New developments, our very own 4BIS cms

We wouldn't be called 4BIS innovations if we weren't interested in renewing technologies. With so many people so many wishes, which in turn can give us new ideas and inspire us to innovative projects. This is how most 4BIS tools and software were created. Which we then make available and can be a perfect addition to the tech needs of every entrepreneur. And the 4BIS cms is just such an example!

Lately we have been busy developing our own cms that we would like to tell you more about. To clarify what makes our cms different, we will first dive into the world of WordPress, one of the most famous cms. But before we do that, let's take a look at what a cms actually is.

CMS is an abbreviation for Content Management System and, as the name suggests, is a system for managing content on websites. This is quite simple in essence but can be done in many different ways. One cms can be very extensive and can be used for all kinds of different websites, while others are made for much more specific websites. That also means that one CMS is not necessarily better than the other.

WordPress

Let's start with WordPress. Everyone has heard of it, maybe you have used it, or you use it daily. It is one of the most famous cms and for good reasons. It is easy, simple and also free. But the biggest advantage is the thousands of plugins and themes that exist for it. With these plugins and themes you can add all kinds of functionalities and styling to your website in no time.

This all sounds fantastic! However, it also comes with some major drawbacks that get worse with the addition of plugins and themes.

• Firstly, WordPress costs a lot of server capacity, this is because all plugins have a finger in the pie and check with every request whether they can / should do something.

• Secondly, the expansion possibilities are limited. Because websites are intertwined with the functionalities of WordPress and are forever attached to it. That makes it impossible to add new functionalities to a website without adding them to WordPress.

• Thirdly, it often takes a relatively long time to get from an idea to a website with WordPress. Especially if you want to quickly set up a simple website.

• And once your website is up and running, maintaining WordPress is also a complicated job. You have to update the various plugins, themes and WordPress itself regularly. Unfortunately, with these updates it often happens that features are no longer supported, functionality breaks, the styling gets messed up and many other problems.

These problems almost all stem from the fact that WordPress forms one system together with the website and are therefore inseparable from each other.

In short, WordPress is not always ideal.

Why develop your own CMS?

This brings us to the question: why did we find it necessary to develop our own cms?

In the past we have mostly used WordPress and although it is still the best solution for many sites, this is not always the case due to the aforementioned drawbacks. Other cms outside WordPress also do not meet our requirements. This is due to a type of website that we often come across, but have never found a suitable cms for it. For this type of site we need a cms with the following properties:

• The possibility to put a simple website / landing page online in a short time.

• It should take up minimum server capacity.

• The sites that use it should not be limited by the possibilities of the cms. In other words: the site is in charge and not the cms.

• It should be easy to use for people without technical knowledge.

• Multilingual content should be standard functionality.

• It must integrate with existing sites.

Some of these features are at odds with those of WordPress and require a completely different view. Which led us to the choice to make the cms and the site independent of each other. This makes it so a website will never be hindered by the cms in the future, while also reducing the start-up time of a website. Thats because you can create a simple website and hook it up to the cms rather then setting up a completely new WordPress environment.

How did we go about it?

We have decided to do the software development in the PHP framework Symfony. Because this provides the structure we need yet is flexible enough not to be limiting. In addition, Symfony offers through Doctrine the tools we need to correctly structure and store all the data.

Once we had a clear idea of what our cms should contain, we got to work. Quite early in the development of the first version we already started making the first sites in the cms. This helped to challenge our ideas and to immediately test what the system is actually like to use. Moreover, we could confirm that the basic system is exactly what we need! Over the course of the development of the system, we have continued to build new websites in it and have generally been able to improve it.

Sites using the 4BIS cms:

• leukedingenomtedoen.nl: The site for fun days out.

• digitaleconomyhub.com: The site for fun days out.

• onze-top.nl: Top lists about many different things.

• foodfairness.com: The blog about healthy eating.

• affiliatemngr.com: Digital marketing platform.

• digitalsignaturegenerator.com: Platform for email signatures.

• gamegrandpa.com: games site.

• 4bis.nl: Onze eigen website.

Where we are now.

About 40 websites are now using the 4BIS cms and the second version is even under development. Because, as with any IT project, new ideas and wishes have gradually arisen here as well. The main points for the next version are:

• Improving the UX (User Experience, or user-friendliness).

• Further elaboration of the systems from the first version.

• Align all sites that use the cms in terms of updates.

• A completely new look and feel.

• Update to Symphony 6.

And that's not all…

In the coming period we hope to release the first websites in the new version . But the first important point in the future is to update all existing sites to version two, and to finalize all planned features. Subsequently, we want to start realizing our additional idea; to create WebshopGenie. WebshopGenie will be an extension of the cms and make it possible to create webshops, based on the same principles as the 4BIS cms.