Today's Deep-Dive: Neos CMS

Hey, everyone, and welcome to another deep dive.

Today, we're taking a closer look at Neos CMS.

Neos CMS.

Is it just another system for managing your website content,

or is there something more to it?

We've got their website and a peek into their GitHub repo,

so let's see what we can uncover.

OK.

And a quick shout out to our sponsor, Safe Server.

They can help with all sorts of digital transformation

projects, including hosting tricky software.

Check them out at www.safeserver.de.

Very cool.

Now, back to Neos.

Right off the bat, their website hits you with this headline.

Easily create, manage, and optimize content that is loved.

Loved.

Catchy, right?

Yeah.

But is there any substance behind it?

Well, I think what's interesting here

is they're aiming at two different groups.

The content creators, obviously, who

need something easy to use, and then the developers,

who need that flexibility and control behind the scenes.

Yeah, it's like trying to build a car that's

both a luxury sedan and a sports car, right?

Can you really have both?

So let's look at the features and see

if it lives up to the hype.

They talk about an inline, YSI Ouija editor.

Click and type, it's that easy.

Yeah, the click and type.

Sounds great for anyone who's not a coding wizard.

That's exactly it, right?

It's for the folks who just want to focus

on the words and the images and not

have to mess with the code underneath.

So it's like working on a Google Doc almost.

Yeah, like a live collaborative Google Doc

where you see the changes as you type.

But then how do you keep things looking good?

If everyone's got free reign over this style,

it's going to be a mess.

Yeah, so Neos uses the system of predefined styles.

It's kind of like giving everyone

a set of stylish Lego blocks to build with right.

So they've got some creative freedom,

but the overall design stays consistent.

OK, so that's one side of it, the content creation part.

But what about the developers?

I mean, their get-up page is pretty bold.

It says, Neos is crafted by and for developers.

No magic happening.

You are in full control over what you do.

Wow, yeah.

That's a big claim.

Yeah, it is.

What kind of control are we talking about here?

Well, with Neos, developers can define

the structure of the content, like what types of content

the website can even handle.

They're not limited to just preset templates

or rigid structures.

So it's not a cookie cutter website

where you can really make it your own.

It's like building a custom house instead

of settling for one that's prefabricated.

I don't like that.

You have the freedom to create exactly what you need.

And I see they also have this idea of planned extensibility.

Planned extensibility.

So they're anticipating that you're

going to want to add your own stuff.

Yeah, exactly.

Like they know developers are going

to want to build their own unique features.

So they've built in all these hooks and APIs

so you can seamlessly integrate your own code.

And looking at their community, it

seems like people are taking advantage of that.

Definitely.

Over 640 free add-ons.

That's impressive.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

And speaking of community, the repository

makes it very clear.

NEOs is open source.

Open source, yeah.

What's the big deal about that for developers?

Well, it means the code is basically an open book.

Anyone can see it, understand how it works, even modify it.

Wow.

For developers, this is huge.

It means they can collaborate, contribute back to the project,

even create their own versions of the software.

So it's like a giant group project in a good way.

It is.

It is.

It's all about innovation and shared learning.

So we've got this CMS that's user-friendly,

developer-friendly, and has a strong open source community.

Yeah.

But does it actually work in the real world?

That's a crime.

Does NEOs really deliver?

That's the question.

Let's find out.

Let's look at a real-world example.

One of the case studies is Cornelson.

Cornelson, OK.

They're a big educational publisher.

And they use NEOs to manage hundreds of websites.

Hundreds.

Hundreds.

Oh, that's a lot to juggle.

Each with its own design and content.

That sounds like a nightmare.

Yeah.

It's like herding cats, but with websites.

But with websites, yeah.

But Cornelson's case study shows how NEOs

can handle these big multi-site situations.

You can manage all that content from one central place.

Oh, OK.

While still giving each website its own look and feel

and functionality.

So it's like a conductor leading a massive orchestra.

Everything's playing its part, but it all sounds harmonious?

It does.

It does.

And that's why NEOs is being used

by all sorts of organizations, big and small.

OK, so we've seen how NEOs balances those two sides.

You know, easy for users, powerful for developers,

and it can handle some pretty big projects.

But the digital world never stands still, right?

What about the future of NEOs?

That's right.

Their GitHub is all abuzz about NEOs 9.

NEOs 9, yeah.

And something called an event-sourced content

repository.

Event-sourced.

That sounds pretty techy.

What's the big deal there?

It is.

It's a big step forward.

And this event-sourced content repository, or ESCR,

is at the heart of it.

ESCR.

Yeah.

Think of it like this.

Instead of just storing the latest version of your content,

NEOs actually keeps track of every single change that's

ever been made.

So like a super detailed undo button for your whole website.

That's a good way to put it.

You can go back and see exactly who changed what and when.

That's amazing.

You can literally rewind time.

You can.

So if I accidentally delete something, I just hit undo,

and it's like it never happened.

Too much.

That's almost too good to be true.

It's not magic, but it's close.

Since every change is recorded, you

can step back through the history of your content.

You can revert to any previous state,

and you don't lose any data.

That's incredible.

So it's not just about recovering from mistakes.

It's like you have this incredible control

over how your content evolves.

Yeah, it's about having a detailed version

history for every piece of content on your site.

And I bet that's really useful for analyzing

how things are performing, too.

Oh, absolutely.

You can see how every little tweak affects your engagement

and all that.

Yeah.

You can see how a particular piece of content

has performed over time, and you can see what changes

were made along the way.

It's a goldmine for content editors and marketers.

It's like a content time machine.

It is.

OK, this event source thing is blowing my mind a little bit.

It's pretty powerful stuff.

But what about the developers?

Does this new system mean they have to learn

a whole new set of skills?

That's a good question.

And the good news is that Neos has made this transition

as smooth as possible.

They've got tons of documentation, migration tools,

code examples to help developers get up to speed.

The core principles of Neos, like the custom content

modeling and extensibility that we were talking about,

those are still the same.

So it's like getting a new phone with a faster processor,

but all your apps still work.

Yeah, exactly.

They've improved the core, but it's still

the same familiar experience for developers.

But they've also added new tools specifically

for this event source repository, right?

Oh, yeah.

They've got new tools, new APIs, all designed

to give developers more control and flexibility with how

they manage content.

This is sounding really powerful.

It is.

But what about the practical stuff?

Does it require any special setup or infrastructure?

That's an important point.

While this event source repository

is designed to be scalable and efficient,

it does require some careful thought

about your infrastructure.

Traditional relational databases,

the ones that most websites use,

might not be the best fit for this kind of system.

So you can't just throw it on any old server

and expect it to run smoothly.

Probably not.

NEOs recommends using a database that's specifically

designed for handling lots and lots of event data.

Like what?

Like a document database or a time series database.

It's like choosing the right fuel

for a high performance engine.

Oh, I like that.

You need the right stuff to make it run properly.

So it's not just about picking a hosting provider.

It's about picking the right one.

Exactly.

One that understands this whole event sourcing thing.

You need a hosting partner that can offer

the scalability, the performance, the reliability

that this kind of system needs.

Well, if any of our listeners are looking for that kind

of expertise, I know the place.

Safe Server, they're experts in all things

digital transformation.

You can find them at www.safeserver.d.

Great resource.

Now, before we move on, I want to go back

to something you mentioned earlier, the NEOs community.

The community.

It seems like every time we hit a new challenge with NEOs,

the community pops up as a key resource.

They're amazing.

What is it about this community that makes it so special?

Well, it's a really welcoming group, very active.

And they're all passionate about NEOs.

And they love to help each other out.

You can find them on the forum, in the Slack channel,

even at meetups and conferences.

They're always sharing code, answering questions,

collaborating on new projects.

Like a real sense of shared purpose, right?

It is.

It is.

It makes working with NEOs really enjoyable.

You're not just using a piece of software.

You're part of something bigger.

I love that.

It's like a club.

But for people who love building great websites.

Exactly.

So how do you actually get started with NEOs?

How do you go from this intriguing concept

to an actual working website?

That's a good question.

And the good news is that NEOs has made it really easy

to get started.

They've got a detailed installation

guide on their website.

And they even have this command line tool

that can help you create a new project in minutes.

So it's not like those old school CMSs

where you had to battle with FTP and server configuration.

No, no, no.

NEOs is all about modern development.

So getting started is a breeze.

You can have a basic NEOs instance running

on your computer or a staging server with just a few commands.

And then once you've got that basic setup,

you can start customizing it, adding your own templates,

integrating it with other systems.

That sounds pretty straightforward.

It is.

But I'm guessing there's more to it

than just clicking a few buttons.

Of course.

What are some things people need to think

about when they're first implementing NEOs?

Well, one of the first things is your hosting environment.

OK.

As we talked about before, that event-sourced content

repository, it really benefits from a database that's

designed for all that event data.

So you'll want to choose a hosting provider that

offers the right kind of database and infrastructure.

It's like making sure you've got the right fuel

for your engine.

Exactly.

You wouldn't put regular gas in a Ferrari.

Exactly.

OK, so hosting is important.

What about the development process itself?

Any challenges or best practices that people should keep in mind?

Well, one of Nios's strengths is its flexibility, how extensible it is.

Right.

But with that power comes responsibility, right?

Yeah.

It's important for developers to really embrace the Nios way of doing things.

So use the tools they give you.

Use the tools, use the APIs.

Don't try to fight the system.

Don't try to fight the system.

Exactly.

Nios has, you know, a clear architecture, a set of best practices, and it's all

designed to make development efficient.

So following those guidelines will make your projects more robust, more scalable,

and easier to maintain over time.

It's like learning the rules of the game before you start trying to break that.

Exactly.

Okay.

What about testing and debugging?

Any specific tools or techniques that are especially helpful in a Nios world?

Well, Nios has its own built-in testing framework, so you can, you can write unit

tests for your code, make sure everything's working as it should.

And for, for debugging, you can use standard PHP debugging tools.

Plus Nios has its own logging and error reporting.

And of course, the community forum is a great place to get help.

If you run into any, any tricky problems.

Not like they've got you covered.

They do, they do.

But, but realistically, every software project hits a few snags along the way.

Of course, what are some common pitfalls people encounter with Nios?

And, and is there any way to avoid them?

One common mistake is, is trying to do too much customization too early.

You know, it's, it's tempting to jump in and start building all these fancy

features, but, but it's often better to, to start with a solid foundation using

news news, core features, and then, and then gradually add, add your custom

elements as you go.

So it's like building a house, you know, start with the foundation and the

framing before you start adding the fancy finishes.

Exactly.

Okay.

It makes sense.

What about performance?

I mean, we talked about choosing the right hosting environment, but, but are

there other things developers can do to, to make sure their, their

Nios website is fast?

Oh, absolutely.

Nios has, has a bunch of tools and techniques for optimizing performance.

They've got caching mechanisms, uh, best practices for managing your, your assets,

even integration with, with CDNs.

So you can really, really fine tune it.

You can.

Okay.

So it's, it's not just about throwing more hardware at the problem.

It's about, it's about understanding Nios and, and using its, its

optimization tools the right way.

That's right.

And remember the community is a great resource for, for performance tips.

There's, there's a wealth of knowledge out there.

So don't be afraid to, to ask questions.

Always good advice.

And speaking of valuable resources, a huge thank you to safe

server for supporting this episode.

Yes.

Thank you.

If you're, if you're looking for expert advice on hosting digital

transformation, any of that, you can find them at www.safeserver.d.

Definitely check them out.

We've, we've covered a lot of ground here.

Haven't we?

We have exploring all these different facets of Nio CMS, its features, its

architecture, the community, and even the practical side of, of implementing

and developing with it.

Yeah.

As we wrap things up, I want to leave you with one, one final thought.

Nios is, it's more than just a content management system.

It's, it's a platform for, for innovation, for creativity.

It gives developers the, the power to create these really unique web

experiences and, and it gives content creators the tools they need to manage

their content effectively, whether you're a seasoned developer or, or just starting

out, I encourage you to, to check out Nios and, and see what you can create.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

It's been a pleasure.

Absolutely.

They're, they're really great about that.

There's, there's a forum where you can ask questions.

There's a Slack channel and, and they're even like meetups and

conferences where, where Nios developers get together.

So you're not just, you know, left out in the cold to figure it all out on your own.

No, no, not at all.

And they even offer training courses and workshops if you, if you really

want to go deep and learn best practices for, for building Nios websites.

So they've, they've really built up this whole ecosystem to, to support people

no matter what their skill level is.

They have.

Yeah.

They've, they've put a lot of effort into, into making Nios approachable.

That's awesome.

It's, it's really cool to see that kind of commitment to community.

Yeah.

Speaking of, of pushing the boundaries, let's, let's go back to that event

sourced content repository for a minute.

The E S C R.

Yeah.

The E S C R.

Yeah.

We talked about how it's, it's like having this super detailed history of, of every

change, but, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around what that means in, in

practice.

Yeah.

Can you, can you give me a real world scenario where this would be like a

lifesaver?

Sure.

Imagine you're, you're working on a really important page for your website.

Maybe it's a big product launch or an important announcement and, and someone

accidentally deletes a whole section of text in a traditional system.

You might be, you know, scrambling to restore from backups, hoping you haven't

lost too much work, frantically calling the IT department.

Exactly.

But, but with an event source repository, you can literally rewind time, you can

undo that deletion.

So you're telling me if I delete something, I can just hit undo and it's, it's

like, it never happened.

It is.

That sounds magic.

It's not magic, but, but it's close because, because every change is

recorded as an event, you can, you can literally step back through the history

of your content and see exactly who made each edit and when, so you can, you can

revert to any previous state without, without losing any data.

That's, that's incredible.

It is.

So, so it's not just about, you know, recovering from mistakes.

It's, it's about having this, this amazing level of control over, over how

your content develops over time.

You've got it.

You can even analyze how, how changes affect your engagement.

Absolutely.

You can see how a change impacted, you know, page views or, or conversions.

It's, it's really powerful stuff.

Yeah.

It's like, it's like a content time machine.

It is.

It is.

It turns content management from, from the static process into something

much more, more dynamic and insightful.

Okay.

I'm, I'm sold.

I'm officially geeking out over this, this event source thing.

It's cool stuff.

But, but I'm also wondering about the developers, you know, does this new system

mean that they, they have to learn like a whole new set of skills or use

totally different tools?

That's a fair question.

And, and the good news is that Nios has, has made this transition really,

really developer friendly.

Okay, good.

They've got, um, they've got these guidelines, they've got migration tools.

They even have code examples to help developers, you know, get up to speed

with this, this new model and the core principles of Nios, the custom content

modeling, the extensibility, those are all still the same.

So it's like, like upgrading to a new phone with a faster processor, but all

your apps still work the same way.

That's a great analogy.

Okay, good.

Yeah, they've, they've enhanced the capabilities, but, but it's still a

familiar experience for developers.

That makes sense, but, but they have created some new tools specifically for

working with this, this event sourced repository, right?

They have, they've got, um, new tools and API specifically for interacting

with this repository. So developers have even more control, more flexibility in how

they

manage content. This is sounding really, really impressive. It's a big step forward.

But I'm

also thinking about the practical side of things. Does this new approach require

any

special setup or infrastructure? Yeah, that's a crucial consideration. While this

event

source content repository is built to be really scalable and performant, it does

require some

thought in terms of your infrastructure. Traditional relational databases, the kind

that most websites

use, they might not be the ideal fit for this kind of system. So we might need

something

a little bit more specialized. You might, yeah. NEOs recommends using a database

technology

that's really well suited for this event sourced model. Like what? Like a document

database

or a time series database. These types of databases are designed for handling high

volumes

of data that's constantly being added to, which is exactly what we're talking about

with event sourcing. So it's not just about choosing any random hosting provider.

Right.

You need one that really understands the ins and outs of event sourcing. Exactly.

And ideally

you want a hosting provider that has experience with NEO CMS specifically. So they

can give

you that tailored support, that guidance to make sure everything runs smoothly. To

make

sure you get the most out of NEOs. Well, speaking of valuable resources, you know,

this episode

is sponsored by Safe Server. Yes. And they happen to be experts in hosting and

digital

transformation. They are, yeah. So if you're looking for a reliable partner to help

you

navigate the world of NEOs and event sourcing, you can find them at www.safeserver.d.

Definitely

check them out. Now, before we move on, I want to go back to something you

mentioned

earlier, the NEOs community. Community, yeah. It seems like they play such a huge

role in

making this CMS so, so approachable. They do. Especially for new developers.

Especially

for new folks. Can you tell me a little bit more about what makes this community so

special?

Well, it's really the people. They're so welcoming and helpful, and they're all

really

passionate about NEOs. You can find them on the forum, on Slack, at meetups and

conferences.

They're always willing to share their knowledge, answer questions, help out with

problems.

It's amazing how much a strong community can contribute to an open source project.

It really

does create this feeling of shared ownership. It does, and that sense of community

is one

of the things that makes working with NEOs so enjoyable. It's not just using a

piece

of software. It's being part of something, something bigger. Yeah, I love that. It's

like being a member of a club, but for people who build awesome websites. Exactly.

So how

do you actually get started with NEOs? How do you go from this intriguing concept

to

a working website? Well the good news is that NEOs has made the setup process

really straightforward.

They have a detailed installation guide on their website, and they even have this

command

line tool that can help you create a new NEOs project in minutes. So it's not like

those

old CMSs where you had to wrestle with FTP and server configurations just to get

the

basic framework up and running. No, no, no. NEOs is all about modern development

practices.

So the initial setup is a breeze. You can have a basic NEOs instance running on

your

computer or a staging server with just a few commands. And once you have that

foundation,

you can start customizing it, adding your own templates, integrating it with other

systems.

That sounds pretty straightforward. It is. But I'm guessing there's more to it than

just

clicking a few buttons. Of course, of course. What are some things that people

should think

about when they're implementing NEOs for the first time? Well, one of the first

decisions

you'll need to make is about your hosting environment. Okay. As we discussed

earlier,

the event-sourced content repository in NEOs 9, it can really benefit from a

database that's

specifically designed for handling high-volume event data. So you'll want to choose

a hosting

provider that offers the right type of database and infrastructure to support NEOs

effectively.

So it's like making sure you've got the right fuel for a high-performance engine.

Exactly.

You wouldn't put regular gas in a Ferrari. That's true. You need a hosting

environment

that can keep up with the demands of your NEOs project. So finding the right

hosting

partner is crucial. Yes, it is. But what about the development process itself? Are

there

any particular challenges or best practices that developers should keep in mind

when they're

building with NEOs? Well, one of NEOs' greatest strengths is its flexibility and

extensibility.

Right. But as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. It's important

for developers

to really embrace the NEOs way of doing things. So use the tools they give you. Use

the tools,

use the APIs. Don't try to fight the system. Don't fight the system. Exactly. NEOs

has

a clear architecture. It has a set of best practices, and it's all designed to make

development

efficient and maintainable. So by following those guidelines, developers can create

these

really robust and scalable NEOs projects that are easy to extend and maintain over

time.

It's like learning the rules of the game before you start trying to bend or break

them. Exactly.

Okay, what about testing and debugging? Are there any specific tools or techniques

that

are especially helpful in the NEOs environment? Well, NEOs has a built-in testing

framework

that makes it really easy to write unit tests for your code, which helps ensure

that all

your custom functionality is working correctly. For debugging, you can use standard

PHP debugging

tools along with NEOs' own logging and error reporting mechanisms. And of course,

the community

forum is always a great resource for troubleshooting and getting help from other

developers.

So it sounds like they've really, really thought of everything.

They really have, yeah. But realistically, you know, every software

project runs into some bumps in the road. Of course, of course.

What are some common pitfalls or challenges that people often encounter with NEOs,

and

is there any way to avoid them? One common mistake that I see people make

is trying to do too much customization too early on in the project.

It's tempting to just dive in and start building all these fancy features right

away, but it's

often wiser to start with a really solid foundation, using NEOs' core features, and

then gradually

add custom elements as needed. It's like building a house, right? You start

with the foundation and the framing before you start adding the fancy finishes.

Exactly, and by taking a more iterative approach, you can ensure that your project

stays manageable

and that your custom code works seamlessly with the core NEOs framework.

Makes sense, makes sense. What about performance? I mean, we talked about choosing

the right

hosting environment, but are there other things that developers can do to make sure

their

NEOs website is fast and responsive? Oh, absolutely. NEOs offers a variety of tools

and techniques for optimizing performance. They've got caching mechanisms. They've

got

best practices for managing assets. They even have integration with content

delivery networks.

So you can really fine-tune things? You can. And by implementing those strategies,

you can make sure that your website loads quickly and provides a smooth user

experience.

It's not just about throwing more hardware at the problem. It's about understanding

how

NEOs works and using its built-in optimization tools effectively. Exactly. And

remember the

community is a fantastic resource for sharing performance tips and best practices.

There's

a wealth of knowledge out there. That's great advice. And speaking of valuable

resources,

a big thank you to SafeServer for supporting this episode. Thank you, SafeServer.

If you're

looking for expert guidance on hosting digital transformation or anything in

between, you

can find them at www.safeserver.dd. Well, we've covered a lot of ground in this

deep dive

into Neos CMS. We have. We have. We've explored its features, its architecture,

its community,

and even the nuts and bolts of implementation and development. It's been a great

overview.

As we wrap things up, I want to leave you with one final thought. Okay. Neos is

more

than just a content management system. It is. It is. It's a platform for innovation,

for creativity. It gives developers the power to create truly unique web

experiences. Yeah.

And it provides content creators with the tools they need to manage their content

effectively,

whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out. I encourage you to

explore the

world of Neos and see what you can create. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive.

Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure.