PHPCow Web Hosting

PHPCow Web Hosting

PHPCow serves more purposes besides a Content Management System. This program allows users to create online magazines, newspapers, and TV/Radio or news portals. It works just as well as a Content Management System that is very easy to install and run and does not require to FTP upload the pages every time users need to update it. It simplifies the entire process of creating and publishing websites with the ease of just point and click. It is a lightweight, flexible, advanced and a powerful news management system and does not require much programming knowledge; minimal html and designing skills would however be an added bonus.

The system is fairly simple to install and has an easy to configure script based on PHP and MySQL. It requires the following:
User Requirements:

• Operating System: Any Windows, Mac or Linux
• Web Browser: Internet Explorer v5.5 (Windows) or above / FireFox (Windows, Mac, Linux) / any Gecko-based browser (does NOT include Safari)

Web Server Requirements:

• Operating System: Linux, Unix, Windows.
• Web Server: Apache Web Server.
• PHP Version: Latest stable builds of PHP4 or PHP5
• Server Configuration: Safe_Mode = OFF / OFF; GD/GD2 module; Enable PHPFTP; Iconv library; Latest Version of Zend Optimizer; mod_rewrite (for Search Engine Friendly URLs); Disable SOAP Client for PHP 5.
• Database: Latest stable builds of MySQL4 or MySQL5.

The system possesses some very user friendly features and related interface, which makes PHPCow one of the most popular Content Management Systems with one of the lowest TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Below is a brief overview of its key features:

• Photo Gallery
• Automatic upgrades from Control Panel
• Individual template page for each category
• Template Import/Export
• Template backup/restore.
• Templates can be directly created from the control panel sans any limitations. No FTP client is required. Designers can decide on the entire look and feel of their websites. The unique and powerful “Block” concept makes designing and layout simple and fast.
• Create templates per category, with its own header/footer. No limit on Category.
• Backup/restore template pages. Store backups by dates.
• Import/Export template. Allows template sharing across other PHPCow users.
• Intuitive Block Handling System allows finer control on page layout
• With the article management module; users wield ample flexibility for using the advanced WYSIWYG Editor for handling their content on the fly (no HTML skills required). From single page articles, paginated articles, articles with attachments, articles with slideshows; any number of combinations are possible.
• With its powerful file manager; adding images to articles becomes an interesting and easy process. Here users can browse for an image in library, resize it, and then place it into their article. Pagination of inordinately long articles into multiple pages for easier online reading and increase number of total pages for better search engine ranking is also made possible in the Article Management Module.
• Built in Single Block with all display control for Quick Starters
• Built In Article Block for Gallery display control on article pages
• Built In Breaking Article Block for Quick Starters
• Custom Block for the more Advanced Users
• Custom Image Block for the more Advanced Users
• Rich Content Filtering By Article Type, Category, Author, Number of Articles etc
• Powerful visualization options for rendering filtered content.
• Users can control html properties of each block either through Built in Blocks or generate your own block using the Custom Block functionality in Block Management module.
• RSS Management (Import/Export of Content Syndication): Content Syndication is a sure way to boost the website’s search engine rankings. Providing feeds also serves the same purpose as well as offers more visibility amongst netizens who use feed readers on their browsers or desktop to stay updated. PHPCow has RSS Generator for generating RSS and Atom Feeds with the usual “Point and Click” ease of operation. Moreover, RSS feeds of other sites can also be imported to enhance the content quality of the website. In essence; the RSS Block Management comprises of the RSS Exporter and RSS importer which is all that is required for content syndication.
• Retrieved Content visualization is available in Preview Block
• Unlimited RSS blocks with different RSS sources can be created
• Users and Groups Management: (Role based access control): The Group and User management module allows the administrators to assign role based access rights to different sections of the Admin Module of PHPCow. This method facilitates an organized and well distributed content management control.
• Group for editors with permission to post, edit, delete articles in some/all sections
• Group for web designers with access to some/all templates
• Group for administrator with complete access level.
• Category Management: The category control can be wielded in both the articles as well as the CMS section of PHPCow. In the articles section, users can create nested categories for a well organized ans seamless content layout. The CMS Category management allows users to add non content pages like About Us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy and other such pages which in general are “Static Pages On Any Site”.
• Create unlimited category/Subcategory tree
• Offer role based access rights to one or more categories
• Sort category order — important when you generate the Dynamic Menu management module
• Use different template for each category to have category specific themes of the templates offering more uniqueness to entire site in terms of design.
• Move articles from one or more categories to another one.
• Dynamic Menu management: (Easy navigation of keys): Users have complete control over menu properties and can arrange horizontally or vertically.
• Multiple menus with different styles and sections
• Menu Splitting also possible
• Vertical Or Horizontal Layout Styles
• Rebuild Menu on the fly at click of a button
• Photo Gallery: Ability to add multiple photos/images to articles Rebuild Menu on the fly at click of a button.
• Voting feature to create voting questions, answers and insert the vote in template.
• Archive Calendar: PHPCow automatically archives the articles and generates links in the calendar for easy archive navigation.
• Navigation Bar: (Breadcrumb): Also called as Breadcrumb navigation, locates the current webpage in the context of a navigation path.