Concrete CMS Releases Version 5.5

Jason Brown - Tuesday, January 10, 2012

At Matcha Design we've used Concrete CMS for several client sites. We find it's easy for clients to edit, even if they're not very tech savvy, and it's a powerful CMS solution that takes very little time to build for. Concrete recently officially launched version 5.5, which includes a major overhaul of the entire interface.

The most obvious change is the background. No more gray grid-like pattern, now upon logging in you'll be greeted by a colorful wallpaper that changes daily. As I'm writing, today's image is of a tropical island and surrounding ocean. The biggest functional change is in navigation. While in the dashboard, the familiar tabs on the side have been removed in favor of a dropdown Dashboard button on the edit bar. The best thing about this is that this button appears while browsing the site (if logged in as an admin, of course) which means you can get to any part of the dashboard with a single click.

Controls for page editing have changed some as well. Instead of entering edit mode and then being able to change properties, design, permissions, etc., all of that is available from another dropdown, labeled Edit. Most of the functionality of editing is pretty much the same, just with updated looks. Overall though, this update is clearly focused on doing more with fewer clicks and less effort, as well as improving consistency.

In addition to reskinning and rearranging existing features, some old features have been removed and new features have been added. Firstly, no more scrapbook. It has been replaced by Stacks, which still allow you to reuse content in several places on the site, but each stack can contain multiple blocks. You can still place the stacks wherever you want, in any editable region of any page.

Perhaps the most useful new feature is the Global Area. Templates can now define Global areas just as they define normal editable areas on pages, but the difference is that any page with the same Global Area will share the same blocks in that spot. For example, putting a Global Area in the footer of each page type would allow users of the template to place copyright and contact information to be displayed in the footer of every page. Change it once, and the changes are reflected on every page with that Global Area defined.

Global Areas and Stacks serve a very similar purpose, but with slightly different methods. A stack can be placed anywhere on any page, including in a Global Area, but a Global Area is a special kind of editable region defined by the Theme. Anything put in a Global Area will automatically be placed on all pages with that area, but a Stack must be placed on each page you want it. However, both will update all their instances when one is changed.

One bug I've seen is that the edit bar overlaps the page when an admin is logged in. According to the concrete forums, this is due to an oversight in this version and will be fixed next update. Putting the following code immediately after your opening body tag should fix the problem. It also assumes that it will be fixed in the next version, so it's set only to work on 5.5.0.

<?php
$up = new Permissions(Page::getCurrentPage());
global $APP_VERSION;
if($up->canAdminPage() && $APP_VERSION == '5.5.0') { ?>
<div style="min-height: 50px;"> </div>
<?php } ?>

About Matcha Design
Matcha Design is a full-service creative agency specializing in web design, print, identity, branding, interface design, video production, still photography and motion design. Using our passion for excellence, multi-cultural background, and award winning practices, we consistently provide high-quality, custom, innovative solutions to meet the diverse marketing needs of our clients. For more information, visit www.MatchaDesign.com.