Craft CMS: A CMS Made for the Crafts Person

For anyone interested in doing things right, taking their time in the process (in a good way) and having unlimited flexibility to achieve this, then Craft CMS could be the way forward.

Craft CMS is a relatively new content management system devised by Pixel & Tonic (of Expression Engine add-ons fame) and aimed at developers who like to get things right the first time.

Following their success with their Expression Engine extensions, Pixel & Tonic decided on releasing their own CMS. For a couple of years they developed in silence what was then known as Blocks. Following a name change and a plethora of new features, Craft has been building up momentum in developing circles through its unique approach to handling content.

One main selling point is the Matrix feature. Matrix, recently released in its current form, allows for the advanced management of field types so that they can effectively have multiple types of content all within one place. All of these field types are essentially built of content blocks - hence the original name of Blocks.

The newer name feels more appropriate now however as Craft CMS really is designed in a way that is simplistic (for the developer as well as the end user) yet thoroughly manageable. A great degree of thought has been put into the scalability too. Craft CMS naturally scales regardless of the size of the site to start with, but the plugins integrate with the existing content blocks perfectly.

For the core platform, Craft CMS is free to use, though for more finer tuned plugins and features, there is a fee. Justifiably though. Craft is so well built, you have to use it to really appreciate its effectiveness.

Craft CMS, as with most popular content management systems, is built with a combination of PHP and MySQL and built upon the Yii framework. There is a slight learning curve for some of the conventions used, though once under your belt, highly effective to your work flow.

As well as the Yii framework, Craft CMS features the Twig template language. Twig is targeted for those who wish to use the DRY method in that templates can be used throughout the development stage again and again.

Craft CMS is a superb platform to use. Once you accommodate yourself with some of the Yii and Twig conventions, then you will benefit even more from the system. For a platform that has been endorsed by Happy Cog, Craft CMS should be at the top of your list if you are looking for complete autonomy.