sfSimpleCMSPlugin
Overview
This plugin allows you to add a simple Content Management System (CMS) to your symfony application with the following features:
Uses Javascript and Ajax to provide a neat user experience
Edit zones in pages
Edit page URL (you can use / in page path)
Edit content in the real context ('edit in place')
Preview result
Create and manage a tree structure for pages
i18n ready (the interface is translated)
l10n ready (a page can have different versions)
support multiple templates
Basic publication workflow
Breadcrumb navigation
User management is controlled through sfGuardPlugin
It is not aimed at replacing full-featured CMS packages, but offers a lightweight alternative for when you build a website that has to contain pages often updated by special users. It is voluntarily simple, and very easy to configure; so it should fulfill most basic CMS requirements.
Please note that this plugin is in active development. If you want to help and improve it, please contact François Zaninotto.
Screenshots
Requirements
The prerequisites for using the sfSimpleCMS plugin are:
As the plugin doesn't contain a user management module, the project where you install it must have a table managing authors, or users (whatever the name), and the related Propel class must have a __toString() method. Both these conditions are satisfied by the sfFeed2Plugin, so installing this plugin is a good choice.
The page tree strucure uses the sfPropelActAsNestedSetBehaviorPlugin. The plugin must be installed and behaviors enabled in your propel.ini.
Rich text editing uses tinyMCE. You must install tinyMCE if you want a wysiwyg interface for text editing.
To install the plugin for a symfony project, the usual process is to use the symfony command line:
$ php symfony plugin-install http://plugins.symfony-project.com/sfSimpleCMSPlugin
Alternatively, if you don't have PEAR installed, you can download the latest package attached to this plugin's wiki page and extract it under your project's plugins/ directory. You will also have to copy the contents of the myproject/plugins/sfSimpleCMSPlugin/web/ directory into a myproject/web/sfSimpleCMSPlugin/ directory.
Rebuild the model, generate the SQL code for the new tables and insert it into your database:
$ php symfony propel-build-all
Clear the cache to enable the autoloading to find the new classes:
$ php symfony cc
You can load the included fixtures to start using the forum with test data.
$ php symfony propel-load-data frontend plugins\sfSimpleCMSPlugin\data\fixtures
Enable the new sfSimpleCMS and sfSimpleCMSAdmin modules in your application, via the settings.yml file.
// in myproject/apps/frontend/config/settings.yml
all:
.settings:
enabled_modules: [sfSimpleCMS, sfSimpleCMSAdmin](default,)
Start using the plugin by browsing to the admin module's default page:
http://myproject/frontend_dev.php/sfSimpleCMSAdmin
There, you will be able to create the root page (if you didn't insert the fixtures) and add new pages. You will also be able to access the new pages in edit mode from the admin section.
Basic usage
Pages created by the sfSimpleCMSPlugin all have a path property. Using this path, you will be able to see the page in the frontend. For instance, if a page is created with the path foo/bar, you will be able to see it by browsing to:
http://myproject/frontend_dev.php/cms/foo/bar
Only published pages are accessible that way.
To edit it, just add a ?edit=true query string to this URL. If the current user has the proper credentials, he will then get access to the edit features:
http://myproject/frontend_dev.php/cms/foo/bar?edit=true
In this mode, all the editable zones of a page can be modified by double-clicking in the zone and changing the content in the form control that appears. Even unpublished pages can be edited that way.
Once the page is edited, you can preview the result by adding preview=true to the query string:
http://myproject/frontend_dev.php/cms/foo/bar?edit=true&preview=true
The editor toolbox will automate all that and, in practice, you will never need to edit the URL.
Configuration
app.yml
Some of the features of the plugin can be altered by configuration. To do so, add some of the following lines to your application's app.yml:
all:
sfSimpleCMS:
default_text: '[text here](add)' # Default text for page editable parts
routes_register: on # Use the plugin's routes
rich_editing: off # Use TinyMCE for rich text editing
default_page: home # Slug (=path) of the default root page
home_link: My swell site # what is displayed on the top right corner of the pages (can be HTML code)
use_l10n: false # Enable multiple versions for a single page
localizations: [fr, es](en,) # If l10n is enabled, list of cultures in which pages are available
default_culture: en # If l10n is not enabled, default culture for pages
editor_credential: # Name of the credential required for page editing (leave blank for free editing)
publisher_credential: # Name of the credential required for page publishing (leave blank for free publishing)
templates: # Available templates
simplePage: Simple Page # the key is the name of a template which must be present in modules/sfSimpleCMS/templates/
home: Home # the value is the name under which the template is presented in lists
slot_types: # Available slot types
Text: Simple text
RichText: Rich text
Php: PHP code
Image: Image
Modular: List of components
Routing rules
The plugin comes with a few routing rules.
# main route to browsing the pages
sf_cms_show:
url: /cms/:slug
param: { module: sfSimpleCMS, action: show }
requirements: { slug: '.*'}
sf_cms_delete:
url: /cms_delete/:slug
param: { module: sfSimpleCMS, action: delete }
requirements: { slug: '.*'}
sf_cms_toggle_publish:
url: /cms_publish/:slug
param: { module: sfSimpleCMS, action: togglePublish }
requirements: { slug: '.*'}
If you want to use your own routes instead, turn the routes_register parameter to off in the app.yml.
Templates
The plugin is bundled with a few basic templates, but you will definitely need to add your own templates.
CMS templates are files located under the sfSimpleCMS module's templates/ directory, with a name ending with Template.php. A template must include the sfSimpleCMS helper group and call the include_editor_tools() helper at the bottom.
As for page zones, you will need two more helpers to manipulate them:
sf_simple_cms_has_slot($slot_name): returns true if a page slot is set, false otherwisesf_simple_cms_slot($slot_name, $default text): includes the slot if in view mode, or the editable version of the slot if in edit mode.
The possible values for the slot name are currently limited to: Title, Slot1, Slot2, Slot3, Slot4.
Look and Feel
The sfSimpleForum module comes with a default stylesheet. You can choose to use your own stylesheet instead of the default one. To do so, you must create an empty sfSimpleCMS module inside your application with just one config/view.yml file in it, with the followin content:
all:
stylesheets: [myCustomStylesheet](-/sfSimpleCMSPlugin/css/CMSTemplates.css,)
TODO
- Optimize queries for breadcrumb and navigation to retrieve title in a single query
- Set current section in special style in _mainNavigation.php
- Enhance documentation
- Published status per localization
- Better templates CSS by default
- Add more templates
- Add more components and partials to be used in templates
- Refactor the
sfSimpleCMS action code to make it DRYier (use mixins?)
- Add a validator for the slug
- Better integration with sfGuard
- Search engine
- Package with other plugins into an application
Changelog
Trunk
2007-07-19 | 0.7.0 Alpha
- francois: BC Refactored slot system. Now a page can have an unlimited number of slots
- francois: Fixed bug with publisher credentials in admin list
- francois: Fixed missing translation helpers in admin list
2007-07-19 | 0.6.3 Beta
- francois: Fixed bug when l10n is off
- francois: Fixed bug when nothing is defined in app.yml
- francois: Reworked the default templates a bit
- francois: Added a new 'mainNavigation' component
- francois: Modified the way links change in edit mode (now uses JavaScript)
- francois: Added a new Image slot type to show how to add a custom slot type
- francois: Refactored Slot types to object (easier to extend)
- francois: Modified test data to show more about the possible slot types
2007-07-18 | 0.6.2 Beta
- francois: Added the ability to use a list of components as the value of a slot
- francois: Fixed problem with encoded placeholder on certain configurations
- francois: Fixed problem when using SQLite in sfSimpleCMSAdmin module
- francois: Added simple text formatting to simple text slots
2007-07-18 | 0.6.1 Beta
- francois: Fixed i18n problem on case-sensitive filesystems (#1991)
2007-07-16 | 0.6.0 Beta
- francois: Initial release
Francois Zaninotto 