Custos CMS

Custos is the nickname for ermanaktan.com's next-generation content management system. It was designed improve on Nabu's architecture.

Custos Logo

The name Custos means 'gatekeeper' or 'guardian'. I'm not planning to specifically name versions with names so, Custos is just a nickname. Like naming of Android versions...

With improved language support, simplified address parsing system, and more effective page integration, it runs almost 12% faster than Nabu.

Nabu was the peak of my knowledge and capability, but it wasn't the best of me. Neither is Custos... nor the next one will be. Biggest goal was to do the job right, to achieve the goals I set in the simplest way possible. I carefully examined Nabu's weaknesses and identified areas for improvement, then Custos was born.

Nabu's backend code had become very complex over time due to the accumulation of features, bug fixes, patches for compatibility with current PHP version, and the errors that occurred during these processes. Nabu was a great platform to improve myself. Eventually, all this knowledge was refined and transformed into Custos.

Unlike Nabu, Custos is a fully integrated content management system. Nabu was designed with separate front & back-end components. Therefore, if an update was needed in the back-end, updates had to be made on both parts. This eventually became too much of a hassle.

Because Custos is designed to be isolated, changes made to the front-end don't affect the back-end, or vice versa.

Details

  • Type: Content Managament System (Custom)
  • Technology: PHP(8+) + MySQL
  • PHP module requirement: None
  • Test environment: Isolated / Syncronised
  • Version: 1.0

Calx Theme

Nabu's weakest point was its front-end, the Sandcream theme. It wasn't responsive, making layout changes was very difficult and cumbersome. It was old and that was clearly visible.

Calx theme of the Custos completely solved all of this.

Calx Logo

Calx is a 100% responsive and lightweight theme with minimum image calls. Almost everything you see on the screen is 'drawn' not loaded. This increases page loading speed considerably. It also avoids the 'overhead' problem that most people experience without even realizing it. So, when you visit from your mobile device, it doesn't add unnecessary data to your bandwith and cost to your bill! But when you visit the gallery page, there are obviously image files. But they are designed to be 'lazy', which means what you don't see won't be loaded.

All for you!

The most challenging part while designing the Calx was finding a font that would work well on every device and easy on the eyes. I eventually returned to 'Montserrat'. Because serif fonts caused problems on mobile devices, I couldn't achieve the 'newspaper' style look I initially had in mind. But that's not a big problem. The important thing was that it looked fine.

Although it shows similarities to many themes you can find online, Calx is completely coded by me. As a front-end developer, I tried my best. My primary objective was 'what do I need' and I only included the required things.

I like the result. Hope you like it too!

By the way, Calx means 'limestone' in Latin...

Details

  • Type: CSS 3.0 Lightweight / Browser reliant
  • Font: Montserrat / Google Fonts Import
  • Accessibility compliance: 60%
  • Mobile compliance: 100%
  • Backwards compatibility (IE, Ns): N/A
  • Printing compliance: N/A / Incompatible
  • Version: 1.0