1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,440 All right, let's dive in. 2 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:03,400 Today we're tackling a listener request, 3 00:00:03,400 --> 00:00:06,800 and gotta say, it's piqued my curiosity too. 4 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,080 We're going deep on GravCMS. 5 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:10,800 Ooh, interesting choice. 6 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:13,400 Right, but before we get into nuts and bolts, 7 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:16,360 quick shout out to our sponsor, safeserver. 8 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:18,360 They can help get your Grav site up and running, 9 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,640 plus they're experts in all things digital transformation. 10 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:24,880 Check them out at www.safeserver.de. 11 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:26,400 Always good to have the right support, 12 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:27,640 especially in the tech world. 13 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:30,760 Absolutely. Okay, so Grav. 14 00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:34,320 It claims to be modern, crazy fast, 15 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:38,800 ridiculously easy and amazingly powerful all at once. 16 00:00:38,800 --> 00:00:39,880 Kind of bold, don't you think? 17 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:40,720 A bit, yeah. 18 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:42,520 A lot of CMSs make big promises. 19 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:43,400 Exactly. 20 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:45,240 So are these just fancy marketing words 21 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:46,480 or is it something really special here? 22 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:47,480 What's your initial take? 23 00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:50,160 Well, it's won awards like Best Open Source CMS 24 00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:52,000 and Best Flat File CMS, 25 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:53,600 so that's gotta count for something. 26 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:56,280 Plus, flat file CMSs are getting more and more popular 27 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:58,040 these days, there's a reason for that. 28 00:00:58,040 --> 00:00:59,880 Okay, see, now that's what I like to hear. 29 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:01,920 Trends, reasons. 30 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:03,040 But before we go too far, 31 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:05,800 let's make sure everyone's on the same page. 32 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:09,400 The source material mentions Grav being flat file, 33 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,040 which honestly sounds a bit jargony. 34 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:13,200 Can you break that down? 35 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,420 Sure, think of it like this. 36 00:01:15,420 --> 00:01:18,240 Instead of a database like, say, WordPress uses, 37 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,320 Grav just uses files and folders 38 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:22,120 like organizing stuff on your computer. 39 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:24,040 So no database at all, 40 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:26,680 just like documents and images sitting in folders. 41 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:28,360 Exactly, simple, right. 42 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:29,680 And that simplicity is where 43 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:31,080 some of its strengths come from. 44 00:01:31,080 --> 00:01:32,800 Sounds refreshingly straightforward, 45 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:35,360 especially for someone new to website building. 46 00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:37,040 But is it really that easy? 47 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,000 From what I've seen, yeah, it seems to be. 48 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,560 The Grav, a modern flat file CMS, Grav CMS source, 49 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,020 talks about this admin plugin with an intuitive interface. 50 00:01:46,020 --> 00:01:47,520 So it sounds pretty user-friendly 51 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:50,120 for setup and content creation. 52 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:52,340 Intuitive's good, less time figuring things out, 53 00:01:52,340 --> 00:01:53,760 more time actually doing stuff. 54 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,040 Right, and get this, they've even got one-click installs 55 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:58,440 for themes and plugins. 56 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,960 So one-click installs, that does sound tempting, 57 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:03,040 even for someone like me 58 00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:05,140 who's more comfortable with words than code. 59 00:02:05,140 --> 00:02:07,980 Well, speaking of words, they use Markdown for content. 60 00:02:07,980 --> 00:02:08,880 You've ever used that? 61 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,660 I've dabbled, but for anyone who hasn't, 62 00:02:11,660 --> 00:02:13,440 what's the big deal about Markdown? 63 00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:15,200 It's all about simplicity. 64 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:19,840 No messing with HTML code, just easy ways to format text. 65 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,220 Headings, lists, bold, italics, links, all that, 66 00:02:24,220 --> 00:02:26,440 using simple symbols and shortcuts. 67 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:28,480 Grav has a Markdown editor built in, 68 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:30,640 so you can write directly in the CMS. 69 00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:33,800 So download Grav, extract the files, 70 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,280 click to install a theme, and start writing in Markdown. 71 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:38,220 So it's pretty smooth, 72 00:02:38,220 --> 00:02:40,120 especially if you want a website up quickly. 73 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:42,040 Exactly, fast and easy. 74 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,400 But UT, here's where it gets interesting. 75 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:47,600 Despite the simplicity, Grav doesn't skimp on power either. 76 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,040 Both sources mention some pretty advanced features. 77 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:51,540 Okay, hold on, got to take notes. 78 00:02:51,540 --> 00:02:53,440 What kind of power are we talking about? 79 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:55,760 If it's truly powerful and easy, 80 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:57,880 that almost sounds too good to be true. 81 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:00,840 Well, for starters, there's this thing called taxonomies. 82 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:02,040 Sounds kind of technical, 83 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:03,640 but it's really about organization, 84 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:05,800 like creating categories and tags 85 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:08,480 for your blog posts or products, anything like that. 86 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:11,580 Ah, so instead of just an endless stream of posts, 87 00:03:11,580 --> 00:03:15,320 you can have, say, a recipes category, a travel category, 88 00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:17,520 so visitors can easily find what they're looking for. 89 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:20,160 Exactly, and you can even create custom fields 90 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:22,980 to store extra info specific to your content. 91 00:03:22,980 --> 00:03:25,220 Like imagine you've got a recipe website, 92 00:03:25,220 --> 00:03:27,180 you could add a prep time field, 93 00:03:27,180 --> 00:03:28,920 a difficulty level, stuff like that. 94 00:03:28,920 --> 00:03:31,980 Okay, starting to sound pretty sophisticated now. 95 00:03:31,980 --> 00:03:34,400 Taking those simple files and folders, 96 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:35,720 giving them a bit more oomph. 97 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:38,960 Yeah, and it gets even cooler, there's theme inheritance. 98 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:41,440 Basically, you can build on an existing theme 99 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:43,420 without messing with the original code. 100 00:03:43,420 --> 00:03:46,360 So, wanna tweak the design, add some custom elements, 101 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:47,920 no need to start from scratch 102 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,280 or worry about breaking things when the theme updates. 103 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,520 That's a huge plus, especially for, well, 104 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:55,400 anyone who's not a coding guru, saves a ton of time. 105 00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:57,560 Right, and then of course, there's the whole world 106 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,320 of plugins, Grav's got a massive ecosystem of them 107 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:01,760 to add even more functionality. 108 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:04,440 Oh yeah, I was looking through the modern flat files, 109 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,660 CMS, GravCMS source earlier. 110 00:04:07,660 --> 00:04:09,160 They mentioned some pretty nifty ones, 111 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,480 a form builder, an e-commerce plugin, 112 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:13,280 even one for Google Maps integration. 113 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,960 I see, you can build some seriously impressive websites 114 00:04:16,960 --> 00:04:19,680 with Grav, even starting with just a simple blog 115 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,920 or a portfolio, you can really scale things up. 116 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:24,720 I'm looking at the built with Grav section right now, 117 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,160 really shows you the range of what people are creating, 118 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,240 business websites, portfolios, online documentation, 119 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:32,480 even full-blown e-commerce stores. 120 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:34,060 It's pretty impressive, right? 121 00:04:34,060 --> 00:04:36,280 That's the real beauty of Grav, it can grow with you, 122 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:39,160 start simple, add complexity as you need it, 123 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:40,920 no need to feel overwhelmed. 124 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:42,880 Gotta admit, I'm getting a bit excited about this. 125 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:46,160 It seems to hit that sweet spot between ease of use 126 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:48,700 and, well, serious power. 127 00:04:48,700 --> 00:04:51,280 It does, but there's one more piece of the puzzle 128 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:53,640 we gotta talk about, the community. 129 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:55,980 Grav's open source, meaning the code is out there 130 00:04:55,980 --> 00:04:58,800 for everyone to see, and it's hosted on GitHub 131 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:01,120 where developers collaborate and share their work. 132 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:02,760 Yeah, the source material mentioned that. 133 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:05,120 An active community of users and developers 134 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:06,480 contributing to the project, 135 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:08,240 answering questions in forums, 136 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:10,640 even offering support on their Discord server. 137 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:13,160 Huge advantage, especially for beginners. 138 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:15,020 Run into a problem. 139 00:05:15,020 --> 00:05:15,860 Got a question. 140 00:05:15,860 --> 00:05:17,720 You can tap into all that collective knowledge, 141 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:20,160 get help from people who've been there, done that. 142 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:21,760 So it's not just about the software, 143 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:23,760 it's about the people behind it. 144 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:26,200 That support network makes a big difference, 145 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:27,720 especially if you're new to web dev 146 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:30,240 and maybe feeling a bit intimidated by it all. 147 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:32,520 Totally, and you know, they've even got a section called 148 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:33,920 What People Are Saying, 149 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:36,880 with some seriously glowing reviews from users. 150 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:40,320 Yeah, calling it a WordPress killer, brilliantly simple, 151 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:44,680 praising the documentation for being swoon-worthy. 152 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:47,240 You don't hear that about technical documentation every day. 153 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:50,920 Sounds like people genuinely love using this thing. 154 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:52,840 All right, so we've got fast, flexible, 155 00:05:52,840 --> 00:05:55,720 surprisingly powerful, fantastic community. 156 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:57,080 But what's the takeaway for our listener? 157 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:00,360 Why should they care about GravCMS? 158 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:01,200 Good question. 159 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:02,920 I think there are a couple of key points here. 160 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:05,440 First, understanding flat file CMSs in general. 161 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:06,800 It's a shift towards simpler, 162 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,960 more efficient web architectures and Grav's a prime example 163 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,680 of how that can be both user friendly and powerful. 164 00:06:12,680 --> 00:06:14,240 Okay, got it, makes sense. 165 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:15,560 So what's the second key point? 166 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:17,040 Second point. 167 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:20,200 Well, if you're looking for a CMS that's easy to pick up, 168 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:21,920 can handle whatever you throw at it, 169 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:24,840 and has that awesome community backing it up, 170 00:06:24,840 --> 00:06:26,480 Grav's definitely worth checking out. 171 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:28,160 Makes sense, not a magic bullet, 172 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:30,680 but sounds like a really strong contender, 173 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:32,360 especially compared to some of the, 174 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:36,560 shall we say, traditional CMSs out there. 175 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:37,760 Yeah, exactly. 176 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:40,440 And hey, even if you end up going with something else 177 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:42,840 entirely, the things we talked about today, 178 00:06:42,840 --> 00:06:46,440 flat file approach, that balance between keeping it simple, 179 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:48,920 but still having power under the hood, 180 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:50,840 the importance of a good community, 181 00:06:50,840 --> 00:06:52,920 those are valuable insights no matter what. 182 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:53,420 True. 183 00:06:53,420 --> 00:06:55,320 It's not just about one specific tool. 184 00:06:55,320 --> 00:06:57,720 It's about understanding how the web's evolving, 185 00:06:57,720 --> 00:06:58,720 what the options are. 186 00:06:58,720 --> 00:06:59,600 Absolutely. 187 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:01,640 And here's a final thought, something to chew on. 188 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:03,440 We can get so caught up in the tech stuff, 189 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:05,720 but at the end of the day, a website lives or dies 190 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:07,240 by its content, right? 191 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:08,120 Couldn't be more. 192 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:10,960 No amount of fancy features can replace good content 193 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:12,280 that connects with your audience. 194 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:13,040 Exactly. 195 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,480 So as you're looking at different CMSs, 196 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:17,360 try not to get lost in the bells and whistles. 197 00:07:17,360 --> 00:07:19,280 Focus on what you want to say, what message 198 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:20,400 you want to get out there. 199 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,440 Great point to wrap up on. 200 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:26,280 So to our listener, if GravCMS and this whole flat file thing 201 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:28,360 has sparked your interest, go explore it. 202 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:29,400 Dive deeper. 203 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:30,960 And hey, don't forget, safeserver 204 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:34,280 at www.safeserver.de can help you 205 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:37,240 with all the hosting and digital transformation needs. 206 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:39,240 They can make that Grav journey even smoother. 207 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:39,960 For sure. 208 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:42,600 Thanks for joining us on this deep dive into GravCMS. 209 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:43,880 Hope you learned something new. 210 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:46,080 Maybe even found your next website building tool. 211 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:48,640 Until next time, keep exploring, keep learning, 212 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:50,560 and keep creating.