New Google Drive 'Our Vision' folder

[Jesse Burns]

Ryan Kazokas has had a great idea and created a new Google Drive folder titled 'Our Vision' and has written down what his thoughts are regarding 'The Perfect CMS'.

I encourage everyone to do something similar. Talk about what your vision is. If you were able to just think something into existence, what would it be?

If you want to, feel free to create another folder in there is your name if you want to create more than one document.

I will be doing just that to describe my vision for acms :-)

Thanks for a great idea Ryan, and thank you for showing initiative like this, it puts a smile on my face :-D

[Patrick Weaver]

This is a fantastic idea. I know you and I have discussed this previously, so most of what ACMS is pretty much covers what I feel is the best direction for a CMS to take.

However, when I get a spare minute on the computer I'll write up my thoughts on somethings and post them.

[Jesse Burns]

Thanks Patrick!

I've taken a look at the doc you added to the Google Drive and I really agree with your points. Like you state, those are rough points, and how you implement them depends on the system you are trying to create.

When it comes to modularity and flexibility, the more complex the system is, and the more sub-systems that need to communicate or cooperate with each other, the more careful we have to be in order to offer that flexibility.

One example is the Theme system. I actually wrote a lot more about the Theme System than I had planned in this reply, so I decided to create another post titled "Discussion regarding the Theme System". Feel free to check it out, as it is a good case regarding complexity and flexibility meeting in the middle.

So flexibility can be reached, we just have to do it by design, and weigh the pros/cons of tradeoffs to meet in the middle sometimes.

Modularity is also big for me. I've had discussions in the past regarding another CMS you and I are familiar with Patrick, and I'm sure you were part of them. The two main points of those discussions were that:

1. There was functionality tied into the core system that should not have been, like the news/blog system
2. In order to modify core behavior you had to actually hack core code files, which made updates and maintenance a nightmare

For point one, I want to create a small, efficient core and then all functionality will be provided by Modules. I want to go so far as to create an API for the User Authentication System (Login System), so if a Site Admin wants to use a 3rd party Login Module, or their own Login Module, all they have to do is make sure their Login Module is sending the core Authentication System the proper calls and responses. That's on the Todo List ;-)

For point two, if we have an Event System then we have Events that Modules can listen to. When the Event is triggered, the Module's Listener will have the chance to step in and do it's thing. So core modification can be as simple as installing a Module, and if you want to get rid of it, you just uninstall it and the core is left untouched.

This is some good stuff :-)

I encourage everyone to create your own folder and document in the 'Our Vision' Google Drive folder and share your thoughts regarding what you'd love to see in a system like AllianceCMS!