About WTFCMS, the software the runs this site

WTFCMS is an ASP.NET Content Management System developed by the creator of this site. It was not developed using base code from any other CMS framework software, though I may incorporate third-party control components in a few spots. We tried several solutions, but none of them offered the flexibility to do the things we wanted, without extensive work on plugins.

From a technical standpoint, WTFCMS isn't as dynamic as, say, DotNetNuke, to configure dynamically while it is hosted; WTFCMS uses configuration files to determine the functionality. The site is set up to run as a set of pages, driven from the central aspx call. A master definition determines the layout (up to 9 "panes" in a variety of configurations, all configurations have a "Content Pane" that is page-specific), each pane can contain multiple panels. The panel definitions and page definitions both have "authorization" levels that determine who can "see" the panels.

We've also tried to decouple the system from the styles... master definitions can have multiple stylesheet files and custom styles applied. The idea was to greatly simplify how things are set up. The plan is to include user-changable skins, as well.

Did I say "we?" Well, it's really a one man effort at this time. I have not finished the system yet, but I expect to have a complete system done in about two weeks of coding time. It's being developed for a shared ASP.NET 2.0 server, using MSSQL as the database. Again, I'm not trying to get fancy with numerous database options or hosting solutions, just making something that works.

Where will it all end up? Who knows... I'll probalby continue to leverage what I build here in many other web sites I build down the road. Not sure I'll release the code to the public, or market it in any way (except I might entertain the idea of helping others build sites with this software as a consultant, wink, wink)