OStatic

The goal of this project is to create a powerful and scalable content management system for ColdFusion MX that is easy to set up and use, and at the same time is flexible enough to be used as a core of any web site / web application architecture. SmartCMS is built using native ColdFusion MX Components (CFC"s), and is heavily object-based. This makes it very extensible, allowing developers to plug new component logic into the system at a variety of different levels. Although new to Tigris, the SmartCMS code base has been around in one form or another since 1998, and has been actively developed in that time. The current implementation uses ColdFusion MX Components (CFC"s) and makes good use of the native object-based development in CFMX. Mission There have been many "false starts" in ColdFusion content management. Several open source projects have come and gone without having had too much impact on the landscape. Even Spectra, Allaire"s (then Macromedia"s) own content management framework, was eventually sent out to pasture. The aim in beginning a new open source CMS project for ColdFusion is to correct the missteps that caused the previous projects to fail, and to provide a rock solid, free CMS that takes advantage of the unique benefits of the CFMX platform. This project is working on the assumption that these projects suffered from a lack of interest, because they were never able to build a critical mass of source code, developers, and users that are necessary for a platform such as this to be viable. Towards this goal, SmartCMS is starting off with a very large, robust code base that has been in continuous development for a very long time. If you"d like, you can check out the History of SmartCMS. But more than just having a ton of code, we"re trying to rethink how to better manage and organize website content by changing how we separate presentation, data, and logic. There are many systems that separate two of the these, such as content data and presentation, but do not include facilities for changing the logic that drives the system, or simply fail to include logic at all. How it works If you"re familiar with traditional CMS models, then you"ve probably heard of "content objects". These can be anything from an entire HTML page, or a snippet of content (text, images, flash, etc.) that is included in a visible page. In SmartCMS, the properties of each content object are very flexible -- there is a core set of predefined properties, but users and administrators can add to this list very easily. And if you are a beginner who is just trying to get a website done in a hurry, that"s all you have to worry about. Type your content into SmartCMS, and call it a day. For a more structured separation of content from layout, SmartCMS administrators can define cascading display formats that are applied to each content object. in the system. Every content object can be linked to zero, one, or multiple layouts that change the way that it is presented to end users. And, different layouts can select which of the properties from the content object that they will use to display. In addition, developers can add custom display logic to each content object in one of two ways: 1) Each content object is assoicated with a particular "item type", which is a class containing specific edit and display logic for that particular type of content, and 2) by embedding "Smart Tags" into the content, which are customized HTML-like tags that the are used by the CMS to call external functions, and then to embed their results into the content page. Related Resources One principle that is important to building a critical mass of code/developers/users is openness. It is very important that SmartCMS be as open and accessible as possible. This means that SmartCMS must support as many platforms and system configurations as possible, and that it must integrate easily with as many other systems as possible. Other Successful Open Source CMS Systems Plone PHP-nuke CF-nuke Other ColdFusion Resources Fusebox Mach-II Hollywood Raymond Camden"s Blog   [edit]