A Micro CMS
la.plume - a featherweight content management system for building simple websites
Demo? This website is built with the system.
- Easy-to-use website builder for 'non-techies'
- Built for extreme simplicity and speed
- Very simple to install and manage your own website
- Web standards compliant web pages in two clicks
- la.plume Micro CMS is completely free
A flat-file Micro CMS first created in 2008 by Patrick Taylor.
It's tiny, powered by 16 php files (that's micro-featherweight). Create web pages in just one click, including add to menu, title tag, text banner, and page heading. Add new pages and images in seconds, from anywhere online. Database not required.
In the world of free content management systems, this one, metaphorically, is light as a feather. Zipped for download with all 'mod cons' it weighs less than 30 kilobytes compared to, for example, a fully featured CMS like Drupal at over 3 megabytes. The aim of this truly micro CMS is to provide the simplest possible means to create and edit your own web pages. It works flawlessly.
The admin 'backend' consists of only two three pages:
- Create & edit web pages
- Upload your photos
- Create & edit comments *new
A CMS with no database
la.plume doesn't use a database. Content is written to plain text files (one per page) which is formatted into properly contructed HTML markup by means of corresponding auto-created php files.
A knowledge of HTML is not required, but HTML can be written into the pages if the user so chooses. Neither is it necessary to know anything about CSS stylesheets, but again, the user can change the styling to create a different look for the pages.
la.plume micro CMS features
- Simple to install on your server
- One click page create, edit, or delete
- Pre-moderated comments (via email) - new
- Very fast-loading pages
- Contact page with contact form
- Powered by only 16 php files in total
- Doesn't use a database
- 'Friendly' ULRs with no file suffixes
- Edit stylesheet in backend admin
- Runs on Apache web server with php
- Open source and completely free
Originally created February 2008. From 19th October 2011, version 4.2.
la.plume micro CMS (version 4.2) free download »
If you would rather have la.plume Micro CMS installed for you I can do it for a one-off £50 (GBP).
Before creating web pages, read the help page »
Who might use a micro CMS?
Traditionally, web pages have been created on a local computer and uploaded to a web server with an FTP client program. In recent years there's been a strong trend towards publishing web content using a content management system (CMS). A CMS has various advantages, including the ability to create pages in an online 'backend', with content not in individually built files uploaded by FTP but stored in a database.
A CMS also allows users to build websites with very little technical knowledge, as evidenced by millions of bloggers now on the web. Blogging platforms like WordPress and content management systems like Joomla and Drupal have become very popular throughout the world.
One aspect of those systems, however, is that they require regular upgrades, otherwise eventually they will begin to fail. It's a nuisance, and upgrading a complex fully featured CMS can be a tricky business, especially if it involves a database.
la.plume micro CMS is deliberately not fully-featured, doesn't use a database, and shouldn't require regular upgrades. But if it does require upgrading, it's a one minute risk-free operation. The attraction is speed and simplicity.
It should appeal to users who simply want to publish clean uncluttered web pages without building them one by one and having to upload them by FTP. Once the CMS is installed, the website can be developed and managed online from any computer with a web connection. It requires no knowledge of HTML, though HTML can be used to enhance the pages by adding headings, hyperlinks, images, tables, lists, and emphasizing text.
Read more about adding basic HTML in the HTML guide »
Why is it called la.plume?
Because it's featherweight and French for "feather" is "plume." A feather can also be used as a pen.