eZ Platform and eZ Studio in­tro­duced

eZ Publish was first released in two different versions by eZ Systems: a free GNU (general public license) version and a fee-based En­ter­prise version. The latter option is geared towards companies and also offers customer service in addition to the CMS itself. The strength of eZ Publish lies in its ability to manage websites with heavy content loads. Its current version shows how the program has developed into a high-per­for­mance business CMS solution. In addition to companies and news media websites, the software also offers community and intranet solutions for sites with specific needs, like large-scale e-commerce platforms. The Financial Times, Car&Driver and the US De­part­ment of Defense all use eZ Publish as a CMS foun­da­tion for their websites. The CMS operates via its client’s web browser, runs as a PHP ap­pli­ca­tion on a web server, and saves content in an SQL database. Thanks to the help of an online editor function and a drag-and-drop feature, even beginners are able to quickly create content and edit eZ Publish templates. And by sup­ple­ment­ing eZ Publish with SEO or e-commerce plugins, users are able to add to the system’s default features and better cater to their in­di­vid­ual projects. Numerous ex­ten­sions for all eZ CMS ap­pli­ca­tions can be found on the online service, GitHub. Ex­pe­ri­enced users are also able to create their own content classes, giving them the flex­i­bil­i­ty to in­di­vid­u­al­ly customize the data structure.

2014 was the last year in which the CMS was released under the name eZ Publish. Since then, the program’s new versions have been called eZ Platform. This can be down­loaded from the provider’s official website free of charge. The in­tro­duc­tion of eZ brought with it some sub­stan­tial changes. These are:

• The system uses Symfony2, one of the most popular PHP web frame­works, as its technical platform
• The back end has been com­plete­ly revised and is now organized in a clearer manner
• Unlike eZ Publish, functions in the editor only appear if they are relevant to the tasks being carried out by editors

eZ Platform ad­di­tion­al­ly offers many functions that were available as features in eZ Publish’s back end:

• User-defined content classes and objects
• A media database
• Workflow man­age­ment
• A tem­plat­ing system
• User roles and per­mis­sion man­age­ment
• Upkeep of multiple websites
• Version control function

Not every eZ Publish feature was trans­ferred to eZ Platform, however. Many users may miss the extension eZ Flow, a tool that’s es­pe­cial­ly useful for mul­ti­me­dia and e-commerce websites. eZ Flow makes it possible to publish content in a time-con­trolled matter. This feature makes it easier to add special content and fa­cil­i­tates revenue gen­er­at­ing mech­a­nisms, like Ad Servers or paid content. In order to use all the ad­van­tages these ex­ten­sions offer, you’ll need eZ Studio in addition to eZ Platform.

eZ Studio is a software extension for the eZ Platform. In a sense, it can be seen as the coun­ter­part to eZ Publish’s En­ter­prise model. Creating and managing content is even more intuitive with the fee-based program. The eZ Platform page can also be revised in the front end with the help of its online editor function. Users can try out a demo version on eZ Studio’s website in exchange for filling in some in­for­ma­tion about them­selves and their company. Important functions of eZ Studio:

• Pub­lish­ing website content can be planned through the timeline function
• Landing pages with com­plete­ly different designs can be generated with little need for prior knowledge or ex­pe­ri­ence
• Allowing content to be revised with multiple editors is easy thanks the flex workflow function

eZ Platform and eZ Studio are both marketed in different editions under the name eZ En­ter­prise. The least expensive package starts at $13,500 a year. In addition to eZ Platform and eZ Studio, this option includes a webserver, a content database, and online support. The more expensive editions also feature a customer service hotline, technical as­sis­tance as well as annual in­stal­la­tion checks. With this complete package, companies have access to a system that allows content to be added easily and pro­fes­sion­al­ly. The online editor from eZ Studio is ap­pro­pri­ate for both experts as well as in­ex­pe­ri­enced users: in com­par­i­son to the system’s core software (and also that of many other popular CMSs), it’s much more clearly arranged, easier to operate, and at the same time versatile in terms of how it can be used. Other aspects of eZ Studio, like its intuitive use and handy features, add further value to the system. The eZ Systems software truly does deliver what it promises. On the flipside of the coin, eZ Platform’s functions are quite limited at the moment. Some of the most useful ap­pli­ca­tions that were once available with eZ Publish have since been elim­i­nat­ed from the new CMS’s core software; instead they are now offered as a part of the fee-based eZ Studios option. Further functions are to be added in the future. But this will all depend of course on whether or not eZ Platform and eZ Studio are able to hold their own against com­peti­tors like Joomla, TYPO 3, or Drupal. For medium to large company websites with diverse content, the CMS has already got what it takes.