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Caravel CMS - Open source CMS
By admin | May 24, 2007
Caravel CMS - Open source CMS.
Demo:
User Interface - Click Here to see a live site
Download Page - Click Here
Features:
Caravel is an open source content management system originally designed for the 2,000+ organizations of the Mennonite Church. The project began in December of 2001 and took the unique approach of storing website metadata as LDAP objects, while the actual data is stored in the file system. Using OpenLDAP and Berkeley DB, a hierarchical database, distinguishes Caravel from most other CMS’s, which are typically based on relational databases. This architectural choice was predicated on the ideas that:
- the LDAP schema was global and hierarchical, and therefore capable of describing every file on every computer in the world,
- that a hierarchical database was uniquely well-suited to describing a network of websites
- that OpenLDAP was capable of replication and load-balancing, which lent itself to the project’s scalability goals.
- that websites interactions were read-mostly, which made a directory an acceptable foundation.
- that OpenLDAP was tuned for fast reads, which made feasible the possibility of hosting thousands of sites on a single server.
Caravel’s approach to web content management is also focused on universal publishing, adopting a page layout metaphor with WYSIWYG layout tools.
What do you want in a CMS?
Ease of use, good documentation, templating, a great feature set, scalability–these are all things that you look at when you are trying to find a CMS that fits your needs. We are constantly working to make Caravel more intuitive and easier to learn. As part of our commitment to this we have put a good deal of effort into keeping our documentation up to date and as simple as possible. You can check out our handbook or go to the Caravel wiki.
Ease of Use
In an effort to make Caravel easier to use all of our layout tools are drag and drop. Want to increase the width of your leftmost column? Easy, just click and drag. Want to move that html document to a better location? Just click, drag, and drop it off wherever you want it to be. It’s just that simple. And best of all, it’s done with Ajax so you don’t have to wait for your page to reload each time you change something; it’s all done behind the scenes.
Designing your look - and sharing it
Caravel also features a robust templating system which allows you to totally control the look and feel of your site. Whether you are interested in creating a standard three column layout or the new big trend in layouts, Caravel makes it possible. In the next release of Caravel, it will be possible to save these templates and share them with your friends, or post them on this site.
Adding function to your design
What will make your site unique and different from others are the features you use and how you use them. Caravel offers many different features which you can use to make your site more dynamic. Here are just a few of them. For a larger list and explanation of these features go to here.
RSS Reader and Feed Managment/Creation tools - Syndication has become one of the most important tools in the webmasters repertoire.
Navigation - There are hundreds of different ways to navigate across a website. Caravel’s Navigator application gives you multiple styles of navigation and lets you further customize them using CSS.
Blogging Capability - Using our unique FolderViewer, you can easily set up and manage a blog. You can also create an RSS feed based off this blog.
Formbuilder Tool - Online forms can be very time consuming and tedious to set up on a standard website. Caravel’s formbuilder allows someone who is not familiar with HTML at all to set up a form and have its data emailed to wherever you choose. Even better, it has the capability of storing this data directly into a database.
E-Commerce - Caravel’s E-Commerce tools are currently in Beta. It supports a simple item database or event sign-up. There are currently plug-ins for both Authorize.net and PayPal.
The Caravel Advantage
1. No costly software to buy and maintain
2. Edit your site any time, anywhere
3. Rapid site prototyping: don’t like it? Change it, move it, rename it–with no hassles.
4. WYSIWYG HTML Editor
5. Graphical CSS Editor, with manual override
6. Multi-platform site editing
7. Support for multiple site editors
8. No complex local site tree to set up and maintain
9. Build complex forms without knowing HTML
10. Dynamic groups leverage your enterprise directory to simplify security
11. Open Source community development model
12. Web-based file system with metadata and user/group security
13. Enterprise-grade security for pages, blocks and files
14. Drag and drop layout editing
15. Drag and drop template editing
16. Graphical Site Tree
17. Trash folder saves deleted blocks
18. Block clipboard lets you move blocks between pages
19. On-the-fly RTF to HTML conversion
20. Archive and Publish in a single step
21. Built-in blogging and RSS channel support
22. Built-in support for Audio, Video and Flash content
23. Members-only content
24. Redirect on login
25. Automatic thumbnailing/file preview for graphics
26. Explorer-like file browser
27. Support for multiple block styles
28. Automatic Slide Shows and Photo Albums
29. View folder contents as links, buttons, drop-downs, files, shortened files, download lists
30. Bulk generate thousands of sites at once off corporate data
31. Dynamic site generator–just authenticate
32. E-Commerce tools
33. Event sign-up tools
34. Simplified building of web database applications
35. Dynamic and published modes let you control how your site changes take effect.
36. Randomized content (i.e. pictures, articles, tips, testimonials)
37. Natural language site search
38. Automated maintenance of site navigation
39. Build custom navigation with graphical tools.
40. Greater design flexibility than most CMS’s
41. Enterprise or ISP-style deployments
42. Seamless Apache integration
43. Intermingle custom and content-managed pages in a single site.
44. Content subscription from other Caravel sites.
45. Default site inheritance from the nearest default site.
46. Object-oriented inheritance of templates and security
47. Hundreds of sites off a single code-base
48. Automatic dates (month, day, year) times
49. Support for unlimited rows, columns.
50. Custom time zones
51. Ability to restrict features on the HTML editor
52. Custom 404 error pages.
53. Ability to create restricted roles for beginners
54. SSL support for authenticated users
55. LDAP authentication
56. Ability to turn applications on and off
57. End-user uploads
58. Automated shopping cart setup
59. Count-down timer
60. Simple hit counter
61. Simple opinion poll
62. RSS channel promotion
63. Remote-control blocks
64. Fixed or variable width sites
65. Set column or row widths by percent or pixels
66. Automated routing of file uploads by extension
67. Filter Folder content by meta-data
68. Paste from Microsoft Word
69. Post form data to HTML files with metadata
70. Add comments to any block
71. Bible gateway search feature
72. Google site search feature
73. Integration with AWStats
74. Integration with Mailman listservs
75. Export, import and archive individual blocks (ie. complex forms, events and e-commerce items
76. Export, import and archive templates
77. Support for multiple Caravel server installations on a single server
78. Support for multiple time zones across a single Caravel server
79. Weather feature
80. LDAP Directory search
81. LDAP Directory contact info feature
82. Integrated account management
83. API for adding new content block applications/functionality (portlets)
84. Navigation that maintains itself automatically.
85. Display remote content in iFrames
86. Publish, email and archive press releases in a single step.
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