What is it?

So if you've spent any time looking through this site you will have noticed that I tend to mention this thing called the M3 CMS system an awful lot!  I thought I'd add a section to the site to go through what it is, why I built it and why its something I spend a lot of time working on.

M3 is basically a home-grown CMS system which is the result of about 5 years of ongoing development and R&D.  Back in the mists of time, before the likes of Wordpress and Square-space, CMS systems were boring and drab.  They required you to log into a back end interface which usually looked nothing like the actual site you were trying to manage, and click on all sorts of cryptically named buttons in order to make changes to your website content.  At the end of it all, you need to log out of the CMS and review your changes manually to see if what you had done in the admin area had had the intended effect.

The Vision

I wanted to develop something which was much more interactive than that, to give the user more hands on control of their site.  My vision was of a point and click interface where the user would simply click on the page element they wanted to change and 'pow' all sorts of options would appear on the screen giving them control of that element and the ability to do what they wanted with it.  With M3 I think I've finally achieved something very close to the original vision.

The interface is indeed point and click, elements which can be modified will highlight as you run your mouse over them and you can even add new elements if the template allows for it.  Clicking to edit elements pops up a control pallet which allows you to make simple changes quickly or even re-configure that part of the page if you so wish.  There are advanced pallets for adding or removing pages, editing navigation elements, adding and managing forms, controlling feeds, and controlling many other advanced features.  It now runs on all major browsers and has support for fairly advanced eCommerce features in addition to its core CMS functionality.  There are also built in video and MP3 players for media content.

Developers

Another design goal was to make a CMS that was developer friendly.  These days there isn't much M3 doesn't do or can't be made to do very quickly.  There is an entire bespoke plugins architecture which allows the CMS to be extended with custom functionality without needing to touch any of the core code.  In addition, the code base is very clean with total separation between the CMS interface code, the page rendering code and the backend 'CRUD' functions which are responsible for interfacing with the system database.

Developing sites with M3 is quick and painless through the included templating system which makes adding and pre-configuring editable areas quick and painless.  M3 has been used on many many differing site designs and it doesn't suffer from the 'sameness' that can sometimes afflict sites built in other CMS systems.  Generally if you can code a template for it, M3 can content manage it and usually with in a matter of a couple of hours or less.  The built in forms system is great at tackling even relatively long and complex forms, significantly reducing development times on this traditionally monotonous but regularly required development task.

What next?

M3 has become so successful in what it does that I now use it for pretty much every CMS site I'm required to build, and where I can't use it I often miss it for its features and ease of development.  Its something I'll continue to work on for a long time, and I'm now considering opening it development up to select partners which is why I'm adding this section to the website.  I intend to publish a series of articles about M3 specifics which will eventually act as a grounding for anyone who want to get started with with M3 development or with building sites in M3 going forwards.

If you'd be interested in developing site using the M3 system or in contributing to the project itself, then please let me know using the form below and I'll then keep you informed on any plans for a partnership programme.