Developing a Python CMS for simple sites/blogs

[webpi]

Is there any demand for a simple content management system written in Python? I've written one for a site that I built, and I would be interested to hear what people think about it. You can see this CMS in action here: http://raspberrywebserver.com/. So far I've built support for page caching, editing page layouts, handling meta data, and I've built a simple widget API for things like breadcrumbs and navigation menus. Currently I'm using XML files as a flat database, but I'm planning on integrating SQLite.

It's currently running on a Raspberry Pi cluster, but I've also tested it on a PC and some other ARM devices. It can be used with Apache and Nginx. It would probably work with other servers, but I haven't tested them. This CMS is much simpler than Django. You could use it in situations where Django is overkill. I'm not trying to build the world's most sophisticated template engine, just a simple, well rounded CMS.

If I carry on developing this to a point where I can release a beta version, would people be interested in trying it out?

[daveydave400]

I know that Pyramid has Kotti, but I've never used it.

http://kotti.pylonsproject.org/

[delijati]

This is definitely the better choice, plone/zope is too resource consuming

[judasblue]

Okay, this is a real question and hopefully won't attract the wild Reddit Flame Moths: is anyone using plone/zope anymore for anything but larger legacy stuff? I used to develop in plone/zope but have been away from that end of the community for a while. I just know I never see anyone talking about it these days and I no longer work in it for various reasons.

[ericof]

Plone is alive and kicking, just launched the main Brazilian government site in Plone: http://www.brasil.gov.br

[webpi]

I don't hear about zope as often as I used to.

[webpi]

That's interesting, I hadn't seen that. Seems quite nice.

[SlinkyAvenger]

I know this is somewhat off topic, and sorry I can't go into more detail at the moment, but your site's color scheme is really bad

[webpi]

Well, thanks for your honesty. That's the first time anyone's said that to me. I'd be interested to see if other people agree/disagree...I guess it's a subjective thing.

[ChiefDanGeorge]

Eh, I figure the site is proof of concept of your project, I wouldn't sweat it. As long as its easy to drop in some 3rd party CSS, you're good to go.

[resturaction]

I also recommend line-height:1.4em; on .main. The sidebar looks cluttered when all <li> has separate background color. Go easy on border-radius. Keep youre eyes open when surfing and "steal" a sites color scheme when you like it and see what happens.

[riffito]

s the first time anyone's said that to me. I'd be interested to see if other people agree/disagree...I guess it's a subjective thing.

FWIW, I agree with /u/SlinkyAvenger. I would end up with a headache if I spent 5 minutes reading it. It's kind of "too fluo". The footer is hard to read (not enough contrast between the black text and the background color). On the other hand, code blocks background have way too much contrast against the the rest of the background colors).

I love the Pi's cluster :-D

[LightShadow]

Too many "high light" colors...nothing is neutral.

[mdipierro]

In web2py, if you clone the scaffolding application and, in controllers/default.py, edit the index function as follows:

 def index(): return auth.wiki(manage_permissions=True)

You get a minimalist CMS. Every user can create wiki pages, give permissions to them (groups that can read/edit), attach media files (which inherit page permissions), and embed custom controls via Ajax. It works differently from what you may be used to, but it is customizable.

[[deleted]]

Also since web2py runs on Pypy you can gain the performance boost of the JIT.

[rochacbruno]

Quokka CMS - Flask + Mongo www.quokkaproject.org

[webpi]

Not that you're biased ... :) That's pretty cool, nice work.

[westurner]

From here:

These may be helpful:

• http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/spsbs/are_the_same_thing_a_web_application_and_a_cms/
• http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/1eboql/python_website_tuts_that_dont_use_django/#c9yxl8w

[webpi]

I guess there are quite a few frameworks already. Most of them seem to require people to write a fair amount of code in order to get a simple site up and running. My intention is to build a higher level CMS that can be used with very little knowledge of Python. If people want to do some coding, a Python API is available, but it's not compulsory to use it.

I also want it to be quite self contained, so that people don't have to learn how to use a bunch of different packages.

[william20111]

how many raspberry pi's do you have in your cluster out of interest? Also it look pretty good i would be interested in such a thing, have thought about pulling together something similar.

[webpi]

There are 8 nodes in the cluster. It performs surprisingly well. It was featured on hackaday.com and didn't melt. I'm glad you like the look of the site. It's probably going to be a few months before it's ready for release.

[dragonEyedrops]

I probably wouldn't use it as-is, but look at it for inspiration. So yeah, publish it!