Pure Blog Is Now Feature Complete...ish
I've just released v1.8.0 of Pure Blog, which was the final big feature I wanted to add1. At this point, Pure Blog does all the things I would want a useful CMS to do, such as:
- Storing content in plain markdown, just like an SSG.
- Easy theme customisations.
- Hooks for doing clever things when something happens.
- Data files so I can loop through data to produce pages where I don't have to duplicate effort, like on my blogroll.
- A couple of simple shortcodes to make my life easier.
- Layout partials so I can customise certain parts of the site.
- Custom routes so I can add little extra features, like a discover page, or the ability to visit a random post.
- Caching because no-one wants a slow site2.
- Custom layouts and functions so I can go even deeper with my customisations without touching the core code base.
The result is a tool that works exactly how I want it to work. It's very simple to customise through the admin GUI, but there are also lots of advanced options available to more tech-savvy folk.
Someone reached out to me recently and told me that their non-technical grandfather is running Pure Blog with no issues. Equally, I've had developers reach out to say that they're enjoying the flexibility of Pure Blog too. This is exactly why I created Pure Blog - to create a tool that can be used by anyone.
My original plan was to just make a simple blogging platform, but I've ended up creating a performant platform that can be used for all kinds of sites, not just a blog.
Feature complete*
At this point I'm considering Pure Blog to be feature complete*. But there is an asterisk there, because you never know what the future holds. Right now it supports everything I want it to support, but my needs may change in the future. If they do, I'll develop more features.
In the meantime I'm going to enjoy what I've built by continuing to produce content in this lovely little CMS (even if I do say so myself). I know there's a few people using Pure Blog our there, so I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am.
If you want to try Pure Blog yourself, you can download the source code from here, and this post should get you up and running in just a few minutes.