Introduction

who uses ff?

fast framework is a cms building framework based on php/js. It serves the needs of [sintesi labs and no one else] and tries to [make everyone happy], fast.

Since its beginnings in 2004 it has evolved organically around the needs of projects that our web agency works on. Its toolbox allows to create websites with structured semantic html with a bespoke content management experience in the shortest possible timeframe.

It tries to satisfy all the different parties involved in a web project: the designers, the developers, the project managers and the clients.

what is fast in ff?

• it is installed/deployed/backed up in seconds

• it runs on any php-based webserver (no further toolchain needed)

• it has a small file size footprint and portability

• it has very few dependencies

• it ships with a library of commonly used layout components (menu, language switcher, etc.)

• it can quickly adapt to changes during development, thanks to its visual routing and composing tools

• it takes care of the boring stuff, such as:

  • boilerplate html

  • css normalisation and reset (optional)

  • js and css embedding and (optional) minification, concatenation, cache busting

  • less compilation at runtime

  • multi-language out of the box

  • pretty urls out of the box

what is not fast in ff?

• it's not fast in terms of "high performance"

• it's not fast in terms of "scaling" (many concurrent users, huge amounts of data to manage)

concepts

• visual routing and site composing

• separation of content, structure and presentation

• presenters: reusable component blocks

• the plugin system

• DOM Templating

• nodes

• the property cascade to control settings and properties

• internal API system to build reactive websites

• file autoloader and loading rules

• cms widgets

further features

• back-end panel system for comfortable editing of dev tasks but also usable to build project specific backend-ui

• customizable installer