bareCMS

A lightweight, file-based Content Management System without database.
FILES STILL IN TESTING BUT COMING in 2nd week of January 2025\

Features

No database server required (Flat-File CMS)
Responsive Design with Tailwind CSS
Simple navigation with main and side menu
Hierarchical page structure with parent-child relationships
Support for external links
PHP code in pages possible
User-friendly backend
Markdown support (optional)
Mobile-friendly backend
Lightweight (~100KB core size)\

Dependencies

PHP 7.4+ (recommended: PHP 8+)
Apache2 or Nginx webserver
Tailwind CSS (via CDN)
CodeMirror for syntax highlighting (via CDN)\

Installation

1. Upload Files

Upload all files to your webserver directory.

2. Create Directory Structure

mkdir content

touch config.json

touch pages.json

touch nav-main.html

touch nav-side.html

3. Set Permissions

Set owner (replace www-data with your webserver user)

chown -R www-data:www-data

Set directory permissions

find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Set file permissions

find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Set special permissions for writable files

chmod 664 config.json

chmod 664 pages.json`

chmod 664 nav-main.html`

chmod 664 nav-side.html`

chmod 664 credentials.json`

Set permissions for content directory

chmod 775 content

chmod 664 content/*.html

chmod 664 content/*.php

4. Create Login Credentials

Create a temporary file create_credentials.php:

<?php
// Define initial password
$initialPassword = 'YourSecurePassword123!'; // Change this!
$username = 'admin';

$credentials = [
    'username' => $username,
    'password' => password_hash($initialPassword, PASSWORD_DEFAULT)
];

file_put_contents('credentials.json', json_encode($credentials, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));

echo "Credentials created successfully!<br>";
echo "Username: " . $username . "<br>";
echo "Password: " . $initialPassword . "<br>";
echo "<br>Please note these credentials and delete this script immediately!";
?>

Follow these steps:

Access cred.php in your browser
Note down the credentials
Delete cred.php immediately
Change password after first login\

5. Basic Configuration

Create an initial config.json:

{
    "site_title": "Your Website",
    "site_name": "BareCMS",
    "site_url": "https://your-domain.com",
    "site_icon": "/logo.png"
}

Security Notes

Change default password immediately
Enable HTTPS
Set secure file permissions
Protect sensitive JSON files
Keep PHP up to date
Create regular backups\

Recommended Webserver Configuration

Nginx

location ~ /\. {
    deny all;
}

location ~* \.(json)$ {
    deny all;
}

location = /config.json {
    deny all;
}

location = /credentials.json {
    deny all;
}

location = /pages.json {
    deny all;
}"

Apache (.htaccess)

<FilesMatch "\.(json)$">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Restrict backend access (optional)

<Files "backend.php">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 127.0.0.1
    # Add your IP address here
    Allow from your.ip.address
</Files>

Creating PHP Pages

In the backend, you can include PHP code in your pages. The system automatically detects PHP code and saves the file with the correct extension.

Backup

Regularly backup:

All JSON files
The content directory
Custom templates

Security

To add a layer of security it would be best practice to remove backend.php and credentials.json from webroot, when you are not managing your site.

Known Limitations

No multi-user management
No integrated image management
No content versioning\

License

MIT License

Made with ♥ by relayted.de