What is VROOM?
An Introduction
VROOM is a simple, easy-to-use, and modern publishing platform or 'CMS' (Content Management System). It has lots of modules that you can enable or disable, such as Blog and Shop, and gives you, the website owner and your users, maximum control of the content and appearance of your website(s).
Modules
The built-in modules in VROOM add greatly to its capabilities. As good as a CMS might be, what really makes it immediately useful is when you can easily drop in a Forum for community discussions, or sell your products using the Shop module. The modules in VROOM all work together and are easily configurable. You can even enable the seasonal display of products and services; there's little reason to offer your snow plowing service in July!
Pages
Your website will probably have more than one page. VROOM has handled websites with over 100 pages. Pages are easy to add and update using VROOM. Instructions on how to add and edit individual pages in VROOM are here.
Blocks
Blocks are the editable regions used within pages. For example, your template might consist of includes for the header and footer, some dynamic areas for things like navigation, and blocks for the editable regions inside your pages.
The way VROOM is built means that you can build a set of templates which form the framework of your site, then create a new permission group that allows users access to only the pages (along with their editable blocks) and not the templates themselves. This gives content managers a lot of power, and it can be very useful for maintaining larger sites.
Blocks use a syntax called Markdown which makes VROOM different from most other CMSs out there. In other CMSs, you might find a rather complex rich text editor within the Edit Page window. In VROOM, this feature is skipped, allowing you to enter your text with whatever basic formatting you need.
Why do we not use rich text editors? Because rich text editors can be slow, cumbersome, and large (especially on old PCs and mobile devices), and also tend to produce messy and cumbersome markup (HTML code). Instead, using the simple Markdown system, you can edit many edit blocks in a single page very quickly, even from a mobile device.
Images
Images can be uploaded and displayed on your website in a matter of a few minutes. VROOM has built-in gallery and carousel capabilities, allowing you to create and display your photos in several flashy, animated ways enabled by the Bootstrap framework.
Templates
VROOM uses templates to specify the design and layout of web pages created with it. The templates are processed in a way that converts raw HTML and special markers called tags into dynamic web pages.
Tags
Tags, which are text enclosed within 'curly braces' (i.e., {}), indicate locations in the templates where non-static content is inserted. For example, static content might include some HTML, but with the addition of a tag such as {navigation}, you can insert dynamic VROOM functionality into your web pages (such as the Navigation Menu, in this case). More information about Tags...
Includes
Includes are chunks of code that you can insert into your pages. They can be either HTML snippets (containing tags if you wish), CSS code, or Javascript code. You may reference the includes in your templates by enclosing them within curly braces, as so: . For CSS and Javascript, your templates can access these via the path prefixes /css and /js.