Monday, August 26, 2013

Security fix for PHP, BitNami PHP development stacks updated.

PHP 5.4.19 and PHP 5.5.3 have been released to fix a bug in the patch for CVE-2013-4248 in the OpenSSL module. A few days ago new PHP versions were released fixing about 20 bugs, including a security issue in the OpenSSL module (CVE-2013-4248) and a session fixation problem (CVE-2011-4718). These new versions fix a bug introduced in those preview releases.

We have released updated versions of the BitNami PHP development stacks: LAMP, MAMP, WAMP and LAPP, MAPPWAPP with PHP 5.4 and PHP 5.5.

These issues are not as serious as other recent vulnerabilities, but just to be on the safe side, we will releasing updated version of all our PHP-based applications. We will also be removing older versions of the apps from existing cloud repositories such as Amazon and Azure, to prevent end users from inadvertently launching insecure versions of these apps.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

GitLab 6.0 released!

We are glad to announce a new major release for GitLab, GitLab 6.0. GitLab is a popular open source application for git repository management through a nice easy to use web interface. Think of it as a version of GitHub that you can host on your servers. If you are not familiar with GitLab, you can take a quiack look by launching a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad (it only takes a minute and it is completely free)



In this version the GitLab team has introduced group membership as a replacement for teams improving how project permissions are handled when modifying group members. For a full list of improvements/fixes take a look at the changelog in their GitHub repository.




BitNami GitLab provides one-click installation solutions for GitLab with GitLab CI, an open-source continuous integration server closely integrated with Git and GitLab. We have just released a new version upgrading GitLab to include GitLab to 6.0 and the latest version of GitLab CI, 3.1.0. Since GitLab no longer supports using an URL prefix like /gitlab, this version of BitNami GitLab configures it in / by default.

You can download free, ready to run native installers for Linux, virtual machines and Azure and Amazon EC2 cloud images for BitNami GitLab integrated with GitLab CI.


Monday, August 19, 2013

CiviCRM now part of the BitNami Library


We are happy to announce the latest addition to the BitNami Library, CiviCRM, winner of the BitNami contest. CiviCRM is a web-based, open source, Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software geared toward meeting the needs of non-profit and other civic-sector organizations.

CiviCRM can be integrated with Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress content management systems giving you the tools to connect, communicate and activate your supporters and constituents. Now, in the BitNami Library, you can find BitNami CiviCRM, an easy to deploy package of CiviCRM integrated with Drupal. We will add support for WordPress and Joomla! integrations if there is demand. You can download free, ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Azure and Amazon EC2 cloud images

As we usually do for our contest winners, we contacted the CiviCRM team to learn more about their project. Dave Greenberg, one of the CiviCRM core team members, was kind enough to answer our questions and tell us more about the project.

What is the goal of the CiviCRM application?

CiviCRM is a web-based, open source, Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software geared toward meeting the needs of non-profit and other civic-sector organizations. Using CiviCRM's robust feature set, organizations can further their mission through contact management, fundraising, event management, member management, mass e-mail marketing, peer-to-peer campaigns, case management, and much more. CiviCRM is localized in over 20 languages including: Chinese (Taiwan, China), Dutch, English (Australia, Canada, U.S., UK), French (France, Canada), German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Swedish.

What are some of the features of CiviCRM?

CiviCRM's fundraising features make it easy for organizations to create contribution forms for multiple fundraising appeals - recording pledges, one-time donations, recurring donations, tribute donations and more.
 

CiviCRM offers a complete suite of communications tools allowing you to build subscriber lists and create effective mass mailings.
CiviCRM integrates seamlessly with public websites built using Drupal, Joomla! or WordPress.
 

CiviCRM helps you create and manage event registration - recording constituent attendance directly in their activity record.
 

CiviCRM provides flexible membership management for organizations including convenient online sign-up and renewal. 

Which projects or organizations are using CiviCRM currently? What kind of projects do they use it for?

CiviCRM is used by thousands of organizations globally - ranging from large charities (Leaukaemia & Lymphoma Research) and global advocacy organizations (Amnesty International) to foundations (Wikimedia Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Free Software Foundation ... ) to local community, faith-based and grassroots organizations (Education Outside, Bay Area Children's Theater, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra), and government entities (New York State Senate). 

Uses range from constituent case management to fundraising and event management to issues advocacy.

 
What do you expect will be the main benefits of having BitNami packages available for CiviCRM?

Bitnami cloud-based 1 click installations will provide an easy on-ramp for more organizations to implement CiviCRM in a cost-effective and secure environment.  

If you would like to see CiviCRM in action, launch a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad for Azure by clicking the launch button below.


Wednesday, August 14, 2013

New Django v1.4.6 and v1.5.2 released

Yesterday the Django project released new versions of Django 1.4 and 1.5 that fix two cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. We just updated both Django versions 1.4.6 and 1.5.2 with a fix for this issue and we continue working on updating all BitNami Django-based applications.

You can download free native installers for both versions of Django, virtual machines and Azure and Amazon EC2 cloud images.

You can find more information about the security issue at the official Django blog. If you already have installed a version of these applications please make sure that you update your environment or apply the appropriate patches that you can find in the above blog post.

PrestaShop now available in BitNami

We are happy to announce that PrestaShop is now part of the BitNami library. PrestaShop is a free and open source e-commerce solution with innovative features that engage shoppers such as multi-store, customizable URL’s, full Ajax compatibility, instant guest checkout, abandoned cart reminders and automated email marketing.

Thanks to the community votes, PrestaShop was selected to be packaged as part of the BitNami Library. BitNami makes it easy to install and manage PrestaShop on Windows, OS X or Linux. Each stack includes all of the software necessary to run PrestaShop out of the box, including a web server and a database.

You can now download free, ready to run native installers, virtual machines and Windows Azure and Amazon EC2 cloud images.

If you want to check out this new version, you can instantly launch a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the button below.



Benjamin Utterback, Lead Community Manager of PrestaShop, was kind enough to share with us some details about the project.

1. What is the goal of the PrestaShop application?

The merchant is at the heart of PrestaShop. Our goal is to give every person in the world the opportunity to create a professional online store by providing them with completely free, easy to use e-commerce software. Regardless of an individual's technical skill, language, or country of business, we strive to ensure our merchants’ success by offering a fast, flexible and global e-commerce solution that exceeds the highest standards of functionality, support and security. In short, our heart is solely on the merchants by providing the best possible, and most profitable, e-commerce experience.

PrestaShop frontpage


2. What are some of the main features of PrestaShop?

First and foremost, our main feature is the easy user experience (UI/UX) for our merchants. When you look at the industry, on one side you see some powerful solutions that are unfortunately extremely complicated to learn and profit from, on the other side we have the apparent “simple” solutions that  don’t pack too big of a punch in terms of software features and merchant support. On each side you’ll find paid solutions that have monthly fees, commission off sales and limitations on products and customers.  We’ve been dedicated in making PrestaShop the most powerful and easy to use e-commerce solution. We did that; the difference is that we are a 100% free-forever e-commerce software with absolutely zero limitations.

With PrestaShop, and our dedication to the UI/UX, you can easily open up a truly global shop. Of course we have multi-store and B2B features by default; you can set up multiple stores with unique domains and manage them all in one back-office. That said, in this day and age, merchants are looking for more! That’s why we included multi-language, real-time currency conversion, international tax laws and translations that are all easily configurable for use in multi-store. Combined with an innumerable amount of global payment gateways and shipping providers, you end up with a complete international store that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to sell and profit with.

PrestaShop also provides complete control of your store SEO prowess. With meta-fields for .php files, products and categories, you are Google’s friend by just using our software. Furthermore, our customized URL routing feature allows merchants to target visitors as they search. We also provide the super powerful Layered Navigation Module that will not only simplify your customers’ navigation for products, but it also exponentially increases your SEO references when customers select different combinations. An SEO aficionado would feel at home with the adaptability we offer.

I can’t forget that we are completely mobile ready with HTML5 and CSS3 compatible. We are also on the forefront of Bootstrap 3 development for our default framework, coming this winter, 2013. It’s an extremely exciting time for PrestaShop.

Lastly, one of the most overlooked “features” of PrestaShop is our Community Forum. With nearly 600,000 members and forum-board communities in over 30 different languages, the community support is always active. No matter how small or large your project is, you will always find the community support, experience, and advice you need.

We continue our open-source commitment by placing the entire source-code on Github. The development of the software and modules are now directly connected to our community like never before.

Already, hundreds of pull requests and development improvements for the software have been submitted by our Community, reviewed by the PrestaShop team and included into the software. It’s really amazing. We always look for new ways to involve the merchant’s community, from Guest Expert Blog Posts, Community Interviews, Success Stories and Developer Training sessions, we always showcase our users’ breadth of knowledge and expertise to better the software.

PrestaShop comes complete with over 310 features that have been carefully developed to assist business owners in increasing sales with virtually little effort. All features are integrated in the software and are 100% free. Take a look at our PrestaShop Features page for further information.

3. Which projects or organizations are using PrestaShop currently?

We power over 150,000 online stores right now. From the enterprise corporations, to the small business entrepreneurs, our software has consistently shown to be as flexible, powerful and adaptable for any ecommerce needs.

Let’s take a look at some of the Enterprise customers.

- We power the online B2B  Operations for Office Depot in France.
- Official International X-Games Shop.
- We are the preferred solution by one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world with Home by SFR, ranked as one of Alexa’s Top 600 websites in the world.
- Spain's top Human Rights and Charity Organizations choose PrestaShop to power their Ecommerce stores, with Oxfam, Amnesty International, and GreenPeace.
- We also power America’s most famous vintage boutique with What Goes Around Comes Around (WGACA). With nearly 1-Million Facebook Likes, PrestaShop was paramount in WGACA’s online success. They are now recognized as one of the leading authorities on vintage and have been covered in every major fashion publication.
- The last example I want to present wholeheartedly embodies the vision of PrestaShop. In 2008, we built a small ecommerce store for a young and ambitious children's accessories company called Smallable. Over the next 5 years, Smallable expanded and grew their business as PrestaShop grew with them. Now, in 2013, Smallable is still using PrestaShop, updated to the latest version. As I’ve said before, the merchant is at the heart of PrestaShop, Smallable can attest to that. It’s extremely rare to find such loyalty to a single ecommerce software. With PrestaShop, Smallable’s story represents just one of many.

This is just a tiny glimpse of the overall influence that PrestaShop continues to have in the global ecommerce industry. I invite you to take a look at our Showcase to see more prime examples of PrestaShop stores and the merchants we love to watch succeed and grow.

4.-What do you expect will be the main benefits of having BitNami packages available for PrestaShop?

From the amount of votes we amassed in only 4 days during your bi-weekly competition, you can clearly tell that our community is tremendously excited to be included as part of the BitNami library.

It’s valuable to have the BitNami PrestaShop stack because it gives new users another outlet to get easily get started. They can simply download the Stack and install PrestaShop without having to worry about the system set-up. We all can admit it; there are some less “techy” users that are intimidated by even installing a local host. Although we have step by step guides online in our forum, and free technical phone support, having BitNami makes this process even easier for them.

Even for the advanced user, they will benefit by having an easy way to test new versions. I also expect that this stack will be used heavily for merchants to test upgrades to their store and optimize speed, without ever having to touch their live store. This decreases downtime and increases efficiency. That sounds good to us!



Friday, August 9, 2013

New Features in BitNami Cloud Hosting: Run Multiple Installs of One App, URL Configuration

We have just added two frequently requested features to BitNami Cloud Hosting: URL configuration and the ability to run multiple instances of a single app, such as WordPress, on a single server in the cloud.

URL Configuration

By default, most BitNami applications are configured to use a prefix in the URL. For example, WordPress is served at example.bitnamiapp.com/wordpress, SugarCRM at example.bitnamiapp.com/sugarcrm and Magento at example.bitnami.com/magento. In some circumstances, you may want your URLs to be structured differently. In the case of the previously listed applications, you may want to have something like blog.example.bitnamiapp.com, crm.example.bitnamiapp.com and shop.example.bitnamiapp.com (or example.com instead of example.bitnamiapp.com if you have already assigned an external custom domain to your server).

While BitNami Cloud Hosting has always allowed you to change the URL, until now you had to access the machine and execute commands in the terminal. This required several steps, was error-prone and could be intimidating for people who are not familiar with UNIX. Now, when you create a new server and add applications, you can select between using the prefix configuration or the subdomain configuration for the URL (only if the application already supports it) by clicking on the application icon and editing its properties. Please note that, currently, if you select a subdomain configuration, you will not be able to change it to the prefix configuration later.


Once the server is ready, you will be able to view the URLs in the new Applications tab. In this tab, you can fine tune your URL layout, for instance changing url-demo.bitnamiapp.com/magento to shop.url-demo.bitnamiapp.com.


If you did not assign an external custom domain for your application, you will need to keep the domain "demo.bitnamiapp.com" (in the example) in the URL.

For further information on this feature, please visit our documentation. Also, note that this feature is currently available for Drupal, Joomla, Magento, SugarCRM and WordPress. It is coming soon for the rest of the BitNami applications.

Run Multiple Instances of The Same Application in One Server

One of our most popular feature requests was the ability to run more than one instance of a particular application, such as WordPress, in a single server. We are happy to share that this is now possible in BitNami Cloud Hosting. This feature is currently available for WordPress, with more apps to come.

To use this new feature, just create a new server, click the 'add applications' button and then choose WordPress and click to add it. Repeat the process until you have as many WordPress instances as you would like.

In connection with this feature, we have introduced the concept of 'nicknames' for applications. By default, each WordPress installation will be identified as wordpress, wordpress1, wordpress2, etc. This identifier is what we call the 'nickname' and it will be used for the database name and user, the installation directory and the default URL. The 'nickname' is set before launching the server. You can select a different 'nickname' before the server is built but not after the server is launched.


After you have launched your server, you can customize the URL for each WordPress instance in the Applications tab. In the Applications tab, the 'nickname' is shown in square brackets and it cannot be edited, but you can edit the URL.




As mentioned, we will be adding support for these features to all of the applications supported in BitNami Cloud Hosting over time. Enjoy!

If you are not already using BitNami Cloud Hosting, sign up for a free developer account.

Friday, August 2, 2013

WordPress 3.6 now available in BitNami

We are happy to announce that the recently released WordPress 3.6 version is now available in BitNami.

At BitNami one of our goals is to simplify the testing of the latest versions of open source web applications and language runtimes. BitNami WordPress stack includes a pre-configured version of WordPress and all of its required dependencies. You can now download free, ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Azure and Amazon EC2 cloud images.

If you just want to check out this new version, you can instantly launch a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the button below.



Some of the new features of this version are the following:

    - The new Twenty Thirteen theme.

WordPress 3.6 default theme

    - Revamped Revisions. New interface that allows you to scroll easily through the changes.


WordPress 3.6 revision feature

    - Post Locking and Augmented Autosave. Each author now has their own autosave stream, which stores things locally as well as on the server.

    - Built-in HTML5 media player for native audio and video embeds with no reliance on external services.

    - The Menu Editor is now much easier to understand and use.

    - and dozens of other features


Try now WordPress 3.6 in the cloud for free!