Heart Internet offers our customers access to an extensive library of free cgi scripts allowing them to install professional applications very quickly and with minimal effort. This article will cover the benefits of using our Content Management Systems (Joomla, Drupal, Typo3 and Nucleus) and why using them will help streamline the publishing of content online.

Quick and Easy to Update
Content Management Systems allow users to add new pages to a website with minimal effort. Your entire website is managed via your administration control panel where you can add new articles, images, polls and many other features via an intuitive interface.

Web Experience not Essential
Traditionally you would need to hire a web designer/developer to manage your website. Using a CMS eliminates the need to do this. Everything from the look and feel of your website to article management can be handled via your control panel.  It is also a very cost effective way of running your own website as everything can be updated and managed by yourself. If you are ever in need of help or guidance, you can check the CMS provider’s FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section of their website or try posting your problem over at their official support forums. A list of useful links can be found at the bottom of this article.

Automatic Navigation Generation
Menu’s will be created automatically when you add new pages/categories which will form the basis of your websites navigation, e.g. Homepage, Contact, Articles, etc. This eliminates the need to manually update your navigation each time you add a new section, saving you time, effort and preventing the risk of creating dead links.

Searchable
Using a CMS will allow your entire website to be searchable enabling people to find content fast.  The advantages of having a search system in place on your website will save users the time of having to trawl through static pages trying to find what they need. It makes for a much better user experience and is certainly less frustrating.

Scheduled Content
With most Content Management Systems you can post date articles allowing you to publish them on a certain time or day of the week.  This is especially handy if you need to publish content at certain times but you’re not available to do so – the CMS will update it for you.

Protected Content
A CMS can make certain pages viewable only to people you choose. For example, you can allow visitors to your website to view all of your basic articles but require registration for them to view premium content.

Consistent Design
Don’t worry about creating new pages for every article as a Content Management System will automatically produce them for you. The article page will be created from a single template and, no matter how much content you add, you can rest assured the look of your website will stay the same.

Extendable
Content Management Systems, such as Joomla, have an excellent resource of extensions allowing you to develop your website further and offer more functionality.  There are hundreds of extensions available, including Ecommerce, Forums, Galleries, Classified Advertisements and so much more. A link to the entire database of extensions can be found below.

Remember you can easily install your own CMS from our database of scripts that come with any hosting account.

Helpful Links

Joomla Extensions
http://extensions.joomla.org/

Joomla Community Forum
http://forum.joomla.org/

Drupal Forum
http://drupal.org/forum

Typo3 Documentation
http://typo3.com/Support.1228.0.html

Nucleus Support Forum
http://forum.nucleuscms.org/

We have updated some more of the CGI scripts you can install from eXtend 2.0, these include:

Drupal to 6.1
AgoraCart to 5.2

If you would like to install any of these onto your website please login to your eXtend Control Panel.

We have updated some of the CGI scripts you can install from eXtend 2.0, these include:

 - WordPress Blog to 2.5
 - Nucleus Content Management System to 3.32
 - Geeklog Blog to 1.4.1

If you would like to install any of these onto your website please login to your eXtend Control Panel.

We launched eXtend 2.0 last week and the feedback we have been getting has been very positive.

We have had quite a few questions about how to brand eXtend 2.0 so we have added a branding FAQ onto the Manage Control Panel Brands page in the Reseller Control Centre. Also if you just want to change the top banner in eXtend to be one of your own design than we have added an upload facility, so that you can do that easily.

If you are still on eXtend 1 I would recommend you move to eXtend 2.0 as soon as possible, all you have to do is preview your new brand on the link above and then apply it. Until you do this features in eXtend 2.0 will not be available for your customers.

Finally just a reminder that once you have moved to eXtend 2.0 you will need to update your web hosting packages to include the new features (such as Website Redirect and the new CGI scripts). We don’t add these automatically as you might not want to offer these features on all your package types.

We have made a major update to eXtend control panel today which we have been working on for some months. We have lots of new features including a new interface, file manager and many more CGI scripts.

If you are a Heart Internet Reseller we have soft-launched eXtend 2.0 so you can preview it, try the demo and create a custom brand if you want to. Once you commit a custom brand all your control panels will move to the new version. We will automatically move any Resellers who have not moved themselves on the 31st March.

If you would like some more information on this then please visit the eXtend 2.0 page or our news page.

We have updated our Joomla installer to 1.5.1 today. We had been planning on moving to this version in the next few months anyway, but recently some serious security vulnerabilities have been identified in previous versions of Joomla, so we felt we should upgrade our copy now.

To install the new version log-in to your eXtend control panel and go to the CGI/PHP Scripts section.

An overview of Joomla 1.5 is available on the Joomla Website. If you are looking to upgrade your existing Joomla site then there is a helpful article on the Joomla Team Blog on how to do this.