Moo... moo... here we are!

Published 11 months ago

Well, after a quite a long slog we are very happy to start the launch cycle of our content management system, Steer CMS and its community hub. We hope our work will prove useful to PHP/Symfony developers out there, who, like us require a more flexible solution for content management - one which is not only open to custom integration, but plays a pivotal role from development to deployment.

A Brief Introduction

Steer CMS is aimed first at developers, and second at the users/clients of their creations. Inspired by the ease of development new rapid development frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Symfony, we longed for a better fit between our development technologies and our implemented support CMS applications. One core to fit them all seemed the next step.

With the boom of work conducted within the Symfony community over the past few years, we've internally been tailoring an ad-hoc solutions for our own work. Formalising that work brings together Steer CMS.

So enough of the chit-chat and out with the goods. Steer CMS is pretty cool and we hope you'll like it. Some screenshots are available.

And on to some details:

Some features:

1. Production Ready Backend - Harnessing the power of Symfony's generation system, we have included an enhanced backend system to Steer CMS. Simple, yet polished enough to provide solid management interface, all you see (pull-down menus, buttons, bookmarks etc.) come straight out of the box (or generator.yml).

   A simple menu system can be easily configured via YAML to include custom modules along with credential rules.

2. i18n Compatible - The backend uses a simple culture switch to make multi-lingual work a simple click away. All base modules included in Steer CMS are i18n. We're working on translations in English (base), French, German and Spanish and will hopefully be adding to that list (volunteers)?
3. Publishing Engine - Steer CMS implements a publishing engine for pages and files with true online/offline states.
4. Integrated WYSIWYG - Rich text editing completely integrated into the administration interfaces makes complex editing a breeze. With simple visual indicators to help novices keep on track.
5. Asset Management - Allowing for files to be added to the website and used in rich text editing.
6. Access Control - A fully configured sfGaurd implementation with Credential rule-set is provided to give full control over user management in both frontend and backend applications.
7. Cache Contracts - a simple yet powerful cache controller allows for the automation of cache refreshes in sync with backend changes.
8. Hierarchal Content - Allowing for advanced, nested IA systems and navigation.
9. Blogging and Events Calendar -  Include, are both a fully fledged blogging system and an Events Calendar.

A big thanks!

Steer CMS at is core, is the integration of a number of fantastic community projects. Taking a central role is Symfony - a wonderful MVC framework which enabled a solid structure for Steer CMS to sit - a big thanks to Fabien, François and all the Symfony developers for their tireless work over the past few years. Also, we have integrated a huge amount of work/code from the Symfony and PHP community.

A big thanks goes out to:

• Tristan Rivoallan (sfPropelUuidBehaviorPlugin, sfPropelActAsNestedSetBehaviorPlugin, sfPropelVersionableBehaviorPlugin)
• Xavier Lacot (sfPropelActAsTaggableBehaviorPlugin)
• Gordon Franke (sfPropelActAsNestedSetBehaviorPlugin)
• Fabien Potencier (sfGuardPlugin, sfEventCalendarPlugin, sfErrorLoggerPlugin, sfThumbnailPlugin)
• Francois Zaninotto (sfFeed2Plugin)
• Niels Leenheer (sfCombineFilter)
• Romain Dorgueil (GeSHi)
• Simone Carletti (sfMarkdownPlugin)
• John Gruber (Original Markdown)
• Michel Fortin (PHP Markdown)

And also:

• Propel Group
• FCKeditor
• The BluePrintCSS Crew
• Everaldo Coelho
• Prototype Project
• Kevin Miller (LightWindow)

And a huge amount of thanks to all I've forgotten to add to this list.

Next Steps

Well, we're working like mad to get an alpha launch out the door - but before that happens, we are taking a small pause and making sure everything is in order. I'll be posting a "Road to Alpha" timeline shortly, untill then, thanks for reading.

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