A Lightweight CMS

Content Management Systems come in all shapes and sizes. I've recently been developing one of my own - le.cms - only about 30 files and needs no database. The approach is 'back to basics' with a focus on simplicity and web standards compliance. The CMS is built with PHP and features an admin panel that allows a website to be managed from any computer connected to the Internet.

All content is stored in easily editable text files and can be deployed both into a main content column or a block that displays content randomly, selecting from a library of snippets or whatever else the webmaster desires. The navigation menu is created and managed separately from site content, and there's also a simple search facility.

The standard page structure consists of a wrapper box containing six more boxes in sequential order, so that each box can be positioned independently of the others, offering complete design flexibility using the stylesheet.

Whilst the system is about as easy to use as it possibly could be, it is especially suitable for a webmaster who is familiar with basic HTML and wants the ability to hard-code images, lists, links, or additional 'divs' into the pages. le.cms works a treat and lends itself perfectly to the construction and remote management of small websites of up to about 50 pages or so. And it's free.

View the site: www.worldlevel.com »

5 responses to “A Lightweight CMS”

  1. Posted by Miklo November 28th, 2006 at 19:36

    Is there any download for this so i can check it out ??

  2. Posted by Patrick November 28th, 2006 at 20:22

    Miklo, you can download it at http://www.worldlevel.com/contact (bottom of the page).

  3. Posted by shealy January 22nd, 2007 at 06:07

    Looking forward to trying your le.cms. I like the "back to basics" approach. That said… What are (my) prospects of embedding a wysiwyg editor, such as tinymce? ;) Would le.cms lend itself to this type of tinkering?

  4. Posted by Patrick January 22nd, 2007 at 20:34

    The CMS system doesn't work that way, with WYSIWYG. It generates new pages purely with PHP code and an input form. The page design is in the form of a template styled with CSS. I suppose you could design a different template with tinymce and replace the default one, but you'd need to know what you're doing, PHP-wise.

    Really, I think the answer is no.

  5. Posted by Patrick January 28th, 2008 at 14:26

    le.cms is now version 1.4, updated today to improve formatting of HTML special characters and simplify the footer.

    I've also built an even lighter CMS: la.plume, which consists of only 15 files and features one-click page creation.

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