Whizby CMS

Modification Name: Whizby CMS

Author:

• Highway of Life (Head Developer)
• Whizby Development
• StarTrekGuide Staff

About Whizby CMS: (Modification Description)
Whizby CMS ("whizz-bē") is a Website Content Management System designed to be lightweight, easy to use, and extensible. Whizby CMS is powered by the well-coded phpBB3 base framework and uses elements from the phpBB3 template engine, auth engine, DBAL (Database Abstraction Layer), and caching. The phpBB3 template engine is a one-of-a-kind system that allows stylers and designers to code strictly in their native languages of HTML, CSS and Javascript without the need for any PHP knowledge. And uses simpler markup to systems like Smarty.

Whizby CMS is not designed to replace large CMS systems such as Drupal, Joomla! or Blog-CMS systems like WordPress, instead, it is designed more for the developer to be a simpler system that is easier to create styles for, easier to extend and is well-coded.

What to Contribute?
The Whizby CMS development team is focused on creating "code as art", if you would like to contribute to this project in any way, including documentation, coding, marketing, ideas, feedback, testing, or anything else you can think of, please contact the development team leader: Highway of Life via PM or reply to this topic.

Follow Development:
Whizby Development on Assembla: http://whizby.assembla.com/
Whizby CMS is being developed on Git which is a free distributed version control system and is considered the future of SVN (Subversion).
To browse, review or branch the Whizby CMS Git code repository: http://whizby.assembla.com/spaces/whizby/trac_git_tool
To follow development updates on twitter: http://twitter.com/whizbydev
To watch development updates on Assembla (must be registered on Assembla): http://whizby.assembla.com/spaces/watch/whizby

Requirements:

• A phpBB3 Installation.
  
• Apache running PHP 5.2 or greater.
  
• mod_rewrite for pretty URLs

Why?
Why did we decide to create a CMS powered by phpBB3? - Many (most) of the GPL CMS systems that are available today use an MVC that does not make creating templates very easy. Our goal is to make a CMS system that utilizes the power of an MVC to enable designers to only code in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and never have to touch PHP or learn a new syntax (such as Smarty). And PHP developers can be strictly PHP developers without the need to code anything into the template. The Whizby CMS MVC uses a markup that consists of tokens: {MY_TOKEN} for data, and comment blocks for switches, conditionals and file inclusion:

<!-- BEGIN loop_name -->
    <!-- IF S_MY_SWTICH -->
        {loop_name.VARIABLE}
    <!-- ENDIF -->
<!-- END loop_name -->
<!-- INCLUDE another_template_file.html -->

A client has commissioned us to create the system, and has given us full copyright and the ability to develop the code as GPL software, so this cannot become a "vaporware MOD", and must have a release schedule once we are able to determine the features and base system. Additionally, the team on StarTrekGuide (Whizby Development) has wanted to create a CMS type of system powered by phpBB3, and we finally have our opportunity.

Demo / Screenshots:
Development was started officially September 1st, 2009 - At this time we are in the early development stages of this product.

Feature List (so far):
Please note that I am trying to list most of the important features here, but I will be rolling out the CMS in step-by-step process, which means that this CMS will NOT start out being the ULTIMATE CMS, it will be a basic, simple CMS that will be easy to work with and takes care of (hopefully) the most important features. I'm aiming for the Least Common Denominator.

Why am I listing all of these features? Because it helps for better planning when you can plan for everything and decrease the CREEP factor. The Creep factor is the factor by which a product is developed, if it's projected to take 1 month, various extra features and changes will creep in and it will end up taking 3 months.

• Features plus - Whizby CMS will have nearly all of the phpBB3 features including:
  
  1. Caching:
     
     • XCache
       
     • File cache
       
     • APC
       
     • memcache
       
     • eAccelerator
       
  2. Databases using the DBAL (Database Abstraction Layer)
     
     • MySQL
       
     • MySQLi
       
     • MSSQL
       
     • MSSQL ODBC
       
     • Oracle
       
     • Firebird
       
     • PostgreSQL
       
     • SQLite
       
  3. Auth Layers
     
     • Apache Auth
       
     • LDAP
       
     • Database
       
  4. Template Engine
     
  5. Language System
     
  6. Auth Permissions System
     
  7. Session Management
     
• Open Source - GPL
  
  • Due to the size of this project and the amount of interest I have received, we are creating the Whizby CMS to be a public project under the GPL license and freely open source (as in free beer and free speech).
    
  • This freely allows plugins and customizations be created for the Whizby CMS, hopefully encouraging community contributions.
    
• Content Management
  
  • Easily create new pages (content) via the admin panel.
    
  • Unlimited page nesting.
    
  • Content can be created by using an editor in the Admin panel or assigning the content to a template.
    
  • Templates can be used as presets so you can select which template you want to assign content to.
    
  • Use a selection of editors to create your page(s):
    
    1. Plain Text
       
    2. Raw HTML
       
    3. BBCode
       
    4. Textile - which is somewhat like Wiki markup
       
    5. The future may also bring a WYSIWYG editor
       
• Content Auth and Access Levels
  
  • Each page, content, and/or module can have it's own auth permissions setting.
    
  • The control for the permissions is much like the phpBB3 permissions system.
    
  • Permissions can be set individually on content for view, add, edit and delete.
    
  • Permissions can be setup as roles as well as individual, giving administrators fine-grained control.
    
  • You can specify permissions for custom pages or modules using the following examples:
    
    1. acl_u_foo - Requires u_foo permissions.
       
    2. (acl_u_foo || acl_m_foo) - Requires u_foo OR m_foo.
       
    3. acl_u_foo && (acl_u_cow || acl_m_foo) - Requires u_foo AND either u_cow or m_foo
       
    4. acl_u_foo && cfg_foo_enabled - Requires u_foo AND the foo_enabled config variable set to true.
       
    5. request_foo && cfg_foo_enabled - Requires $_REQUEST['foo'] AND the foo_enabled config var set.
       
• Authors and users
  
  • The Whizby CMS uses the phpBB Database for sessions, users, and auth permissions, so it has perfect integration with the phpBB users. They will both be shared.
    
  • Author Profiles. When users create content in the CMS, author profiles are automatically created for them.
    
  • Users can be placed into groups which can be given special access permissions. (See Access Levels above)
    
• Pretty URLs
  
  • Unified URL building class allowing easy extension classes and modules.
    
  • Whizby uses the Apache mod_rewrite module to allow user-customizable Pretty URL formats.
    
  • Database controlled rewrite rules - no file editing required to add additional rules.
    
• Comments System
  
  • Whizby CMS will provide a comment system that can be turned on or off for content, pages, modules or articles.
    
  • User comments can utilise PlainText or Textile editors.
    
  • Comments will be shown in hierarchial format to allow for nested replies, enabling discussions within comment threads.
    
• Content Version Control
  
  • Coming to Whizby CMS will be a version control system for content, pages, and articles.
    
  • Content will display who changed what article and when.
    
  • Content may be rolled back, or compared to earlier or later versions.
    
• phpBB3 Integration
  
  • Whizby CMS is designed to be closely and perfectly integrated with phpBB3. It is completely seperate, yet dependant on the phpBB3 framework.
    
  • The CMS code will reside outside the phpBB3 directory.
    
  • Whizby CMS uses the UMIL (Unified MOD Installation Library) for fast and easy installation.
    
  • Since the CMS uses the phpBB3 framework, users and sessions are controlled through the phpBB3 system, increasing efficiency.
    
• Localization
  
  • Whizby CMS is, like phpBB3, language driven, meaning it will work in any language.
    
  • Utilization of the phpBB3 language system means that translations will be easy for the international community.
    
  • Timezone management will always try to automatically detect what timezone the user is on, even if they are not registered. So the content will always appear in the users correct local time.
    
• Styling
  
  • Whizby CMS theme and template system uses the phpBB3 template engine to seperate the code from the theme.
    
  • Like phpBB3, templates are created using HTML, CSS and Javascript without any need or knowledge of PHP or 'special' markup.
    
  • Template presets can be also created for use with content and page creation.
    
• Dynamic Navigation
  
  • When creating new content or modules, you can assign navigation to specified navigation menus.
    
  • Navigation menus can be dropped into the templates, which eliminates the need to edit templates when installing plugins, modules or creating new content.
    
• Syndication
  
  • The Whizby CMS will allow for news RSS/ATOM feeds within all parts of the CMS, including articles, content, pages and modules.
    
  • Notification system that allows users to sign up for updates and notifications.
    
• Plugins and Extensibility
  
  • The Whizby CMS is designed for the basic developer who wants a base system to work off of, but wants the ease of styling like phpBB3.
    
  • Well designed and easy to read code will mean that extending and building plugins for Whizby CMS will be easy for almost anyone with PHP knowledge.
    
  • By popular demand, the Whizby CMS will be easily extendible with plugins, modules and extensions.
    
  • Most classes within the Whizby CMS are dynamic classes for extendability.