geeky tutorials, tips, guides and reviews
Simply put, OpenCart might be one of the best looking ecommerce scripts out there today. It is a robust shopping cart solution for anybody out there that wants to host their own good looking online store. If you are an online merchant that wants to get a good looking store set up at a minimal cost – OpenCart is worth checking into.
Having played with the script for a few weeks, I can tell you that Vanilla offers a great and unique forum package for your website. A few weeks ago, I set it up for the forums I added to Firefox Facts and I really could not be happier with it. It seems to almost do everything that I need, plus it keeps things really straight to the point. Vanilla might be the best forum script for people who don’t want their forums to look like the next guy’s.
Tired of dealing with databases when setting up a content management system on your hosting account? Wish you had a simpler alternative, that didn’t seem so complex? You might want to try out GetSimple. This XML based CMS is loaded with all the features every website needs, and that is it. If you need a simple way to mange a small website, it might be the best alternative out there.
The forum script phpBB might be the king of kings when it comes to free forum scripts. However, the script itself if often susceptible to security problems and hacks due to its success. So, with that said you might be looking for an alternative to this message board suite.
There is nothing wrong with have a few more scripts to choose from, and there are many great forums scripts in the sea. Here are some of the best phpBB alternatives out there.
The Easy Musicplayer For Flash, or otherwise known as EMFF, is in my opinion easily the best free audio player, built in flash. I have been using it to provide a player on up to six of my latest shows on webhostingshow.com.
What makes it so cool? Well, for one, it does not take a college degree to get started with. The creator of the player gives a simple four steps to get it up and running:
It does not lack in the features department either. It provides volume control, keyboard shortcuts, play, stop, pause, previous, next, Show information about a track and much more.
So if you have looked at my past list of the 5 best flash podcast players, and they didn’t do it for you, give EMFF a chance at playing your MP3s.
Looking to setup a new wiki, but don’t know which script you should pick up to do the dirty work? Many might say that MediaWiki is the best and the most popular, since it is what is used to run Wikipedia. However, there are some great alternative wiki scripts you might have (or might not have) even seen before.
DokuWiki – Aimed at creating documentation of any kind, DokuWiki is a standards compliant wiki with more than a few nice features. It has anti-spam controls, all the basic editing features, supports over 30 languages and has built in page caching for quicker page rendering. It also features a number of plugins and themes to try too.
BoltWire – A small and easy to use alternative wiki script, Boltwire is still able to deliver with surprising flexibility. The neat thing here is that it has database-like storage and retrieval of form input values. But no database! You can also restore a deleted page at any time, and customize ever site action from within the browser.
WikyBlog – So it is a blog and a wiki? Well I wouldn’t say it is both as much as it tries to fuse the best of both worlds. WikyBlog brings in the user friendly publishing characteristics of blogs, delivered with the easy to use wiki syntax. Designed with speed in mind, it is a groupware application that is a nice alternative to the more traditional wiki scripts out there.
WikkaWiki – I promise this wiki script has nothing to do with voodoo or magic. The WikkaWiki is a script that was forked from WakkaWiki. With speed, extendibility and security in mind, this wiki script deserves your attention. They are also working on better ways to integrate WikkaWiki into other content management systems like WordPress, SMF, phpBB and more.
PmWiki – Taking a different approach to content management, Pm wiki looks and acts like a normal web site. The only difference is that each page inside of the site has an “edit” link to make modification of the page easier. You can limit the editing to just one person, a team of people or the entire world. This script would be for people who want a web page, with some wiki-like features.
Which wiki script is your favorite? Is MediaWiki still the hands down winner to you? Would love to hear more about your own experiences with any of these top alternatives to MediaWiki.
A fast and lightweight PHP-powered set of forums, PunBB is a script you may not have heard much about but I can promise it is well worth looking into. The goal of this script is to be faster, smaller and less graphically overpowering in comparison with other forum scripts out there. That alone makes it a good option if you are on a shared web hosting account.
The requirements to get PunBB are fairly light too:
To install, all you need to do is upload the script to the location you want it on your web hosting account, and then run the install.php from the forum’s root directory, then follow the on screen instructions.
One thing I don’t like is the fact that they have various versions of the script to download from the main page. You have PunBB 1.3 and PunBB 1.2. This is an annoyance for me with several scripts out there. Personally I like just having one download link with the latest version right there in front of my face.
PunBB is also extendable. After you install it, you can take your choice of which extensions you want. They can do anything from giving you a CAPTCHA to register and post to adding poll-like features.
Give PunBB a shot. Why? Well, as they put it because less is really more.
Bonus - be sure to check out our other free forum script reviews!
Via a request I got via e-mail I recently posted a tutorial for Lunarpages on how to install bbPress onto your run-of-the-mill Linux-based hosting account. I have to say, I had never used bbPress before till then, and I like it a lot.
For those of you who may not recognize the name, bbPress comes from the creators of WordPress. As they make note of via their web site, “bbPress is focused on web standards, ease of use, ease of integration, and speed. We’re focused on keeping things as small and light as possible while still allowing for great add on features through our extensive plugin system.” Think of it as WordPress for forums – but a little less popular than WordPress is today.
You have plugins and themes there too, so you can customize the forums as much or as little as you like. Personally, I kind of liked them how they were via the default install. I am sure though I’d want to add something eventually though, so nice to know the option is there.
If you want to try out the back end and front end demos, head over to OpenSourceCMS.com. They have a working demo of both up for you to tinker with and see if you like it or not. Those who have used WordPress before will be greated with a very familiar interface. You can download bbPress or get more information at bbPress.org.
Bonus - be sure to check out our other free forum script reviews!
Over the past few weeks I have reviewed a ton of blogging script software selections. Some are good, some are just ok – and some, well I might not have a reason to use them, but you might.
Have any other blogging script suggestions you would like for me to check out?
Are you wanting to find a weblog or CMS system that is user friendly and easy to use out of the box? Well, the people behind Zomplog describe themselves as being focused at helping you with publishing your content rather than learning a lot of code.
As far as free blogging scripts go, Zomplog appears to have all the bells and whistles. It is highly extendable, and tons of great features. Here is a little more from the developers:
Just because Zomplog is easy to use, that doesn’t mean it only lets you do basic things! Zomplog supports static content, or pages, if you like. This way you can easily use zomplog as an simple content management system! Want to be a broadcaster? Zomplog lets you create podcasts or video podcasts (vodcasts) on the fly! Just upload, and everything else is taken care of!
Sounds great, right? The only big problem I had with them was I could find no install guide via their web site. I had to download the the script, and then hunt through the files in there for one called “read me”. I did finally find it, however it was a lot of work. Nothing too surprising in there, setup the script, your databases and you are good to go.
There are a number of various themes and plugins to check out too, to help you mold your Zomplog powered blog to something you can use or that you need. If you are the type of person who likes to play with a script before you install it, you can have a look around at the interface on the demo hosted by OpenSourceCMS.com.
Zomplog is another fine blogging script alternative worth checking out.
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Mitch Keeler is nothing more than your average Joe trying to leave his mark on the world though both his professional work and his online projects, articles, podcasts and more.
