An insight into the project, the reasoning behind it.

More often than I care to mention, I hear web users wanting to use this CMS or Blog with that fill-in-the-blank app. Then comes the inevitable question, but I need to have someone help me merge the user's table.

What comes out of that is usually a system that will rarely have the programming layer updated. Having to re-apply all the modifications to a new version of application X, is not something many like to take on. What usually happens is that this year's site running CMS-X, Forum-Y and Gallery-Z, gets replaced by something different next year.

Which leads to the second most asked question, how do I migrate my data from system-X to system-Y?

Typical core apps:

• CMS - one or more editors enter content, visitors leave comments

• Forum - there's a few moderators, many participants

• Gallery - photographers add images, people comment

Note: Most sites built today are run by one person, one admin and users sign up to leave feedback.

Simplified core apps

• CMS - editors enter content, visitors leave comments on the forum

• Forum - there's a few moderators, many more participants

• Gallery - photographers add images, people comment on the forum

Note: Simplification eliminates the need to share user information, the forum is your user base.

• Use applications that squeeze the most out of their code base

• The fewer lines of code, the easier to maintain and the easiest to secure

• A core that is extensible via plugins, the glue that binds

• Applications have to be XHTML compliant, so they can be fused together via CSS

• Keep the 3 core apps under a 1MB download, they currently expand out to 2.5MB on disk

• A similar look and feel throughout the core apps

• Unified web based installer, one MySQL database with table prefixes

• A tutorial on changing the default style to suite your needs

• Once the core apps are fully integrated, integrate the modules one at a time