SilverStripe CMS 3.0 arrives with new interface design

After more than a year of development, the SilverStripe developers have published version 3.0 of their open source content management system (CMS). One of the most visible changes in the stable update is the reworked interface design, which was based on feedback from user testing. The developers say that to update a site's content and structure, content editors now only need basic text editor experience.

A list-view page for editing has been added to make managing sites with a lot of content even easier, and the CMS can automatically import media content from sites such as YouTube, Flickr or Vimeo by simply inserting its URL. The CMS incorporates a new template engine and object relational manager, and adds a new default theme.

The major update to the PHP-based CMS also features several under-the-hood improvements. The underlying SilverStripe web framework, formerly known as "sapphire", has been separated from the CMS and can now be used standalone. A number of developer APIs have been replaced, updated or added, and, to improve performance, the data model layer has been rewritten. The system now requires PHP 5.3 or later as it takes advantage of PHP 5.3 features.

Further information about the stable release can be found in the announcement blog post, in the change log and in the updated documentation. Version 3.0 of the BSD-licensed SilverStripe CMS and Framework is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux; installation instructions and an online demo are provided. The CMS and Framework are sponsored by SilverStripe Limited.

(crve)