Alex MacCaw, 16, Author of Ruby on Rails CMS Eribium
April 06, 2006
A new content management system (CMS), built with Ruby on Rails and popular
JavaScript libraries, has been declared alpha and is now available for
download at http://www.eribium.org. It uses programming languages,
typically not associated with CMSs; but this is not the only unusual
thing about Eribium. The show stealer is the fact that 16 year old
Alex MacCaw, with relatively little programming experience, was able to create in less than a month a working, full-featured CMS, using Ruby on Rails. A live demo of the CMS is available on the official Eribium page. Even at this early stage of development it works pretty well . The demo includes tagging capabilities, various
presentation templates, syndication, spell checker, and a myriad of
features one would expect to see in a simple CMS or a blogging platform. Eribium was recently accepted as a Rubyforge.org project. We contacted Mr. MacCaw to ask him several questions about Eribium and web development in general. DevStart: On the Eribium website you say you were using PHP and then you
switched to RoR. What is your background in PHP and how did that help
you to get started with Ruby?
Alex MacCaw: I had been using PHP for a while before becoming fairly
competent. I did attempt an Ajaxified CMS in PHP, mainly to see how
Ajax would impact the user interface. However I found that the code I
wrote tended to look 'hacked' out, had no structure, and must have been
unfathomable to anyone looking at it. I also found that I was repeating
myself, just spending time on the boring, simple bits while not enough
on the creative parts. I'd heard good things about Rails but hadn't
really inquired about it, not wanting to have to learn another
language. After I read some of the tutorials, and seen the screencasts,
I decided to give it a shot. In fact I came to Rails without knowing
any Ruby, and had to learn it as I went along. It was then I realized I
loved Ruby on Rails, and there was no turning back.
DevStart: I read on a certain blog that making your own CMS will
become fashionable, because it is easy now, with Prototype and other JS
libraries providing the right tools. At the same time, the example
provided was a far cry from a functioning system. Is it really easy to
create a CMS?
A.M.: Content management systems are inherently complex
applications, having to deal with a large variety of tasks. Of course
brilliant libraries such as Prototype and Script.aculo.us
make this much easier, and of course Rails, managing the backend, helps
immensely. But there's a catch, the hardest part of creating a CMS is
usability. Anyone can create flashy effects, but if users aren't at
ease working with it, then you've lost a key factor contributing to
your project's success.
DevStart: What do you think is the future of the personal (and small
business) website? Will people turn to creating their web presence by
themselves (via CMSs), or will the vast majority still look towards
ready-made services like Google Pages?
A.M.: There will always be services, such as Google Pages, that will
be popular. However these only target a specific band of users,
probably not commercial ones. There will always be a place for personal
and, as you say, small business websites and I can't see services
taking over from that.
DevStart: How did you come up with the idea to create Eribium? Have you used other CMSs?
A.M.: I've
used a few PHP CMS, and found some had more than enough features, but
were far too complicated. Also, as far as I know, there were no major
CMS for Rails, only blogging applications such as Typo. I realized that
people don't like to change the way they work, so if there's going to
be change, the change has to be as seamless as possible. This is
achieved by intuitive designing, going the extra mile. Another goal I
had was to not limit the user with how they design their website. I've
seen template creating guides dozens of pages long. A user shouldn't
need to know half a textbook just to create a template, and the
template shouldn't have to conform to the CMS. They shouldn't have to
be restricted to 3 columns or in any other way. First time users
shouldn't have to be bombarded with options and configurations, rather
they should feel at ease using the CMS, intuitively learning it as they
go along. Advanced options and configurations should be available, but
not to the extent that they confuse the user and get in the way. Of
course a CMS can't be targeted at every user, that's why there's such a
multitude of competing CMSs. Trying to be ideal for everyone can lead
to satiating a few while not making anyone really happy. A
KISS-compliant CMS, such as Eribium, that is focused towards the layman
could do a lot to further Ruby on Rails adoption.
DevStart: Do you think Eribium will attract a large community? Will
you look for code contributors, or do you think you can finish it by
yourself?
A.M.: I've already had a couple of people offer their
services, which is great. Eribium is definitely a work in progress and,
if it is to be widely adopted, needs a community effort. Lots of people
have offered to translate it, and this is being implemented at the
moment, along with a whole host of other features. I'm eager for
code-contributors, there's great strength in numbers. Within the
community resides the power of open source, and that's why open source
projects provide such viable alternatives to commercial ones. In other
words, your community is really important and I hope Eribium will
attract a large one.
DevStart: What are your aspirations for the future?
In the
short term future, I've got major school exams to contend with, being
so young. After that I'm looking for work experience in the summer
holidays. I'm not really sure what I'll read at university, but at the
moment I'm thinking Computer-Science, though having said that I'm also
interested in Classics and English.  A collage of Eribium screenshots
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