How To Add Concreate5 Addon Without Connection

Concrete5 entered the CMS scene in 2008, and since then has been making solid headway to becoming one of the premier become-to web publishing platforms available today.

Getting started with Concrete5 is really quick and piece of cake, and many hosting platforms now offer one-click installs. If you lot have SimpleScripts, Softaculous, Installatron, or even Plesk's Applications Installer, you tin simply find Concrete5, install and go. With the release of version v.5 featuring a sleek Twitter Bootstrap ported dashboard interface, Concrete5'south future looks bright.

Permit's take a look at a few reasons why so many developers and designers are singing its praises.

The big idea

Although Concrete5 is a MVC/OOP centric CMS and has ridiculous power under the hood, the forepart terminate editing is the kickoff noticeable aspect of Concrete5: adding a page is super quick. And upon putting a page into 'edit' mode, you are presented with cherry-dashed highlighted 'areas' on your web folio for adding content. These areas are content areas that are predefined within a given theme'due south page types. Think of page types as layouts. When you lot click on these ruddy areas, a pop-up menu presents you with options for that specific area to which yous can perform tasks such every bit calculation and moving blocks.

You tin retrieve of blocks as content building blocks for your website. Need some content? Click an area, click 'add cake', and and so select 'Content' for a WYSIWYG editor to add together formatted text, headings, and even page links and images. Need to toss up a form? Select the course block.

Code blocks

Overall there are twenty blocks included out of the box ranging from a Youtube block, to a course architect, to Google maps, to a bones banner slider.

One downside to consider is the number of add-ons available compared to the likes of Joomla or WordPress. Yous may observe yourself needing to build something yourself or use the freely available 'designer content' packet which can create basic custom blocks for you.

Regardless, clients really latch on to this way of thinking. Information technology'due south very raw and tangible for them, and I have yet to meet fifty-fifty the to the lowest degree web savvy client fail to latch onto this: add together a page, click to add content or motion information technology, click publish, done. The very thing that makes the WYSIWYG editor popular is driving Concrete5's popularity. What yous run across is what you get. Clients love it. Designers love it.

Need more?

One of the coolest things about Concrete5 is its Market.

For about CMSs, to extend a theme, or discover what yous need to build out a job, requires heading out to search for add-ons and reliable extensions to extend the platform, so download, and upload to your site. Finally yous take to install. And then you tin utilise it. This can suck hours of your project's time.

With Concrete5, everything you will demand is baked right in. Including their add-on and themes Marketplace to extend your project without having to leave your website.

While logged in for editing, striking the 'tab' central and typing 'marketplace' pops upwardly the finder tool in Concrete5 which searches all relevant local and remote pages and add-ons bachelor. With the most relevant sorted to the top, you would choose 'Connect to the Community'. Enabling this connectedness instantly plugs you lot into thousands of add-ons and themes without always having to leave your website. After setting upwards your Concrete5 profile, you tin can connect your websites to the customs and get integrated support for your add together-ons and themes, and buy or install them right to your website.

Need an image gallery? Simply hit your tab key and type 'marketplace' again, and select 'get more add together-ons'. From here you tin can search and browse add-ons and themes both complimentary and paid. Once y'all notice the perfect gallery improver for your site, you can download and install information technology to your site in just a few clicks. It's an impressive building feel whether you are a novice or a pro.

The community connection besides automatically pushes update notices pertaining to the core install, equally well every bit any add-ons or themes you lot have installed on that specific website. Again, saving you time and money having to track everything down and go get it, push it, and update.

Finding your way around

Using the tab cardinal and typing whatsoever topic or subject volition likewise search Concrete5's forums and how-to areas to get you the aid you need fast. For example, Concrete5 comes standard with two permissions models: simple, which is what is enabled by default; and advanced.

So a quick search for 'advanced permissions' in the finder reveals helpful video 'how to's getting you started on your manner to more detailed control of your site editor permissions.

Dashboard

If you still take questions the Concrete5 customs, all be information technology, smaller than many CMS'southward, is extremely proactive in helping others. Helpful responses generally announced within an hour or so. Then there's also the C5 IRC bachelor for assist. IRC definitely feels a bit archaic. Only information technology is nice to know there are some very knowledgeable C5 brains to ping for assistance should yous non become the answers y'all need in the C5 forums.

Designing in Concrete5

Theming and pattern in Concrete5 is actually like shooting fish in a barrel and pretty direct forrad. Accept your HTML and replace the content with some tags for block areas…etc etc. Non much to it. Pretty much similar most CMS worth their salt.

Designing in Concrete5

I style C5 differentiates from other CMS however, is in its ballsy root level override system and purposeful MVC architecture that allows you to quickly and hands override core parcel, theme, or block files. Nigh everything in Concrete5 can exist overridden in the root construction. In that location is not enough space here to become over this amazing adequacy and the power therein. Merely let's look at one small example.

I have a theme designed and ported to C5. It looks very nice. However, when I get catch XYZ gallery block it doesn't wait quite perfect. You can do a hackathon and slap a agglomeration of !of import's in your theme CSS, or even code swoop and detect the cake'south CSS and alter it. The trouble with tweaking code at the block level however, is the 2nd you upgrade, you lose your changes. Only with C5 and it'south MVC architecture, you lot don't need to practise this. Instead y'all can simply copy the cake's view.php & view.css files from the packages > blockname > blocks > blockname folder into the root blocks > blockname folder, and alter the CSS at the root > blocks level. When C5 renders, it will always prefer root level overrides over internal cadre or package files.

What this also means, is that any changes or updates to XYZ gallery block are not-destructive. Meaning, you update XYZ block, and your customization is not lost. It's nevertheless right there in your root blocks binder! Pretty much awesome-sauce.

Root level overrides are not limited to css or views either. Yous tin can override controllers, models, elements, helpers, and tools files too. Of form, a downside to this corporeality of flexibility and power is that it can feel a chip overwhelming at first if you lot are not already acclimated to MVC/OOP architectures. Regardless, C5 is far across what well-nigh CMS'due south can offer in terms of flexibility and extensibility, and we haven't fifty-fifty scratched the surface every bit to what this means from a blueprint and build standpoint.

The Concrete5 business concern model

1 of the outset letdowns for many newcomers to Concrete5 such every bit WordPress converts is the fact that not all add-ons are free. Some try to paint this fact equally a detrimental to the CMS' growth. But when you dig deeper into Concrete5'due south business concern model, it doesn't take long to encounter the sense: all CMS have to have funding. This is not an supposition so much as a simple fact, when y'all as designer or developer pull free add-ons for WordPress or Joomla, both the CMS and the development of extensions, regardless of the toll to yous, did in fact price somebody.

Although Concrete5'southward marketplace houses a considerable number of actually useful and helpful add-ons and themes for gratuitous, many of the more circuitous code does toll some cash. Having said that, every dollar spent on add-ons and themes donates 25% to the funding of Concrete5, and and so the other 75% goes to the developer.

When a developer publishes an add-on, that addition also receives a support area / ticket system specifically for that developer and that add-on. This is of import to note, because great back up should be at the middle of every business, non simply web technologies and free stuff. Combine this with the fact that all add-ons, both paid and free, are vetted through a peer review board (PRB) where they are tested, questioned, and screened for bugs, and you have a reasonably stable library of add-ons and themes.

Still, if you lot're not actually interested in the stability and funding of a platform, lack of high stop free add-ons will be very apparent.

Marketplace

From a profitability standpoint, at that place's definitely opportunity there to meet some prissy revenue stream. Still, if you are a programmer or designer with hopes of selling in the C5 marketplace, getting a production through the PRB tin be quite painstaking and irksome at times. Depending on the backlog of pending approvals as well as the preparedness of your production, information technology tin take anywhere from 2 days to two months.

I do dear the fact that when I pay for an add-on, I am supporting the CMS and its development, supporting the growing developer community, and ensuring that I become timely helpful back up. It's a adept bargain all effectually.

As a circumspection though, make sure you lot check out the reviews of products in the C5 marketplace. And then also be sure to take a look at the boilerplate back up response time institute at the bottom each production folio on the primary C5 site.

In conclusion

As mentioned earlier, Concrete5 is developed from the ground up in MVC (Model View Controller) OOP (Object Oriented Programing) compages. Because of this, Concrete5 is a powerful platform besides as an easy to use CMS. A framework that can be tapped into for everything from powerful web applications to custom backend functionality for your clients.

Speaking from feel, you lot can tap into Concrete5'southward API for simply about anything. I've personally worked on everything from iOS native apps that hit Concrete5'south API for data, to backend Enterprise RMA and Warranty applications, to a fully integrated Motorcar Dealership application managing sales and daily auto-trader exporting.

Information technology's true, Concrete5 is so easy your Grandma could use information technology…only it also packs some serious architecture that is goose egg to scoff at.

Contempo update: Equally of 2021 Concrete5 is now known equally Concrete CMS

Accept yous tried Concrete5? How did you find information technology compared to other CMS? Allow us know in the comments below.