b2evolution Web Hosting

b2evolution Web Hosting

b2evolution is a multi lingual, multi-user, multi-blog publishing system that is written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License and is available free of cost. This power blog tool can be installed on the user’s website. Very rich in features and user-friendly applications; b2evolution can be installed within minutes on any LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) host. It comprises of all the essential features of a traditional blog tool and much more. It offers evolved and advanced features like photo and file management, advanced skinning, multiple blog support as well as third party plug-ins among others.

The posts appear within a matter of seconds and can be easily arranged by date and category into a skin or theme of the user’s choice and that too can easily customized to suit the user’s specifications and choice. B2evolution can be installed as an extension to a website that a user owns and runs on your own website and domain. The basic function of this advanced weblog tool is similar to the blogger or typepad. However, b2evolution differs from the above in two ways. Firstly, it is available at no charge and secondly it can easily run on the user’s website or domain. In other words, the host should run web applications written in PHP. Its other key features include:

• Advanced browsing (paged, calendar, categories, search etc.)
• Extended & multi paged posts.
• Image/file upload & management.
• Multiple and sub-categories.
• Draft and quick publishing.
• Automatic pinging of blog directories.
• Skins and Themes.
• Plug-ins and much more.
• Offers anti-spam deluxe: This comprises of a combination of active and passive anti spam measures — including a community shared blacklist.
• Multiple Blogs: With just a single installation; users can use it for thousands of blogs at the same time. Moreover, users have the flexibility to keep each blog on a separate page, in a different folder, or on a different domain. Not just that; users can display several blogs on the same page as well. Photoblogs, moblogs, linkblogs ,blogrolls can all be added without any hassle.
• Blog Skins: You can dress up your blog to your own taste and preferences. Not just the blog looks; the skin also determines your blog behavior: traditional blog, knowledge base and bug tracker. Skins can also be downloaded to be installed.
• Multiple users and authors: Users can be given the permission to read, write, moderate or fully customize any number of blogs.
• Integrated Stats: b2evolution will show users the activity graphs for each blog, including robots, RSS readers and browser hits broken down by referrers, searches, direct accesses, self-referred, etc. Also includes search keywords, user logins and more.
• Plug-in Framework: Users can extend the application with just about any feature with its advanced plug-in framework. The community also provides pre-built plug-ins that can be installed.
• Web Standards Compliant: W3C uses it itself; further validating that B2evolution is W3C compliant. It also has an integrated XHTML checker that lets users validate any new content before they post it.
• Easy Workflow: submitters can post drafts, and then assign them to an editor who in turn may assign them to reviewers for final approval and publication on the site.
• Easy upgrades are available; however, heavy customizations may require special care when upgrading.
• Standalone Admin Contact form available.
• Ability to clean permalinks.

Its back office features include:

1. Cross-post among multiple categories and multiple blogs.
2. Draft posts, private posts, protected posts.
3. Simple post editor, Expert post editor, HTML posts editor.
4. Texturize plugin and Smiley plugin.
5. XHTML input validator and image / File upload.
6. Complete file manager features.
7. User / Group management.
8. Advanced User / Group permissions.

The additional key features include:

• Security aware framework.
• i18n/l10n toolkit.
• Time zone difference handling.
• RSS for posts and comments.
• Atom for posts and comments.
• XML-RPC APIs.
• Ping plugins, pinging of b2evolution.net and pingomatic.
• Integrated task scheduler for automatic maintenance.
• Google Sitemaps.
• 10User registration with email validation feature.

Not just for the novice or average blogger; its robust features suit all the blogging requirements of the advanced bloggers or IT professionals as well.
Following are the technical requirements in order to run b2evolution:

• PHP version 4.3 or above.
• mySQL version 3.23 or above.

The following browsers have been successfully tested and b2evolution was found most compatible with Firefox 1.0+, Internet Explorer 6.0, Konqueror 3.5+. The older versions or older browers cannoy handle the CSS(style sheets) correctly and users may face display issues. These include Safari, Mozilla 1.2 and Netscape 4.
b2evolution uses a DB abstraction class which will make it easier to port to another DBMS.
Not all features of b2evolution will work with certain hosts. A list of tested hosts that work flawlessly with b2 are mentioned below:

• BlueHost
• HostICan.
• http://www.1-gb.net/
• http://www.apollohosting.com/
• http://aventurehost.com/
• http://www.bluehost.com/
• http://www.clear-data.com/
• http://www.dreamhost.com/
• http://enhancedhost.com/
• www.godaddy.com
• http://micfo.com/
• http://powweb.com/
• http://realwebhost.net/
• http://www.taos-web-hosting.com/
• http://www.thefreewebhosting.com/
• http://www.tio.com/b2evolution/
• http://totalchoicehosting.com/
• http://www.ubiquityhosting.com/
• http://worria.com/
• http://web-hosting-service.com/
• www.silverservers.com
• www.onlinewebpresence.com
• www.websmartcentral.com
• www.unlimited-space.com

B2evolution has been translated into many languages besides English. The available language packs by version include b2evo 1.9, b2evo1.8 and other older versions of b2evo.
The installation process of b2evo is fairly simple and does require any technical expertise. The download process starts once the download link is clicked. Users then need to unzip the file and read the quick start instruction. In the event that users wish to migrate from b2/cafelog or Movable Type; they just need to follow the instructions in the latest release. In order to migrate from Geeklog or Manywhere Miniblog; users first need to import into b2evolution 0.9.2 and then upgrade to the latest version available.
B2evolution can be downloaded and redistributed or modified under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) as published by the Free Software Foundation.