Overview
COSKK(COSKF) CMS was a custom content management system (CMS) built with modern tech stack using Laravel, Bootstrap and MySQL. The primary goal of the project is to update the website's admin panel and develop several requested features to better serve the needs of the organization. The new CMS improves essential content management by adding modern full-featured WYSIWYG editor for writing and editing news, articles, and announcements etc. but also enriches it by adding role-based user management, visibility option (published or not), i18n support to publish different languages.
The administration panel also features the ability to add sub-websites for the institution's branches, a role-based user management system to effortlessly manage users and their roles, the ability to create custom pages with template support to choose whether to add content to a page template, i18n support to choose whether to publish the page in a specific language, a private message system to facilitate staff team collaboration, a file and media management system to preview, edit, and manage files and multimedia used in the articles and pages, an infinite level depth category and menu management system to make it simple to create and arrange categories and menus, and a Hero section management section to add and edit the hero section in the homepage and sub-websites.
Problem Statement
COSKK(COSKF) is Children's Games and Sports Club Federation in Turkey. The Federation is an organization that supports our children's social, physical, and personal development by hosting leagues of traditional children's games. The institution's main website and administration portal were too old and didn't have enough features for their needs. You can see this in the section below with screenshots.
To meet the needs of the organization, a modern tech stack and content management system (CMS) had to be built. They were unable to categorize news and articles and there were lack of i18n support for news and articles as well as full-featured WYSIWYG editor to easily create and edit their content. It was up to the team to copy the website files and make a new folder so that they could make a sub-website for each branch with its own subdomain. They had to use a third-party tool to work together because there wasn't a private messaging system. There was no user interface available to create and edit custom pages, nor was it feasible to establish categories and menus with infinite depths within the administrative panel. There was no file management section to upload and manage all the files to share in the news, articles, and pages, and multimedia management section was limited to just photos.
- It was new to me to develop sub-website management, private messaging, and i18n support features, and I encountered difficulties when designing and creating the appropriate backend structure for these features.
- We engaged in brainstorming and evaluated options before deciding on the CMS structure and tech stack. Using Laravel for this large project was a new experience, and we faced challenges implementing features like the sub-website for the organization's branches. Additionally, time constraints added pressure to the project.
- However, we collaborated effectively to overcome these obstacles and successfully delivered a high-quality product within the given timeline.
- Gained extensive knowledge of implementing multiple language support across the website, file storage, full authentication and authorization.
- Sharpened my backend skills and expanded my knowledge of PHP and Laravel, particularly in the areas of writing gates and policies, optimizing database structure and database queries, using the Flysystem package to manage file storage in Laravel, and Laravel's elegant ORM.
- Learned how to implement a proper private messaging system and how to handle files, including uploading, storing, and downloading them. This ensured that the organization's data was secure, well-organized, and easily accessible.
- Acquired proficiency in Laravel and developed multiple features using industry-standard practices.