sheercms

Sheer Cliff CMS is a powerful, yet easy to use, content management system for Node JS.

Website

For more information about the Sheer Cliff CMS and to read the documentation, visit www.sheercms.com

What's New?

This version now includes a setup wizard that is run after you install the CMS and browse to the website for the first time. The wizard will create an admin account for you and install a starter website that demonstrates content types, templates, item groups, pages, and media items. It's an EASY way to a get started on your first Sheer Cliff CMS website!

Installation

To install the Sheer Cliff CMS for Node JS, run this NPM command:

npm install sheercms

You will also need the following modules installed to run the website on express (and to use the sample app.js below):

npm install express

npm install express-session

npm install cookie-parser

npm install body-parser

npm install method-override

npm install errorhandler

To support images in the CMS, you'll need to install Graphics Magick (www.graphicsmagick.org) on the server.

Running the Sheer Cliff CMS

Here is a sample app.js for your first CMS website:

var express = require('express');
var http = require('http');
var path = require('path');
var session = require('express-session');

var server = express();

// all environments
server.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
server.set('views', path.join(__dirname, 'views'));
server.set('view engine', 'ejs');

//static files
var age = 86400000 * 7; //one day * 7
server.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'), { maxAge: age }));

server.use(require('body-parser')());
server.use(require('method-override')());
server.use(require('cookie-parser')('mycookiesecret'));
server.use(session({ secret: 'mysessionsecret', key: 'sid'}));

// development only
if ('development' == server.get('env')) {
  server.use(require('errorhandler')());
}

//setup public routes for your application (not managed by the CMS)
//you don't need to create any custom routes, this is just in case you want routes that
//are outside of the CMS.
//server.get('/custom-route', routes.customRoute);

//setup the CMS
var cms = require('sheercms');

//set the application root
cms.setRoot(__dirname);

//register CMS plugins
cms.registerPlugin('media', require('./node_modules/sheercms/plugins/media/media.plugin'));
cms.registerPlugin('ckeditor', require('./node_modules/sheercms/plugins/ckeditor/ckeditor.plugin'));

//the cache plugin is optional.  You'll need redis installed on your server.
var cache = require('./node_modules/sheercms/plugins/redis/redis.plugin');
cache.setOptions('YourWebsiteName'); //port, host, options);
cms.registerPlugin('cache', cache);

//set the CMS options here instead of in the actual config file so we can safely upgrade without losing settings
var options = {
    database_connection: "mongodb://localhost/YourDBName",
    database_name: "YourDBName",
    check_install: true,
    setup_admin_user: false, //automatically create the default admin account.  Not recommended - use the install wizard instead.
    logging: {
        level: "info",
        console: true
    }
};

//initialize the CMS
cms.init(server, options, function(err) {

    //tell the CMS not to process requests starting this this path
    //cms.addIgnorePath('/my-custom-pages/');

    if (err) {
        console.error('Error initializing the CMS: ' + err);
    } else {
        //start accepted requests
        http.createServer(server).listen(server.get('port'), function(){
            console.log('Express server listening on port ' + server.get('port'));
        });
    }
});

After installing the NPM packages and updating your app.js file to look like the sample above. Just browse to your site's home page to start the Sheer Cliff Setup Wizard. For example, browse to http://localhost:3000/

To log into the CMS console, append /cms to the end of your website's URL. For example, browse to http://localhost:3000/cms