_           _                 
 | |_ ___  __| |____  ___ _   _ 
 | __/ _ \/ _` |_  / / _ \ | | |
 | ||  __/ (_| |/ / |  __/ |_| |
  \__\___|\__,_/___(_)___|\__,_|

Jotz CMS presentation for tPOT symposium

• Download pres.pdf

To build PDF of presentation slides:

pandoc --pdf-engine xelatex -t beamer pres.md -o pres.pdf

This is the full pres.md file:

---
title: "Jotz CMS"
subtitle: "Minimalist Content Management for Data Independence"
titlegraphic: tpot.png
author: Ted Burke
date: tPOT Symposium 7-May-2025
theme: default
colortheme: default
header-includes:
- \setbeamercolor{normal text}{fg=black,bg=yellow!15}
mainfont: DejaVu Sans
...

# What is Jotz CMS?

- A minimal, flat-file content management system (CMS) for Apache

- An ultra-lightweight platform for authoring and publishing web content

![](jotz_front_page.png)

# Selected features

- Articles are written in markdown using a simple plain-text browser-based editor.

- User logins are managed by Apache's built-in authentication functionality.

- Flat-file storage is used for all user data.

- Even very basic web browsers are supported.

# 

![](jotz_edit_page.png){ height=100% }

# Inspiration 1: UNIX philosophy

![](unix.png){ height=21cm }

# Inspiration 2: Apache directory index

![](directory_index.png)

# Inspiration 3: TU821 FYP management system

![](FYP_dashboard.png)

# Design principles

- Web 1.0 aesthetic

- Minimal codebase: <1000 lines of PHP, HTML, CSS

- Few dependencies: Apache, PHP and Parsedown

- Zero Javascript (in backend or browser)

- Ultra-lightweight and works in almost any browser

- Cooperates with familiar command-line tools (e.g. bash, vim, awk)

- Data independence

# Data Independence

- Users' content is not trapped in Jotz.

- Encourages users to author in plain text.

- Promotes platform-agnostic content.

- Cooperates well with pandoc.

# Pandoc - a universal document converter

> "If you need to convert files from one markup format into another, pandoc is your swiss-army knife." [^1]

[^1]: https://pandoc.org/

# Jotz CMS in the classroom

- 500+ users to date in a first-year Design Projects module.

- Convenient for collecting and gathering evidence in mixed formats: Text, Lists, Links, Code, Images, Embedded videos, File uploads

- Login from smartphone to upload photos

# Still required: Support for LaTeX maths

```
$$r_{1,2} = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}$$
```

$$r_{1,2} = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}$$

# Installation

```
git clone https://github.com/tedburke/jotz-cms.git
```

# Web page

- https://github.com/tedburke/jotz-cms