As a content creator, I would like to create pages using an admin portal.

[Bowens20832]

Background / Motivation

Currently if you want to create new pages or content within Elegant, you have to manually create new Markdown pages.

I, myself am planning on adding a basic CMS editor when some of the more basic v2.* features have been completed.

Having an editor editor panel will allow creators to create new pages much more rapidly, as well as opening the door up for non technical users to being using Elegant for their website needs.

@rabisnaqvi has also suggested including an admin panel/portal in #44.

Idea

Vercel already has a number of documented basic editor panels that can be integrated into Next.js, so I'd like to not recreate anything we don't have to.

Tina

Implementation 1:

Use an open source CMS panel, or create our own if we can't an existing solution.

Just use Tina if we can self host, not be attached to any of their services, and extend their existing code.

Other things

Can we build a simple CMS panel that can then be hosted easily and securly on Vercel or Netlify?

Do we need to include an auth provider like Firebase or Next-Auth?

[Bowens20832]

Does anyone have any experience with Tina CMS? https://github.com/vercel/next.js/tree/canary/examples/cms-tina

[rabisnaqvi]

Tina seems promising. I think before we dive into the whole CMS ordeal, we need to first define how we want to tackle the database aspects of the framework.

• Do we want to require a database to be present and integrated?
• Do we save the pages, and other data types in DB or as files in the namespaces?
• Do we want to have a predefined login and authentication system?
• Do we separate the core and the portal applications? for example, the core elegant framework could be totally dev dependent and would need configuration, etc to work, but when combined with the portal, it could work as a complete end-to-end framework without the need for initial or boilerplate config.
• if we use a database, which system do we use? or do we want to support multiple types of databases? which tools and ORMs do we use?

These are some questions that I believe we should brainstorm on first. @Bowens20832

[Bowens20832]

Yes, I believe we could strike a balance between both.

Both content creators and developers agree that WordPress and others are dated, and wish they had a better solution.

At the same time, Next.js does almost everything anyone could want.

I did some user surveys for feedback and most people didn't understand Next.js or the other serverless concepts. However, they did say they would be interested in using a modern serverless WordPress concept built with Next.js.

I am thinking that the long term outlook for Elegant is to continue the free open-source self hosted version, and eventually offer a cheap and easy to use cloud hosted version with no setup on the users end.

[Bowens20832]

@rabisnaqvi

[rabisnaqvi]

Here is my understanding, and a few questions based on your points:

CLI:

• Handles initialization, configuration, and module management.
• Generates boilerplate code and sets up the project based on user input.
• Fetches the latest core package upon request (not included in the CLI itself).
• Downloads and initializes modules/extensions or themes as specified during initialization.

Core module:

• Forms the main functionality built on Next.js.
• Utilizes markdown formatted static files.
• Allows extension and customization of functionality.
• Supports custom post types or namespaces for different content types.
• Provides lifecycle hooks for modules and themes to integrate with the core framework.
• Comes with a default theme.

Database module:

• Manages data storage when required.
• If cloud databases with authentication features are used, they handle or integrate with the authentication module.
• Question: Are the database modules used only for storing users, or do we also consider using them as cloud storage buckets?
• Question: Are different user roles supported?

CMS module:

• Enables the creation of data type namespaces using a graphical user interface (GUI).
• Supports content creation in various data types using a WYSIWYG editor.
• Generates markdown files and organizes them within the specified namespace.
• Possibly includes features like module and theme installation, configuration, and uninstallation.
• Allows website user management (if authentication module is present).
• Question: Should the authentication system be required for production use, allowing changes without requiring a release, or is it intended as a development tool only like storybook?

Modules and extensions:

• Stored in a separate directory or managed via npm and a configuration file.
• Modules hook into the core framework's lifecycle to modify or add core behavior.
• Themes provide the user interface for displaying content.

These points reflect my understanding of the system. Please let me know if you disagree with any of these points. By the way, do you have any plans to upgrade this to Next.js 13?

@Bowens20832

[Bowens20832]

Yes to all of the above! I believe we are on the same page with everything 😄

Also yes to Next.js 13... All of the packages need to be upgraded, and I was planning on attempting to conquer that for version 3 since there might be breaking changes.

React, Next, Node, and others can be upgraded, but I was having issues with the Markdown loading when I upgraded to the latest version of React, so I abandoned it for now.

[Bowens20832]

@rabisnaqvi I just submitted #84 to upgrade Elegant to Node 18 and React 18... Should I consider ugrading to Next 13 now?

[Bowens20832]

@danoely, we are discussing possible data storage methods, as well as auth methods.

Do you have any comments toward Planet Scale or Serverless functions within Vercel?

[Bowens20832]

@rabisnaqvi So Tina CMS to accomplish an admin portal?

Any other admin panels we could look at?

I was considering looking at Ghost's repo for some idea's as well: https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/tree/main/ghost/admin

[Bowens20832]

@rabisnaqvi I think I found a solution... How does this look?

[rabisnaqvi]

This is really good stuff, it looks amazing! I can see this can be really easy to use for people who already have experience with something like wordpress.

[Bowens20832]

@rabisnaqvi I finished putting together a rough functioning prototype this morning.

What do you think?

https://youtu.be/l6vIsmru34I

[rabisnaqvi]

@Bowens20832 this looks pretty cool! love it. also, I think we could probably handle the version controlling, like publishing changes, within the application's admin panel. what do you think.?

[Bowens20832]

@rabisnaqvi Yes I agree. The admin panel has a light connection to Git right now for publishing new content, but I believe we can continue to build on it and improve it more.

[Bowens20832]

@rabisnaqvi I also created a Discord chat for this project since we last talked.

You can message me there or email me if you ever need feedback, but I'm not responding here fast enough.

https://discord.gg/PwY38x4uvV