Host RadiantCMS Projects with SBMSuite

RadiantCMS is a great tool for managing website content. So great in fact we decided to use it as the CMS for SBMSuite. If your looking to use RadiantCMS for your website but aren't too thrilled with the idea of having to manage and install the software and server yourself, then SBMSuite will probably be a good fit for you. SBMSuite works just like any other installation of RadiantCMS it has everything you expect. The bonus is you get all the other great tools that are built into SBMSUite. If your a RadiantCMS extension developer you'll probably want to keep using your own instance of RadiantCMS. Currently developers aren't able to upload their own custom extensions. We are looking into adding this feature in the future but for now most people who are using SBMSuite don't even know what a RadiantCMS extension is.

SBMSuite includes over 1000 pre-built templates (called skins) to choose from for personal or professional use. We are working to make every skin available for "instant activation", but for now once you pick a skin it may take up to 24 hours for it to be avaiable for activation on your site. We have made it easy to convert your existing website or template into a Skin to be used with SBMSuite. You don't have to stop using your favorite website development tools. All you need to do is rearrange the file structure to fit what SBMSuite expects. Here's an example.

Let's say you built your new website in Dreamweaver and your folder looks something like the image to the left. Pretty standard. What we need to do is modify the folder structure and filenames to fit what SBMSuite expects a skin to have. So the best way is to create a new folder so if you make a mistake you won't mess up your existing project. Whatever you name your new folder is what SBMSuite will expect the Skin name to be. Make sure not to use spaces in your folder name, it should like like this "my_awesome_site". Here is list of the mandatory folders and files that each skin must have, folders are in bold.

 

• pages
• snippets
• images
• styles
• scripts
• layout.html
• my_awesome_site.png
• my_awesome_site.yml

If your familiar with RadiantCMS then those folder names should already make sense to you. Let's take a look at the files & folders, their purpose and what we should stick in them. If your not familiar with Snippets, Layouts, Pages, & Page Parts please read the RadiantCMS documentation to familiarize yourself before going any further.

• layout.html - Should contain layout markup just like you would normally put into a Layout in RadiantCMS. This file must be named 'layout.html' and will be the default layout of your site. Once the skin is installed you can then create new layouts for other pages.
• my_awesome_site.png - is a screenshot of your Skin. SBMSuite recommends that your screenshot not exceed 1000x1000 pixels.
• my_awesome_site.yml - is a YAML file that tells SBMSuite how your skin should be installed. It should look something like this:
  
  name: MyAwesomeSite
description: An Awesome Site Template.
type: private
price: xxx

You can create two types of skins 'private' and 'public' private means this skin will only be available to your account. A skin with type 'public' will be available to anyone who has an account with SBMSuite. So if you want to share your work with the world, mark your skin as public. SBMSuite has plans to allow Skin developers to set a price for their skin and then be paid for each skin that sold. That functionality has not been built yet but will come as soon as demand grows.
• scripts - hold all the javascripts for your site. You can have as many nested folders as you like SBMSuite will know how to assign the urls.
• styles - contains all the stylesheets for your project. Again you can nest folders you can have styles/orange , styles/blue, styles/green and SBMSuite will create the appropriate links.
• images - is self explanitory. It's important that in your snippets, pages, and layouts that your reference your images like this: <img src="/images/my_image.jpg" /> don't use the full url or SBMSuite will get confused.
• snippets - SBMSuite will create a new snippet with the same name as each file in this folder. Files should not have a file extension. You can put plaintext, javascript, HTML,Textile whatever you want into each snippet just like using regular RadiantCMS
• pages - you'll need to create a folder for each page of your site. That folder should containt a single file for each page part. For example your about.html page would turn into Pages > About > body . You can have as many parts as you want

Our new Skin folder should now look like the image to the right. Now that you have your new Skin complete you need to compress it into a zip file. You can now take your "my_awesome_site.zip" and upload it into the "Design & Feel" section of SBMSuite. Once it has finished uploading you will see your skin in your "Private Skins" section or if you set it up to be a public skin simply search for your skin by name and click the "Activate" link under your skin screenshot and your site is up and running.

There's alot more to SBMSuite but for those simply interested in RadiantCMS hosting this is a good start. Just go to the signup page and create an account.