PurpleCMS

What was it?

PurpleCMS was an ASP.NET 4+ Web Forms website content management system, inspired by Microsoft Content Management Server.

Previously I had favoured systems that were edited independently of the active site. PurpleCMS was managed entirely on the site itself, and page content was edited in-place.

As always it had pros and cons. Editing existing pages was incredibly easy. But some tasks, and the navigation of non-live pages, became more awkward.

Plus it required that the full CMS was present to deliver the site. It was pretty portable but only to Windows (or Mono, when that was a thing) servers.

Also the website was an unhappy blend of code and configuration since it used ASP.NET master-pages and content-pages, which were compiled as the app rather than configured within the CMS.

Why is it no longer used?

Windows hosting is limited and expensive compared to Linux hosting.

MVC did not provide a similar component model to ASP.NET Web Forms.

I felt the Cons outweighed the Pros.