Mugo Blog http://www.mugo.ca Development insights from the Mugo team en-US Why and how to start contributing to an enterprise open source CMS community http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Why-and-how-to-start-contributing-to-an-enterprise-open-source-CMS-community http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Why-and-how-to-start-contributing-to-an-enterprise-open-source-CMS-community Open source communities rely very strongly on the community to advance the software in question. eZ Publish adds the "enterprise" part to "enterprise open source content management system" by not only targeting larger enterprises but by also adding a company vendor -- eZ Systems -- behind the software. This helps spur development forward on a consistent pace. However, there is still immense value in having the implementation partner companies contribute their code and insights. Contributing back might not be a natural thing for the partner companies to do; if you're such a partner company, here's why you should and how to do it.

]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 16:43:00 -0700 5 essential communication tools for a web development company http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/5-essential-communication-tools-for-a-web-development-company http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/5-essential-communication-tools-for-a-web-development-company As a web development company, we spend a lot of time deep in code, implementing solutions.  However, essential to our success is the proper use of additional administrative and communication tools to keep organized, to run smooth projects, and to interact with clients.  Skype, Dropbox, GitHub, and Google Apps are ubiquitous in the industry and embedded in our daily work.  An additional set of less obvious tools are also just as important to our work.

]]> Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:29:00 -0700 Running contests within a content management system to engage visitors http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Running-contests-within-a-content-management-system-to-engage-visitors http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Running-contests-within-a-content-management-system-to-engage-visitors Rasmussen Reports runs a contest where visitors have to guess what an upcoming public opinion poll result will be.  Participants get points depending on how close they are to the actual result.  A new question is asked every week, making for a fun, recurring way for visitors to interact with site content. Here's how we developed the contest on top of an eZ Publish extension called eZ Survey.

]]> Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:36:00 -0700 eZ Publish websites for publishing companies http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/eZ-Publish-websites-for-publishing-companies http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/eZ-Publish-websites-for-publishing-companies Over the years we've worked on many websites in the publishing industry. Each has a unique set of requirements and challenges, but we've been able to refine and re-use a set of tools and best practices. These make up what can be called a "publishing package" built on top of the eZ Publish framework.

]]> Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:37:00 -0800 Using a preview siteaccess as an eZ Publish content staging solution http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Using-a-preview-siteaccess-as-an-eZ-Publish-content-staging-solution http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Using-a-preview-siteaccess-as-an-eZ-Publish-content-staging-solution Using eZ Publish's siteaccess system combined with hidden nodes, you can quickly create a flexible content staging solution.

]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:19:00 -0800 10 ways to improve editors' lives in eZ Publish http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/10-ways-to-improve-editors-lives-in-eZ-Publish http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/10-ways-to-improve-editors-lives-in-eZ-Publish Optimizing the editorial experience in a Content Management System is a continuously evolving task. The challenge is to make the CMS an enabling tool to help editors publish content as efficiently as possible. In many organizations, specific requirements at each publishing step can be complex and dynamic. Here are 10 built-in tricks, ways to extend the interfaces, and ready-made custom extensions to unleash the power of eZ Publish content management.

]]> Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:47:00 -0800 Splitting a Subversion repository into multiple repositories http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Splitting-a-Subversion-repository-into-multiple-repositories http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Splitting-a-Subversion-repository-into-multiple-repositories Having multiple projects stored in one Subversion repository is a challenge if you want to move one of the projects to another repository. Also, over time, moves and deletions can bloat the size of your repository with obsolete, unused data. In this article, we will show you how to extract SVN projects to their own repositories, preserving full commit histories.

]]> Tue, 15 Jan 2013 09:18:00 -0800 Making custom content scripts more efficient in eZ Publish http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Making-custom-content-scripts-more-efficient-in-eZ-Publish http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Making-custom-content-scripts-more-efficient-in-eZ-Publish For those who write long-running scripts in eZ Publish to perform operations (move, rename, update, and so on) on many content objects, here are a couple of quick tips to speed up the scripts and make them more efficient.

]]> Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:26:00 -0800 Fixed positioning of page elements while scrolling http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Fixed-positioning-of-page-elements-while-scrolling http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Fixed-positioning-of-page-elements-while-scrolling We recently implemented two different designs where the menu remained fixed to the edge of the screen as the user scrolled. One case involved vertical scrolling and the other involved horizontal scrolling. Each had a subtle challenge and both were fun to work on!

]]> Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:27:00 -0800 Site performance optimizations: a look back at Election 2012 http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Site-performance-optimizations-a-look-back-at-Election-2012 http://www.mugo.ca/Blog/Site-performance-optimizations-a-look-back-at-Election-2012 4 years ago, in 2008, we first met what is now one of our longest ongoing clients, Rasmussen Reports. There was some stress and urgency to their problem, as their site was crashing leading up to the most important time of the year for them -- the US presidential elections. We managed to stabilize their site and imagined a time in the distant future: a less stressful 2012 election period! The month leading up to November 6, 2012 turned out to be a record-breaking traffic month for a couple of our clients, including Rasmussen Reports. This time around, we had no website hiccups during an election season that saw more than twice as many visits in the peak month and an almost 3-fold spike in pageviews from the previous major election's 1-day peak.

Here are some of the site performance best practices we implemented in advance of the 2012 elections.

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