Transition Guide for Developers

(This document is also available as a PDF download.)

ExSite is built in layers:

4	Plug-in Modules (optional components with their own custom interfaces)
3	Plug-in Frameworks (optional shared data models, like Finance)
2	CMS (general-purpose tools for displaying web content)
1	Kernel (general-purpose tools for managing data & security, as well as the back-end admin system)

ExSite v4 is primarily an overhaul of layer 2, the CMS. The Kernel and Plug-in systems are very similar to v3. However, although the Plug-in system is similar architecturally, many plug-ins will nevertheless get major revisions going into v4, because:

• they dupe features that are now in the CMS, and should be rebuilt as special CMS classes
• their interactions with the CMS will change
• their UI will be updated and modernized
• the v4 transition is a good opportunity to "break" with old and tired methodologies since backward-compatibility is not a concern

Changes to the CMS layer are covered in a separate document, ExSite 4 Content Model. This developer guide covers new v4 features in the other layers.