We've been busy making some updates to the October CMS website and moved to a brand new server. This includes the website, marketplace and the update gateway that powers Composer. You should notice everything runs a little smoother and a little faster now on the latest technology. If you notice any teething issues, please get in touch.
We've improved the code base and adjusted a few features, along with some new ones. Here's a list of the changes:
- Showcase - a gallery of websites built with October CMS, shown live, with a place to submit your own
- Apps - the new name for bundles, with their own section of the marketplace
- Image Uploads - banners and screenshots of any size are cropped and resized for you
- Knowledge Base - the Help Center rebuilt with categories, search and a collection of AI prompts
- Custom Development - premium support has been renamed to custom development, which is what it was unofficially used for
Showcase
The gallery is now the Showcase, and it has moved up to the top menu. It's a grid of websites built with October CMS. Click one and it opens over the grid with the website running live in a frame, where the site allows it. The arrow keys step through the rest.
Each site has its own page with the developer's name and, where they've shared it, a few words on how October CMS helped. The latest additions also appear on the homepage.
Anyone can submit a website: one you built, one you own, or one you came across and liked. We add sites ourselves too, when anyone can see from the outside that they run October CMS. If yours is listed, the same form lets you add your story, or ask us to take the listing down.
Partners get something from this as well. The projects on a partner profile now come from the partner's Showcase entries, so your best work shows in both places.
Apps
Bundles are now Apps, with their own entry in the Marketplace menu. An app is a set of plugins and themes that work together as a complete application, added to your project in one step.
Apps now go into a project you already have. Products already in the project aren't added again, so you can start small and grow into an app later.
For authors, creating an app got easier. Add any listed product, yours or another author's, and whatever it requires comes along automatically. Other authors' products need no approval. You can discount your own products in the app, and an app needs at least one of your own products to be published. Use Create an App at the bottom of the Apps page to start one.
Upload Any Image
Adding a plugin banner or a theme screenshot used to mean resizing it in an image editor first, to the exact pixel size we asked for. Not anymore. Every image upload in your account takes a PNG, JPG, GIF or WebP of any size. That covers plugin, theme and app banners, screenshots, partner profile images and project images.
The only rule left is the shape. Pick an image with the wrong shape and a crop dialog opens: drag to position it, zoom to frame it, and the dialog shows the size you'll end up with, with a warning if it's on the small side. An image that's already the right shape skips the dialog and uploads as it is, and anything larger than we need is scaled down on the server.
Animated GIFs that are already the right shape keep their animation. Cropping one keeps only the first frame, and the dialog tells you so before you commit.
Knowledge Base
The Help Center is now the Knowledge Base, at the same address. Articles are grouped into categories like Fundamentals, Hosting & Deployment, Plugins & Extending and Security, search covers everything, and every article ends with "Was this helpful?" so we know which ones need work.
Articles now have readable addresses instead of codes like OB-12 and RN-45. Old links keep working, and always will. Those codes are all over the forum and search results.
AI Prompts
The Knowledge Base also has a new section: AI Prompts. These are prompts for building with October CMS using an AI assistant. Each one explains how to use it, shows an example of the result, and lists which AI tools and October versions it was tested with. Copy one, fill in the parts in brackets, and go.
Propose Your Own
Have a fix you keep explaining, or a prompt that works every time? Any member with a confirmed email can propose an article or prompt. We review each one, and accepted proposals are published with your name on them.
A Few Smaller Things
- The account area has been rearranged. Settings is split into Profile, Security, Billing, Forum and API pages, and invoices have their own section.
- Old addresses redirect wherever a page has moved, so bookmarks and links in old forum posts keep working.
Found Something Broken?
Moving a site this old to a new server and a new version shakes a few things loose. If something looks wrong, or used to work and doesn't now, please tell us:
- October CMS Discord - Join our community chat
- October CMS Forum - Discuss and get support
We hope the upgrade was seamless. Thanks for sticking with us through the move. We hope you enjoy the new site. Updates are much easier now, so if you have any suggestions on how we can improve, let us know.