blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

We are looking into a blog function to integrate with an existing site that is about to be upgraded to 4.4

Rather than a separate WordPress blog, I'd prefer an integrated solution. I've bought from both safetynet and websitecm in the past, and both are excellent.

Based on the description pages: http://www.safetynetweb.com/Blog-for-XCART.html and http://www.websitecm.com/x-cart-mods/x-cart-blog-cms.html, the latter seems to have more features.

Anyone evaluated them or had good experiences?

cheers

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Moving to Third Party Add-Ons

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

I just installed xCMS and can only rave about the mod and Jon from websiteCM.

I tried connecting Joomla and Wordpress to xcart and it just didn't work.

Jon has just upgraded this mod to:

I can now relate entries (blogs) to any product category or product.

So, while browsing a category, you can now display related entries (blogs) specific to that category.

While displaying a Product, you can now display related entries (blogs) linked to its product category in a tab for example.

I also noticed that google picks up the entries from the blogs within hours. Not sure if it is due to the xCMS alone or in combination with the CDSEO-Pro I installed. But this combination of the 2 mods has definitely helped our google ranking.

This is truly the best content management system that integrates with x-cart. I've been waiting for years for this to work.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Let me know if you have any xcms questions.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Hi Jon,

Overall xCMS is impressive - it's just what we needed in terms of getting our site noticed by the search engines.

However we are having a problem with getting the articles related to a particular category displaying - they just don't. Is there a setting that we're missing?

As far as I can see we're doing everything correct i.e. relating the article to the category in the article editing screen.

Regards,
Chris

v4.1.5
CDSEO
xCMS

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Hi Chris,

If you send us a support ticket with FTP information we'll ensure it is working for you.

Jon

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Hi Jon,

All fixed now - thanks for your help. Just a bit missing from the installation instructions.

For future editions of the mod I might suggest including the ability to 'feature' articles or at least the ability to display in a rank order and also change the default sort display.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Thanks for the feedback, it will certainly be considered. If you have any other feedback it is always appreciated.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Would anyone have a store with xcms running on it that I could have a look to see it up and running ? or is there a demo site for xcms ?

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

We have a demo at http://demo.websitecm.com/ (customer) http://demo.websitecm.com/admin/ (admin).

You can see it active also on http://www.websitecm.com/

Maybe some users wouldn't mind offering their sites as demos also.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Thanks Jon, just wanted to check how easy it was to add images and embedded videos etc into the blog - and im very impressed as it was VERRRRY easy :-) so its def on my purchase list....

But yes would also be great to see some other Live sites using the xcms for inspiration and hints etc... :-)

Just 1 question... the images used for category/entry images are they stored in the database or file system ?

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Before I take the plunge and make a purchase can anyone describe any of the main differences between blog for xcart & xcms.... apart from the price :-) looking at the features advertised they both seem to offer the same functions ?

Thanks !

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Same question here.. what's the differenve?

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

I haven't used NewsPro before, but it seems that some of the benefits xCMS would have are top-level category display in the menu bar, unlimited subcategories, thumbnail images for both categories and posts, category description text for SEO optimization, recorded views, synopsis, cross-linked products (not just links in your article) so your article links to your product and your product page links to your article, all or individual RSS feed for subscription, integration with CDSEO including its sitemap generator for SEO.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

You can check out xcms in action on our website:

On the right hand menue scroll down to see Support/News/Learning Centre/Blogs by xcms

Displaying related content on a Category page:
(look at the top right menu)

http://www.espressoplanet.com/coffee-espresso/super-automatics-espresso-machines-coffee-makers/


Displaying related content on a Product Page:
(look at the top right menu and the product page tab)

http://www.espressoplanet.com/coffee-and-espresso/bialetti-moka-express-12-cup-stovetop-espresso-maker.html

Linking articles/content to related products/items:

http://www.espressoplanet.com/espresso-coffee-machine/how_to_use_french_press.html

Take it a step further and enter "cleaning" into the search box and look at the right hand menu

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Thanks Jon and Espresso..... xcms definately does look great, so I will opt for that choice..... shame I couldnt really compare it to the other choice (blog) as they didnt take the time to "Promote" their product here or even offer a demonstration of the product..... so Jon wins out again as he seems to be more "on the ball" which is reassuring for support issues etc if they ever arise..... :-)

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Will be happy to answer any other questions.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Just a quick question as we have been thinking about xCMS for a while.

We currently have our blog on Wordpress running on another domain on a different server. What would be the best way to handle this using XCMS.

Happy to remove Wordpress from the mix or move domains to main server.

Thanks

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

I you have an established blog on another domain you want to be careful about just shutting it down - you don't want to do that. If you are going to remove wordpress entirely, you need to add all the articles to xCMS and use 301 redirects from the old blog to the new to ensure that the link juice carries over. Depending on the situation and purposes of the blogs, it may make sense to keep that separate domain up too - depends on your situation.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

My Related Categories: section when making new entries is messed up.... I just get the first letter of every category showing instead of the full category name - any ideas ? everything else works great.....

Oh its xcms :-)

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

We've identified this as a bug on some x-cart versions. To correct:

Open skin/common_files/modules/xcms/xcms_admin_entries.tpl

FIND:

{if $c.category_path ne ""}{$c.category_path}{else}{$c}{/if}

CHANGE TO:

{$c}

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Thanks Jon - works perfect now O:)

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Hi Espresso
We have just installed xCMS and are trying to find our way around it at the moment, you seem to be using the product really well on your website.
Just wondering how you got the link to the related product in your example, is it hard coded? We can't find a way of doing it in the software.
Thanks

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Real easy to do, once you created your entry, open the entry in admin and look at the bottom of the page for the section "Entry Related Products" and ad 1 product at a time. Enjoy

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Hey thanks for that - we had "Recommended Products" module turned off so the option to link to products was not displayed at the bottom. We can see it now :)

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Jon,

I am interested buying this mod but I have 2 pre-sale questions

1. Can this mod be used on a template that is not x-cart template?

2. Can I add the news listing on a page that is outside of x-cart?

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

1. It can be used on any x-cart template even if it is a third-party template or a custom install. Any .tpl file changes for which you have a custom .tpl file, you would just make the changes to your custom file instead of the default file.

2. You can query the database easily to display the information externally but it would take some customization.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Hi Jon - I installed this mod and have been using it - but the one problem I've not liked is every entry I have had was xcms_entry... - not a clean url. In espresso's example though he has clean urls - did I miss an update for this mod?
Thanks!

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

xCMS integrates with our CDSEO module for SEO friendly urls: http://www.websitecm.com/x-cart-mods/cdseo-pro-x-cart-seo.html

Integration with default clean urls would require rewriting the way clean urls works which isn't practical.

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

Using CDSEO Pro & xCMS together is the only way to fly! We also use Jon's Category SEO Map which really makes it easy for customers so see all our products.

Our December orders were up by 41.3% in number and 40.9% in sales over last year.

Thank You Jon!

Paul

Re: blog for xcart vs xCMS?
 

^Nice!