Design a Simple 1-Man CMS

Just thought I’d jot down some more guiding principles:

• Zero-Code - Try to minimize coding (read bugs)
• Stand on the shoulders of giants
• No proprietary languages/syntax

Tools, technologies, platforms, schools-of-though. Definitely the hottest area of debate but I’m not aiming to be the best. This project is more of a “what if” attempt with a clearly defined target audience. Simple, client-side cms, static web site structure, no Java, PHP, MySQL… (more…)

A CMS for me is more than just the term “content management system”, which would only manage the content of a site but neglect layout, design and structure. However a CMS should be less than a full “site management system” which would include content delivery (hosting), application logic, interaction, error tracking, visitor statistics, user management…

A CMS Should:

• Seperate content and layout
• Allow easy editing of content
• Manage content and allow for re-use

The Four Cornerstones of a CMS

• Content
• Layout
• Structure
• Design

Content:
Content is defined by a Content Model:

• Data Definition (Elements)
• Input type (HTML Form Control)

Content is organised into Components:

• Data (Text or Binary)
• Context (Global or Page)
• Template

Layout:

• Layout (layout of entire page)
• Template (layout of page body)

Structure:

• Hierachy of pages (sitemap)
• Simple (parent_id, page_id)
• Available as XML

Design:

• CSS Style Sheets (colors, borders, styles…)
• CSS Behaviours (JavaScript functions)