On the Delicious Brains blog they've posted the second part of their series sharing some self-hosted alternatives to WordPress for your CMS needs. In this new article they focus on Grav.

When I started the Self-Hosted WordPress Alternatives series in July with a review of Craft CMS, there were several comments asking what I thought of Grav – an open source flat-file CMS that also has a really cool looking website.

I had never heard of Grav before, but was immediately drawn to it for a few reasons. It’s open source, which is one of the things that I really love about WordPress since it enables a much larger community to work on the project. And since it’s a file-only CMS, there is no database to mess around with which in theory could make development and migrations easier in the long run.

The tutorial then walks you through the installation process and some examples of it in use (including screenshots of the UI). He also covers the core architecture of the tool, theme usage, SEO integration and eCommerce solutions that play well with Grav. He finishes the post looking at the quality of the current documentation and what kind of pricing and licensing Grav comes with.

On the TutsPlus.com site there's a new tutorial posted walking you through the [creation of a flat file CMS] in PHP. It's a simple Slim framework based application that allows the creation of basic pages with a header, footer and sidebar (as well as handling 404s and errors).

In the past tutorials, I have shown you how to create a flat file system content management system (CMS) using Go, Node.js, and Ruby.

In this tutorial, I am going to take the same design model and build a server using PHP. Since PHP isn’t a server by itself, but is usually paired with the Apache web server, I will show you how to set up the Apache web server inside a Vagrant virtual system.

He starts by helping you get the necessary libraries installed via Composer including the parsedown, lightcandy and Slim framework packages. From there it's into the code making:

• the front controller to define routes and set up an error handler
• defining the different templates (header, footer, etc)
• definition of "shortcodes"
• handling page processing (rendering the content into output)

The tutorial finishes off with the details on getting the server up and running: creating a Vagrant instance with Apache and PHP 5 installed and working together and serving code from a shared folder.

On the SitePoint PHP blog author Bruno Skvorc continues his series about using the Grav flat-file CMS to create fast, simple sites. In his previous post he talked about the use of various "must have plugins". In this latest post he focuses more on some "tweaks" you can make to prepare your site for higher load.

We previously looked at some essential Grav plugins with which to round off the installation of a personal blog. In this post, we’ll take a look at some additional, advanced plugins, rounding it all off with an installation of Varnish for supercaching, taking performance to a whole new level.

His list of "tweaks" (and other plugins) that are recommended for a more robust site are:

• The "Related Pages" plugin
• An "assets" plugin for custom JS and CSS without extending the theme
• Simple search handling
• Comments on the content with the JsComments plugin
• Image Optimization and CDNs
• Caching with Varnish

All but the last item on the list are plugins you can drop in and configure pretty easily. Varnish requires a little extra setup, however, as it's an external service/software that needs to be running in front of your web server to do its job.

On the Tighten.co blog they've posted their own review of Statamic, the flat-file based content management system with a Laravel backend. Statamic is a project that hopes to provide easy content management, responsive layouts and plenty of features to make an easy-to-use and robust CMS.

Among the developers I know who used to use ExpressionEngine but have since left, most work in Craft and/or Laravel. I kept hearing folks mention Statamic, but all I knew about it was that it was flat file, which wasn't particularly compelling to me.

Fast forward two years, and they've re-written the entire application to run on Laravel (now released as v2 beta). [...] Their documentation is hilarious, the community is welcoming and helpful, and the code—granted, I'm only a few weeks in—seems super easy to work with. So, what's the deal? Why have we set up Tighten's blog on Statamic?

The post then goes on to talk about the "quest" for a good Laravel-based content management system. They also talk about some of the essentials they see a CMS needing to be effective: good user interaction (UI/UX), how much and how difficult it is to customize and how it is configured. For each point they talk about how Statamic does things and their own verdict on the software and how good it does at filling these requirements.

On the NetTus.com site today there's a new tutorial showing how to use the Slim microframework to create a flat-file blog system as a stand alone PHP application.

In this article, we will learn how to create a flat file blog engine in PHP using the Slim framework. If you don’t understand the jargon, don’t worry. We’re simply going to create a spartan blogging application, which utilizes text files instead of a database to store data. If you’re a beginner, fret not! We will start with the basics of using Slim.

He introduces the Slim framework with a simple route handling to render a basic PHP page (an "About" page), setting variables to output to the template, setting up dynamic routes and creating the setup for the blogging engine (viewing articles, archives and a listing page).

For all of the content management systems that are out there, most of them have something in common (well, a lot in common, but that's more than I mean) - they all use databases to manage their information. Sometimes, that's just not what a developer really needs. All they want is a simple, light, file-based solution. Well, this new tutorial from Sitecritic.net can help. It details the creation of a simple file-based management system, including login abilities.

A Content Management System (CMS) allows you to update your website easily without touching anything in the backend. If you are a non-IT person, you will almost always want a CMS for your website because it makes you less dependent on your web designers or developers to add, edit or delete contents in your website.

There are many good CMS out there but most of them require some sort of database access in the backend. Many PHP CMS uses mysql or postgres database which resides in the server. Installation and troubleshooting of CMS might require some technical knowledge and server configuration which could be daunting for some.

The tutorial steps you through the login form first, then creating the template HTML files, before adding in the adding and editing functionality to store the content in the files. The full source for the application is also available for download.

For all of the content management systems that are out there, most of them have something in common (well, a lot in common, but that's more than I mean) - they all use databases to manage their information. Sometimes, that's just not what a developer really needs. All they want is a simple, light, file-based solution. Well, this new tutorial from Sitecritic.net can help. It details the creation of a simple file-based management system, including login abilities.

A Content Management System (CMS) allows you to update your website easily without touching anything in the backend. If you are a non-IT person, you will almost always want a CMS for your website because it makes you less dependent on your web designers or developers to add, edit or delete contents in your website.

There are many good CMS out there but most of them require some sort of database access in the backend. Many PHP CMS uses mysql or postgres database which resides in the server. Installation and troubleshooting of CMS might require some technical knowledge and server configuration which could be daunting for some.

The tutorial steps you through the login form first, then creating the template HTML files, before adding in the adding and editing functionality to store the content in the files. The full source for the application is also available for download.