Filed under Statamic
Statamic Theming
Flat files make drop in themes possible, and maybe a small market for designers who ship content with the design.
Because of how Statamic stores everything in flat files, even content, drop in themes like WordPress has been enjoying for a while are now a reality.
It is no secret that I am now loving Statamic, a new flat file PHP CMS that is winning people over. Yesterday something huge dawned on me. With Statamic and its clever file system organization it is now potentially possible to drop in two folders of files and have a fully complete, content populated website in seconds.
Theming involves following some basic naming conventions but beyond that, you are free to choose whatever field names and data structures you want. Since content is all in a separate folder, /_content, populating a site with content is merely a folder copy away.
Combine that with layouts and partials and you have a cleaner implementation of the pattern that the community recently discussed.
I am predicting a new market
I am predicting at least a handful of enterprising people will see how easy Statamic is to theme and will set up little shops to sell their themes. As a Statamic customer one would only need to drop a theme folder into /_themes and then a folder of sample content into _content and boom, instant site.
Designers can do something similar. Code locally. Build the theme and populate it not with worthless filler text but with instructional content that describes the content options in context. A designer would then be able to deliver a single ZIP archive of the theme as well as start up content giving instructions for how to use the various fields and features.