New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

xCMS for X-Cart is a fully integrated, full featured content management system that allows you to post blogs, information, news, articles and more to x-cart.
Questions? Call us! 1.604.477.7049

FULLY INTEGRATED WITH CDSEO!
We've updated our SEO optimization module, CDSEO Pro for X-Cart, to provide xCMS with all the SEO optimization tools of CDSEO including xml sitemap integration, search engine friendly urls, custom page titles, meta descriptions, meta keywords and link titles.

Category Features

• Unlimited categories and unlimited subcategories.
• Top-level categories are displayed in menu dialog boxes in your side navigation.
• Default top-level categories include blogs, information, news, and articles which can be enabled/disabled/edited/deleted easily to customize your content needs.
• Synopsis for categories allow ideal SEO keyword optimization for the pages.
• Thumbnail images for categories can be easily added through the admin panel.

Entry Features

• Integration with x-cart's WYSIWYG editor makes formatting entries simple.
• Entries can be posted with an expiry date to display content that will automatically expire; ideal for mentioning sales and specials, etc.
• Post date for entries can be specified so you can post entries to the past, or to the future. When posting to the future, entries won't appear until their post-date so you can post many entries at once for future post dates and search engines will believe your site is being constantly updated.
• Records the number of times an entry has been viewed which can optionally be shown on entry pages.
• Entries can be sorted by Recent, Most Commented, Most Viewed.
• Article listings are paginated allowing you to configure the number to display per-page.
• Synopsis for entries allow ideal SEO keyword optimization for the pages.
• Thumbnail images for entries can be easily added through the admin panel.

Comment System

• Captcha and optional url prevention in comments aid in the prevention of spam.
• Comments aren't posted live until given admin approval.
• Admin receives email notification of pending comments.
• Comments can be disabled globally or for specific entries.
• Comments are paginated allowing admin to configure the number to display per-page.
• Comments can be batch updated to modify/approve/delete.

Additional Features

• RSS feed allow users to subscribe to your content feeds.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

I just bought it, so hopefully it will work out. The idea behind it sounds great.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

I just bought it too. I'm hoping this mod will increase our google rankings once we begin adding lots of articles, blog content, etc. to the site. It is a nice looking mod. I've only been using it for a little while but here's my feedback so far.

Pros:
- support is excellent (really - very fast and helpful)!
- interface is user friendly
- very flexible in terms of setting up your own categories and subcategories and arranging them in order, etc.
- flexible in terms of what you would like to display on the home page
- ability to add pictures
- ability to link "related item(s)" from the store to a particular blog or article (this is a bidirectional link which also shows on the product page - very cool!)
- wysiwyg editor for blog/article entries
- integrates nicely with CDSEO Pro (it creates seo friendly urls for your blog entries automatically, etc.)
- offers rss feed option

Cons:
- there's no option to have thumbnail images for articles, which means I've spent a lot of time re-sizing images in photoshop to get things looking "clean" and symmetrical - it seems to me this would be easy to add because x-cart already has the ability to do this, but I'm no programmer so I'm not sure.
- when you add a "related product" it doesn't display the product images thumbnail size the way they appear in the product listings, it shows them full size for some reason. This means if you use x-cart's automatic resizing for your product thumbnails (which I do, see the above mentioned dislike of resizing stuff in photoshop) all the previews of your "related items" will have large images.
- no option to have tags for entries the way you do in Blogger
- no option to order blog entries or articles - they are sorted by date. This is a bit of a pain because if you edit something it resaves it as the first (or most current) entry. There is the option to order the categories the way you like so it would be nice to add it for the entries as well.
- no option to subscribe to blogs by means other than rss (email, "following", etc., although maybe these things are particular to Blogger? (sorry, I'm not that blog savvy!)

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Thanks for the wonderful feedback. The image system does use the same image system that x-cart does so the image issues you are experiencing seems odd. The user can sort the entries by date/views/comments. We'll definitely consider your feedback for new options/features as we will continually improve the product based on feedback.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Here's an example of the image issues. The image on top has been manually reduced to appear thumbnail size otherwise it would be large as well (it does not automatically get reduced to a thumbnail. Maybe giving the user the option of having it thumbnail size or large when uploading would be better). Also the image for the "related item" on the right hand size appears full size which is too large:
http://www.lebabyshop.com/news/whats-new/whats-grrrrrrowling-around-at-le-baby-shop.html

Ideally it should appear thumbnail size like it does here:
http://www.lebabyshop.com/ride-on-toys.html

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Any thoughts on fixing the image issues?

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Love this product! So easy to use and quickly installed by Jon. We love to see our customers commenting on our news, blog and video library. Easy to set-up categories, add/edit entries, review comments and it integrates perfectly with CDSEO.

Great product and excellent support - Well Done!!

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

I have installed it but it seems to be missing a file xcms_admin_category_add.php. You cannot delete a thumbnail image. Plus when you change a blog icon all blog icons seem to change.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Sounds like there may be some install issues, please open a support ticket with us and provide FTP and we'll help get you fixed up.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

ive raised a ticket for the missing file.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Jon - Quick question about the public side of the xCMS system.
If you check out my site, you'll note the blocks on the right side of the screen. I want to move the Auth block (Your Account) up above the xCMS blocks and insert a couple of images (site SSL and credit cards accepted images) between that your blocks. What template do I need to play with to do this?

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

The xcms code is put into the menu by modifying skin1/customer/home.tpl. You can modify this file to move the positioning of the blocks.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

OK - thanks... one other question. In looking at the menu_customer.tpl file, I see how you loop through the categories but I actually would like to split the blocks.

In other words, I want to take the "Info" block and move it to the other side of the screen just above the Help block. The issue is that I am trying to balance the screen a bit - notice that the bottom border of the articles block is cut off.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

You can split them up by including them in both columns, but it takes some customization:

1) Make a copy of menu_customer.tpl and call it menu_customer_info.tpl

2) Open menu_customer.tpl and find:


After Add:

{* Do not display the info category *}
{* Change X to the numeric id of your info category *}
{if $xcmsNavigationCategories[cats].categoryid ne X}

Find:



BEFORE add:



3) Open menu_customer_info.tpl and find:



After Add:

{* Only show the info category *}
{* Change X to the numeric id of your info category *}
{if $xcmsNavigationCategories[cats].categoryid eq X}

Find:



BEFORE add:



4) In your home.tpl put this code where you want the info block to appear:

{* WCM - xCMS *}
{if $active_modules.WCM_xCMS}
{include file="modules/xcms/menu_customer_info.tpl"}
{/if}
{* / WCM - xCMS *}

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

OK - I tried your steps and all kinds of chaos broke out... lol

None of the blocks showed up, nor the top "banner" on our site.

Got errors as well.
Error: Smarty error: [in modules/xcms/menu_customer_info.tpl line 68]: syntax error: mismatched tag {/if}. expected {/section} (opened line 10). (Smarty_Compiler.class.php, line 2338) in /home/vacsew/public_html/include/lib/smarty/Smarty.class.php on line 1093

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENDIF in /home/vacsew/public_html/var/templates_c/%%F2^F28^F28A59C7%%menu_customer_info.tpl.php on line 141

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Eh... never mind... saw where my error was... Looks great! Thanks!

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

How do I drop the bottom bar (users online, etc) so the bottom of the Help menu isn't getting cut off?

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Strange as theoretically the bottom bar should space itself correctly automatically.

You can try putting a <br /> after the help box.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Good call - that fixed.... now I am happy! lol

Thanks again for the amazing support!

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

I've installed XCMS along with CDSEO Pro - everything seems to be working fine, except my item entry image does not show up on the news entry (all I've tried so far). The product images under related items does show up. Here is a link http://www.ihobbycentral.com/xcms_entry.php?xcmsentryid=1 Thanks,
Bill
This site X-Cart Gold 4.1.9
CDSEO Pro
XCMS
Featured Product Manager
and more

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Hey Bill,

If you go into your X-Cart admin and click on Images Location and try go down to Images of Type E, try changing it from wherever it is storing the images to the other option. So change from Database to File System or vice versa. If that doesnt work please submit a ticket at our support system.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Thanks Jon,
I switched it to File and that worked. I do have one other question: I was under the impression that it would place thumbnails on the homepage etc.. I don't see any option for thumbnails. I disabled putting "recent entries" entries on the bottom of the homepage as it takes up too much space with a 450x450 image. Also in the entries I would have thought the images for the related items would be thumbnails. Currently they are full size images, which detract/distract from the main entry. Do I have to make a choice between either uploading a thumbnail or a full size image in admin? Hope my question is clear lol.

Bill

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Well for related products I could edit your .tpl to show smaller thumbnails for the related products, that uses product_thumbnail I should be able to get it to use same size as other thumbnails.

As for the actual entry images you should resize them to the size you want before uploading them to the entry.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Thanks Jon,
I've only done a couple of entries so far. I'll play with it a little longer and see how it works out.

Thanks
Bill

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Hello,

Does xCMS allow you to define where the pages and such are? Like have the main site (example.com) load a CMS page and then have X-carts default root page be in something like /shop/ ?
Also, is there anyway without requiring modification to make the search feature search the articles?


Edit:
Got the second answered by Jon via support ticket, which was a 'No'.
For root, I looked on the demo and saw no way to do so, so that's also a no.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

I installed xCMS a couple of days ago and just have to say THANK YOU Jon! It's only been a couple of days but I can't image not having this mod (along with CDSEO Pro).

For way over a year I had my site wrapped around Wordpress but it always felt like a square peg in a round hole. xCMS seamlessly integrates with x-cart and together with CDSEO Pro I'm finally satisfied I have the tools needed to surpass my competition for top SERPs.

Thank you for creating such outstanding mods for all of us!

Paul

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Just made a purchase for this. Will post thoughts after it's installed.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Hello Jon,

Just got your xCMS ,,,, great product!

there are 1 or 2 minor issues but if have logged a ticket a few days back.

Apart from that, one quick question, I have the "related news" appearing on the home page on the right hand column and under the featured products section which is all good. i have created an article and related it to a certain category and when i go to the category page all appears ok in the right hand column , once again all good ,,,,, my question is can I get the "related article" to also appear at the bottom of the category page in a similiar manner as "recent article" does on the home page?

i have attached a pic of what it looks like on the home page.

thanks in advance

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

We're behind on support tickets right now but are working hard to get caught up. Make sure you've supplied FTP information in your ticket to help expedite a solution.

You would have to duplicate and rename the side menu content for the category, then make the appropriate changes to the display to display the additional information and include it accordingly.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Hi Jon,

i posted a support ticket #KZK-674-32994 on 31 may. can you check that is has got through as i have not had a response so far. i think i need to add cdseo pro as well

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

^ I'll have a look for it now.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Hi Jon, re ticket KZK-674-32994 (i would not normally post ticket issues on the forum but you mentioned in your response on the ticket that it had been misfiled and i have not heard anything further)

Can you view this ticket for me and see if we can get the issue sorted.

thanks

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

accesspos did you hear from Jon? I have an open ticket since June 30 and never got any respond.

Tammy

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Hi Tammy,
well sort of, only when i did my last post on this forum he sent me an email. i mentioned a few issues with xcms. they are not that major but the issues are not just with my site and xcms but are with others on this thread that use xcms but they may not be aware. at the time i also mentioned to him that i also needed to buy cdseo as i needed the "clean url" for xcms so Jon explained the advantages etc. i then proceeded to go onto his site and i purchased cdseo on 29 June + i also paid for him to install.

i have never heard from him since. cdseo has not been installed. i have emailed him a few times to enquire but no response. i thought that he maybe waiting to release cdseo version 1.80 as someone else on this forum reported a few issues. when i emailed Jon i just asked him if this was the case to just let me know as waiting is no problem for install if this is the case etc. no response.

I have purchased a number of mods from websitecm and they are brilliant. in the past their support has been spot on.

Jon and websitecm have a great reputation in the xcart community and i trust their organisation. maybe Jon is sick or something

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

accesspos, thanks for the respond.

Me too, always get immediate respond. Even if it's only some question here in the forum, he helps. I believe he has other people working for him, that is why i do not understand why no body replied.

I hope he is OK and we'll soon hear from him.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

I am waiting to hear back from Jon as well. While this probably isn't the appropriate thread, I think we would all appreciate an update from anyone who has heard from WebsiteCM in the last 2 weeks.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Has anyone heard from Jon recently?

I opened a ticket with him about a week ago and have not heard from him at all.

Seems unusual for them.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

I'm here but we are understaffed and overloaded. I'm doing my best! If you don't get a response for any reason feel free to send me a PM with your ticket id # and provide FTP if appropriate to help expedite a solution.

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the response and PM is sent.

Hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Re: New Release: xCMS - Blogs, Information, News, Articles and more!
 

Sorry I hadn't been deleting my PM's historically and my box was full. Please resend or email me directly to jon at websitecm.com