SPIP (''Système de Publication pour l'Internet'') is a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, n ...

content management system A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content ( content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...

designed for

web site A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

publishing, oriented towards online

collaborative editing __NOTOC__ Collaborative editing is the process of multiple people editing the same document simultaneously. This technique may engage expertise from different disciplines, and potentially improve the quality of documents and increase productivity. ...

. The software is designed for easy setup, use and maintenance, and is used in public and private institutions. The last ''P'' in the word ''SPIP'' stands for both ''Partagé'' (shared) and ''Participatif'' (participative), in the sense that the software is designed for collective online editing. Its

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as ...

is a

flying squirrel Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight in the same way as birds or bats, but they a ...

. It is used both by institutional sites, community portals, academic sites, personal webpages, and news sites.

Technology

The software is written in PHP, and relies on one or more SQL databases:

MySQL MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database ...

/ MariaDB,

SQLite SQLite (, ) is a database engine written in the C programming language. It is not a standalone app; rather, it is a library that software developers embed in their apps. As such, it belongs to the family of embedded databases. It is the mo ...

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL (, ), also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. It was originally named POSTGRES, referring to its origins as a successor to the ...

. The pages of the site are generated 'on the fly': the contents stored in the database are formatted through presentation 'skeletons' that merge

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaS ...

and SPIP's own

markup language Markup language refers to a text-encoding system consisting of a set of symbols inserted in a text document to control its structure, formatting, or the relationship between its parts. Markup is often used to control the display of the document ...

. A caching system avoids the generation of pages at each request: when a page is requested, SPIP checks if it doesn't exist in its cache and if it isn't too old, it will be displayed. The life-span of a page is adjustable in its presentation skeleton.

History

SPIP was originally conceived for the ''uzine.net'' site, after which its designers released it under

GPL License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...

. Since its launch 2001, it has also been used for

Le Monde diplomatique ''Le Monde diplomatique'' (meaning "The Diplomatic World" in French) is a French monthly newspaper offering analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs. The publication is owned by Le Monde diplomatique SA, a subsidiary com ...

newspaper and ''www.vacarme.eu.org''; the webmaster of ''Le Monde diplomatique'' is one of the initiators of SPIP, SPIP integrates a cache mechanism, an

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicatin ...

system, an automatic setup module and an interface for administration and input of articles. SPIP can create dynamic pages without any PHP knowledge, using a

web template system A web template system in web publishing lets web designers and developers work with ''web templates'' to automatically generate custom web pages, such as the results from a search. This reuses static web page elements while defining dynamic e ...

known as 'skeletons''. In early 2003, the 1.6 version made it possible to display the private back-end interface in several languages. A space for translators is set up in order to multiply the number of available versions. In January 2004, the 1.7 version of SPIP enables the management of multilingual websites, and implements a search and content indexing module; It also enables

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

of other sites' contents. In April 2005, the private interface of version 1.8 was reworked in order to take into account an analysis of ergonomic processes. An important modification for developers is SPIP's core that now benefits from a new compiler. It then becomes possible to elaborate skeletons with more complex functionalities without requiring any coding work in PHP. Other re-workings are currently under way, such as the reworking of the private interface in the form of skeletons. The 1.9 version (1) introduced a plug-in system and numerous changes, notably in the organisation of component files (particularly the transition from '.php3' to '.php' files extensions. The 1.9.1 version introduced a template system, akin to Wikipedia. The 1.9.2 version modified the directory structure to allow a better mutualisation of sources. The 2.0 version supports multiple SQL databases, and introduces easy skeletons for web forms. The 2.1 version builds on the concept of modules, along with improved security and stability, a new interface for plugins management, and other features. The 3.0 major version was released on 19 May 2012:, completely redesigned towards a higher degree of modularity. All non-core functionalities are now implemented as plugins. The private area has been thoroughly rewritten in order to make the editorial objects as generic as possible. It's designed to be easier and quicker to create new editorial objects and to customize existing ones. The new DATA loop allows SPIP to connect to any kind of data (not only SQL tables). These data may be found locally (

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

, CSV,

YAML YAML ( and ) (''see '') is a human-readable data-serialization language. It is commonly used for configuration files and in applications where data is being stored or transmitted. YAML targets many of the same communications applications as Ext ...

files, enumerations...) or directly on an URL (list of

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

videos,

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and profession ...

photos,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

spreadsheets, online calendar...). So the web itself may be used as a database. The 3.1 version was released on 6 January 2016. It provides updates of JavaScript libraries, default CSS styles, enhances the editorial space, provides new tools for writing skeletons, performance and writing code improvements. The 3.2 version was released on 13 October 2017. It includes an update of embedded JavaScript libraries, better ergonomics of the private space as well as other improvements.

Article notes and references

External links

* : presentation, download, documentation, etc.
Detailed history of SPIP

Translate SPIP

Programming with SPIP 3.0

The SPIP galaxy

Plugins-SPIP

SPIP-Contrib

spip-en Mailing list for English language users
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spip Free content management systems Free software programmed in PHP

Technology

History

See also

Article notes and references

External links