Simple Machines Forum, popularly referred to as SMF, is a professional free grade software package that allows you to own your online community that you have set-up. Forums are essentially applications where a topic of discussion is initiated by a particular user with other readers airing their views pertaining to the topic. Such a community can be replicated in your own web space for either staying connected to your relations or for matters to do with your business.

SMF comes with a powerful custom template engine that proffers total control of the message board layout. The unique Server Side Includes-or simply SSI-function allows your website and forum to interact with each other.
The language employed by SMF is the popular PHP and the database used is MySQL. The design is such that it affords you all the features that you require from a bulletin board with very minimal impact on server resources.

Here below are some of the outstanding features of SMF;
a.SMF is easy to use and absolutely free – SMF simplicity does mean that its features are comprimised. With powerful languages used like PHP and MySQL, SMF is designed to meet optimal performance with extensive template system, multi-language support, an efficient template system and categories/boards and topics consisting comprehensive search options.
b.Application is secure: all actions by the forum administrator require session authorizations with the prerequisite of conducting administrative work being the user’s password.  SMF being the powerful tool that it is will deny admission to the IP completely if the system detects unsuccessful login attempt from a particular IP.
c.Framework is well organized: The organization of the internal structure is brilliant and is customizable to meet your preferences. The categories of the board can either be collapsible or non-collapsible. Provisions for the creation of sub boards under main board are provided for. The administrator is able to assign particular boards to moderators.  Postings by Guest can be allowed with access permitted to select member groups. 
d.Wireless access and external integration: This feature makes SMF a cut above the other forum builders. Wireless protocols like I-Mode, WAP 2 and WAP are supported by SMF. If your phone is high-end GPRS enabled, you can surf through the boards and topics as you have access your SMF application. With WAP onwards you can be able to log into the systems and even post new messages giving an opportunity to stay connected to the community at all times.
e.Templates, themes, attachments and others: these set of features supported by SMF gave the application that extra something. The themes and templates at your disposal are varied and many to select from. SMF supports image posting and attachments on topics, fast posting tools like rich editing environment and spell check, support for polls and calendar among many others.
Having looked and discussed the features of SMF, let’s now turn our attention to its pros and cons.

Pros of SMF:

Automatic package manager is used when installing or uninstalling additional mods.
SMF is able to support multiple languages at the same time.
Option for displaying query count per page are provided for
Censoring of words is can be done either fully or partially.
Authentication is cookie and session based
Spell checker is provided for

Cons of SMF:

BBCode buttons are not supported
Custom profile fields are absent
Does not have a provision of user rating
Search flood control is absent
Customizable private message filters is lacking
To sum it up, keeping faith in its name, Simple Machines Forum is taking the online community world to a new level and more importantly in the right direction.
To conclude, Simple Machines Forum has taken the online community to unprecedented levels and more so in the right direction.  

vBulletin (VB) is a powerful commercial internet forum software. The software written is written in PHP and MySQL database server used. Jelsoft Enterprises and vBuletin solutions, both subsidiaries of internet brands, are the producers of this software.
The powerful community solution makes it easy to add forum messaging systems to your website. It’s created using MySQL and PHP known for its efficient open source database. This feature allows creation of products that are both amazingly fast yet reasonably stable.

VBULETIN FEATURES

vBulletin offers a whole lot of compelling features for both the end users , the forum administrators and moderators. Some of them are:
Private messaging
Comprehensive similes and avatars
Separate and rich-feature administrator, moderator and user control panels
Versions of printer-friendly threads and posts
Available linear, threaded and hybrid views for threads
A built-in calendar
Comprehensive permission system based on user, user groups or forums
Queue moderation for user registration and posting
Attachments complete with thumbnails preview
Private forums
Ranking and user notes
Paid subscriptions(which use PayPal, World Pay, NOCHEX and Authorize.net)
Banning features
Editable FAQ system
Friendly engine search meaning you get better ranking in the search results
Interface response
Search speed(thanks to effective content indexing)
Instant availability of new/edited posts with no delays

Customization

Thanks to a variety of in-built tools the interface can be changed with the minimum knowledge of web programming languages. Also it’s easy and fast to customize. It offers the following:
Having a built-in template editing interface; there’s no need to mess about with FTP and text editors
A full access to all the board settings through custom interface
Customizing or adding multi-lingual support is made easy since built in texts are stored as phrases
Ability to create and store multiple styles, which can be applied to different forums and users
It allows you the user to write powerful and versatile codes since conditionals are supported in all templates

EASY MAINTAINANCE

The most stable discussion board also needs maintenance often to keep it properly running. Data backup and restorations are vital because the data stored in the discussion board is the backbone of the community. This includes:
Table repair functions, built in database backups and style backup.
To allow the automated running of many administrative tools it contains a task scheduler.
Extensive board statistics i.e. number of old and new users, new posts, new threads etc.
Automatic post pruning to keep database size manageable.
Extensive server settings and optimization options.

ADVANTAGES

Here are the top key benefits/reasons to base your community on vBulletin
Versatility/Versatile
Written in PHP vBulletin makes it fast, efficient and capable of running on a broad range of hosting platforms. Fully dedicated servers offer the greatest speed, power and flexibility on a substantially increased cost unlike the shared hosting which provides a cheaper option while the semi-dedicated offers more power for a higher price. Using MySQL database it stores data and settings. Attachments can be uploaded and stored in either the database or the server file system. Also it’s fully scalable so the database server and the web server can reside on separate computers for the ultimate power and flexibility.

It can be run on any system that supports PHP and MySQM meaning that the user has a wide choice ranging from Linux and Windows to Solaris, BSD and Macintosh. The important facility allows data from another forum to be converted into vBulletin format. This includes users, posts, avatars and private messages.
The import facility supports the following boards: Infopop’s Ultimate Bulletin Board, Invision, UBBThreads, OpenTopic, ezboard,phpBB and Ikonboard.

PERFORMANCE

No matter the size of your site, vBulletin is designed with speed in mind, so you & your users won’t be stuck waiting for pages to load whether on a dial up modem or a broadband connection. Fast page loading is one of its advantages.
To sum up, vBulletin is one of the most advantageous server. With the above features its hard to ignore it. Its the best in all the ways possible to use the server. The best option you could have and the best decision you could make.

PHP Bulletin Board or simply phpBB as is commonly referred to- is a popular Internet forum package that is written in PHP scripting language. phpBB is readily available under the GNU General Public License and it’s free.  Since its inception in 2000, phpBB has grown in to become the most sought after and used Open Source forum solution.
phpBB popularity stems from the fact that it’s administration panel is user friendly and the installation process is friendly, which permits you to set-up the forum in minutes.  The key features are highly customizable coupled with a compliant standard interface.
The high customizable key features with a standard compliant interface, phpBB will grow and complement your website.

These are some of the features of phpBB

The Admin Control Panel is modular designed, as well as the Moderator Control Panel, and User Control Panel. The administrator has a lot of control on the features of the forum software like how it is displayed to user and group permission management. 
Multiple database management systems support for ODBC accessible DBMS LIKE MySQL, Firebird, SQLite, OpenLink Virtuoso, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL and Oracle.
Limitless levels of subforums support
Able to create custom defined BBCode
Custom profiles field can be created
System permission
The system style template is such that it is easy to customize and it keeps the HTML separate from the PHP.
PHPBB2 has over 48 translations through a language pack system giving phpBB an international feel.
PhpBB is compatible with multi database management systems including postgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Microsoft Access.
The interface customisations and code also known as MODs and styles.
Installation of phpBB is very easy
High security is prioritized with phpBB with extensive authorization system boosted with a strong encryption for the password safety. 
phpBB has a powerful search facility
Can take a limitless number of members for the forum 
Has private and public forums 
The message facility is very private
You are able to customize the templates 
phpBB has been designed to allow you to format the different font and styles image posting and for automatic URL link and display of the code.
Support will be provided for free by the huge phpBB community. 
The following are some of the pros that make phpBB one of the most popular free bullentin board applications.
pros:
Offers free templates/plugins/mods
MySQL, PostgreSQL and MSSQL database engines supported
Has search flood control
Posts are sorted
Able to customize private message filters
 
Cons:
phpBB mod installer is not automatic
Some of the additional mods require advanced programming skills to when installing
HTML in posts is not possible
Lacks user ranking
RSS is unavailable
PhpBB forum hosting
 
The phpBB forum hosting providers are several in the market offering absolutely free, or inexpensive hosting packages forums and also premium paid hosting packages. All the aforementioned will depend on the quality of that server and the features that are proffered in the particular package. Also the customer service quality and support provided by the forum hosting company. phpBB that are free will have very minimal disc space for their message board and pop up ads to boot. Incases of paid phpBB service, the disk space is more and is add free. 
 

Where else to blog than on WordPress which proudly everything is for free. From free distribution to free personal publishing platform. Now is there anyone who doesn’t love free stuff?

Administering and Managing the Weblog

Installation Locally

You can install WordPress on your desktop or home computer, or even on an Intranet because its designed to be installed on your own web server giving you control over the weblog; there’s an assurance of being able to access and modify everything related to your weblog.

A Portable Core

To have the tree related files of word press which form the backend of you publicly is your own choice and decision to make either in the same or different directory.

A Friendly UTC

Above everything else wordpress allows you to display the correct time on your weblog whether your host is in the same location or not. It also allows you to define your time as an offset from the Universal Coordinated Time.
Management by the user
Using user-levels, wordpress controls user-access to different features restricting the ability of users  individually to modify or create a content on your weblog by just changing their user-level.

Profiles used by the User

Any and each user on your weblog can define a profile with details eg email address, messaging instant aliases etc that’s if they want to. They are also given the freedom to control the way their details are displayed on the weblog

Easy upgrade and installation

It takes less time to install. Its also easy and simple to use.

Page dynamic generation

No rebuilding of all your pages each time you update your weblog, or any aspect of it. All pages are generated using the database and the templates each time a page from your weblog is requested by a viewer. This means that updating your weblog, or its design is as fast as possible, and required server storage space usage is minimal.
Internationalization and Localization

Now you can create a localized weblog of your choice and deliver it in the language of your choice.

Features
Tracking revision
Management by the user
Posts scheduling
Friendly search engine URLs
Multiple template support
Easy management of file uploading.

Just like everything else Word Press has the following favorable advantages/merits noted below:
Free usage- In this era nothing is entirely free but WordPress. With that ideal price its worth a try.
Minimal server requirements- Compatible with most hosting environments its strongly recommended so all features could be taken advantage of.
Easy Installation- It takes a maximum of 5 minutes to run.
Easy upgrading- It’s fairly painless to upgrade from version to version
Extensive documentation- It has a wide range of documentation to cover any topic you can think/come up with
Release of frequent versions- It regularly updates and patches up keeping it secure and edge cutting
API framework- It enables complete customization of the software through the creation of additional plug-in or functions
Loyal and large user community- Thousands of websites use WordPress. There has been development of large community users and one of the advantages is a lot of knowledge is shared and can be obtained on the internet
Easy and simple to use- Within a few uses, anyone can become a WordPress expert. It has a very intuitive interface that requires little training.
If you are to make money from your blog WordPress doesn’t allow you to place your own ad on your website.
Since the basic service is entirely free WordPress displays their own ads on your own site
Freedom for website customization is limited but if you want to change the look of it you’ll be required to pay $15/year.
Storage space is minimal/limited meaning if you are running something big e.g. photo blog you’ll run out of space before you are through.
Your own domain can’t be used since you are given a default service; but many users use their own domain names at a low price of $10/year.
Number of registered users is limited because WordPress sets a 30-person cap on how many users are to be registered at your blog.

X-cart is an out of the box server-based shopping cart. It is a user-friendly shopping cart which has been developed by a group of people engaging in e-commerce. It is easy to install and modify hence does not need technical knowledge. All you need is a browser and you will be able to access your account anywhere in the world.
FEATURES OF X-CART
X-cart has different set of features which include:-
1. Easy to use: – Back-end interface in X-cart has different sections which are browser-based e.g. Management, Administration, Your profile, Help, Authentication e.t.c making it easy to understand and handle. To avoid any complications, let X-cart set up everything for you.
2. Easy installation: – You only buy it one time and host it whenever you want it. What you will need is a hosting service which will run your shopping cart. X-cart will recommend to you a list of hosting partners to choose from.
3. Help: – X-cart provides adequate help to its members. You will have to use their website to access the help you want. Forums, FAQs and reference manuals can be easily accessed.
4. Setup and support: Programming is not necessary. X-cart has a web based installation wizard with complete store-builder package. It contains a web interface which is easy to use enabling the consumer to access all future releases.
5. General layout and design:- Contains free 18 skins templates with separate template sets for the storefront and back end. Has built-in template editor which previews, edits and restores templates. Displays a tree of templates for all pages which makes it possible to find, create and modify static HTML pages.
6. Details of the products: – Shows different unlimited options on the products with reasonable prices fit for the customers. It displays unlimited number of images of the products showing the descriptions of each product.
7. Security:- Full secure HTTPS/SSL password –protected administrative access. It displays security notifications in case of failed login attempts. Compares status of stored files before and after modification to discover which files have been deleted, added or modified. Has a random-number image to protect registration pages and email forms from hackers.
8. Shipping and taxing:- Has different weight limits for different delivery methods. X-cart provides promotional “free shipping” coupons to the customers for real-time shipping. Handles international, domestic and local shipping for the products charging the freight charges’-cart allows customers to choose delivery methods charging taxes and shipping fees depending on the location of the consumer. Only specific goods are charged for specific taxes.
9. Methods of payments:- X-cart accepts payments in any currency or online using payment modules. They offer credit card processing for their clients. Provides different set of payment methods which includes checks, purchase orders, phone orders, wire transfer e.t.c.
10. Traffic report:- X-cart tracks the number of customers who looked at a product, which they added to their cart and each step in the check-out process. This information is helpful in knowing where exactly the breakdown is in the shopping cart.
Advantages
1. Have smarty templates which are useful in laying out of a website. May programmers like working with this system.
2. Supported commercially displaying few or none bugs.
Disadvantages
1. Licensing fees for the system is expensive due to great add-on modules which cost more money.
2. X-cart is configurable but it does take some knowledge to edit templates. Customization is not easy especially for beginners.
Conclusion
X-cart is a good product with many great features and add-on modules. It provides tools which enables the user to manage his website. It offers credit card processing and allows flexible shipping options. Even though the installation and setup are not very user friendly, they do offer to set everything up for a small price. You can purchase the software and host it whenever you like.

A high feature rich open source shopping cart application with everything an online shop could ever desire for.

The features of Magneto include:

Catalogue Browsing

Under this we can find favor because it includes:

• Products that have been viewed very recently
• Comparison between various products
• Reviews about certain products
• Format/grid list of products
• Product tags through filter among others in this category.

Catalogue Management

In this we find:

• Low inventory alerts fed by RSS
• Rewriting and redirecting of search results
• Support of special prices and advanced pricing rules
• Product type, tax rates per location and customer group
• Personalized customer products e.g. Monogramming
• Product virtualization
• Products batched updates in admin panel among many others.

Product Browsing
In this category we find:

• Review of products
• Availability of stock
• Wish list additional
• Selection of optional products
• Wide view of grouped products
• Relation of products/products which are related etc

Customer Account
This includes the following:

• Account re-orders
• Items ordered recently unlimited address book
• Able wish list to add comments
• Submission of product reviews
• Submission of product tags
• Status order and history among many more.

Site Management

Under this we can find:

• Localization support
• Multiple currency support
• Informational pages from content management  system
• 100% fully customizable designs using templates
• Flexibility of tax rate management with support of US and international markets
• Upgrade just one click
• Integration between Magento and any third party application through Web Services as API etc

Order Management

This includes:

• Ability to create re-orders for customers from administration panel
• Orders through Email notifications
• Packing of slips and printing of invoices
• New feed of orders through RSS
• Admin panel enables you to view, create, edit and fulfill orders etc

Shipping

Mostly it’s stressing and mounts pressure on us. Maybe the following can actually help who wouldn’t want some of them:

• Shipping made free of charge
• Number of items and destinations are tabled
• One order can actually ship to various addresses
• Rates for product sub-totals and destinations are tabled
• Shipping rates per item and per order are fast etc

Checkout

It contains:

• Acceptance of gift messages per order and item
• Non-guest checkout account
• An option to create account at the beginning of checkout
• Usage of address book to checkout with account
• Configurable expiration time for saved shopping carts

Search Engine Optimization

This entails the following:

• Engine search 100% friendly
• Popular auto-generated search terms page
• Full control of URL rewrites
• Google map site
• Map site auto-generated for onsite display

Everything has its merits and demerits no matter how good or how nice it looks or sounds

It takes whole lot of time before we see or notice the demerits than how fast we notice the advantages and the use of anything. It’s discouraging and heart breaking to know that. We have seen some of the features of Magento how about we take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of it all.

Advantages /Merits

Magento has the following favorable advantages:

• Capability to multi-storing meaning you can store up anything to any amount.
• Nice template default-you can put your work on any template without changing the appearance/look of it.
• The company that backs the cart is very active in updating the code and fixing bugs meaning you don’t have to pay someone to do it for you hence saving any costs.

Demerits

Since everything has its advantages Magento has the following disadvantages:

• More customization time is required since heavily layered and overly complicated coding style takes a whole bunch of precious time more than other carts. More patience is also required to learn and do customizations.
• Limited technical documentation
• Difficulty in customizing and modifying programming of magento beyond doing graphical changes

This content management system (CMS) allows you to build powerful online applications and websites. Joomla popularity stems from its extensibility and user friendly that is the website software. Joomla is easily available to many people thanks to the fact that it is an open source solution.

The powerful CMS, Joomla! is derived from a Swahili word-Urdu-meaning all together. Designers will opt for this CMS thanks to its engine excellent capabilities of making amazing websites. Start ups to Joomla and in website management have little to worry about as it is very user friendly. Customizing in joomla has been made thanks to the high number of developers who are busy creating easy to understand tools. Developers will have a bias for Joomla because of its system development and customization capacity. The newly built MVC framework is such that anyone with knowledge can, without any modifications to the original code, override the core of the CMS.

Joomal lacks the flexibility that is evident in Drupal with its codes. Of course you can override what the default codes do in more than one way, but some sections of the systems cannot be pushed as you can Drupal. Joomla has the inability to create multi-sites puts it in an awkward stead when comparing it with other CMS.

Compared to Wordpress is still lagging in regards to its ease of use. Novices, people who lack knowledge on how the internet and internet works, in Wordpress and Joomla prefer the former system over the latter. That is not to say that it is complex as practically anyone interested in Joomla can be taught.

This CMS is utilized all over the world to power websites of all sizes and shapes. Examples include: small business websites, not for profit organization websites, online reservation and E-commerce, Institution websites like for school and churches, family and personal WebPages, online magazines and publication, websites and portals for corporate and for corporate intranet and extranet.

For developers Joomla will enable them easily and quickly build the following:

• Systems for reservation
• Tools for data reporting
• System for e commerce integration
• Application Bridges
• Catalogues for custom products

The fact that Joomla is PHP and MySQL based, the application you build are powerful on a platform that is open so that anyone can use, share and support.

System requirement

• Joomla can only support with MySQL
• Joomla supports Apache, SSL loggings and SSL pages

Site management

• Joomla has no free add on for workflow management
• Joomla has minimal granular as compared to Drupal
• After looking at Joomla features, we turn our attention to the advantages and disadvantages of this CMS.

Joomla Pros

• This platform is user friendly to the Administrators, Developers and Designers
• The large community is resourceful especially in creating websites
• Joomla has seen rapid growth and improvement of the software
• Installation and set up is an easy affair
• The learning curve is easy o comprehend
• The modules for things like calendar and polls are more polished

Joomla Cons

• In as much as it is user friendly, not all everyone understands it.
• Not powerful as Compared to Drupal, and is somewhat confusing for some start ups
• The entire system saw a complete overhaul but many are still using the older version (1.0.x)
• If you intend to create high end sites you have to invest a lot of money.
• Modules come at a cost

A lot of opportunities, different uses and ideas can be derived from this content management system. Joomla as mentioned elsewhere in this article doesn’t require any skills or knowledge. With minimal web designing knowhow, you can come up with an amazing website by using the several modules of Joomla.

Drupal is a content management system (CMS) akin to Wordpress and Joomla that is used for creation of web pages like blogs and social networking sites. For start-up in web designing and creation, the following pros and cons will determine if you will use this platform or its competitor

Benefits and limitations of using Drupal themes and system.

• Just like Wordpress, Drupal is free.
• Designers opt for Drupal as compared to other CMS as it allows creative minds come up with extraordinary designs. With this platform you can dream of a design and create it. This shows the prowess of Drupal.
• You benefit from extendable and powerful modules provided by this type of CMS. If your interest is creation of web pages like social networking sites that expand and develop with time, then Drupal themes.will be very useful.
• User roles in Drupal, unlike other CMS platforms, can be customized. Such is important for those interested in the creation of complicated site. Users of this platform attest to the ease that fresh information types can be created and extended with no hiccups, especially for those who are well conversant with Drupal themes. This CMS platform is a must for those intending to manage sites with several types of media.
• The template system of this content management system is very powerful for it can convert any XHTML or CSS template easily.
• The API is of high quality code and it’s easily integrated with other solutions.

Drupal has the following disadvantages:

• The themes lack the attractiveness evident in Wordpress.
• Users attest to the fact that managing a site using Drupal is time consuming and may as well be as a full time job.
• Many users admit that Drupal as a platform is hard to use.
• Image handling is a weak feature of CMS type.
• Many people using this platform find it cumbersome and time consuming to migrate to word press. On the other hand, it’s easy to migrate to other platform when using Word press.
• You have to add a rich-text editor as Drupal does not contain this module.
• The following are some of Drupal features

System Requirements:

• Drupal works with Postgre and MySQL. This platform is also known to support Apache or IIS.  These system requirements are what distinguishes from other platforms like Joomla that only work with MySQL.

Site Management

• Workflow management of Drupal has free Add on.
• Drupal comes with an inbuilt translation manager.
• The granular privilege management in Drupal is more.

Interoperability

• Drupal is supported by iCal (add on)
• Drupal is complaint to XHTML.
• The versioning and Audit trail of Drupal is excellent, which are lacking in other platforms

The popularity of Drupal can be seen from the high profile sites that utilize this platform. e.g MTV UK, Nasa, New York observer, Greenpeace UK and BBC

In summation Drupal architectural superiority is like no other and is very Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly. The platform can be used as a large visitor site or for a simple FAQ site depending on your preferences.

Hey all, in this blog we will deal with more news related topics and guides of smaller size. In the meantime please check out our other articles that’s already ready. Like Switching Web Hosts, cPanel, VPS Hosting vs. Dedicated Server and more.