Grav CMS

Week 5
Reclaim Hosting CPanel
and GravCMS
Start of our look at
different CMSs
Reclaimhosting.com
getgrav.org
cpanel.net
Bryan Ollendyke
[at]btopro
Developer Activist

- Don’t just give a definition
- Demonstrate and communicate
the need effectively
- This was not an easy topic
- Let’s look at some examples

Don’t just give me a definition
Demonstrate and explain the need
DBo Knows -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y
0tsXdZ1XgQ

TechSiggs Knows -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y
0tsXdZ1XgQ

321einahpets –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a
8aw6SJtqlI

Where the market is heading
Stenciljs
stenciljs.com

Tweets from
web components
meet up in
San Fran Sep’19

Today’s Topic / What you'll learn about
- Cpanel, minor overview of what it
provides via Reclaim hosting
- GravCMS, background / context / usage
- What we’ll do this week:
- Setup GravCMS in reclaim hosting
(it’s click like 2 buttons)
- Play with GravCMS site building
capabilities
- Build a 5 page website on GravCMS
that effectively communicates the
business case for the platform
Cpanel &
GravCMS

Links to poke around / sources
- https://learn.getgrav.org
learn GravCMS built on GravCMS
(“dog fooding” product)
- https://github.com/getgrav
GravCMS community on github
- https://docs.drupalcommerce.org
Example site built in GravCMS
(Great example of NOT dog fooding)
- https://reclaimhosting.com/
- https://www.cpanel.net/
Cpanel company / product (for reference)
Cpanel &
GravCMS

Terms / definitions for today
- CMS
- YAML
- .MD files
- Flat file CMS
- PHP
- “Site builder” role
- cPanel
- PaaS
Cpanel &
GravCMS

- CMS – Content management System
Storage house for media and content often
via a UI / login system to empower non-tech
users to build a website / edit one.
- YAML – Yet Another Markup Language
Highly readable, lacking in much syntax
way of structuring meaning in data
- .MD files – Markdown based file extension
- Flat file CMS – Files are not stored in
a database and instead live on the file
system. Reduces requirements to operate
and increases performance / security
(to a certain point)
Cpanel &
GravCMS

- PHP – Personal Home Page
Very popular server scripting language
especially in CMS communities
- “Site builder” role – person who configures
the website / CMS via a UI. Understands the
concepts of CMS but not programing per say
- cPanel – A UI wrapper that allows for
what previously would be a complex task in
Linux (server side) to be administered via
front end.
cPanel is a company and NOT open source
- PaaS – Platform as a service
Cpanel &
GravCMS

Who’s using Cpanel / when it’s popular
- [lazy] System / server administrators
- “Site builder” level users (you!)
- need to run a server but don’t want to
run a server
- automates the installation of “apps” that
ride on top via install-a-tron
- PaaS solutions like Reclaim hosting
Reclaim pays for a license to cPanel
You then buy Reclaim who has setup and
managed the integration points with cPanel
to provide you with a SaaS solution
Cpanel &
GravCMS

Parts of the server cPanel automates
- Web server (Apache)
- Dynamic programming language (PHP)
- Database setup (when needed)
- Typical “System administration”
- Permissions, folder creation, etc
cPanel

cPanel in their own words
cPanel

cPanel has been around the block
cPanel

Flavors of CMSs
- CMSs dedicated to commerce (osCommerce)
- Dedicated to large scale, complex
workflows (Drupal)
- Dedicated to blogs / small websites
or media / design rich websites
(WordPress / GravCMS)
- Dedicated to a handful of vendors
dominating the space so that governments
are forced to use them *COUGH Drupal*

What’s in a CMS?
https://blissmarcom.com/blog/content-management-system/

The four CMSs we’ll look at this semester
(Though Reclaim can install many more!)
- GravCMS
- HAXcms
- Drupal
- WordPress

Here’s why we’re covering these 4 FOSS CMSs
- HAXcms – My team’s project, a hybrid
experimental “emerging” new form of CMS
- GravCMS – The future is small, portable
and easy to use. Great UX / speed and a
great option for documentation sites
- WordPress – incredibly high adoption
highly likely you’ll run into this or
have run into this in the past
- Drupal – incredibly popular with high
scale sites and companies with deep
pockets or complex needs
Cpanel &
GravCMS

HAXcms 2019 < 10 Experimental
Edu
GravCMS 2014 < 100 Docs
(founder of Joomla 2005) Edu
WordPress 2003 > 10,000,000 Small / Mid
NGO
EDU
Drupal 2000 > 100,000 Top level
Gov, EDU
Marketing
Name Age Community Industries

HAXcms 💰 🦑 < 0.0000001%
GravCMS 💰 💰 🦑 🦑 < 0.5%
(runs fast on minimal spec servers because of no database)
WordPress 💰 💰 💰 🦑 🦑 🦑 33%
(of top 10 mill)
Drupal 💰 💰 💰 💰 💰 🦑 🦑 🦑 🦑 🦑 4% - 6%
Name Cost Complexity Popularity

Who’s using GravCMS / what is it?
- GravCMS, short for Gravity CMS
- Interesting take on a flat file CMS
- Traditional flat file: Just HTML+CSS+JS
- A “build routine” generates files
- Jekyll - https://jekyllrb.com/
- Grav: Files all saved as flat files, but
PHP processes requests dynamically
- This gives you portability while still
able to do run-time processing where
needed. Also removes “build step” as
barrier for novice users
GravCMS

Some examples of usage
https://dev.mixer.com/

Drupal Commerce documentation
https://docs.drupalcommerce.org

Learn2 course theme
https://demo.hibbittsdesign.org/grav-learn2-git-sync

Blogging
https://blog.hibbittsdesign.org/

Primary Features / Concepts of GravCMS
- Simple, small, elegant
– Flat file means download and run
- No database (highly portable)
- “Pages” all saved as .md markdown files
- easy to change files / settings (YAML)
- Easy concepts
- Pages (core page creation section)
- Skeletons (old site == starting point)
- Themes (design)
- Plugins (extend)
- Advanced developer capabilities
- Twig theme templating
- Symphony based (PHP framework)
- Composer package manager
Cpanel &
GravCMS

What we’ll do now
- Explore cPanel to setup a GravCMS site
and see where the files go
- Explore the GravCMS UI and create pages
using the markdown editor it provides
- Add plugins to GravCMS to improve SEO
- Establish the Lab scenario and improve
our communication about the application
of technology through a real world problem
Cpanel &
GravCMS

Lab scenario
- You are a project manager in a design firm
- Your team is 1 developer, 1 site builder,
1 designer and you report to the CEO
- You think GravCMS might be a great way
to deliver 10-20 page marketing websites
faster to small clients
- SEO is critical to rank high on Google or
mom ‘n pop clients will close!! 😲 😲
- Your team isn’t convinced on any CMS as
they always build everything from scratch
GravCMS

Lab deliverable
- Sell the team on Grav by building a site!
- Page 1: Management
How Grav will save money on projects
- Page 2: Developer buy-in
How does Grav improve security?
- Page 3: Designer buy-in
How Grav promotes design / brand quality
- Page 4: Site builder buy-in
What does authoring feel like? How will
Grav improve their day to day interfacing
with clients wanting content changes?
- Page 5: Additional Resources
Link to 3 resources for the team to get more info
GravCMS

Submitting the Lab deliverable
- Create your GravCMS site with the 5 pages
meeting the objectives of each audience
- Record a video demonstrating 1 of the following:
- How to add a new page and author in Grav
record yourself adding or modifying some
of the pages in the deliverable
- How to add plugins, specifically the SEO plugin
and demonstrate what it enables on social media
by showing you sharing one of your pages on
twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.
- Embed a link to your YouTube video in the
Additional Resources page of your Grav Site
- Post your link to your site in #lab5-gravcms
GravCMS

Grading the Lab deliverable
- Did you create a GravCMS site in Reclaim and post
your link to the channel (2pts)
- Did you create the 5 pages and effectively convey
why Grav is useful to different groups? (4pts)
- Did you record a video demonstrating one of the
two concepts in GravCMS? (4pts)
GravCMS
lab

Quick break / Questions?
Let’s build a GravCMS
site on Reclaim hosting
Log into
reclaimhosting.com
GravCMS
reclaimhosting.com
Bryan Ollendyke
[at]btopro

Grav CMS

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