Blocs CMS - community input

Thats why we also have the Wordpress export support coming too, so you can make the call based on the customers needs.

The more control you give customers, the more problems you will get.

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Yes certainly - I would very much welcome a simple CMS. One that allows a change of text and some images. But leave layout untouched. And with control of font choices, H1, H2 etc.

I have built sites for restaurants, hotels, B&Bs who want to change prices, add new menu items or special occasion menus, special offers etc — small changes which they can easily do live without leaving the page.

I also have built festival sites which are short lived but the organisers like the ability to change programme timings and add in new acts and additions as the festival approaches.

I began this kind of work in Freeway but moved over to Blocks for reasons readers will probably be aware of. It was a good move to make. Freeway though happily worked with a CMS called WebYep which was ideal for the task and the clients easily took to its use.

WebYep2 is the latest version. Open source and freely available from GitHub - maxfancourt/WebYep: Web Content Management System

Rapid weaver also use it and has a site page with a free demo which allows nominated sections to be changed live for those who are curious. WebYep | Stacks4Stacks

I have not tried to use Webyep on a blocs site ( Messing with code at this level is not my thing but presumably it could be done?) And if it could be done could it or something similar be a model for a version simple to to install and use in Blocs ?

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My 2 cents.

I am as well in favour of a light-weight CMS - one that actually focuses on content and not on the layout, giving the possibility to update existing texts, tariffs, images… but no modification of the actual structure of the site. I believe this would be a perfect addition to Blocs.

That said the ability to produce Wordpress templates will be another great addition, however, since it was delayed I actually sought another avenue and have found that using php scripts in combination with Blocs Code Widget works great. Additionally, I do not need all of Wordpress capabilities and thus relying just on needed scripts I can provide clients with lighter solutions yet still efficient.

MDS

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That’s why I tend to use a CMS every time, and also why I like OctoberCMS (never got into Wordpress). I generally make user specific plugins where they can edit their content based on industry (non-profit sites mainly).

For example, team profiles, child sponsorship, groups etc.

They can’t break the site and I can add as many variable options as they need, which usually means something as simple as a tick box or a switch where they add their content. So if they need multiple columns it dynamically uses them.

@PeteSharp, which CMS do you use?
Has there been any issues with Blocs

@KBConcepts, I use OctoberCMS. Blocs exports as a template for it. I only had the odd bug issue, which was burst cache related from memory and a couple of weird things Norm fixed. But nothing I wasn’t able to fix myself in the exported code.

I would be keen if Blocs did support a simple CMS that allowed people to edit content and media. Sometimes the whole CMS thing can be a little overkill for a basic site.

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Thanks for getting back to me.

A BLOCS CMS would be awesome!!! Exactly as you explained.

I think the main aspect here ist the sync capability and how much cms-complexity this feature allows?

Norm has right: if someone wants a full CMS there are already many option to choose from (Pulse, Surreal, Cushy + Wordpress very soon). But none of these have sync capabilities because of their complexity. Therefore Norm hat to find the ideal balance between feature complexity and sync capabilities.

From my experience I want to point out 2 things:

  1. The simplest CMS I know is CoastCMS (http://www.coast-cms.de/). It is open source, very clean, very easy to setup and to use. Beside editing text and images one can insert text (H1…H6 + Paragraph), insert new images and add new links.
    @Norm: I think it worths to take a look! If these features could be implemented in the Blocs-CMS it would already make it a powerful tool.

  2. On the other hand many of us designers want to offer our clients the possibility to insert new (complex) content. Surreal CMS has a great feature for this: „repeatable regions“. Repeatable regions can be 1 Column Row, 2 Columns Row…6 Columns Row and their content, which can be duplicated and moved up or down within a bloc. If something like this could be implemented in the Blocs-CMS it would be awesome. The end customers can duplicate a bric with the desired structure, move it to the desired place and replace the content with the new one. The big question here is: can this sync with Blocs project files?

If Norm is able to manage the sync capability for the features described above I think the Blocs-CMS would be a game changer for designers and their clients!

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hello @Norm
What are the results of your blocs-cms-community-input question ?
Did you decide to make a simple CMS ‘blocs style’?
Thanks

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Yeah something is happening with @Jannis I’m aiming to build out the developer API in order to enable the creation of a dedicated Blocs CMS from 3rd parties.

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Something easy that allowed a client to just change text and images would be great. Leave the structure alone. It could possibly grow, as Blocs.

Casey

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Sounds great!!! When this feature will be available?

+1 for blog capabilities

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It would be great, especially since October is now paid.

Thread necromancy ftw :innocent:

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It is not expensive though.

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Also OctoberCMS was forked to a new open source project, WinterCMS, by the some of the former OctoberCMS maintenance team.

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If you followed any of it. I have no desire to jump on the fork. Their attitudes were terrible (regardless of what may have happened).

OctoberCMS 2.0 is looking really good.