~ Stacey – a PHP Flat file CMS ~

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

In my last post I promised to quickly run down my reasons for using the simple, flat file Content Management system Stacey to manage my portfolio.

Why flat file?

As I am sure we are all aware, a traditional CMS is software that allows you to update your content through a user-friendly interface, and generally stores the content in some sort of database. Reasons to use this style of Content Management System includes being easy to use, they enable your site to be accessible from any browser, and you can leverage already existing code to extend your site’s functionality easily.

Sounds good, however there are as many downsides, which I have learned over many years of using a diverse range of software packages both commercial and open source. For one, being a technically savvy computer user, there is little advantage for myself to have a web-based interface as all of my development work is done from my home computer or my laptop. An interface can also be quite inflexible, getting a design pixel-perfect is often quite a chore, and while they are more convenient for an editors point of view from a development aspect they are more challenging due to the existence of a database. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you cannot easily track and manage the information using a version control management tool such as Git.

A flat file system by contrast, stores all content within a simple file system rather than a database. This allows content as well as structure to be tracked and deployed easily. From a pure efficiency standpoint flat file systems are awesome. I can make a change to my content on my local machine using a text editor and Markdown, push up to my external Git repo, and deploy to my server in seconds without having to touch a database management interface or FTP.

The main thing that I have learned is that while CMS’s are crucial for some purposes, they are actually overcomplicating and problematic for others. Learning where this line is definitely important.

Why Stacey?

There are a few reasons, because its designed for designers, the developer is Australian (biased I know), is simple to use and extend, and also I just really like the bare-bones, minimalistic style.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 8:34 am and is filed under PHP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.