WebMake as a CMS
WebMake is, arguably, a Content Management System, or CMS.
To be more specific, it's oriented entirely towards generating a relatively
static site, such as a weblog, a news site (without comments or
personalisation) or a typical informational site.
It does not have any dynamic, database-driven, features suitable for "live"
sites that update frequently with dynamic data; nor does it have support for
"personalisation" features, where the site displays different data based on
what the user presents in their HTTP request. (Of course, using WebMake does
not preclude using PHP, mod_perl, Mason etc. to provide these, however.)
Here's the relevant details of what it can do.
WebMake's CMS Features
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Separation between content and layout
Since, logically, content and layout are entirely separate tasks, they
should be easy to keep separate in the CMS.
WebMake uses content references to include content into pages, and
implement templating. This allows you to separate the content text from
the template layout HTML.
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No requirement for text editors to know HTML
Only the layout staff should really need to know HTML, so the staff who
provide text content can do this without HTML knowledge.
WebMake provides Text::EtText, which provides an
easy-to-edit, easy-to-read and intuitive way to write HTML, based on the
plain-text markup conventions we've been using for years.
-
Generation of pages automatically, using metadata from content items
It should be possible to generate index pages, sitemaps, navigation links,
and other text automatically, based on properties and metadata of the
pieces of content loaded.
WebMake supports this using metadata on content items.
-
Flexible URL support
It should be trivial to rearrange a site, if required, totally changing the
URLs used in the site's pages.
WebMake supports this by using symbolic URL references,
which can be modified by changing one line, causing references to that
URL throughout the site to change.
What WebMake Is Missing
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Edit-In-Page Functionality
Most CMSes boast a nicer, browser-based user interface to creating, naming,
uploading and filling out content items and media.
WebMake currently leaves you with your trusty text editor, to edit the .wmk
file and add the tags needed to define these. This is fine if you're of
the UNIX mindset (like me ;) -- but it does need work.
-
Database Support
It would be nice if WebMake could load content from a database. It
currently cannot, although there's nothing in the architecture that would
preclude this; there just has not been a need, just yet.
Unfortunately, this may not be possible -- this IBM software patent details a mechanism whereby a server can dynamically rebuild its
pages, based on changes to objects in a database. WebMake could run
afoul of this if database support is added (although there are a few
points where this could be avoided).
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XML Support
This will definitely arrive -- as soon as a good XSLT engine becomes part
of Perl, or at least becomes easy to install from CPAN. It's on my list ;)
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