Waiting for Drupal 8? Drupal 8 already available in Bitnami!

Drupal, one of the most famous open source content management platforms, has just released its new stable version Drupal 8.0.0. With over 200 new features and improvements, this is the first supported release of Drupal 8 and is ready for use on production sites. 

If you are not familiar with Bitnami, Bitnami Drupal can be deployed using native installers (for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), virtual machines and Amazon EC2, Azure, VMware, Google, DigitalOcean and Oracle cloud images. 

You can find more info about this new version and all its features here. 

Do you have any questions about Bitnami Drupal 8? Post to our community forum, and we would be happy to help you.

Grow your business with OroCRM – now available on Bitnami

Today, OroCRM joins the Bitnami Library of CRM apps!

OroCRM is a flexible open-source CRM application. OroCRM supports your business no matter the vertical. If you are a traditional B2B company, franchise, sell online only or are managing multiple sales channels – OroCRM will help you grow.

OroCRM is easier than ever to install. Use the Bitnami OroCRM installers (available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X), Virtual Machine images (VMs), cloud images for the Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine and Azure cloud platforms, and be up and running in just a few clicks.

To explore OroCRM simply launch a free cloud demo server. Click the button below to create your own OroCRM instance running for 1 hour, free!

Or, learn more about the OroCRM project in our interview with Motti Danino, Vice President of Operations at Oro.

What is the goal of the OroCRM application?

No two business are alike, each facing unique challenges and opportunities. In creating OroCRM, our guiding principle was to build a flexible, open- source CRM application that could be customized to fit any business need. We also recognized that businesses are becoming increasingly multi-channel selling and communicating across multiple channels. We built from the ground up, a truly multi-channel CRM, allowing businesses of all sizes to have a single view of their customers.

What are some of the features of OroCRM?

OroCRM is an extremely flexible and extendible application. Some customers use the robust features OroCRM offers out of the box. Others extend and customize the features to meet their exact business needs. OroCRM’s unique capabilities include: ease of integration with other systems such as eCommerce, ERP, POS, email management PIM etc, robust multi-channel support allowing organizations to obtain a single 360° view of their customers, productivity tools for sales people and sales managers, and comprehensive marketing capabilities allowing marketers to customize marketing campaigns to the specific interests of their customers.

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

Many organizations around the world use OroCRM. Traditional B2B, multi–channel and online retailers realized that OroCRM, with its unique set of tools and flexibility, will fit their business needs. We have customers in every vertical, retail, financial services, pharmaceutical, franchises, eCommerce, and B2B are just a few of the types of companies that are gaining value from OroCRM’s unique set of capabilities.

What do you expect will be the main benefits of having Bitnami packages available for OroCRM?

Bitnami’s packaged solution will allow the organization and user to easily gain access and test OroCRM. The users will be able to quickly install OroCRM and appreciate it’s performance, capabilities, features and most of all its flexibility and the ability to customize it to fit their business needs.

Want your favorite app to be part of the Bitnami Library? Enter it in our monthly contest! Ready to try OroCRM now? Get started!

Refinery CMS joins the Bitnami Library!

We're happy to introduce Refinery CMS as part of the Bitnami Library!

Refinery CMS is an open-sourced Rails-based CMS designed to be flexible and easy to use. The Refinery UI is beautiful and updated frequently to deliver the most intuitive experience possible for your users. This application is also supported by an engaged online community. 

Refinery CMS is now ready to install in a few clicks using the Bitnami Refinery CMS installers (available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X), Virtual Machine images (VMs), cloud images for the Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine and Azure cloud platforms.


Some popular features that Refinery CMS include:

• Modular and extendable: you can add new features to Refinery CMS simply installing extensions.
• Available in more than 30 languages.
• Preview of the pages that you are writing.

If you want to explore Refinery CMS you can launch a free cloud demo server. Clicking the button below will create your own Refinery CMS instance running for 1 hour, for free!

If you want to know more about how to use Bitnami Refinery CMS, read our wiki page. Still have questions? We would be happy to answer them on our community forum.

SilverStripe added to Bitnami Library!

Today, SilverStripe joins the Bitnami Library of CMS apps!

SilverStripe CMS & Framework is an open source platform of web development tools. The platform, curated by SilverStripe, is an international web development company that is supported by a vibrant online community.

SilverStripe is now ready to install in a few clicks using the Bitnami SilverStripe installers (available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X), Virtual Machine images (VMs), cloud images for the Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine and Azure cloud platforms.

If you want to explore SilverStripe you can launch a free cloud demo server. Clicking the button below will create your own SilverStripe instance running for 1 hour, for free!

We also had the opportunity to interview Cam Findlay, Community Manager of SilverStripe, about the application's key features:

What is the goal of the SilverStripe application?

SilverStripe is both a CMS and PHP web framework. SilverStripe CMS makes day-to-day content updates awesomely simple. It’s flexibility makes SilverStripe CMS ideal for managing websites, intranets, and sophisticated web applications with stunning interactive design, social and transactional features for your users. The SilverStripe Framework is a PHP web application framework that can be used standalone, or in harmony with the SilverStripe CMS. Modern best practices include object-oriented MVC/ORM architecture to cut the overhead associated with common programming tasks, and enable developers to quickly write and maintain code that powers complex web applications. Put simply, CMS users love SilverStripe’s easy to use and powerful CMS and developers love the power and flexibility of the framework. With SilverStripe, everyone get’s to do what they do best.

What are some of the features of SilverStripe?

SilverStripe is both PHP framework and CMS. For developers, we define customisations of the CMS for users in the code along with any configuration which makes your applications highly portable across environments without having to rely on the database. Content is treated as content, code is kept and code, environment configuration is handled as configuration so there is a clear understanding of what is required when deploying websites and separation layers for a more maintainable codebase.

The CMS also is highly customisable to a clients needs, rather than enforcing a way of working, so it works in well with customers existing business processes and allows CMS users to easily integrate SilverStripe as part of how they currently delver their services or run operations.

We also have a great Open Source community!

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

SilverStripe has been used by projects large and small. Of note are sites such as the Democratic National Convention website during Obama’s electoral race, Westpac bank New Zealand, Skinny Mobile (a large mobile telecommunications site) and the the New Zealand Government Common Web Platform which is promoting open source and SilverStripe use in the New Zealand public sector. There are also a host of other showcases that give you an idea of the types of sites powered by SilverStripe at our showcase at http://www.silverstripe.org/community/showcase/

What do you expect will be the main benefits of having Bitnami packages available for SilverStripe?

We are looking forward to having an easy to install local environment, as well as a cloud deployable image to help developers and users try out the CMS and get started quickly learning SilverStripe.

You can follow SilverStripe on Twitter and participate in discussions on SilverStripe.org.

Would you like your favorite app to be part of Bitnami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our monthly contest!

Ametys added to Bitnami Library!

We are stoked to announce that Ametys, one of the winners from our monthly app contest, is now part of Bitnami Library!

Ametys is a multi-purpose Java CMS that can run corporate websites, blogs, portals and corporate wikis on the same server.

Thanks to the amazing community votes, Ametys is now ready to install in a few clicks with the Bitnami Ametys installers, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, Virtual Machine images (VMs) and cloud images for the Amazon EC2 and Azure clouds.

Maeva Mongaillard, Communications Manager at Ametys, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the project.

What is the goal of the Ametys application?
Ametys is an open source CMS that combines simplicity for users, beginners to advanced, with rich content and advanced features.

It makes content publishing accessible for the non-programmer and provides an easy editor with the kind of simplicity you'd find in Microsoft Office. Everything from enterprise websites, to blogs, to wikis, to complex portals can be built with Ametys.


What are some of the features of Ametys?
There are a lot! But some of the most important are probably:

• Easy-to-use & intuitive interface: Ametys makes it easy for you to create and manage your content. Ametys provides user friendly authoring tool inspired from Microsoft Office suite.
• Multisite & multilingual: With Ametys, you can create any type of professional websites. Ametys includes customs skins, content sharing features with powerful user management and allows flexible sites management with drag and drop.
• Customizable workflow: Ametys has a powerful workflow engine using OpenSymphony OSWorkflow which allows customizable approval processes.
• Extend with plugins: Ametys comes packed with all features you need to edit and manage your websites. A plugin directory is also available to extend its capabilities, things like calendars, social media plugin, widgets, newsletters, UGC, forms, comments feed, and so forth.
• 100% Java open source: Ametys is developed in Java and licensed under Apache 2.0.

What kinds of organizations are well suited to using Ametys?        
Ametys has been designed to meet the needs of large enterprises and public institutions with advanced web publishing issues. Ametys is especially well suited for large organizations needing a multisite platform to manage multiple websites through an easy-to-use and intuitive interface. There are now hundreds of thousands of users all over the world.
                                                                                                                                                                                                             
What do you expect will be the main benefits of having Bitnami packages available for Ametys?
Bitnami makes it easy for everyone to test and evaluate Ametys locally or in the cloud quickly and easily without technical skills. It will allow people to save time and install Ametys in few seconds by themselves.

Thanks, Maeva!

Check out Ametys videos below, then visit the Bitnami Ametys page to try Ametys free.

Would you like your favorite app to be part of Bitnami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our monthly contest!

ProcessWire added to Bitnami Library!

ProcessWire, our last contest winner, is now part of the Bitnami Library!

ProcessWire is a free PHP5 content management system and framework (open source CMS/CMF) built to save you time and work the way you do. ProcessWire gives simpler and stronger control over your pages, fields, templates and markup at any scale. And it provides a powerful template system that works the way you already do.
 

Thanks to the amazing community votes, ProcessWire is now ready to install in a few clicks with the Bitnami ProcessWire installers, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, Virtual Machine images (VMs) and cloud images for the Amazon EC2 and Azure clouds.

ProcessWire administration Panel

If you just want to check out ProcessWire, you can launch a free cloud demo server in minutes with the Bitnami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the button below. The default admin user is "user" and the password is "bitnami".

Ryan Cramer, lead developer of the ProcessWire open source project, was kind enough to answer a few questions, to let us know more about the project.

1. What is the goal of the ProcessWire application?

ProcessWire brings joy and fun back to web development. It is both a content management framework (CMF) and a content management system (CMS). ProcessWire is an incredibly powerful tool and foundation from which to manage content both interactively and from the API. It is well suited to power web sites, applications, services, and more... at any scale. It is a tool that web developers/designers and content editors/publishers will fall in love with. The goal: enable you to build bigger, faster, stronger and easier, while saving you huge amounts of time.
 

2. What are some of the features of ProcessWire?   

For developers: It empowers developers with a truly solid and powerful framework to build bigger, faster and easier. It's highly flexible and suitable for almost any project: whether a blog, a web-application or a content-heavy corporate portal. It can be easily extended and integrated with other modern web technologies due to its powerful and intuitive API, hook system and modular structure. It's created for those who like to make things the proper way rather then hack them. It has a unique system of fields and templates that lets you build content types of almost any complexity with little effort.

For designers: Creativity without barriers! ProcessWire enables full control of the creative process. Everything you can design in HTML and CSS you can realize in ProcessWire. You don't need to re-design or re-code anything for ProcessWire. It adapts to your workflow rather than the other way around. It is delightfully simple and fun to populate content in your design with ProcessWire.

For content-managers: ProcessWire has a beautifully minimal and easy-to-use backend. But don't be fooled by the simplicity-there's incredible power and flexibility here. ProcessWire makes your content management tasks a joy, regardless of scale. Focused on ensuring the portability, semantics and accessibility of your content, ProcessWire is a breath of fresh air for content managers and editors.

For enthusiasts: ProcessWire has something to offer for those who just need a ready-to-use blog or website. It already has several website profiles that can just be installed and used immediately, or serve as a starting point to build a more personalized project on top. After you download ProcessWire, you can literally have a website up and running in under 5 minutes (and even less thanks to Bitnami). 

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

ProcessWire is equally adept at powering both small and large sites. But it was designed specifically to grow with you and work at the large scale while maintaining the same speed and simplicity. ProcessWire is especially well suited for single or multi-language sites needing to manage large inventories of custom data. As a result, it is widely used by the travel industry, the research and information provider industries, and the design, education and science industries. However, these are just examples as actual usage is far broader than that. For fresh examples of organizations and sites running ProcessWire, visit our Showcase board/.

4. What do you expect will be the main benefits of having Bitnami packages available for ProcessWire?

ProcessWire is an able, flexible and highly intuitive package both as a CMS/CMF and site creation tool. It is also a powerful, enterprise ready development environment. Bringing ProcessWire to Bitnami users will not only introduce them to the benefits and shear enjoyment of working with ProcessWire, but will also in return help build further the already strong and enterprising ProcessWire community.


Would you like your favorite app to be part of Bitnami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our monthly contest!

MODX Revolution added to Bitnami Library!

It's been another month, and another application has been added to Bitnami Library!

MODX Revolution is an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) and application framework rolled into one. Despite the limitless possibilities that MODX affords you, we think you’ll find it refreshingly intuitive to work with. At every step, MODX strives to deliver creative freedom.

Thanks to the very passionate MODX community votes, the Bitnami MODX Revolution installers are your easiest onramp to MODX Revolution. To get started, download free, ready-to-run installers for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, virtual machine images (VMs) and cloud images for the Amazon EC2 and Azure clouds.

MODX Dashboard

If you just want to check out MODX Revolution, you can launch a free cloud demo server in minutes with the Bitnami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the button below. The default admin user is "user" and the password is "bitnami".

Jay Gilmore, Director of Digital Strategy at MODX, was kind enough to answer some questions for those of you who may not be familiar with the project. 

1. What is the goal of the MODX application?

MODX is an Open Source CMS that was borne of the idea that the CMS should never—ever—get in the way of design. It is for people who care deeply about what goes in and, more so, comes out, a blank canvas on which to freely exact your vision. Basic sites don't require knowledge of PHP but for more advanced sites, developers can choose from hundreds of add-ons or write their own, using the object oriented PHP API. Further, it is engineered to be easily customized, extended, and integrated, meaning developers likewise get the creative freedom to make it fit their needs precisely. For end users, the MODX Manager can be completely tailored to the site and even for specific user types, making training and adoption a breeze.

2. What are some of the features of MODX?

• Total Creative Freedom - 100% control of all output. Not just HTML but whatever you need.
• Unparalleled Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - since output controlled, SEO is up to the site owner.
• Install the core outside of web root and with custom folder names, support multiple MODX websites from a single set of files.
• Install and update add-ons, themes and more from inside the MODX Manager
• Customizable Manager interface provides tailored experience for site managers and content editors
• Robust and fine-grained access control and user permissions for Manager and Web users
• Available SLA-driven commerical support
• International network of MODX Professionals
• One of the open source world's most welcoming and helpful communities
• Built to be extended without core-hacks or upgrade blocking
• Built-in caching, capable of server and CDN caching for fast page delivery

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

There are hundreds of thousands of organizations large and small using MODX for a variety of uses including Websites, Intranets and e-Learning. Some high-profile organizations using MODX include Pearl Drums, Hamilton Beach,The Green Party UK, Complex.com, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, Genworth Financial (Intranet), Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and many more.

4. What do you expect will be the main benefits of having Bitnami packages available for MODX?

Bitnami packages will give people an opportunity to test MODX quickly and easily, on their own computer, without having to know how to install a webserver. In addition, it will allow Bitnami users to learn about MODX and evaluate it along with the other tools they use on a regular basis.

Would you like your favorite app to be part of Bitnami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our monthly contest!

CMS Made Simple more simple than ever!

We are happy to announce that CMS Made Simple is now part of the Bitnami Library!

CMS Made Simple provides a fast and easy way to create a web site and manage its contents. It can be used by everyone from large corporate IT departments to home users.

Thanks to the community votes, CMS Made Simple is even easier to start working with it. To get started with it, you can download free, ready-to-run installers for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, virtual machine images (VMs) and cloud images for the Amazon EC2 and Azure clouds.

CMS Made Simple installer

If you just want to check out CMS Made Simple, you can instantly launch a free 1-hour cloud demo server with the Bitnami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the button below. The default password is "bitnami".

In case you are not familiar with the project, some of the main features of CMS Made Simple are the following:

• SEO Friendly URLs
• Modular and extensible. There is a large catalog of Themes and Modules that allows you build your own site faster
• Easy user and group management
• A large and active community

CMS Made Simple Admin console

 
Would you like your favorite app to be part of Bitnami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our contest!

Welcome to the Newest Bitnami Stack, SiteCake!

We are happy to announce a new member in the Bitnami family: SiteCake! SiteCake is a simple, drag-and-drop CMS for fast editing.

Thanks to the community votes in our contest, SiteCake was selected to be packaged as part of the BitNami Library. You can now download free, ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Windows Azure & Amazon EC2 cloud images.

If you just want to check out SiteCake, you can instantly launch a free 1-hour cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the button below. The default password is "bitnami".

Nikola Mircic, developer of the SiteCake project, was kind enough to answer some questions for those of you who may not be familiar with the project.

1. What is the goal of the SiteCake application?

SiteCake's goal is to make website editing a simple, drag-and-drop experience. Every type of file, document, media file or item you drag on your website SiteCake should be able to interpret and integrate in the most meaningful and beautiful way. On the other hand, SiteCake should empower designers to make pure HTML websites editable. No savvy developers needed.

SiteCake CMS sample application

2. What are some of the features of SiteCake?

- SiteCake is very basic CMS, it has only 10% of the feature set of other systems, but it is the 10% that is used 90% of the time.

- It's true WYSIWYG. There is no separate admin section, you can click any page element and edit it in-place.

- There is no special template system. Editable zones are assigned with simple css 'sc-content' class.

- It's the fastest CMS on the market - all server calls are done in the background.

- It has unlimited undo steps. It allows you to experiment and be creative.

- Also many more little things that make the experience of editing frictionless.


3. Which projects or organizations are using SiteCake currently?

SiteCake is a CMS for simple static websites that need partial content updates. We targeted small businesses, organizations or event organizers. Restaurants that need an easy way to update daily menus, B&B hotels that want to change prices and accommodation details quickly, NGOs, event websites and portfolios.

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

With Bitnami packages, cloud will become an easy hosting option for small business and personal websites. Packages are great opportunity for a user to quickly test and evaluate the CMS.

We are glad that SiteCake is now part of BitNami. Would you like your favorite app to be part of BitNami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our contest!

TYPO3, the enterprise-class Open Source CMS

We released the TYPO3 content management system in BitNami a month ago, as a result of our community contest.

You can download free, ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Azure and Amazon EC2 images. You can also now launch a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the launch button below.

Ben van 't Ende, the TYPO3 community manager, was kind enough to answer some questions for those of you who may not be familiar with the project.


1. What is the goal of the TYPO3 application?

TYPO3 is an enterprise-class, Open Source CMS (Content Management System), used internationally to build and manage websites of all types, from small sites for non-profits to multilingual enterprise
solutions for large corporations.

http://typo3.org/about/typo3-the-cms/

2. What are some of the main features of TYPO3?

- Powerful extension framework. With the API-based framework in TYPO3, you can quickly extend your own website using best practices.
- Large extension repository. There are thousands of extensions from the community available for forms, newsfeeds, blogs, and much more.
- Multilingual. The backend supports more than 30 languages, and the frontend can support as many languages as you need through localization.
- Multi-site management. With one central TYPO3 installation, you can setup and manage multiple sites that can share users, extensions and more.
- Granular permissions control. TYPO3 allows for individual user or group rights for entire websites, individual pages, subdomains, or even for extensions and specific content elements.
- Extensive documentation. TYPO3 already has a large library of online documentation, tutorial videos, and books available in multiple languages.

More on: http://typo3.org/about/features/

TYPO3 welcome page

3. Which projects or organizations are using TYPO3 currently?  What kind of projects do they use it for?

TYPO3 is largely used in enterprise environments, municipalities and large-scale universities. These companies use TYPO3:

    - WWF
    - Deutsche Bank
    - Lufthansa
    - Airbus
    - Airfrance
    - Grundig
    - WWF
    - Sony Entertainment
    - American Express
    - Vodafone
    - Unesco
    - Amnesty International
    - Tamron
    - Pentax
    - FAO
    - Greenpeace
    - and many more http://t3blog.com


4. What do you expect will be the main benefits of having BitNami packages available for TYPO3?

Having TYPO3 CMS available as a BitNami app offers an easy way for new users to discover the feature set and opportunities with TYPO3 on the one hand, but on the other hand it also supports experienced web-developers in terms of easy prototyping on a flexible and scalable infrastructure in addition. The cloud functionality is perfect to launch new website campaigns on the fly in combination with the various extensions and tools that are available and ready to use for TYPO3 CMS.


We are glad TYPO3 is now part of BitNami. Would you like your favorite app to be part of BitNami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our contest!

TYPO3 now available in BitNami

We are happy to announce a new Stack addition to our catalog: TYPO3! TYPO3 is an enterprise-class Open Source CMS used internationally to build and manage websites of all types, from small sites for non-profits to multilingual enterprise solutions for large corporations.

 TYPO3 framework offers unlimited flexibility by letting developers extend its functionality and add new types of content elements using standard programming practices like MVC (model-view-controller) design. It is also a user-friendly, intuitive tool for producing and maintaining web pages. TYPO3 is supported by a large community of both users and developers.

You can now download free, ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Azure and Amazon EC2 images for TYPO3. You can also now launch a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the launch button below.

TYPO3 Introduction Package

TYPO3 Admin panel

Get started with TYPO3 easily with BitNami!

Have an app that you love and would like to be part of BitNami?  Checkout our monthly contest page, so you can vote for it (or suggest it if not already there)

TYPO3 now available in BitNami

We are happy to announce a new Stack addition to our catalog: TYPO3! TYPO3 is an enterprise-class Open Source CMS used internationally to build and manage websites of all types, from small sites for non-profits to multilingual enterprise solutions for large corporations.

 TYPO3 framework offers unlimited flexibility by letting developers extend its functionality and add new types of content elements using standard programming practices like MVC (model-view-controller) design. It is also a user-friendly, intuitive tool for producing and maintaining web pages. TYPO3 is supported by a large community of both users and developers.

You can now download free, ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Azure and Amazon EC2 images for TYPO3. You can also now launch a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the launch button below.

TYPO3 Introduction Package

TYPO3 Admin panel

Get started with TYPO3 easily with BitNami!

Have an app that you love and would like to be part of BitNami?  Checkout our monthly contest page, so you can vote for it (or suggest it if not already there)

Waiting for Drupal 8? Drupal 8 Dev already available in BitNami!

Drupal, one of the most famous open source content management platforms, is getting closer to their next major release: Drupal 8. Although Drupal 8 is not ready yet, we are happy to offer a ready-to-run package with 8.x-dev and drush 7.0-dev (compatible with Drupal 8) so you can get an early look at this much-anticipated release. It can be deployed using all-in-one free native installers (for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), virtual machines and Cloud Images.

The development of Drupal 8 is being focused in 7 major "core initiatives":

• + Configuration management: In Drupal 8 configuration lives in files and the database is used only for caching. This allows developers to track changes, put configuration under version control amd update a production site cleanly.
• + HTML5: This is one of the top 5 initiatives for Drupal 8; switch Drupal's default doctype from XHTML to HTML5 adding support for the new form elements to Drupal’s Form API and other features.
• + Blocks & Layouts: Drupal 8 provides a standardized mechanism of output components (blocks, page callbacks, menus, theme settings, and more) and new tools for placing content on a page.
• + Mobile-friendly features: enablement of administrative task management from a mobile device, a mobile responsive design, and an improved front-end performance.
• + Multilingual: New functionality and tools in Drupal 8 core will make building a site with multiple languages in mind a much easier experience
• + Views in core: The Views module which is installed on 70% of all Drupal sites, will be part of the Drupal 8 core.
• + Web Services: With Drupal 8, Drupal evolves from a web CMS into a REST server that includes a web CMS. Drupal doesn't just support web services: Drupal is a web service.

The development phase for Drupal 8 started two years ago and after the feature completion phase, Alpha releases are already available. API changes may still be accepted, and it is time to provide early API feedback before starting updgrading contributed modules and themes once the API is stable. More details about the Drupal release cycle can be found on the Drupal official site.

At BitNami one of our goals is to simplify the testing of the latest versions of open source web applications. BitNami Drupal is completly self-contained and it will not conflict with your current development environment. You can download it, give a try and safely remove it when you are done.

Drupal thrives on developer contributions, and you are encouraged to get involved by testing and provide feedback.

XOOPS now available in BitNami

XOOPS is a new winner of the BitNami bi-weekly packaging contest. XOOPS is an acronym of eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System, it is an easy to use dynamic web content management system written in PHP. Its object orientation makes it an ideal tool for developing small or large community websites, intra company and corporate portals, weblogs and much more. 

You can now download free, ready to run native installers for  Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Azure & Amazon EC2 cloud images for XOOPS.

You can now launch a free cloud demo server with the BitNami Cloud Launchpad by clicking the launch button below.

Michael Beck from the XOOPS project, was kind enough to answer some questions for those of you who may not be familiar with the project.

1. What is the goal of the XOOPS application?

XOOPS is one of world's leading open source CMS and portal systems, written in PHP for the MySQL database. Its object orientation makes it an ideal tool for developing small or large community websites, intra company and corporate portals, weblogs and much more.

 

Founded in 2001 by group of international software developers, XOOPS quickly become one of world's leading Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS).  

Known and loved for its ease of use and countless powerful modules, XOOPS received numerous International Awards and Recognitions, including being the Top 5 finalist of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 CMS Awards by Packt Publishing. In January 2009 it received the 2008 China Open Source Software Contest Award and in October 2010 the "Best Technology Award" from Northeast Asia OSS Forum. In 2012 it was voted as People's Choice 1st Runner Up as Best Free CMS, and in 2013 SourceForge selected XOOPS to be included in their directory of "Enterprise-ready Open Source Projects".

2. What are some of the features of XOOPS?

- Database-driven: XOOPS uses a relational database (currently MySQL) to store data required
for running a web-based content management system.
- Fully Modularized: Modules can be installed/uninstalled/ativated/deactivated with a click using the XOOPS module administration system.
- Personalization: Registered users can edit their profiles, select site themes, upload custom avatars, and much more.
- User Management: The ability to search for users by various criteria, send email and private messages to users through a template-based messaging system.
- Supported World-wide: XOOPS was created and is maintained by a team of several hard-working volunteers working from all over the world. The XOOPS community has more than dozen official support sites around the world for support of non-English speaking users.
- Multi-byte Language Support: Fully supports multi-byte languages, including Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, etc.
- Versatile Group Permissions System: Powerful and user-friendly permissions system which enables administrators to set permissions by group.
- Theme-based skinnable interface: XOOPS is driven by a powerful theme system. Both admins and users can change the look of the entire web site with just a click of a mouse. There are also over 1000 themes available for download!

XOOPS administration panel

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

Some of the more prolific users include: 

- Libyan Ministry of Defense (http://www.defense.gov.ly/)
- Libyan National Election Commission (http://www.hnec.ly/)
- Brazilian equivalent of our CIA (http://www.abin.gov.br/)
- All government Website of State of Parana in Brazil are built with XOOPS:  http://www.parana.pr.gov.br/ and http://www.turismo.pr.gov.br
- ComputerWorld in Denmark (www.computerworld.dk)
- Centos (http://www.centos.org)
- Koreus in France (www.koreus.com)
- Goldseiten in Germany (www.goldseiten.de)

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

The main benefit for XOOPS of being in BitNami distribution will be increased number of choices for users to install XOOPS, and making it easier for them, as they will be able to install XOOPS with one click on various platforms, incl. Windows, OS X, and Linux.  

We are glad XOOPS is now part of BitNami. Would you like your favorite app to be part of BitNami? Make sure to suggest and vote for it in our contest!

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware now available in BitNami

Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware is a Wiki, CMS & Groupware written in PHP and maintained by an active and international community of volunteer contributors.

Thanks to the community votes, this application was a winner of the BitNami bi-weekly packaging contest. You can now download free, ready to run native installers for Windows, OS X and Linux, virtual machines and Amazon EC2 images.

Greg Martin, from Tiki community, helped us during the build process and he was kind to answer some questions about the project:


1. What is the goal of the Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware application?

A full-featured, free and open source, multilingual, all-in-one Wiki+CMS+Groupware written in PHP. 

2. What are some of the features?

Major features include articles, forums, newsletters, blogs, file and image galleries, wiki, bug and issue trackers (form generator), calendar, RSS feeds, category system, tags, advanced permission system for users and groups, and more.

3. Which projects or organizations are using it currently?

Tiki has been downloaded over 1 million times. All kinds of organizations, large and small use Tiki. Many are Intranets and not visible to the public but our "featured Tiki" permits to see all kinds of examples of publicly accessible sites.

4. What do you expect will be the main benefits of having BitNami packages available for Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware?

While not particularly complicated for those with experience, web applications offer a fairly high barrier to entry for the normal person.  Having the application stack packaged for simple install lower the barriers to getting Tiki running and allows one to focus strictly on customizing Tiki for their specific needs.

We are glad Tiki is now part of BitNami. Would you like your favorite app to be part of BitNami? Be sure to suggest and vote for it in our contest!

New BitNami Stack for Plone!

We are happy to announce a new addition to the BitNami Application Library, Plone CMS. It is a free and open source content management system built with Python on top of the Zope application server. Plone can be used for all types of websites, including blogs, internet sites, webshops and internal websites.

The BitNami Plone Stack simplifies the installation and configuration process of Plone and its dependencies. It includes a pre-configured version of Plone 2.4.1, Python 2.7, Apache 2.2 and all other required dependencies.

The BitNami Plone Stack is configured for both development and production environments. The default configuration is the following:

• Apache is configured as a proxy server. It is running in the default port (80 or 8080) and you can also configure it for serving your static content in production.
• Zope is running as a one instance cluster. You can easily add more instances to the cluster in your production environment. It is running in port 8081 by default.
• Zeo server is running in port 8100 by default.

Once you have downloaded and installed the free native installer, virtual machine or deployed the Amazon Machine Images (AMI's) in the cloud, you can access the Zope management interface and create your first Plone site.

Zope management interface

New Plone site

Check our Quick Start Guide to learn more about how to start working with your BitNami Plone deployment. 

We also provide simplified deployment and management of Plone in the cloud with BitNami Cloud Hosting. Sign up for our free developer plan to check it out!

New BitNami Concrete5 Stack

We are happy to announce that a new BitNami Stack for concrete5 has been released!   concrete5  is an open source (MIT licensed) content management system that allows you to deploy web applications, websites, stores and forums and easily manage their content and their site structure. concrete5 is also a flexible framework written in Object Oriented PHP 5, and follows an extensible Model View Controller approach.

concrete5 excels at both ease of use and attention to detail. It provides a powerful inline editor and allows extensive customization of the look and feel of the site. You will be able to edit the frontend directly, add new blocks quickly and even drag and drop page elements on the fly.

Adding a new block

Editing content

Now you can easily install and configure your concrete5 application in your system with Native Stacks, run a Virtual Appliance or deploy on Amazon EC2 directly.

Alfresco for Teams Now Available on BitNami Cloud Hosting

We have partnered with Alfresco to bring Alfresco Team, a platform for content sharing and collaboration, to the cloud! Alfresco Team is a powerful tool for teams that create content such as business documents, spreadsheets, presentations, designs, images, videos, and audio. Now that it is available in the BiNami Cloud Hosting library, you can deploy Alfresco Team to the cloud in minutes!