eZ publish CMS What is CMS? What is eZ publish? Possibilities with eZ publish Benefits The main/key features of eZ publish Screenshots Technologies Security Requirements eZ publish in numbers References Technical support eZ publish demo eZ publish: 10 x YES!

The main/key features of eZ publish

Access anywhere

As long as you have a computer with access to the Internet and access to your site through a username and a password you can work with eZ publish from your office or your sofa. That way you can edit your site as quickly as you wish. Work whenever and wherever you prefer.

Admin interface

By using the standard setup in the admin interface you will soon understand and appreciate how the interface is designed and works. You have easy access to content, features, classes and users. Editing and adding content is very easy and logical. No technical experience is needed by day-to-day users.

Caching

Click a button to clear a collection of caches. You can clear selected caches like Content views and template blocks, template overrides and template compiling or INI caches in a click.

Classes

A content class is simply a definition of an arbitrary data structure. eZ publish comes with a set of predefined, ready-to-use content classes such as "folder", "article", "user account", "image", etc. These content classes are carefully designed to fit the most common generic/everyday tasks of a CMS. In addition, it is possible to create custom content classes using the administration interface. The content classes (both custom and built-in) may be easily modified and/or extended at any time.

Collaboration

With the collaboration functionality you can work together with other people or delegate tasks to others.

The collaboration functionality may also be used for many other processes, such as distributing tasks in a support service, handling of requests from customers, or invitations to meetings/events.

Contributions

eZ publish is developed by eZ systems. However everyone can add contributions to eZ publish. The large eZ publish community contributes with code, modifications, extensions plus more for eZ publish.

Customization

In eZ publish you don't have to make your content fit a certain predefined, one-size-fits-all content model. eZ publish lets you create your own content classes with exactly the attributes you need. This lets you structure your data very well, and makes it easier for you to present the data in various ways when needed.

Design

To present the objects to the user of the web page, you create templates. You would create one template for each content class, or more if objects of this class should be able to present them self in various ways. eZ publish separates Layout, Code, Content and Language. You can redesign or implement a new design or templates without worrying about the content changing. eZ publish is using cascading stylesheets (css) for design like font, sizes and colours.

Documentation

The eZ publish documentation covers common topics related to the setup and daily use of the eZ publish content management framework. In addition, it also covers some advanced topics. The documentation is written by employees of eZ systems and by community members. It is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. The documentation is always a work in progress.

Extension possibilities

With the creation of the community area it is now possible to actively develop extensions. eZ publish is built in a modular way. Much is created with a plug-in system. This allows to easily extend the functionality of eZ publish.

File handling

In eZ publish you can handle and work with all kinds of files and publish them on your website. Pdfs, images, movies and documents are among the files that can be handled.

Full version control

After you have written or edited an object you can save this and publish it immediately. But perhaps after you published it you want to change it by adding some more text and a picture. You can work on this new version of the object without worrying about the current published version. All changes to data in eZ publish 3 is version controlled and stored. This way you keep track of all changes in an article, product, users etc and always return to this later.

Image handling

With eZ publish you handle, scale and convert your images for publishing on your eZ publish site. Images can be handled as related objects and can be changed at any time through the admin interface.

Integrated search engine

The integrated search engine can search and find all your content. You can use full text search and the advanced search engine can also use logical operator such as AND/OR and phrase search.

You have the possibility to limit search based on content type, content attributes, sections and author or time stamps. The search is integrated with access control to return accessible content, which means that you set up the search to only find the content you have permission to see. Your own favourite search engine using the plug-in system may easily replace the integrated search engine.

Multilanguage support

eZ publish supports having different languages at your site. All text/labels are stored in industry standard XML language files and are easily translated using linguist translation program. All your content may be translated into the language you want. eZ publish has functionality for creating and maintaining several different translations of an article or product etc.

eZ publish also has Unicode support.

Notification system

With the notification system you can keep updated on news, releases, changes etc. You can easily set up the notification on your site. An example can be the notification system at ez.no. The users of the site can decide what they want to be updated on and when.

Online WYSIWYG editor

eZ publish does also have a plug in editor for simplified content editing, the online editor. Making headers, bold or italic text, tables, links or adding pictures has never been easier. The online editor is a plug-in that when installed will be a part of your admin interface. The program will be available for all users of your eZ publish administration site.

PDF generation and indexing

Generate PDF files from all the content on your site automatically. A customizable template system ensures full flexibility of the generated files. Use the role system to restrict access to generated PDF files. PDF documents can also be indexed in eZ publish.

Performance

The developers of eZ publish are experienced in tuning and deploying enterprise internet solutions running eZ publish to get the a very high performance. eZ publish is designed with performance in mind, both for load and speed

Role based permissions

The access permissions and privileges at your site are specified by roles. A role is a set of access policies that can be assigned to a user or a user group. The role system allows you to specify access by module (content, shop, task, etc.), by function (read, create, edit, remove, etc.), by object owner, by object class, and by site section. This gives the site administrator full freedom to customize who gets access and privileges to every part of the site.

RSS support

You can set up an RSS import for importing an RSS news feed into eZ publish.

Scalability

eZ publish can be adjusted to the needs and demands of different customers and users. Some users need much more finesse and modules on their site while others only need some of the modules. It is up to you when it comes to deciding what modules you need to satisfy your readers and users. eZ publish is very scalable and can be used at websites with a few dynamic pages to internet newspapers with several hundred thousand articles, to webshops with several hundred thousand products. eZ publish is built for today and for the future. It can adjust easily to your changes and you can add new modules as soon as they are developed by eZ systems or by yourself

Search engine compatibility

eZ publish is built to be indexed in the best possible way and is compatible with all search engines on the web. All pages on your site will be indexed.

Security

eZ publish systems can only be a secure as the hosting environment it lives on. It is wise to ensure that PHP, MySQL, Apache, PostgreSQL, IIS are as secure as they can be.

Speed and optimalization

eZ publish is build to be as flexible as possible both if you run small or large sites. Different sites may have different ways of optimisation depending on size, number of users, storage capacity, server size and Internet connection speed.

Template system and design

To present these objects to the user of the web page, you create templates. You would create one template for each content class, or more if objects of this class should be able to present them self in various ways. Each object "knows" how to call its own template and thus draw itself in the browser. This makes it simple to assemble the various parts into a complete page.

The templates use a mix of HTML/XHTML (or other presentation languages such as WML for WAP devices) mixed with template code. What the template code can do ranges from simple things like printing the title of a content object, to more advanced things like adding a text label to an image or presenting a list with alternating colors on each line.

Translation and Localization

eZ publish is developed in English, but can easily be translated and adapted to local conditions. Local settings for formatting of currency, date, time and other locale-specific values are present. The Qt Linguist program by TrollTech is used for translation. The Linguist features automatic translation suggestions and a well-designed interface. eZ publish has been translated into several languages by the eZ publish community.

Trash

If you choose to delete some of your content from your site it will be put in the trash can. It may be restored at a later time or removed completely from the system.

URL translator

The URL translator is a very useful feature that let you write more browser friendly and user-friendly urls. You can rewrite system urls like content/view/full/42 to /services. You can also use the URL translator for forwarding an old url to its new location.

User management

You can easily handle all your users and hand them privileges in eZ publish. You can add users to user groups and assign them roles that decide what the current user can and cannot do at the site.

Webdav

eZ WebDAV is a WebDAV server abstraction library. It enables you to quickly develop WebDAV enabled PHP servers/applications. WebDAV is an abbreviation for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning". It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers using WebDAV enabled clients. For example, you can use recent versions of KDE's Konqueror or Microsoft's Internet Explorer to browse/manage the content of a WebDAV compatible web server (similar to browsing/managing local file systems). DAV is an IETF Proposed Standard (published as RFC 2518). This means that it is an entirely open standard.

Workflow system

Setting up and configuring workflows is handled in the administration interface of eZ publish. You can specify workflows that are run whenever an event happens. This lets you change how things work and extend functionality without changing eZ publish code. For instance, when a shop user buys something, you can create a workflow that asks him whether he wants to have his item wrapped in gift paper. Another use for workflows is editor approval before articles can be published.

Workflows may be used for many other purposes as well: publishing processes (e.g. all articles posted on the front page has to be approved by the editor), notifications (send email to customers with items in the shopping basket, if not checked out within 3 days), move articles to archive after 3 months and managing the steps in the order check-out process.

XML handling

All content in eZ publish is stored as XML. eZ xml is a DOM XML parser written in PHP. It does not need any external libraries to work. eZ xml enables you to parse and manipulate XML documents. eZ xml supports handling of XML documents as defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0. Namespaces are supported as described by W3C in Namespaces in XML. eZ xml supports the XML Schema standard for validating XML documents. It follows the DOM level 2 as far as possible.