Content management lies at the heart of nearly every eCommerce project, and across eCommerce platforms in general, from product descriptions and blogs to dynamic landing pages that convert visitors. For a long time, Sylius, an outstanding eCommerce framework providing full flexibility and scalability, didn't offer a native CMS solution, which is why BitBag took the initiative to develop our own solution that became widely adopted throughout the community. Sylius is suitable for mid-market and enterprise-level brands due to its flexibility and scalability, and is designed for complex eCommerce needs, including multi-currency and multi-store management.
Currently, our solution has achieved over one million downloads and gained widespread recognition throughout the Sylius ecosystem. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all users for their trust and support. 💙
However, the time has come for changes and a step forward. SyliusCMSPlugin was created as part of our additional open-source activities. Working on its maintenance and improvement requires extra time and resources. Therefore, to secure its future and ensure even better quality and continuity, we decided to transfer our plugin to Sylius.
From now on, SyliusCMSPlugin is an official Sylius plugin and will be maintained by them. All necessary information can be found on Sylius's GitHub.
We believe this is the best solution that will provide Sylius with an excellent content management system. 🤝
In this article, we will take a closer look at the history of CMS in Sylius, showcase the features of the Sylius CMS plugin, and share a sneak peek of the future plans.
The philosophy behind the Sylius CMS Plugin
The Sylius CMS Plugin is designed with a clear purpose: to enable store owners and content managers to create, edit, and publish dynamic pages and content blocks directly from the Sylius administration panel without requiring constant developer assistance or advanced technical knowledge. We built it to make content management intuitive, allowing administrators to easily build pages such as FAQs, blogs, landing pages, and informational content, as well as add modular content blocks in various locations throughout their websites, backed by powerful content management features under the hood that support clear online communication with customers.
However, we took a different approach from traditional CMS systems like WordPress. Sylius CMS is more lightweight compared to traditional CMS platforms like WordPress or Drupal, rather than creating a monolithic system that tries to do everything. We designed our plugin to work harmoniously with Sylius's architecture. This means there's still some initial developer involvement needed. To fully leverage our plugin's capabilities, developers need to prepare appropriate integration points in the store template beforehand (for example, using Twig Hooks - connecting through YAML configuration files). Once these "anchor points" are defined, content managers gain the freedom to manage content across the site without further technical involvement.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">The plugin is available in the Sylius Store or the GitHub Repository.</div>
What are the features of the Sylius CMS plugin?
The Sylius CMS plugin documentation provides detailed information about the CMS Plugin's features, including:
- Collections: Group related content (pages, blocks, media) into containers that can be easily embedded across different sections of your store.
- Content Templates: Define templates for pages and blocks, ensuring consistent appearance and facilitating faster creation of new sections.
- Pages: Full-fledged CMS pages (like blogs and informational pages) that can be created and edited directly from the admin panel using a built-in WYSIWYG editor for easy content editing, and displayed across your website or eCommerce app, with SEO support like meta titles, descriptions, keywords, and text links.
- Publishing: The new pages can be published immediately or scheduled for a specific date.
- Blocks: Modular content elements (such as banners and text sections) that can be placed in various locations throughout the store, including product and category pages.
- Media: A centralized repository for multimedia files (images, videos, PDFs) with robust management capabilities and asset reusability.
Developers will also find a dedicated Developer Reference section describing how to integrate seamlessly and extend the CMS Plugin using Twig Hooks, Symfony Decorator Pattern, and form extensions.
Future plans for the Sylius CMS plugin
Now that our CMS Plugin has been adopted as one of the official extensions maintained by the Sylius Team, users can count on regular updates, compatibility with new versions of the Sylius platform, and stable support going forward. We're excited about the continued evolution of our solution and are actively collaborating on its roadmap. The development will focus on enhancing the administrator experience, expanding widget functionality and content templates for easier creation of engaging pages, and maintaining integration with the Twig Hooks system to preserve layout flexibility without code modifications.
Our team remains involved in the plugin's development, bringing our years of experience across custom eCommerce projects to ensure it continues to meet the real-world needs of Sylius store owners.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-100">Beyond the SyliusCMSPlugin, we've also developed an integration between Sylius and Sulu CMS – an advanced content management system. Sulu CMS can operate as a headless CMS with Sylius, giving store owners even more flexibility in how they manage and deliver content. This works well because Sylius offers an API-first approach for modern front-end technologies. We've described this alternative solution on our blog.</div>
