Custom components
A package can declare a typed content model. RED-CMS owns the editor, placement, and access checks; the package owns its isolated business data.
RED-CMS 5.1 / Extensible content platform / 2012—2026
A CMS core that can grow without becoming a fork.
RED-CMS preserves the publishing structure established sites rely on while adding custom components and client-specific services as optional packages. The core stays portable; every extension is verified, permissioned, and isolated per client.
RoleFounder and Product Architect
Major releases05
Current build5.1
Development recordGitHub 01
The 5.1 direction
A stable content core. An extension system built around it.
RED-CMS separates what every installation needs—content relationships, editorial controls, layouts, permissions, and routing—from the packages, themes, data, and workflows that belong to one organization.
That boundary keeps a new capability from turning into a custom fork. A client can take only the component or service it needs, with its own version, migration ledger, settings, data, and rollback trail.
02
Five releases + the 5.1 build / 2012—2026
Fourteen years of continuity, now built to expand.
Version 5.1 advances the same compatibility-first model: extend the core with controlled packages instead of putting every future vertical into the base CMS.
- Version1.0
Articles and page publishing
- Version2.0
Expanded administration and content controls
- Version3.0
Reusable layouts and broader content types
- Version4.0
PHP modernization with legacy-content continuity
- Version5.0
Portable themes, version history, and safer migrations
- Version5.1
Custom-component platform, secure add-on lifecycle, and Store Lite proof
03
Architecture for safe expansion
Editors work in one CMS. Extensions add only the capability a client chooses.
PHP and MySQL manage content while file-backed themes deliver presentation. In 5.1, a package joins that structure through core-owned lifecycle, access, migration, and rendering boundaries instead of arbitrary code running inside a page.
Plug-in packages
Extensions install separately for each client, validate their manifest, dependencies, checksums, and migrations, then remain disabled until an owner enables them.
Security at the boundary
Exact package permissions, CSRF, prepared database operations, state checks, and atomic rollback protect every approved change.
Lean delivery
Performance starts with a lean PHP and MySQL core: only enabled, integrity-validated packages enter the request path.
EditorAdds or edits a component
→CoreValidates ownership, fields, and permissions
→Trusted packageProvides an approved service when enabled
→Theme + routeRenders safe, client-specific output
04
Custom component contract
Core-owned authoring
Custom component types, without handing the CMS over to a plug-in.
A package can describe bounded fields and the permissions needed to use them. The core renders the administration controls, verifies a current state, and performs approved writes transactionally. It is plug-in-style expansion with an intentional installation and enablement path—not an unreviewed upload.
- Typed fields, validation limits, and exact per-package grants
- Core-rendered, escaped editor controls—not package-supplied admin markup
- CSRF, state-hash checks, transactions, and rollback on failed postconditions
- Per-client migration evidence, value snapshots, and restore preflight
Store Lite / first 5.1 proof
An optional store, built as a package rather than bolted onto every site.
Store Lite is the first separately distributed commerce service. In isolated browser rehearsals, it supports products, variants, add-to-cart, quantity updates, removal, and pickup or delivery orders paid on receipt. Installations that do not need commerce keep no Store Lite code, data, or tables.
Review the GitHub development recordStore Lite's hosted demo deployment and card/payment adapters remain separate release gates. Product screenshots and installation names are shown with permission; private configuration, credentials, databases, and operational data are not shown.