cms

Current version 0.9.0

NordCms is a stand-alone module developed by Nord Software Ltd. This extension provides the core content management system functionality such as multilingual content and in place editing of content to any Yii project. NordCms is licensed under the New BSD License, please see the LICENSE file.

This extension was developed under a period of two weeks and there is definitely still room for improvement here and there. However, I wouldn't have released it to the public unless I was satisfied with it. I will continue working on improving this module in the future as well.

Links ¶

• Try out version 2.0
• Join the Discussion
• Report an issue
• Fork us on Bitbucket

What's included? ¶

• In place content editing using MarkItUp
• Custom tags for dynamic content
• Rendering of nodes as pages and/or widgets
• Attachments such as images and other files
• Multilingual content
• Search engine optimization for pages
• Support for both internal and external links
• Email address obfuscation
• Theme that uses my Bootstrap extension

For more detailed information please read the Usage section.

Setup ¶

Unzip the extension under protected/modules/cms and add the following to your application configuration:

'imports'=>array(
    .....
    'application.modules.cms.CmsModule',
),
'modules'=>array(
    .....
    'cms',
),
'components'=>array(
    .....
    'urlManager'=>array(
        .....
        'rules'=>array(
            .....
            'page/<name>-<id:\d+>.html'=>'cms/node/page', // clean URLs for pages
        ),
    ),
    'cms'=>array(
        'class'=>'cms.components.Cms'
    ),
),

Next you need to create the necessary database tables by running the schema.sql in the data folder.

Configuration ¶

The cms application component supports the following configuration parameters:

'cms'=>array(
    'class'=>'cms.components.Cms'
    // the names of the web users with access to the cms
    'users'=>array('admin'),
    // the langauges enabled for the cms
    'languages'=>array('en_us'=>'English'),
    // the default language
    'defaultLanguage'=>'en_us',
    // the types of files that can uploaded as attachments
    'allowedFileTypes'=>'jpg, gif, png',
    // the maximum allowed filesize for attachments
    'allowedFileSize'=>1024,
    // the path to save the attachments
    'attachmentPath'=>'/files/cms/attachments/',
    // the template to use for node headings
    'headingTemplate'=>'<h1 class="heading">{heading}</h1>',
    // the template to use for widget headings
    'widgetHeadingTemplate'=>'<h3 class="heading">{heading}</h3>',
    // the template to use for page titles
    'pageTitleTemplate'=>'{title} | {appName}',
    // the application layout to use with the cms
    'appLayout'=>'application.views.layouts.main',
    // the name of the error flash message categories
    'flashError'=>'error',
    'flashInfo'=>'info',
    'flashSuccess'=>'success',
    'flashWarning'=>'warning',
),

Please note that this is the component configuration, NOT the module.

Usage ¶

Creating a page ¶

Pages are created by linking to them. To create a page add the following to one of your views:

Yii::app()->cms->createUrl('foo');

What the above code does it creates a node with the name 'foo' (if it doesn't already exist) and returns the URL to that node.

You can also set the following page properties: URL, page title, meta title, meta description, meta keywords.

Creating a block ¶

Blocks are used for displaying Cms content within views and they can be created using the CmsBlock widget. To add a block, add the following code to one of your views:

<?php $this->widget('cms.widgets.CmsBlock',array('name'=>'bar')) ?>

Adding content to a node ¶

If you have permissions to update Cms content an 'Update' link will be displayed below the content. Nodes have a set of properties that can be specified per language:

• Heading - the main heading
• Body - the content
• Stylesheet - stylesheet associated with the content
• URL - the page URL (page/{url}-{id}.html)
• Page Title - the page title
• Breadcrumb - the breadcrumb text
• Meta Title - the page meta title
• Meta Description - the page meta description
• Meta Keywords - the page meta keywords

Please note that the page properties are only used with pages.

It is possible to create relations between nodes by setting the parent. This will help you organize your content and it will also automatically set the correct breadcrumbs.

Editing content ¶

You can use various tags within the body-field:

• {{heading}} - the main heading
• {{image:id}} - displays an attached image
• {{node:name}} - _displays an inline node
• {{file:id}} - creates a link to an attached file
• {{email:address}} - creates a mailto link
• {{name|text}} - creates an internal link
• {{address|text}} - creates an external link

Please note that you cannot render inline nodes using the block widget.

Using NordCms with Bootstrap ¶

NordCms comes with a theme that can be used with my Bootstrap extension.

To enable the bootstrap theme you first need to download and setup Bootstrap. When you have Bootstrap up and running you need to copy the files in themes/bootstrap/views to you themes/views folder. If you're not familiar with Yii's theming, read more about it here.

What's next? ¶

• Improving the interface for attachments
• Further SEO optimization
• Content revisions ?

Changes ¶

May ?, 2012 ¶

• Release 2.0.0
  • Polished UI using Twitter's Bootstrap
  • Functionality for creating menus
  • Page and blocks as separate models
  • Added page types to distinguish content
  • Database migrations
  • Requires Yii-Bootstrap
  • Changed to use Bootstrap as default
  • Removed themes

Stay tuned for the release!

Dec 15, 2011 ¶

• Initial release