FlyoverWorks is excited to announce the release of Storytime 2.0! We've taken our learnings from the original version of Storytime and built some terrific new features that we're proud to share with the Rails community. Below is a rundown of what we've added in v2.0, which is all in addition to the standard set of CMS features, plus text snippets, email list building, built-in search.
1. Combined CMS, Blog, and Admin Features
In most applications that we build for clients, we end up needing some standard CMS features (a blog, about page, FAQ page, etc.). We also need administrative features (editing, creating, & deleting) for other models in the app. Our standard approach is to add a CMS engine as well as an admin engine (usually Rails Admin or Active Admin). Something about this has always felt off, though. To the end-user, both of these things are serving a the same purpose: managing content. Why do I have to go to one place to update the FAQ and another to update some other piece of content?
To help resolve this, Storytime 2.0 combines traditional CMS features with the administration of other models in your rails app. You can read more about usage here.
2. Professionally Re-designed Dashboard
As the capabilities of Storytime grew, the interface, especially the nav bar, began to get cluttered. This issue was particularly acute when an app had multiple custom post types. To help combat this, we redesigned the dashboard interface and also gave Storytime a beautiful new skin.
3. Multi-Site Support
Storytime now supports creation and management of multiple sites in the same install. If a user is a member of multiple sites, a link will show up in their dashboard navigation that allows them to access the dashboard of each.
4. Guided Installation
To help ensure that it's as easy as possible for people to use Storytime, we built a guided installer. The guided install walks you through the various configuration options for Storytime and generates an initializer, pre-populated with those options.
To use the guided install, follow the instructions here.
5. Quick Dashboard Access & In-Line Text Snippet Editing
In most CMS's, including v1.0 of Storytime, you had to go to some specific dashboard URL to access the various pieces of content that you are managing. In Storytime 2.0, we wanted to provide quicker, easier access to content management features. To this end, we added a nav menu that can be included in your host app. Once it's added, it will add an icon in the upper left that provides a slide out dashboard menu.
If you add the javascript that
enables this nav, it will also make your text snippets in your host app
clickable, which will open the editing interface for the snippet.
To add the nav menu, you follow the instructions here.
If you're using Storytime or have feedback, we'd love to hear from you on twitter: @flyoverworks or @bcroesch