README

Version 3.0

A lightweight, modern PHP CMS on top of SleekDB — a flat-file NoSQL database. No MySQL/Postgres: every "table" is a folder under storage/stores/ containing JSON files.

Two front-ends on the same domain:

Admin CMS at /cms/ — server-rendered Tailwind CSS views, mobile-first, dark mode.
Public front at / — auto-discovers stores, configurable menu/header/footer, rendered with Blade.

Features

Flat-file NoSQL: no database server required — SleekDB stores JSON documents on disk.
Dynamic content types: define stores in .default_stores with 20 field types (text, textarea, rich text/Quill, image, color, url, link picker, number, decimal, email, date/datetime, checkbox, select, password, file, join relations, repeater, modules, form builder, module schema).
Pages & modules: pages are built from reusable module templates (hero, text, store list, store item, lead form, CTA, split, features, stats, testimonials, FAQ, pricing, logos, video). Templates hold only configuration; each page instance stores its own values.
Menus: header/footer navigation with sub-menus, internal-link picker and external URLs.
Forms & leads: lead_form modules reference form templates; submissions are stored in the leads store and optionally emailed via SMTP.
SEO: pretty URLs, XML sitemap, and a redirects store for 301/302/307/308 rules.
Media: raster uploads are downscaled and converted to WebP (GD, EXIF orientation applied).
JSON API: lightweight endpoints in public/api/ (e.g. ?users=1).
Tailwind CSS + dark mode: compiled at build time, no CDN on page.
Secure auth: password hashing, session-based login, protected users store.

Requirements

PHP >= 8.1 (ext-json, ext-gd for image processing, ext-fileinfo)
Composer
Node.js + npm (only to rebuild the Tailwind stylesheet)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/borjajimnz/SleekDBVCMS.git
cd SleekDBVCMS

composer install
npm install
npm run build:css      # compiles tailwind/input.css -> public/dist/tailwind.css

chmod -R 777 storage backups

Start the dev server:

cd public
php -S localhost:8000

Access the admin CMS at http://localhost:8000/cms/ and the public front at http://localhost:8000/.

Default credentials:

Username: admin
Password: password

Production (nginx + PHP-FPM)

Web root is public/; route all non-file paths to public/index.php.
PHP-FPM must be able to write to storage/ (SleekDB creates cache//data/ folders lazily). Run chmod -R 777 storage backups; on permission errors chown them to the PHP-FPM user.
Rebuild the stylesheet after changing templates: npm run build:css (the CSS URL is versioned by file mtime, so a rebuild busts browser caches).

Configuration

Config.php

Config.php (required from Bootstrap.php) sets a global $config array — it does not return:

$config = [
    'app_name' => 'SleekDBVCMS',
    'public_path' => __DIR__ . '/public',
    'locale' => 'es',
    'upload_files_extensions_allowed' => [...],
    'options' => [
        'image_max_side' => 1920,
        'image_quality' => 80,
    ],
];

Runtime settings

storage/settings.json holds site settings editable from the dashboard: site_name, tagline, blog_enabled (when off, posts/categories are hidden everywhere), plus SMTP notification settings for lead emails.

Public front config

public/config.php (returns an array) controls the front-end: site_name, tagline, home (featured store + items per store), menu (only stores listed here are publicly reachable), labels (nav display names), header_html / footer_html (raw HTML), image_fields / html_fields (how fields render in cards), and theme (auto | light | dark).

Content types

Define content types in .default_stores (JSON). Field types: text, textarea, rich_textarea, password, image, color, url, number, decimal, email, datetime, date, checkbox, select, link, modules, form_fields, repeater, module_schema, and join blocks:

{
    "posts": {
        "title": "text",
        "body": "rich_textarea",
        "category": { "join": { "key": "category", "foreing_table": "categories", "foreing_key": "_id", "foreing_display": ["name"] } }
    }
}

URL scheme

Admin CMS (/cms/):

GET /cms/ — dashboard
GET /cms/?p=<store> — table listing (POST search= filters)
GET /cms/?p=<store>&insert=1 — create form
GET /cms/?p=<store>&update=1&id=N — edit form
GET /cms/?p=<store>&view=1&id=N — read-only view
POST insert_row / update_row / delete — mutations
POST update_config — save content types
GET /cms/?backup=1 — zip backup of storage/
GET /cms/?logout=1

Public front (/):

GET / — home page (is_home in the pages store)
GET /<page-slug> — a page (page wins over a store with the same name; ?preview=1 previews drafts with an admin session)
GET /<store> — store listing (used by store_list modules)
GET /<store>/<id> — item detail
GET /sitemap.xml — XML sitemap

Front-end templating

The public front uses jenssegers/blade v2 (standalone Laravel Blade). Views live in public/views/*.blade.php, module partials in public/views/modules/*.blade.php. The admin CMS stays plain PHP templates in src/Views/.

Tailwind is compiled at build time to public/dist/tailwind.css (npm run build:css). No CDN is used on any page.

Architecture

Bootstrap.php — composition root; builds the Core container, seeds the admin user, wires error handlers.
src/Core.php — DI container: getDatabase(), getAuth(), getConfig(), getFileManager(), getFormBuilder(), getLogger(), getBlade().
src/Services/ — SleekDBManager (SleekDB wrapper), AuthenticationService, ConfigurationService, BladeRenderer, EmailService, FileManager, Logger.
src/Controllers/AdminController.php — all admin routes/actions.
src/Forms/FormBuilder.php + src/Forms/Types/* — input rendering per field type.
src/Views/ — admin templates (layout.php, login.php, dashboard.php, table.php, form.php).
src/Interfaces/ — DatabaseInterface, AuthenticationInterface.

Directory structure

public/
├── index.php          # public front (path router + Blade rendering)
├── config.php         # public menu/labels/header/footer/theme
├── views/             # Blade templates (public front)
├── cms/index.php      # admin CMS entry
├── api/index.php      # JSON API
└── dist/tailwind.css  # compiled stylesheet
src/
├── Controllers/
├── Forms/Types/
├── Interfaces/
├── Services/
└── Views/
storage/
├── stores/            # SleekDB JSON collections
├── public/            # uploaded media (served at /storage/...)
├── logs/cms.log
└── blade-cache/

Pages, modules, menus & forms

pages — system + protected store. Fields include title, slug, published, show_in_menu, menu_order, is_home, seo_title, seo_description, and modules (per-page module instances).
modules — module templates (configuration only, never values). Supported types: hero, text, store_list, html, store_item, lead_form, cta, split, features, stats, testimonials, faq, pricing, logos, video.
menus — header/footer navigation items with label, location, parent (self-join for sub-menus), url (internal-link picker or external URL), order, enabled.
forms — form templates referenced by lead_form modules: title, subtitle, fields (field builder), notify_to, notify_cc, button_text, success_message.
leads — submissions of lead_form modules.
redirects — SEO redirect rules (source → target, HTTP code, enabled).
System stores re-merged on every boot: users, pages, modules, posts, categories, redirects, leads, forms, menus. Only users is protected from deletion.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the version history.

Screenshots

Login Screen

Dashboard

Content Management

Content Editing

Building a Page with Modules

The modules field on a page lists the module instances it uses (type badges like HERO, STORE_ITEM, ...). Clicking the pencil opens an inline editor to fill each module's values:

Public Front

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create your feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
Commit your changes: git commit -am 'Add new feature'
Push to the branch: git push origin feature/my-feature
Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.

Credits

SleekDB created by Timu57 with support from rakibtg
CMS implementation by borjajimnz

vorja / sleekdbvcms

Maintainers

Package info

Statistics

Security