What is MoonpebbleCMS?
----------------------

Let's face it. Some websites don't really need a full-blown,
large-scale Content Management System (CMS) such as Drupal or Plone.
Rather, all they really need is a lightweight CMS that enables site
owner to edit their pages, and really, not a whole lot more. Enter
MoonpebbleCMS.

MoonpebbleCMS is not just lightweight; it's downright ultra-lightweight.
There are no user accounts, no administrative interfaces, and no
databases. MoonpebbleCMS simply parses Markdown and presents the
resulting HTML, beautifully wrapped in a MoonpebbleCMS theme of
your choice (or your custom design).

That means consultants can install and configure MoonpebbleCMS in
no time flat, and site owners can edit their pages any time they
want with the text editor of their choice on their own computer.

Boom. Done. Super easy.


How Does it Work?
-----------------

MoonpebbleCMS is written in PHP because every (or nearly every) web
hosting company supports PHP. (Other languages may be better, but
if your client is using a hosting company that doesn't support that
"better" language, then you have a problem, and MoonpebbleCMS is
all about wrestling with the fewest possible problems.)

Installation is as simple as placing the PHP scripts and a few
directories. A simple git clone will get the job done in about a
nanosecond, or--if git isn't available--you can simply install the
project via tar, scp, FTP, or what-have-you.

Once everything is in place, all that's left to do is tweaking the
configuration file to taste. And that's it.

Plain ole text files (in Markdown) placed in the user_files directory
are automatically used as the site's content.
You can have as many pages as you like and link them together
with the MoonpebbleCMS menu configuration.

Once everything's in place, the site owner can edit the text files
on her own computer using any text editor (eg. TextEdit, Notepad,
etc) and push them back to the server via FTP (or scp, or WebDAV,
or what-have-you.).


Why Don't You Include Wiki Style Linking?
-----------------------------------------

Funny you should mention that. MoonpebbleCMS now supports wiki style
linking. That means you can enclose any string with double square
brackets, and MoonpebbleCMS will automatically make that string a
link to the page of the same name. For example [[foo]] will
automatically become a link to your page called foo. Or another
example: "Let's all turn to page_two." (I did that by typing
[[page_two]] instead of the regular Markdown-style link, which is
a bit longer.)
See also, the WIKI_PREFIX configuration item.


How Do I Install It?
--------------------

Step 1. Get it! - Instructions for getting the project go here.

Step 2. Configure it! - Configuration instructions go here.

Step 3. There's no step three!


How Do I Configure It?
----------------------

Set the constants in mpebble.conf.php. They're very straightforward.

The only thing that's even slightly complex is the theme setting.
The name you set in MPEBBLETHEME must match the name of that theme's
directory in the themes directory. (See How do I Create a Theme
section below.)


How Are Pages Updated?
----------------------

The site owner grabs the current version of the page via FTP. (I
say FTP, but it could be via WebDAV or scp or some other method.)
She edits it. It's just Markdown. Very simple. Then, when she's
satisfied, she uploads it back to the server in the user_files
directory. That's it.


How do I Create a Theme?
------------------------

MoonpebbleCMS themes are very simple. (See a pattern developing here?)

In the themes directory, create a subdirectory named the name of
your theme. Inside that subdirectory, place your css and html, also
named the name of your theme. For example, if your theme is foobar:

themes/foobar/foobar.css
themes/foobar/foobar.html

In foobar.html, you can replace any of the constants found in
mpebble.conf.php by surrounding it with <% %>. For example:
<%SITETITLE%>

<%CONTENT%> will expand to the html-ified version of the user's
Markdown file.

To get a good grasp on how all this works, take a look at one of
the themes that ships with MoonpebbleCMS.


How Can I Contribute to the Project?
------------------------------------

If you're interested in contributing code or themes, please contact
Brian (brian at briantanaka dot com). Thanks!

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