Phenotype CMS is a PHP/MYSQL based Open Source Content Management Framework dedicated to serve two basic principles:
Phenotype CMS offers a unique generic usability. It doesn’t matter what content you want to manage, Phenotype provides three very intuitive ways to manage it:
Speaking of Lightwight. Phenotype was designed to have just as many features as necessary. Nothing to be of little usefullness went into to the product. Majority does benefit from it. You rarely have to explain how to use Phenotype → Easy Editing.
Phenotype CMS provides a very robust groundwork for your content driven web application. The whole application is manageable within the backend, meaning when you create new component (classes), you create them guided. As a consequence you always have a great overview on your application. Differential Phenotype applications gets structured very similarly - even stronger than with the already really good approach of “convention over configuration”.
Don’t be afraid, that solid structuring doesn’t handicap you when developing. In fact developing with Phenotype feels pretty old-skool. You can concentrate on realizing your solution. The framework is putting everything together.
All components are derivatives of Phenotype system classes. You customize your application by implementing, enhancing and overwriting their default values and methods and inserting the desired logic for your solution by plain PHP programming.
Basically you have to handle 5 component types. Pages and Request ($myPage and $myRequest) are representing your current scope and always available. Page Components and Content Objects do represent any content entered by your editors and do have - for example - display()-methods to be implemented. Finally Includes carry any functionality you may want to develop. Those Includes are automatically integrated into the Phenotype Caching Mechanism and connected to the Smarty Template Engine.