CMS what is it in plain english

RapidWeaver Classic General
1

I keep seeing a lot lately on CMS, Total CMS, CMS Plus etc.

What is it and how does it work. I am not a coder so if this is more HTML coding then please tell me so I can pass. But what I am gathering is that you can make updates when not in front of your mac.

Thanks in advance.

2

“Content management system”.

This can mean a lot of things. But in (over)-simplified language, it gives you a way of modifying web pages from a browser without having to fire up RapidWeaver.

This is particularly useful if you want to make frequent changes from the road, or if you have other people who need to be able to make updates.

Two examples of where you might want one:

  • You are maintaining a blog and want to be able to update it without republishing your site, or want to allow other people to contribute to the blog
  • You run a store and want to easily add/remove products, change prices, etc., without having to republish your site
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And CMS does NOT need to be blog-centric. If you are creating a website where others will be contributing content (in a blog or on other pages or both) then a CMS is invaluable.

Some CMS allow you to designate “roles” for different users: so some can only change blog content, others can add blog or regular content, etc. etc. However, how roles are handled (if at all) varies a lot from CMS to CMS.

4

so can they just keep adding and it grows the page, or does it basically replace what is there already?

I am looking at armadillo and wondering about it. If I use the Armadillo stack, is it a monthly fee, yearly fee, or a one time fee.

Can I use it with any theme? for example I use themes from @henkvrieselaar and @willwood.

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@garyp Either way. Depending on how you set it up. Yes, it can grow the page or it can replace content.

I personally use Armadillo as my CMS, but you already noted some that exist, plus several folks enjoy Pulse. As a RW user these days you are very lucky: there’s some great choices out there for CMS.

1 Like
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Armadillo works well with all my themes. Same with a number of other leading CMS addons for RapidWeaver.

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Armadillo is a one time fee.

In theory you can use it with any theme. There are likely some exceptions. I use Volcano and some other thems from Will and it works great with his themes. Also works nicely with Foundry. Armadillo tries (almost always successfully) to emulate your theme’s basic design approach in terms of colors, headers, font sizes, etc. So it should not only be usable with most themes, but a very close knit fit.

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Thanks for the mention @Mathew of Pulse

Pulse works really well with any theme, including Foundry.

It’s called Pulse CMS but recently when I meet people for the first time I say “Pulse” as the “CMS” part does sound a bit technical / geeky. This is just something which is from the early days of the web. Just like when people say “CRM” to describe how they manage their contacts.

Good luck with the project!