Since I decided to use quite less resources as possible, without having to edit page by page, so I’ve chosen to go for a database-less CMS, but where I could still change the content pretty easily, and so the templates.

Why Stacey?

First of all, I’ve tried many other database-less CMS (which will also review soon), and decided to take the 1st try on Stacey, since it’s most frequent use is for portfolios, but also has support for blogging and static pages.

Other significant point is that in Kirby’s FAQ (which I will definitely give a try), there is a question comparing them, what can be a good signal

How Stacey Works

Stacey is a really lightweight (600 lines of code) content management system, that needs no installation. You just download it from it’s homepage (actual version: v2.3.0) and upload to your server, and your site is ready with some example content.

The content is stored in simple flat text files and folders, and the rest of the system uses simple PHP, wich can be installed in any MAMP or LAMP server without any custom requirements.

File Structure

Stacey file’s structure is quite simple and intuitive. Each folder starts with a number, which represents the order (in reverse order: 10,9,8), and must contain a flat .txt file using the template’s name (projects.txt), just like we would use our single.php. There you can also place your assets and the system will recognize them.

The urls are created ignoring the number that starts each page, so a 1.projects will be /projects (you will need to enable clean urls by renaming the htaccess file to .htaccess)

Each .txt file will store the content, that is divided by little chunks, as follows:


title: Your Post Title

-
date: 2012, Oct
-
content:
Lorem Ipsum


Each chunk uses a – as a separator and you can simply create a new line with a new one, then configure on your templates using variables

Stacey Templating

Creating a new template in Stacey is quite too easy to be true. Basically all you just need to know is HTML & CSS and you’re done. The dynamic content can be implemented by @title, @content and so it goes for many of the new data you want to create and some that already exist on the system. A little read on the documentation and you will get it in less than 3 minutes.

Since I’m quite used to WordPress, decided to use a single header and footer for all template, wich also is pretty easy, you just need to insert a new folder or file inside the /templates/partials/ and call it using :header (for example).

Inserting Images and other Assets on a Page

Stacey reads each folder content, any image that’s inside it’s post or category folder will be automaticaly added to the article end (can be changed via templates using :image). Image order uses the same reverse-numeric pattern. In Stacey’s default template, the images create a simple slider.

For Youtube, Vimeo and other embeds you can simply create a html file with the embed code and Stacey will recognize and insert into the content, also being posible to customize using templating tags.

Why I stopped using it

Honestly, to say that I really STOPPED using it will be a lie. Stacey will be on my list of CMS’s to use for simple sites.

Let’s also remember that my PHP knowledge is not the most advanced.

List of Reasons I gave Stacey a break for my personal project

• Pagination isn’t easy to implement (on the Support forums it’s possible to see many people having difficults)
• Dropbox Support need’s some effort (will try it really soon for a Tumblr like project)
• To change the reverse order, you’ll have to edit the core files, wich can break on an upgrade (if needed)
• Hard to insert images and content mixed, just after, on the middle or end of content, wich bothers me a little
• Stacey’s official blog is using Tumblr (why?)
• Stacey’s 3.0 is already on Github, but not sure how stable it is.

YES, I WOULD RECOMMEND STACEY

I’m using WordPress back here on my website (It’s always hard to break our confort zone), but will use Stacey on some little aside projects as a start and recommend it (or wouldn’t lose my time writing this article).

Links

Stacey App
Stacey Support
Official Documentation
Stacey on GitHub

Also made a major upgrade on layout, making it even cleaner than the last version and removed all the clutter, staying only with 2 categories: Work and Writings. With that in mind, will try to focus on updating it more, focusing on the content.

Last but not least, it’s my comeback from trying to use StaceyApp (which I will make a review later), to the old friend WordPress.