Silk

January 26th, 2008

Silk is a simple PHP web framework for small to mid-sized sites that don’t need (or want) a database to store content. Site content is parsed directly from files and the directory hierarchy is massaged into a tree-based data structure called the “content tree.” Arbitrary metadata can be attached to any piece of content (using YAML syntax); this can be used to create complex named relationships between files.

Silk has templating features that separate content from design, allowing easy content management and updates. Other features include caching, object-oriented page design, an extensible plugin system, and many different content types by default (PHP, HTML, Textile, plaintext, Flash, images, etc; plus, creating parsers for new content types is as easy as writing a single function and adding a line to the configuration file).

Silk is still in its alpha stage. I generally don’t develop it unless I’m working on a web site that uses it, so I can’t really estimate when it will be “done.” Once I feel it’s ready for general consumption, I’ll post more info here. I’m currently expecting to release Silk under an open license.