Whilst writing custom Content Management Systems, its quite surprising, how the various rules that I implement from WorkFlow to Logic, actually make many Content Management Systems available Off The Shelf useless. Most predominantly Presentation Logic is a critical factor in most if not all open source CMS’s making them unviable solutions.

A very simple example.

• If user input contains HTML elements and attributes except ‘p, b, br, i, u, a’.
• Strip repeated HTML elements.
• If word length is greater than a specified amount break apart, if not HTML element or last element closed.
  • If contains non-breakable term such as a brand precede to break apart before term
  • If contains punctuation such as ‘-’ or ‘\’ or ‘/’ break terms apart, if slash add white space padding…
  • If non breakable highlight before publishing

Displaying peoples names for example in a very limited space, is a difficult task when you have to comply with consistency and keep them on one line. E.g. (Removed real names for privacy)

12345678 123456789012345
12345 12345 1234567890123

When you look at some simple rules like this and have strict designs, this is where most Off The Shelf CMS’s fall short. Control and flexibility is an awkward combination, as the more control you encompass the more complex it becomes to maintain.