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Extensions
- Extensions do exactly as they say on the tin. These are extensions of the website itself and are tools that enhance the website.
- There are three kinds of extensions, that can add many kinds of functionality to your default CMS Made Simple install. They are called tags, user defined tags, and modules.
Tags
- Tags are the simplest form of extensions. They are designed to accomplish just one small and specific task.
- For example, at the bottom left of every page on our website you will see a trail of breadcrumbs which acts as a very simple form of navigation back through where you have just been.
- There are a number of custom tags available with CMS Made Simple. To find what kind of tags are available look in Extensions » Tags in the Admin Panel.
- To insert any of these in a template or a page, simply type e.g.
{content}. Many of these Smarty tags are used as placeholders in a template, i.e. placeholders for content, navigation, breadcrumbs etc.
- Website developers who have a bit of PHP experience will find it easy to create and share their own custom tags.
User defined tags
- Users can also create their own tags to insert in templates or pages, these are called user defined tags. They are snippets of php code (but without the <?php and ?> surrounding them), providing the ability to add re-usable pieces of php functionality to your site. User defined tags are inserted in templates and pages just like tags:
{tagname}.
- Typically, user defined tags provide a utility that is special to a website, and likely won't need to be re-used on another site. Also they are typically small and used for simple tasks.
- Click here to share your user defined tags and use those that others have created.
Modules
- Modules are the highest level of plugin in the CMS Made Simple environment. They are designed to allow developers to implement complex tasks within CMSMS. A module typically provides advanced functionality, usually interacts with the database in complex ways, and may provide numerous reports or forms on the website. Additionally, a module may have an administrative interface to allow manipulating its data and its settings.
- An extremely well defined API (Application Programming Interface) has been written to allow module developers to write complex, intricate, and fully functioning applications for use within a CMSMS powered website.
- There are a few modules included with the default installation of CMS Made Simple. Other popular modules are Frontend Users, Album, Calendar, Guestbook and Form Builder.
- The ModuleManager module (included with CMS Made Simple) allows browsing a list of available modules, reading about them, and then installing them on your website.
- To insert modules into a template or a page, you actually use the module name as a parameter to the
{cms_module}tag. It looks like this:{cms_module module='modulename' parameter1='this' parameter2=5 parameter3='that'}. It is normal for modules to accept parameters to effect changes to their default behavior, though it is not always required.
Read more
- You can read more about extensions in the CMSMS documentation.
- For more information and help on extensions, tags and modules, please read our Layman's Terms Instructions Document.
- For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
