My company motto is :simplicity by Design”
This is for a good reason. Most systems try to do everything and become bloated and unusable to one degree or another.

There is no reason to wrap everything into one package, if the templates are easily accessible and will write anything to disk that is put into them like Movable Type does, then anything wanted can be added by the user/developer.

Much like jQuery, the idea of plugins is best, and is good. The CMS would hopefully be lightweight and not try to be the solution to every single desire, and be configurable.

If it will publish anything one puts into a template to the disk then it’s a winner.

Looking forward to seeing this

Ill try it out now and ill let you know what i think of it

Great comments. I read your ideas several times. I’ll be referencing them again.

Thank you!

Jack

I just came here from your other site 15daysofjquery/ seeking JQuery help, and after perusing that site, I’m pretty much willing to try whatever it is you are selling

But, on a serious, note, I am really intrigued by what you have been saying about the current crop of CMSes and their (legion) flaws, and I am in complete agreement. I have tested several CMSes, with Mambo/Jomla, Typo3 and TikiWiki (a rather powerful CMS masquerading as a wiki, [or vice versa], but way to s…l…o…w and clunky to be useful for either) standing out of the bunch.

Sadly, as a result of all of their far too high learning curves, I have not thought it feasible to give clients access to these products.

But, based on my experiences, here are my two cents $3.87 on the matter (some of these should probably be left until the product is more mature):

1 - AVOID (at all costs) nerd-lingo (no “epherimids”, or other annoying made up names for types of content — what you read/hear should be what it is)

2 - Provide copious in-situ help (What does this do? Let me click the “?” (Help) button next to it and see.)

3 - Have really strict user management, configurable by both groups (i.e. admins can do almost anything, users are limited [and admin can change their perms], and admin can create & configure group “Mocktaugs” to only be able to upload pics), and tasks (i.e. Sally is a user, but I specified that she can edit pages created by others). The ability to import permissions from one user/group to another would be nice, with certain permissions reserved only for users w/high enough authority (like new user creation). I heard you mention users, admins and superadmin[s] in your videos — will one be able to create/secify other groups?

4 - Once a user w/edit permissions logs in, they should be able to browse site as normal, and be able to edit content as they encounter it, without having to switch to the admin view[s].

5 - A (basic, easy to understand, master and setup) workflow system, with notifications by email or at user login. (e.g. admin wants to know (and approve) whenever /articles is updated… the advertising dept group needs to know when the /catalogues page is updated, etc.)

6 - A data import tool (a la MS Access), that is able to parse CSV and Excel files (at a minimum), and create useful tables / pages.

7 - An easy to use menu creation/management tool (think JQuery, and this might just be easy as pie

8 - Automatic sitemap generation

9 - An easy to learn/use form builder/manager, with built in datatypes and customizable (JavaScript & server) validation, with the ability to generate reports, output CSV files, send reports to email, etc. I have yet to see ANY CMS do this right, (if at all), so, if done well, this might be your “killer feature”! (Saw your form mail site… shutting up about this now…)

10 - Automatic code generation based on content type (add an object [java, flash, video, audio, etc], to a page using the editor, and code for displaying/or downloading said object is auto-generated). Have the known content-types and their display settings available (and modifiable), while allowing for the addition of new types via an admin page tool.

11 - And finally, when things are polished, add (easy-to-install) extras/built-ins like a calendar system (w/multiple calendars possible, w/configurable permissions per calendar AND per event), contact management (multiple contact lists, w/permissions configurable for the lists themselves, as well as for the individual contacts) and the like. I would buy the software just for those two alone, as I have had to set such up for several clients — good money, but way to much hassle. Or perhaps, easy integration with existing services (like Google Calendar & Maps).

At the end of the path that suggestion #9 above is leading towards, is probably a plugin/extension system of some sort… And down that path may lie disaster. Any such system should be easy to develop in, and require that the plugins be secure (respect [or be frced to] the permissions system, etc), be easy to use/understand, and come w/documentation/help (most CMSes fail here). However, ensuring that may require some sort of certification program on your part, which complicates things a bit…

I think I’ll stop my rambling now.

But I hope you understand my frustration with other CMSes…

Ready for Beta Test, Cap’n!