TechSite CMS

When i started dotTech i decided to write my own .NET based Content Management System.
My goal was to expand my knowledge of .NET and to be able to offer my customers an easy-to-use content management solution.
I think the result is a steady base for an easily expandable CMS with great possiblities.
As interest towards this CMS grows, i decided to make a blog post about it.


TechSite explained
The CMS is item-based and the user interface is build around a treeview that represents the website's content structure.
From the tree the items can be added, changed, renamed, removed and moved.
When adding an item, the user can choose between different item templates (for example, a product item or a news item).
Item templates consist of regions (e.g. content, specifications) and regions constist of fields (see screenshot).
Fields can be of different types, for example single line text, html text, image or a date.
The current version contains 8 fieldtypes and these are very easy to expand.
How the item templates are treated on the frontend depends on the implementation and is independent of the backend.
That is one of the things i really like about this solution: i can provide the customer with a fully working backend before i start with the implementation of the frontend.

A quick peek at the highlights and features:
- Based on .NET 2.0
- Support for all major browsers (IE6-8, FF2-3, Safari, Chrome)
- Built on .NET DataProviders for future support of other databases
- Uses MooTools for all clientside scripting
- Integrated FCKEditor for user-friendly content editing
- Supports friendly Urls
- Provides an API for development of the frontend

Future
TechSite's future development relies on the needs of my customers.
The CMS is provided for free and the customer pays only for the implementation and for the development of custom features.
So as the usage of TechSite expands, the possiblities grow with it.

A few features that i expect to see in the future:
- PHP connector to enable linux-based customers to use TechSite for their website
- More advanced File Explorer
- Out-of-the-box implementations
- Multi-language support

Demo
There is an online demo of the backend available here: http://techsite.dottech.nl/techsite/default.aspx.
All the save actions (such as adding, updating, (re)moving) have been disabled for the demo!
The demo comes with a simple (unfinished) website which is available here.

EDIT: Demo is temporarily offline due

Last words
Like i said before, TechSite is a steady base for a CMS, but it's not yet a final product so keep that in mind while checking out the demo.
I will keep track of TechSite's development here on my blog.
Feel free to leave any comments or questions you have about TechSite here.

If you would like to use TechSite for your own website, you can contact me by email.

/Ruud