The Nature of Kotti

Kotti is a software system used to build websites and web applications.

As a user, you don’t have to know about the languages used, nor about the focus on browser or server programming described below. You just use a website made with Kotti. However, understanding the nature of the software will stimulate an appreciation of its strengths and build confidence in using it. Knowledge of the general environment of website and web application software can help you understand new ways we use software today, as compared to traditional desktop apps, and the many “apps” available for the iPhone, Android, and mobile devices.

Websites and web apps come in so many varieties. Broadly, for the modern World Wide Web, several main development approaches are used:

  • Web browser focus, with the server kept as a simple storage system. By web browser here, we refer to the common denominator formed by Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and several other choices of programs used to “surf the web.” A focus on the web browser involves programming primarily in languages dedicated to the task, such as Javascript and CSS (cascading style sheets, for controlling the look of pages and components). Most of the computer processing in such a system happens on your computer, where the browser is running like any other program there, but occasionally talking to the server to send or fetch data. Speed of the system is very good for a well-designed system, because traffic back and forth to the server is reduced.
  • Server focus, with a robust intelligent database system. Browsers are still the primary way of interacting with the user, and javascript and CSS can be important, but here larger portions of the user interface are fetched from and modified by the server, which contains the “brains” of the operation. The server software builds web pages and forms by interacting with a database via queries to update or fetch data, preparing the final result after inserting updated bits of information. Speed of the system can be very good overall, because the server stores frequently used parts of a website to reduce the amount of rebuilding needed.
  • Combinations that blur these two approaches.

Kotti uses the second approach primarily, in its default configuration, but has the flavor of a combined approach, with the latest browser programming techniques used for parts of the user interface, and with the programming language Python forming the heart of the system on the server. Kotti uses an expressive programming system called Pyramid that forms a very good foundation. Kotti uses an interface to data called SQLAlchemy, that provides an intelligent way to work with a choice of solid databases.

Kotti forms a great platform for extending with browser programming of advanced graphics and presentation features, combining the approaches described above in the construction of web applications that go beyond the traditional CMS.

Your Kotti-based website could be an out-of-the-box default site with just a few add-ons, or it could be a heavily customized site or web app. This user manual covers use of a default configuration, but should be useful for learning about any Kotti-based system.

Note

What’s the difference between a website and a web app? A website often appears as multiple pages, and may stress the presentation of static information, while including traditional web forms for accepting input from users. A web app in classic form will appear as a single page with displays that swap out for one another in place, working more like a desktop application on your computer. These distinctions need not be limiting; a Kotti system can be built that has multiple pages, some of which can constitute “web apps” on their own. One page might present text and images for a static document. Another might involve dynamic graphics, “rich” interactivity, and multiple screens that swap out.

Design Goals

Kotti has marched through numerous revisions to become stable. A community formed by a group of dedicated software developers has assembled. Many of the developers have years of experience in CMS projects and in the languages used in Kotti. The future looks bright for the adoption of Kotti for small and large websites, for internal company systems, for social media, and many other niches. It is a capable CMS on its own, and forms a solid base for programming in the modern world of the web.

Programmers of Kotti try to:

  • keep the core simple, using a natural design,
  • use and re-use top-quality software components,
  • write code that uses best practices for style and form,
  • work collaboratively, using modern development tools, and
  • test the software continuously.

The design of Kotti features content storage as something like an outline or tree, where content is nested in a meaningful way. This is the natural design aspect, for which the Document content type is central.

Documents are added to a Kotti website in the way word-processor documents are created on computers, but in the context of the web. Documents contain text and may include images, files, and links to other documents. Kotti’s design makes linking documents to one another happen automatically as the site structure is built, document by document. There are easy ways to make custom links from documents to other content items, or to other websites.

Note

A document, thus, does double-duty, presenting its own textual and graphical content, while serving as the storage location for the associated images and files displayed or linked therein. A document is linked to its parent document, and may contain any number of child documents.

Consider a typical usage scenario for a fresh Kotti CMS website: You first add documents for each main part of your website. You then add documents within those. You may add documents within documents within documents to form a deeply nested structure. Other content types can be considered secondary for importance in organization, because you store images, files, and custom content items within documents as the structure unfolds during site construction.

 

 

 

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