MotoCMS

Moto CMS (formerly known as FlashMoto CMS) is a website builder (content management system) that allows users to create and manage websites without getting into coding and programming. Moto CMS enables users to update their websites with a WYSIWYG environment and all of the changes can be applied and viewed immediately.^[1]

MotoCMS is available for HTML and Flash websites, and is offered along with a complete pre-designed website solution. The functionality of Moto CMS for HTML is the same for all HTML websites powered by MotoCMS. As to Flash websites, the set of widgets and tools in the templates may vary.

The version for HTML sites includes the following functionality: widgets for contact forms creation, gallery widgets, general widgets, PayPal Buttons, Rich Content widget, Vimeo Video, Google Maps menu widgets, Mobile Editor, Image Editor, Google fonts, and more.^[2]

The version for Flash sites provides a set of tools, widgets and built-in components for video and image galleries creation, video and MP3 player embedding, mobile version creation, custom widgets integration, search engine optimization tools, custom fonts, image editing, and more.^[3]

The Moto CMS Version 3 is a platform to build a website for desktop, tablet and smartphone devices. It includes many widgets from HTML and Flash versions, besides it brings a Color Picking Tool, a fast Drag-and-Drop editor, and it includes MySQL database support.^[4]

History

• Founded in 2008 by Demetrio Fortman and originally named as FlashMoto, the project launched in open beta in August 2009.

• In September 2009 FlashMoto signed an agreement with TemplateMonster according to which TemplateMonster is obliged to create a separate web templates category – Flash CMS templates. These Flash CMS templates meet the FlashMoto requirements and can be easily customized via FlashMoto control panel.

• In November 2009 FlashMoto released a standalone version of Flash CMS with ActionScript 3.0 application programming interface (API).

• In April 2010 FlashMoto signed an agreement with FlashMint company. The main point is the teamwork on the new premium quality FlashMoto CMS Templates.^[5]

• In July 2010 FlashMoto released version 1.2 of Flash CMS that includes a lot of new features and improvements, among which are: control panel rebranding, under construction mode, website favicon, XML sitemap generator, control panel interface updates, speed improvements, etc.^[6]

• On July 15, 2010 FlashMoto presented in its Flash version a new module - Flash Video Gallery that allows users to embed video files and sort them according to the galleries.^[7]

• In September 2010 FlashMoto presented a new invention - Page Flip Flash CMS Component that allows users to create a digital Flash Flip book with a WYSIWYG Editor and CMS integrated.^[8]

• On September 29, 2010 - Company rebranding. FlashMoto changed the company name to MotoCMS, domain name to MotoCMS.com, as well as the website design and logo.^[9]

• On September 30, 2010 MotoCMS released version 1.3 (a major release of Moto CMS for Flash) that included the following innovations: Image Editor was added (that gives the ability to edit images directly within the control panel), as well as improvements to the Media Library were made (the abilities to sort media files and organize them using folders, to select multiple elements at once, to upload any types of files, to edit images directly within the control panel, to resize, rotate, mirror, crop images, etc.).^[10]

• On April 12, 2011 - MotoCMS released version 1.4 (a major release of Moto CMS for Flash) that improved the system functionality and added some new tools to the system. MotoCMS version 1.4 included the following innovations: object manipulation in the control panel was improved, the new module News Widged was added, the Contact Form module was improved, content saving process was optimized, automatic content recovery on errors added, etc.^[11]

• On July 7, 2011 - MotoCMS released version 1.5 (a major release of Moto CMS for Flash) that included the following innovations, tools and system improvements: an ability to create stretchable websites, Media Library Integration (YouTube) + Video Gallery, YouTube Quality option, Property dependencies, placement attributes, and others. Also, new modules HTML Widget and Social Network Sharing Slot were added to the system.^[12]

• On November 11, 2011 - MotoCMS released version 1.6 (a major release of Moto CMS for Flash) that was 100% based on the users' feedback and added many new tools and features to the system, namely Search widget, Background widget, Buy Now Button widget, etc. The released delivered some significant changes to the existing features (RSS widget, Contact Form widget, Media Library, HTML widget, etc.).^[13]
• In January 2012 - MotoCMS released the eCommerce Widget which enables to create an e-shop with appropriate functionality.^[14]

• On February 21, 2012 - MotoCMS released version 1.7 (a major release of Moto CMS for Flash) that added several new features to the system and updated MotoCMS to the latest Adobe Flash CS5.^[15]
• On May 22, 2012 - MotoCMS released version 1.8 (a major release of Moto CMS for Flash) which delivered a new Mobile Editor that allows its users to create mobile versions for their Moto CMS based websites.^[16]
• In July 2013 - MotoCMS officially released the new version of the admin panel for HTML with a collection of complete HTML website solutions on MotoCMS.com.

1. HTML Version 1.1 delivered the following functionality: Carousel Gallery widget, Sliding Gallery widget and PayPal Button widget.^[17]
2. HTML Version 1.1.3 added Reflection Gallery widget and Slider Gallery with Thumbnails widget.^[18]

• In November 2014 - MotoCMS released version 1.9 for Moto CMS Flash which included Google Maps integration modifications as well as Flickr integration modifications.
• On June 25, 2015 - The official website redesign. The website became responsive and faster.
• On June 25, 2015 - MotocMS officially released Moto CMS 3 that made the system responsive.^[19]

1. Version 3.0 delivered a faster Drag-and-Drop editor, a unique Color Picker Tool which allowed users to switch the entire color palette for the website, functional Media Library.
2. Version 3.0.1 presented the ability to adapt text styles for different devices, added the "Slider" widget and an opportunity to assign a value for spaces. This release allowed to update a theme to the latest version.
3. Version 3.0.2 brought 2 new widgets: "Grid Gallery" and "Embed". The opportunity of adding multiple images to the slider was realized.
4. Version 3.0.3 added the logic of URL dynamic change and the opportunity of adding "Anchor" to a page for convenient navigation.
5. Version 3.0.4 included widget panel localization and the option of choosing a thumbnail's size in the "Image" widget.

• In June 2015 - MotoCMS released version 3.0.5 which added Presets Builder for editing the widgets' properties. Language support was improved with the German translation of the admin panel.
• In July 2015 - MotoCMS released version 3.0.6 which was a minor update of the system that brought the following features: ^[20]

1. The Parallax and Animation effects were added.
2. The Media Library was improved with the opportunity to filter elements by their types.
3. SEO functions were improved: rel="canonical" link element now may be added automatically for all website pages.
4. The code injection option was added to the Header and Footer sections.
5. The Contact Form Widget now allows to send messages to different emails and attached files. The SMTP server is now available to set via the Settings section for all Contact Forms.

• In August 2015 - MotoCMS released version 3.0.7, which brought the following features to the system: ^[21]

1. The builder was upgraded to PHP 5.5.09 compatibility.
2. New possibility to use of the third party software on the website within the "Integration" section.
3. "Carousel" gallery was developed.
4. New widgets appeared: MailChimp, Disqus, Facebook Feed, Twitter Timeline, SoundCloud, Pinterest Board, Slideshare.

• In September 2015 - MotoCMS released version 3.0.8, which renewed the system with some SEO and widgets improvements.

Features

Moto CMS is an advanced and feature-rich ^[22] content management system based on ActionScript 3 and realized as Rich Internet Application (RIA) on Flex. Its control panel allows users to incorporate modules without knowing Adobe Flash and to create the unlimited number of pages.^[23][24]

Moto CMS has the XML-based templating system, which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing FLA file. There is a media library where users can upload images, video or SWF files & use them in any part of the website. It has a built-in gallery component for displaying a list of images and/or videos. The library supports all types of files (doc, pdf, txt, zip, etc.). The Image Editor integrated allows to edit images in the media library directly within the control panel. The Mobile Editor integrated into the control panel enables to create a mobile version of the website.

The following functions are available within the control panel: Control Panel Rebranding, Under Construction Mode, Favicon Settings, Website Preview, Rasterize Object Function, Images Pre-load Function (MP3 FLV, SWF), XML Sitemap Generator, YouTube Player (works without JavaScript code), Effects Management Tools, Auto validation and correction of XML files, etc.

The following widgets are available within Moto CMS for Flash: Simple Elements (Close Button, Image, Link, Read More), Contact Form, Buy Button, Galleries (Custom Gallery Thumbnail List, Gallery Preview, Media Gallery Lightbox, Media Gallery Preview, Media Gallery Thumbnail List), General (Background Widget, HTML Widget, Rich Content, Search Field, Search results List, Share Button), Google Maps, Media Player, Menus, Music Player, News widget.

The following widgets are available within Moto CMS for HTML: Contact Form, Galleries (Background Slider, Carousel Gallery, Grid Gallery, Reflection Gallery, Slider, Slider with Thumbnails, Sliding Click Action Gallery, Sliding Gallery), General widgets (Button, HTML, PayPal Buy, PayPal Donate, Rich Content, Vimeo Video), Google Maps, Menus (Horizontal Menu, Vertical Menu).

The following widgets are available within Moto CMS Version 3: Embed widget, Google Map, Menu, Horizontal Divider, Container, Row, Google Web Fonts, Social Options, Background Options, Design Presets, Contact Form, Video Integration, Media Library File Manager, Slider, Grid Gallery.

All (HTML, Flash, Version 3) websites created with Moto CMS are indexable by search engines, and each page has their own URLs and Meta data. Deep linking and well built architecture stimulate search engine indexation. The following page and pop-up properties are available: keywords, meta description, “nofollow” and “noindex” attribute values, support for alt and title image attribute values. Moto CMS also allows users to define the Google Analytics details; and statistics of the website is tracked.^[25]

Moto CMS supports multiple languages providing users an opportunity to upload custom fonts. There is the custom module Online Font Creator that allows users to upload any font on their Flash websites. For HTML websites, Google Fonts are available. Developers may develop their own widgets and build them into websites and the control panel to improve Moto CMS functionality.^[26]

Switching templates: Moto CMS enables the replacement of one template by another. Coding might be necessary and should only be done by an advanced coder. Data is saved in external files but future version of Moto CMS will store data in the database.^[27]

Criticism

Since the system is built using a Flash platform for both HTML and Flash website versions, some users of Moto CMS HTML are concerned about this fact. For others this is not an obstacle while creating a functional HTML website which is indexed by search engines. This problem disappears for many concerned users with the Moto CMS Version 3 which is build by means of CSS 3, HTML 5, JQuery, LESS, AngularJS.

Some users are concerned that Moto CMS Flash websites are not easily indexed by search engines. However, in reality pages of Moto CMS websites are organized to function in a way that Google entirely indexes Flash website content. Flash websites built with MotoCMS have two versions: Flash version (seen by users) and HTML version (seen by search engines).

MotoCMS is also criticized for security reasons, as it fails to protect its password hash data from HTTP ACCESS.^[28] The official blog additionally requests to give the file containing the password hashes a CHMOD 777 permission, and calls it a common setup mistake to not do so.^[29]

References

External links

• Official website