Symphony.

why not just PHP->XHTML

MVC

While a benefit of XSL is the potentially stricter enforcement of MVC, you definitely don’t need it.

I suspect most of the Symphony detractors I’ve run into are just XML haters: json users with loose morals, most of them. Small hands, smell like cabbage.

While a benefit of XSL is the potentially stricter enforcement of MVC, you definitely don’t need it.

The power and flexibility of XSLT as a templating language is one of Symphony’s greatest strengths.

XML haters: json users with loose morals, most of them. Small hands, smell like cabbage

This quote needs to feature on the home page. Genius :)

The power and flexibility of XSLT as a templating language is one of Symphony’s greatest strengths.

I disagree, if symphony used a custom way of putting it’s data to the desired format (pure OOP php?), it would still be useful.

If however, the data itself (sections, fields etc) weren’t structured as flexible as they are right now, the entire cms would not have any advandage over, say, wordpress. Ok, a small one, I admit, but I wouldn’t be using it anyway ;)

In other words: I really like symphony for the way it structures it’s data, and the fact that it uses industry standards to convert the data into markup, well, that’s just another plus, but not THE plus for me.

This might be slightly off-topic, but anyways, I think the current tagline (XSLT-powered open source content management system) doesn’t do symphony any justice, as (for me, atleast) the focus is on the fact that I can build anything with it, not the WAY I do it..

Anyway, I’m happy to hear your thoughts about this!

I’m an EE developer that just found Symphony as well. Right now, I don’t think it will replace EE for me, but I have been using other open source applications like Wordpress

I dislike Wordpress for how limiting it is, but I love it for how simple it is. Symphony seems to be the best of both worlds and I plan on using it for an upcoming project I have.

I’ve been browsing the site here, any good tutorials for beginners? I’ve done the Installation and Hello World. Looking for more of a start to finish article.

any good tutorials for beginners? I’ve done the Installation and Hello World. Looking for more of a start to finish article.

Am working on the follow-up to the Hello World tutorial which might be what you’re looking for. Should be up within the next couple of days.

Am working on the follow-up to the Hello World tutorial which might be what you’re looking for. Should be up within the next couple of days.

Great! I’ll keep my eye out as well as reading through the rest of the documentation. All the resources you have here have been a great help, this seems really easy to get into!

Sorry for bringing back this topic. But I would like to agree with @creativedutchmen comment:

This might be slightly off-topic, but anyways, I think the current tagline (XSLT-powered open source content management system) doesn’t do symphony any justice, as (for me, atleast) the focus is on the fact that I can build anything with it, not the WAY I do it..

And @tonyarnold:

I really, really, really appreciate the fact that Symphony does not force content structures upon me. I build what I need…

I wholeheartedly agree. As a newbie user, was what really caught my attention and inspired me to learn XSLT and try Symphony.

After Symphony, others just-install-and-be-happy CMSs like Joomla, Drupal or blog Wordpress are no more options. About EE, I read some tutorials and screencasts, but I never used by the reason of not being free.

By the way, Drupal and Joomla have customizable content, but as extensions. And is far from being as objective as Symphony.

I’ve had questions about ‘why not just PHP->XHTML’ even if it means implementing a template language in PHP.

I would argue that for a user like myself, who isn’t a php developer, but has a lot of experience with markup languages and front end design, having a template engine that is purely a markup language is a bonus.

I, and I imagine others, struggle with php as it isn’t standardised, where as with xslt, it follows a standard, which makes it easy to pickup and progress with.

This is a fantastic CMS framework that gives the developer almost god like control of thier data, right down to it’s model! I love it!

This is a fantastic CMS framework that gives the developer almost god like control of their data

<xsl:call-template name='release'>
 <xsl:param name='kraken' select='greek/monsters/ceto' />
</xsl:call-template>

Couldn’t resist, just saw the remake (its not good).

@ashooner: I agree with your sentiments regarding the Clash remake. It’s a bummer.

Umm EE is complicated and bloated; Symphony is simple and elegant. I could expand, but I’m lazy ( another reason I chose Symphony, it’s a simple solution )

For the record (sorry for tangent) Clash of The Titans is so much more fun if you imagine people have lisps.

“Wewease the kwacken!”