I recently rediscovered Symphony while looking for a new content management system to use on my site. Symphony uses XML and XSLT for its underpinnings which finally gives me an excuse to learn XML in a real and practical way.
What is Symphony?
In the developer’s own words:
Symphony is a web publishing system made for web developers. It gives you all the power and flexibility you’ll need, while keeping out of your way. The Symphony developers have spent an inordinate amount of time making sure that tedious tasks are quick and simple, and that your workflow is intuitive and streamlined.
I had looked at Symphony before when it was a commercial product. It looked promising but I didn’t have a way to test it and was unwilling to pay for a product which I couldn’t fiddle with. Just a few days ago Symphony came back on my radar and surprise surprise it’s now free; they charge for official support.
What you’re seeing now is the default install of Symphony. Over the next few months I will transform it into something of my own.
Why now?
I’ve been meaning to set up a blog for quite a while now. My previous site is from 2003 and was hand coded back when I was doing freelance work. My life has since taken a different direction and I have been looking to update my site to reflect that. Symphony has given me the spark to start working on my personal web space again.