The SitePoint PHP blog has a new post today helping the users of the OctoberCMS content management system build a "soft delete" plugin by extending the functionality already included in the code.

Developers usually stick with a new CMS for its simplicity and extensibility. OctoberCMS presents itself as a back to basics CMS, and provides an enjoyable experience for both developers and users. In this article, I’m going to demonstrate some aspects of the CMS that make it extensible, and we’ll also try a simple plugin to extend another plugin functionality.

The tutorial starts by talking about extensibility and how plugins play into it in most normal CMS software (in their example, its listening to an event fired when a new post is made). They start by creating a new plugin skeleton via the "create:plugin" artisan command and creating a migration to extend the database with the "soft delete" column. After running the migration, they add in a new listener for an "extendColumns" event and extending the filter to extend the scopes pulling out posts data. They further extend the functionality with a helpful trait filtering the data by the "deleted_at" value and adding that into the scope as well. Finally they add a listener onto the Eloquent events for the "deleting" event to capture it and set the "deleted_at" value on the post record and save it.

In the latest post to the SitePoint PHP blog Adedayo Adeniyi talks about Joomla's "coming of age" and some of the changes that have come/are coming in the latest versions.

Over the years, there has been a healthy rivalry between the main CMSes in use on the planet: WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla!, and all three have hosts of die-hard fans that would pitch for their favorites over the others any day. Don’t worry, I’m not about to add to the high pile of subjective CMS comparison posts available on the web. Instead, I will briefly review all the recent changes in Joomla! that have modernized it for the present day developer – from version 3.0 onwards (currently 3.3).

She talks about some of the most recent changes including easier updating, the tool being mobile friendly out of the box and more flexible user access handling. She also mentions the improvements in "developer friendliness" and that it's become a good bit more security-conscious. Other topics mentioned include the JED (Joomla Extension Directory), smart search/tagging and improved database handling.

PHPMaster.com has published the second article in their working with Fuel CMS series (part one here). This time he focuses on working with modules and creating self-contained blocks of reusable functionality.

In the previous article you learned about the basics of Fuel CMS: how to create views and simple pages. Most websites these days are not that simple though, they have a blog, a gallery, etc. In this part, I’ll explain how Fuel CMS modules work and create a basic guestbook module to demonstrate.

He starts off by introducing the concept of a "module" and what kind of functionality that represents in the Fuel CMS ecosystem. Then he gets into the actual code, showing you how to create a model that connects to a "guestbook_comments" table and a controller to handle a request to "view" and "add" (save) them.

On PHPMaster.com today there's a new tutorial posted helping you get started with the Fuel CMS (not related to the Fuel PHP framework), a CodeIgniter-based content management system.

When you hear the abbreviation CMS, you probably think about Drupal, Joomla, and even WordPress. However, there are alternatives to those heavy hitters if you want something more lightweight or flexible. If you’re look a simple administration interface, or integrate custom application code into the site, then I suggest exploring Fuel CMS. In this two-part series I’ll discuss some concepts of Fuel CMS. In this part I’ll talk about its installation and how to set up views. In the second part I’ll talk about writing a Fuel CMS module.

This first of the two articles starts with an overview of the CMS, helps you get it installed (via github) and how to create some of the basics - a first page and a new view.

On the WebInsightLab.com blog there's a new post with a long list (30 to be exact) of PHP-based content management systems besides WordPress that you could select from for your next project.

Yes, there are many CMS available for your website, most of them are Open Source. You can not only use them but may modify too according to your need but under GNU license. [...] Now move on to other PHP Based Open Source CMS, following list shows you 30 Open Source CMS besides WordPress which can be useful to build your website and manage your content.

Other content management systems that made their list include:

• Pluck
• Active CMS
• Automne
• concrete5
• Diem
• Dynamix

Each one on the list comes with a brief description of what it offers and where it comes from.

On PHPClasses.org there's a new article talking about a CMS that's "designed with developers in mind" - MODX, technically a "content management framework".

If you have ever wrestled with trying to create a custom Web site using a CMS that made you jump through hoops to get the desired output, you should definitely check out MODX, a CMS framework designed from the ground up with Object Oriented Programming PHP developers in mind. Read this article to learn more about MODX CMS framework and how you can easily use it to build your own content management system customized to your needs.

The article introduces you to MODX and shows you (briefly) how the MODX manager works to help you create a site quickly and easily through simple configuration options and content creation. He also talks about "chunks", template variables, plugins/extras and xPDO - their abstraction layer for database connections.

Client Bucket Workshops is holding another event in New York at the City College of New York on January 29th - "Content Management System (CMS) Design with PHP, Javascript, and MySQL: Learn How to Design a Dynamic Content Driven Website from Scratch or by Using a framework". It's a full day event happening this Saturday.

A website Content Management System (CMS) is a framework that simplifies the management of content published on the web. Smart administrators and individual website owners use content management systems because they save time, money, and when implemented correctly, completely eliminate the need for a webmaster. In this day long workshop we will teach novice and intermediate programmers the basics needed to build and or setup an existing CMS to better manage existing or new web content.

If you're in the New York area and are interested in building up your CMS knowledge (or just want to get started), you can find out more about the workshop here and, if it sounds interesting, register for your spot. With discounts offered off the price of the ticket drops from $125 USD down to around $79 USD - a low price for a day packed full of training.

Vinu Thomas points out a CMS project over on the Google Summer of Code that's looking to make administering the content/functionality of the site simple and easy - the Jaws Project.

Jaws is a Framework and Content Management System for building dynamic web sites. It aims to be User Friendly giving ease of use and lots of ways to customize web sites, but at the same time is Developer Friendly, it offers a simple and powerful framework to hack your own modules.

As Vinu notes, the project also uses some Ajax functionality to help make things more responsive and easier to work with. Check out some screenshots of the project to get a feel for what all it includes so far or just download it now and try it out yourself.

Vinu Thomas points out a CMS project over on the Google Summer of Code that's looking to make administering the content/functionality of the site simple and easy - the Jaws Project.

Jaws is a Framework and Content Management System for building dynamic web sites. It aims to be User Friendly giving ease of use and lots of ways to customize web sites, but at the same time is Developer Friendly, it offers a simple and powerful framework to hack your own modules.

As Vinu notes, the project also uses some Ajax functionality to help make things more responsive and easier to work with. Check out some screenshots of the project to get a feel for what all it includes so far or just download it now and try it out yourself.