Beacon CMS, how to get started?

kwando · February 16, 2023, 7:12pm

Is there any real example or guide for getting started with beacon CMS?

I’ve tried the setup guide in the repository, I can get it to boot up and everything.

Following screenshot is from the “Local Development” section of the README,
but it looks the same for the other app I configured.

Is this how it supposed to look? I cant find any material or screenshots or written documentation so I do not know what to expect.

(I’m running on Phoenix 1.7.0.rc2 and beaconCMS from master, is it is on the edge…).

bcd765 · February 16, 2023, 7:24pm

So we’re still considered pre-release and there be dragons, etc, etc. But it is use-able just not all of the finishing touches are there yet and it can be confusing. In the meantime we have a demo app to show the architecture stuff: GitHub - BeaconCMS/beacon_demo: Sample application running Beacon, a open-source content management system (CMS) built with Phoenix LiveView.

leandrocp · February 16, 2023, 7:32pm

That screenshot is from running mix dev on the beacon repo, correct? To have a better understanding of how an actual site would look like, please check out the beacon_demo as Brian has mentioned. Currently there are 2 ways to create new pages, one is using the Admin which is under development as we speak and the other one is by running seeds to create layouts, pages, and so on. You can find an example at beacon_demo/beacon_seeds.exs at c57f60c1cedeb8f9518d671d4c96c43ef7967d57 · BeaconCMS/beacon_demo · GitHub
Soon we’ll be releasing more guides (beacon/guides at main · BeaconCMS/beacon · GitHub) and docs to make this process easier.

kwando · February 16, 2023, 7:46pm

Thanks for your fast replies, much appreciated.
I found this article and it piqued my interrest since I’m on the hunt for a CMS, preferably in Elixir since it is my stack of choice.

From what I can gather so far it is not quite ready for my “non-engineering stakeholders” yet

leandrocp · February 16, 2023, 7:50pm

We’re working on a drag & drop Page Builder that is targeted to “non-engineering stakeholders”, but it’s going to be a while before it’s ready.

c4lliope · July 31, 2023, 7:14pm

Hello - based on this thread, I imagined beginners may be helped by seeing some of the main onboarding issues, all in one place. I’m happy to help on these as I learn more regarding Elixir and Phoenix.

github.com/BeaconCMS/beacon

Onboarding concerns causing a barrier to use.

opened 06:17PM - 31 Jul 23 UTC

c4lliope

Hello; I'm eager to see Beacon reach production, especially the page builder and… `beacon_live_admin` codebases. I'm a couple days in on launching beacon in my sample app, and there seem to be a number of rough edges to be addressed. Here are some issues I see, in no special order: * Can you share how to change the `beacon_live_data` assigns and how you recommend using this, please? * I uploaded an image to the media library through the `live_admin` app, and there is no clue regarding which URL path to access the media on. * The `custom` page seems less than useful. ![image](https://github.com/BeaconCMS/beacon/assets/30454698/90d5fc64-4556-44f4-ab19-9b7598433619) * I'm unsure how I ended up with three sample home pages, maybe I ran `mix setup` too much? Regardless, there needs to be a clear means of erasing any layout or page. ![image](https://github.com/BeaconCMS/beacon/assets/30454698/9bb3a47d-7133-47d0-b6de-b01284c5ba52) * Please also describe the purpose of `Meta Tags` and each page's `Schema`. * The sample home page renders `my_component`. This is clearly added through the database seeds, though there is no means of seeing or changing components through `beacon_live_admin` or the `beacon_admin "/admin"` route. So, six areas where small changes or guidance could really help more people begin using beacon during this preproduction phase. I hope to keep sharing small issues I see, so I can begin to learn how to help during the release process. Since I'm only a beginner in Elixir and Phoenix, I'm really glad for all the code and resources Dockyard has shared in this space. Seems like a breath of fresh air to say goodbye to Rails, and hello to broader horizons.