Why Another CMS?
The fact is there are countless CMS's with WordPress, at least at the time of this writing, being the leader in all things CMS. I didn't actually want another CMS either. What I really wanted was a very simple CMS that I could use to build five or six pages and a blog. I didn't even want it to be heavy into the design as I really can't design a pretty web site. Instead, I go to something like
Bootstrap Design and pick a nice template that I like, then just use the HTML as a skeleton and fill in my stuff which would mostly be writing. I wanted to use this in a new project that I was building that is concentrating on the Authenticated area, not the front area, so it needed to be pretty easy to copy a template then work with it. Also, I had my own user and permission system so it needed to stay away from that. I didn't need to give complicated permissions, just simple ones.
I couldn't find anything! Sure, there were packages that would install into gorgeous CMS that could do it all plus more, but it had its own permissions system or user system. They were also full of bells and whistles that will let you design thing, but not really tweak the code a lot. No way to add a simple div and span, all had to be containers and thing. Also based on a single framework, which s nice, but it made importing templates hell.
I realized then what I really wanted: A programmer's CMS. Based on my research, I just didn't think one exited.
What is a Programmer's CMS?
CMS's are built for professional work. They're mainly targeted at web and graphic designers that are used to the art side of web sites. They don't code the straight HTML, they pick from a pallet of tools and style their designs that way. They care about colors and pickers and can make a pallet out of their imagination. If you can't tell, I'm pretty jealous of graphic Designers, I can't even come close to what they do, but I'm really good at copying and pasting (a must for programmers), and understanding the structure of HTML documents. I really didn't want to take a long time building the outside, mainly work on the content for the outside so it looks decent when people come visit your app. The important content was behind the front area anyways.
So this idea of a CMS just for programmers came about. I narrowed the requirements to:
- It must be a package that can be dropped-in in any project
- It has to stay away from anything related to users, permissions, or the host's app internal working, but it should still be securable if desired.
- It needs to be targeted to people who understand HTML and its basic blocks, it can be visual, but still given enough flexibility to copy a design
- It needs to be able to create simple webpages and be extensible so that I can add plugins, especially a blogging plugin.
So was this project born. I will write more about this later.
Come see the GitHub Repo!