
8. Meta Tags Plugin - a fantastic plugin allowing you to create custom meta keywords and more importantly descriptions for each page. Do a search for this one. Great Plugin.
9. Page Title Plugin - Something Joomla does not currently have. A plugin that EASILY allows you to customize each pages Page Title. An absolute must for search engine optimization.
10. Social Networking - For a major social network I of course choose elgg. However, if you are looking to build a more niche/smaller social network than Drupal is perfect. Again referencing to it’s user management capabilities combined with it’s Drupal Taxonomy to content manage all content Drupal makes for a fantastic easy to setup social network.

I wrote this post for two major reasons. First and foremost of course, to inform you the reader about Drupal and it’s advantages. The other is to hopefully in one way or the other encourage Joomla to “take it to another level” if you will. Hopefully it will help motivate Joomla contributors and creators to better refine the CMS that they have. If they don’t, people are gonna find out how much better Drupal is and stick with them.

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Xoops was the first ever open source content management system I ever used to build a website. It was also my personal first experience with PHP and MySQL and it really helped me understand how content management systems work and the potential they have. I really want to see the open source Xoops project continue to grow. I think it has a great framework and has had a good sized community in the past. It’s vital for open source that Joomla has decent competitors.

This new release of Xoops takes care of a couple bug fixes and security fixes. Read more about it here and download it today and start using it for some of your website projects.

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Mephisto is an open source blogging software free for download and of course always open for people to contribute. What’s different from this blog than say Wordpress or any of the other big open source blogging platforms? Probably their philosophy. Here’s what it is:

“I wrote Mephisto with a basic idea that I had: the idea of articles belonging to multiple “buckets,” or “Sections” as Mephisto calls it. But, instead of accessing these sections like tags or categories, like other simple blog engines, they’re treated like first-class citizens of the site. “

That is slightly different from the other blogging open source platforms. Something interesting! And this difference in approach may be what you are looking for your business or concept in blogging. Who knows. Here are a list of features that they listed on their site:

• Beautiful admin interface
• Slick Asset Management
• Flexible Liquid templating system
• ATOM feeds
• some tagging, some ajax, yadda yadda.
• immature plugin API (+)
• converters for wordpress, typo, movable type (+)
• dodgy xml-rpc api support (+)
• lots and lots of ruby on rails codes (+)

I think this group has something pretty neat with their blogging platform but it definitely could use some help from other contributors. I am going to attempt to contribute as much as I can. If you any of you developers see this as a challenge that you would like to take have at it. It would be cool to build another powerhouse in the blogging spectrum.

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I have come across yet another cool open source content management system. This one is called MODx and can be found by going to www.modx.com. This system is different from other CMS systems like Wordpress and Drupal in that it claims to have been created with the other CMS systems mistakes “in mind”. It claims to be an Ajax CMS so it appears to be using quite a bit of Ajax in it’s system. Probably in the back office. Here are some it’s claimed features:

• Strong Web Standards Support
• Web 2.0 Features
• PHP Application Framework
• Works in your favorite browser
• Graphical Installer
• Improved Rich Text Editors
• Better handling of aliases and menu indexes
• Robust CSS Menu Builder
• Improved Meta-tag and keywords controls
• Separate Manager and Web User sessions
• Improved Document Parser and Error handling
• Custom Content Types
• Bug fixes and usability tweaks

Sounds like similar features to what everyone else offers. But if you go to their site they seem to have a pretty good setup. I have not yet used or installed their software but i’m interested to hear feedback from anyone who has. I’m going to try and spend some time this next week trying out their software and will let you know of my feedback. Check them out and give them a try.

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There are 5 major groups or companies that offer the ability to purchase a domain, have it hosted, and get a content manageable website all at the same time with the same company. And sometimes these websites are free. We are not talking about GoDaddy websites here. We are talking about CMS or content management sites that allow you to change the content in your site easily and often. Here are my top 5:

1. Weebly
2. TweakCMS
3. SpeakLight
4. SiteKreator
5. CreateaPlace

I don’t always recommend these services to anybody who is very serious about building a website. These websites are more for getting yourself up something quick and easy to start. But afterward I would recommend building a more “custom” website to give it a less templated feel and look more like your own. Check these sites out and let me know what you think. Who is too expensive, and most importantly who is providing these services for free. Chow!

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