One step further into the  drag & drop AJAX cms adminstration we’re all looking for : Automne CMS, developped by french based WS Interactive company, implements block management via ext js library features, that come near to a full  drag and drop interface. The content is added in pages through a template based row system that  gives large flexibility over the final layout of the bloks within the page. Learning curve would typically require a few days work before a developer really gets into the multi template system.

http://www.automne.ws/web/fr/244-essayer-la-demo.php

See also

• JSP Based Riot CMS

The expertise around Flash / Flex based CMS is building up a new area for content management. We haven’t had the pleasure to try out the software but the building of wysiwyg interfaces is a promising business, as long as the HTML and Search engine optimization features of pure text are guaranteed : this is where we’d like to know more about FlashMoto’s HTML publishing features, which uses the HTML version technique; meaning the flash based web site is also available as HTML for search engines and non flash browser. This technique is also used by Silex RIA, another Flash based CMS.

What distinguishes FlashMoto from a range of other flash content management systems is that it is the first Flash CMS based on ActionScript 3 and realized as RIA on Flex.   The websites powered by FlashMoto are controlled just like a standard CMS but with the extras that Flash offers.  FlashMoto provides a set of SEO tools what makes the Flash CMS website completely crawlable and seen by search engines.

Flash CMS from FlashMoto is characterized by a range of other features:
- ability to add unlimited number of pages;
- convenient WYSIWYG page and pop-up editor;
- rich media library;
- infomodule component;
- video and image gallery component;
- video and MP3 players component;
- deep linking and Google Analytics integration;
- comprehensive documentation and tutorials.

Fuzzle CMS is a promising Flash CMS delevoped by a group of Russian programmers. The system is claimed to be an extra easy way for creating Flash website thanks to visual content management. Note, Fuzzle’s website is also made with this CMS. Fuzzle brings you advantages of Flash and HTML in one system and affords you create and maintain your website’s content without knowing anything about programming. Flash web sites are differ from regular HTML sites mainly by their presentational abilities: Flash technology allows incorporating complex animations and reach multimedia content. However, Flash sites are considered to have such disadvantages as longer time of development (therefore more cost), harder updating, bad search engines ranking. Fuzzle is breaking these stereotypes!
Main Fuzzle features are: :
- multilinguality;
- simple management (convenient visual editing based on blocks placement and multiple selection of blocks );
- design integration from a draft within 5 minutes;;
- SEO support (HTML version auto generation, DeepLinking support);
- continuously replenished Widget Store availability;
- availability of an open simple API for external developers.

Making image galleries with Drupal is not an easy task : there a dozens of modules, views and block specifications out there. Here is a list of modules I’ve tested on 6.15

• Image tools
  • working with images in drupal is immediately enhanced with the imagecache module that allows administrators to predefine actions for uploaded images : crop, resize, grey, and can be extended

• Working with file upload
  • Content Construction Kit has the ability to load multiple files per content type, with the FileField type (can be extended to ImageField for imagecachje integration)
  • the fupload module does a good job but the interface is strange  : it requires you to go beyond the node editing form to update images titles for newly created image nodes.
  • itweak is a nice file attachment module that integrates attachments with all content types, using the core upload module
• Working with views
  • the views_cycle module uses views to format records to a jquery cycle plugin animation
• Displayin
  • LightBox
  • thickbox
• Other modules
  • Fast Gallery
  • Slide show Pro integration (flash)
• see also
  • revisiting galleries

I like gpEasy cms’ quick and easy interface : powered by jquery interactivity, gpeasy is full text cms that works without a database. It is in fact a set of includes that can be administered via privilege based backend that implements FCKEditor. Below is a sample of the drag and drop interface for pages ordering, a must.

Drupal’s new version (7) is in development and it features many improvements, most of them modules developped within the community. One of them is the Garland theme that allows customization of colors, enabling all theme variations including header shades. Another theme that works like that is the CTI flex theme, based on Zen, only available for drupal 6 as of now.

built as a small project, young but innovative, impress pages cms features inline editing with prototype powered drag and drop feature that allows easy building of pages with multiple components : rich text, simple text, html text, simple form builder, image gallery, amazing and promising ! Try it out on impresspages.org

w-script is a nice example of how a good development framework like codeigniter can deliver solid applications. W-Script is a simple wall paper script that comes free opensource with many functions, one them is the color indexing that allows searching colors in pictures.

http://www.wallpaperscript.net/

Create, publish, enjoy : this is the  mission line of ionize CMS, built entirely around Code Igniter, looks very promising as it comes with basic features : drag & drop pages tree, media navigator, permissions…

http://ionizecms.com/

In spite of its remarquable popularity, Prestashop still suffers from a complex layout design that makes it quite hard to customize, especially when one  compares with the flexibility of zend framework layouts as they are implemented in Magento. This is why a shop built with prestashop often bears a strong resemblance with the default design, and designers find it hard to get away from the usual 3 column layout with rounded corners block that’s presented by default. Below you’ll find 10 shop sthat display a good work on prestashop, customized  to a level where  one wonders if this is still Prsetashop behind : yes  is it possible to do opensource ecommerce at a fraction the cost of setting up a Magento shop, and do it well too. It’ s intersting to notice that most of these  shops share the common love for the top horizontal drop down menu.

• Shops with free template by djcraft
  • http://www.photos-art-decoration.com/
  • http://grainmagique.free.fr/ipnotik/
  • http://photosalgerie.free.fr/wallcraft/
  • http://kamel.kelkoul.free.fr/prestashop/
  • http://ipno.tik.free.fr/blackwhite/
• Professionnal work of djcraft
  • http://www.biquinimodapraia.com.br/
• Professionnal work by Other designers
  • http://dedikate.com/eshop/
  • http://www.dieet-afvallen-lijnen.nl/
• Professionnal work by me (PoleOuest)
  • http://groupetournon.com/vpc/
  • http://prayandcomfort.co.uk/
• Nice try (find the bug on product category page)

• • http://www.sayann.com/

The power of Magento is great but it requires long days of learning and suffering to get through relative simple features, such as the now common front page slide banner. I had a quick look at magento free templates on google and was conquered by Magento ’s classic theme, the kind of  stuff that’s really given free of charge when I would have paid for it. It actually comes with an interesting development of Magento’s block systems, and demonstrates how to add a custom block between navigation and content : the prototype glider that scrolls images is defined a cms static block, which is then called in the home page CMS  custom xml definition, with a reference to the slider block that’s positionned in phtml files and declared in the xml layouts as a core/text_list type . Impressive stuff : that’s pure  magento design and illustrates how versatile the system is.

Links : 25 free templates for Magento