New CMS in Town
New Kid on the Block
We don't write about stuff unless we think it has practical implications but we discovered a new open-source CMS (Content Management System) called Mura, f.k.a GoSava. While it’s only been publicly available under a year, it does seem to have the right stuff. Formerly known as Sava, it’s a CMS that’s feature-rich, highly-intuitive, and easy to use. We are impressed by its out-of-the-box web modules. It seems like every need has been anticipated, planned for, and built out.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the top features and benefits we uncovered.
Top Features Every Organization Wants that Mura Has:
Multiple sites – manage the content of more than one site from one Mura Administrator Dashboard
Permissions – set access for individuals and groups down to a specific page
Users and Groups – create users and groups
News – create a section for news stories with summaries
Forum – create a sense of community by implementing an interactive forum
Calendar – enter events, meetings, and more and allow visitors to see what’s ahead
Document Management – upload files and track them from the backend, create a permissions-based document library, etc.
Forms – create feedback and contact us forms
Blogs – create a site blog
Image Gallery – add an image gallery and control sizing and display attributes
Video – embed Flash movies
But wait…there’s more:
- Advertising Management – run advertising campaigns right inside Mura
- Email Marketing – send email newsletters for marketing or group communication
- Site Search
- Real-time User and Session Reporting – the dashboard shows basic statistics
- Save Drafts and Version History – you don’t have to publish immediately plus you can go back to an earlier version
- And more…
Fast and simple content editing
Browse to the page you want to update, log in as the administrator, and begin editing either from the front or the backend. With wysiwyg editing features, all you need is the ability to type and click on icons.
Worry-free editing
You won’t accidentally break any pages because content is separated from presentation. You can preview a page before publishing it. Also there is versioning and history that tracks previous file iterations. You can go back and republish older versions of pages in seconds.
Copy and paste entire pages
Instead of reinventing the wheel, you can copy and paste entire pages. This includes the page's template, navigation options, content objects, and more. Save time and prevent repetition.
Scheduled content publishing.
I wish I had this several years ago when I had to publish content for different time zones. With Mura, you have the ability to schedule the date and time you want content to go live. You can also set a date and time for when you want the content to be removed from the site to prevent outdated postings and unnecessary site clutter.
Permissions and workflow
Grant administrative users access to only the sections you want down to the page level. Give certain users only partial rights such as the ability to only post a draft instead of full publishing rights. Give access only to certain users or groups.
Built-in help
Mura has a built-in help system including extensive support content, documentation, FAQs, tutorials and a user support forum.
Rapid site development
WIth Mura's pre-built content objects, starter templates and intuitive interface, you can quickly get your site built. You can create content objects that behave like server-side includes. Edit one file and make it appear on multiple pages across your site.
Pre-built navigation options
There are several built-in navigation options to choose from including top nav, sequential nav, and subnav with nested menu items. There are dynamically-generated sitemaps that automatically update.
Intuitive, easy interface
The best part for users is the easy-to-use interface which allows you to basically see where everything in your site resides. You don’t have to go to three, five, or 10 different folders just to change one little item in your site. It takes two clicks to add a new page, and the new page inherits the correct template and content configurations by default.
Building community
If you’re building a site that requires user interactivity and feedback, Mura has features such as the "accept comments form" with integrated CAPTCHA that can be added to any page or content node, event reminder forms, content ratings (1-5 stars), user favorites, and more. Features like these come in handy when including a blog on your site.
Other Stand-out Features
Mura also offers an image gallery with automatic thumbnail creation and image resizing and ShadowBox display. It also offers an integrated Forms Manager, with form data storage and reporting. And for eCommerce, Mura has a shopping cart with PayPal integration.
Final Thoughts
After years of experience working with other proprietary and open-source CMS software, our group has found that Mura is one of the most user-friendly builds from a development as well as user perspective. From the intuitively designed backend, almost anyone can go in and make immediate changes to a website without fear of breaking the site or overwriting a page. Best of all, there is no question where a page resides in the bigger scheme of things. The Site Manager, for example, shows in a folder-like structure all the pages, subpages, and files of a site and allows easy access for adding, editing, deleting, and publishing. A lot of the in-demand web features are built-in. There is almost no need to ever spend extra time and money customizing and hacking the main build just to implement a single must-have feature. If you would like a demo get in contact and see how this CMS can help your organization.
We don't write about stuff unless we think it has practical implications but we discovered a new open-source CMS (Content Management System) called Mura, f.k.a GoSava. While it’s only been publicly available under a year, it does seem to have the right stuff. Formerly known as Sava, it’s a CMS that’s feature-rich, highly-intuitive, and easy to use. We are impressed by its out-of-the-box web modules. It seems like every need has been anticipated, planned for, and built out.
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the top features and benefits we uncovered.
Top Features Every Organization Wants that Mura Has:
Multiple sites – manage the content of more than one site from one Mura Administrator Dashboard
Permissions – set access for individuals and groups down to a specific page
Users and Groups – create users and groups
News – create a section for news stories with summaries
Forum – create a sense of community by implementing an interactive forum
Calendar – enter events, meetings, and more and allow visitors to see what’s ahead
Document Management – upload files and track them from the backend, create a permissions-based document library, etc.
Forms – create feedback and contact us forms
Blogs – create a site blog
Image Gallery – add an image gallery and control sizing and display attributes
Video – embed Flash movies
But wait…there’s more:
- Advertising Management – run advertising campaigns right inside Mura
- Email Marketing – send email newsletters for marketing or group communication
- Site Search
- Real-time User and Session Reporting – the dashboard shows basic statistics
- Save Drafts and Version History – you don’t have to publish immediately plus you can go back to an earlier version
- And more…
Fast and simple content editing
Browse to the page you want to update, log in as the administrator, and begin editing either from the front or the backend. With wysiwyg editing features, all you need is the ability to type and click on icons.
Worry-free editing
You won’t accidentally break any pages because content is separated from presentation. You can preview a page before publishing it. Also there is versioning and history that tracks previous file iterations. You can go back and republish older versions of pages in seconds.
Copy and paste entire pages
Instead of reinventing the wheel, you can copy and paste entire pages. This includes the page's template, navigation options, content objects, and more. Save time and prevent repetition.
Scheduled content publishing.
I wish I had this several years ago when I had to publish content for different time zones. With Mura, you have the ability to schedule the date and time you want content to go live. You can also set a date and time for when you want the content to be removed from the site to prevent outdated postings and unnecessary site clutter.
Permissions and workflow
Grant administrative users access to only the sections you want down to the page level. Give certain users only partial rights such as the ability to only post a draft instead of full publishing rights. Give access only to certain users or groups.
Built-in help
Mura has a built-in help system including extensive support content, documentation, FAQs, tutorials and a user support forum.
Rapid site development
WIth Mura's pre-built content objects, starter templates and intuitive interface, you can quickly get your site built. You can create content objects that behave like server-side includes. Edit one file and make it appear on multiple pages across your site.
Pre-built navigation options
There are several built-in navigation options to choose from including top nav, sequential nav, and subnav with nested menu items. There are dynamically-generated sitemaps that automatically update.
Intuitive, easy interface
The best part for users is the easy-to-use interface which allows you to basically see where everything in your site resides. You don’t have to go to three, five, or 10 different folders just to change one little item in your site. It takes two clicks to add a new page, and the new page inherits the correct template and content configurations by default.
Building community
If you’re building a site that requires user interactivity and feedback, Mura has features such as the "accept comments form" with integrated CAPTCHA that can be added to any page or content node, event reminder forms, content ratings (1-5 stars), user favorites, and more. Features like these come in handy when including a blog on your site.
Other Stand-out Features
Mura also offers an image gallery with automatic thumbnail creation and image resizing and ShadowBox display. It also offers an integrated Forms Manager, with form data storage and reporting. And for eCommerce, Mura has a shopping cart with PayPal integration.
Final Thoughts
After years of experience working with other proprietary and open-source CMS software, our group has found that Mura is one of the most user-friendly builds from a development as well as user perspective. From the intuitively designed backend, almost anyone can go in and make immediate changes to a website without fear of breaking the site or overwriting a page. Best of all, there is no question where a page resides in the bigger scheme of things. The Site Manager, for example, shows in a folder-like structure all the pages, subpages, and files of a site and allows easy access for adding, editing, deleting, and publishing. A lot of the in-demand web features are built-in. There is almost no need to ever spend extra time and money customizing and hacking the main build just to implement a single must-have feature. If you would like a demo get in contact and see how this CMS can help your organization.
posted by joe at
7:36 AM
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