More than You Would Expect from an Open Source Content Management System; Concrete5

One of the cool things about Concrete5 is the number of tools that come with it right out of the box. 90% of the websites that Pixo builds don't need a bunch of additional add-ons or custom code because most of what our small business customers needs are already in Concrete5. This post lists the tools that come with Concrete5 and describes some of the functionality that they can be used for.

• Content Text Editor – this WYSIWYG text editor looks like Microsoft Word and it is what you use to edit the text on your website. Most all content management systems have a text editor just like this one. One thing that I LOVE about this one is the ‘Add a Link’ tool. When you highlight some text or an image in the editor and then click this button you get a sitemap showing all of the pages on your website. You simply just click the page you want to link to. Now if you ever change the name or the URL of the page that you are linking to Concrete5 will automatically update the link for you on your page. No more do you have to worry about fixing links all over a site because you decided to change a page URL.
• HTML Block – Add html to any spot on a page with this easy to use block. Wish Wordpress had this. I ran into an issue just last week where a client wanted a date display within the content of a page with specific requirements and there wasn’t an easy way to do it like you can do it in Concrete5.
• Auto Nav – Flexible dynamic navigation bar that can be used for menus, break crumbs, site maps and more
• Form – This is another great tool that Pixo clients love. ANYONE can use this tool to create an email form where the data is saved to a database, can be viewed in the Dashboard and exported to Excel. How cool is that?
• Page List – create a list of links based on your criteria for pages on the website. Typically this is used for a top level page where you want a list of links to pages that are underneath a given page. It is all dynamic so you don’t have to update the page every time you add a new page.
• File – Add a link to a downloadable file to any page of your site
• Image – display an image, with rollover effects if you wish, to any page of a site.
• Flash – Add Flash to any portion of any page of your site without much technical knowledge
• Guest Book – Add a cool, interactive Guest Book to any page of your site
• Slide Show – This is a popular tool with our clients. This tool as a slide show that looks like Flash but will work with any browser that has a nice fade transition between each frame. Looks great on homepages.
• Search – Add a site search with just a few clicks to your website
• Google Map – Add a google map for a specific address embedded into your website. All you have to do is type the address and click submit.
• Video Player – Really easily integrate a video into your website.
• RSS Displayer – Add the address of any RSS feed and display that feed on your website as if it was a part of your website.
• YouTube Video – To integrate a YouTube video into any page of your website all you have to do is copy the address of a particular video and paste it into this tool. The YouTube video will then be embedded into the page. How cool is that!
• Survey – Integrate an interactive survey into your website.
• Date – Display the current date on a page.
• Next And Previous Nav – Displays a nice navigation bar to the page before and after the current page.

This is just a small list of the functionality that you get with Concrete5. Adding new pages, moving pages in a site map, copying pages, creating scrapbooks, adding additional functionality with add-ons are all a snap with Concrete5.

To get Concrete5 added to your website please contact Pixo for a free consultation.