Silverstripe CMS


Silverstripe CMS is a free and open source content management system and framework for creating and maintaining websites and web applications. It provides an out of the box web-based administration panel that enables users to make modifications to parts of the website, which includes a WYSIWYG website editor. The core of the software is Silverstripe Framework, a PHP Web application framework.
Silverstripe CMS is released under the terms of the BSD License.

Software design

Silverstripe CMS separates the roles of:
  • content authors ; and
  • website designers/developers
This contrasts with CMS products which allow technical website development tasks to be performed within a GUI, and also contrasts with programming frameworks which offer no out-of-the-box content authoring application. The Silverstripe CMS approach allegedly removes complexity for content authors, and offers more flexibility to developers.
The core of Silverstripe CMS is named Silverstripe Framework. As with the rest of the platform, it is written in PHP, and takes advantage of its object-oriented design capabilities such as name-spacing. The Silverstripe Framework provides website developers a framework to build and extend websites based on modern programming techniques including the model-view-controller pattern and object-relational mapper.
Silverstripe CMS generates markup using a custom template-language based on W3C HTML5 that offers simple placeholders and conditional logic. Silverstripe CMS is extensible through modules, widgets, themes and code customization.

Features

Notable features of the Silverstripe CMS include:
  • Out-of-the-box template, supporting responsive design
  • An extensible web application interface
  • Rich-text editing based on a modified version of TinyMCE
  • Quick embedding of videos and other resources from websites like YouTube, slideshare, etc.
  • Drag-and-drop tree-based navigation structure
  • Custom output markup and table-free default styles
  • Work-flow management: Draft/Published separation through content staging, document revision control/rollback with 'compare' functionality
  • Configurable security/permissions model
  • Data object model, database generation through object-relational mapping, suite of customizable data input controls.
  • asset management, image resizing, drag&drop images from OS desktop to upload.
  • Multiple templates per page
  • Search engine friendly URLs, metadata management, XML site map generation
  • Full text search and RSS feeds
  • Optimizations for heavy loads
  • Internationalization/Languages: Silverstripe CMS supports multiple-language content. UTF-8 and the internationalization of character sets are supported. The CMS is available in many languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, and Chinese.
  • Hierarchical URLs
  • Cross-platform: OS, Web server, Database
Notable features of upcoming releases of Silverstripe CMS include:
  • Additional administration UI
  • Complete transition to jQuery library
  • Site-wide widgets
Common CMS features not currently available in Silverstripe CMS include:
  • In-place page editing
  • Web interface based installation of modules, widgets or themes
  • Web interface based customization of themes
  • Automated cache management/ORM refresh

    Modules, widgets, and themes

Modules can be used to extend the core functionality of Silverstripe CMS. Some existing modules include: Blog, Advanced Workflow Management, eCommerce, Forum, and LDAP/OpenID authentication. Modules are available from the Silverstripe CMS modules repository, which as of October 2022, lists over 3000 modules.
Silverstripe CMS Widgets are small pieces of functionality that can be drag-and-dropped into Silverstripe CMS modules. Examples of widgets include: tag clouds, Flickr photos, or word of the day. Widgets are a relatively less-used aspect of the platform. As of August 2012, there are 96 widgets.
The Silverstripe CMS themes directory provides a number of community-contributed, freely available themes.
Modules, widgets, and themes are all available as free downloads under the BSD license, and the majority of them are community contributed.

Software requirements

Silverstripe CMS is a web application, requiring a compatible web server and SQL database. As of version 5.2, the requirements for Silverstripe CMS are as follows:
Silverstripe CMS is released under the terms of the BSD License. Documentation is available for and . An online demonstration of the CMS is available as an .
Two technical reference books on Silverstripe CMS are available in English and one in German.

Recognition

Awards

  • Winner Packtpub Most Promising CMS Award 2008, $2000 prize. Then was First Runner up, "Best Overall CMS" in 2009. Also Pact Publishing CMS Awards finalist in 2007.
  • Winner in New Zealand Open Source Awards for October 2008 and in 2010.
  • Most promising finalists in the 2007 Open Source CMS Awards
  • Finalists in the New Zealand Open Source Awards for October 2007
  • Hi-tech Awards - Finalist, Emerging Technology Company of the Year in 2017
  • Hi-tech Awards - Winner, Best Technology Solution for the Public Sector in 2016
  • ALGIM Conference - Winner, Best All Round Exhibitor in 2015 and in 2014
  • Internet Industry Awards 2009 - The Positive Societal Impact Award for “The Lowdown” website. This site was also a finalist in 2008 for the TUANZ Innovation Awards.
  • ALGIM Web Award - Winner, "Best Redevelopment Website, People’s Choice" for the Gisborne District Council website in 2009.
  • 2009 World Summit Awards - Winner for the National Broadband Map, a site created for the State Services Commission
  • 11th Annual Wellington Gold Awards - Finalist in 2009 and 2007
  • 2008 ComputerWorld Excellence Awards - Finalist, "Innovative Use of IT"

    Reviews and articles

Version 3.0 (latest as of November 2012)

  • SSBits

    Version 2

  • SilverStripe Review
  • Microsoft Case Study
  • ReadWriteWeb, 14 September 2007
  • Interview on New Zealand Television Show, 1 May 2007,
  • Hiveminds Magazine, 15 March 2007