Contemplate Web Templating System 1.2.1 review

Contemplate Web Templating System is a set of server-side scripts that makes it easy for web developers to separate content from code

License: The Apache License File size: 125K Developer: Type A Learning Agency

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Contemplate Web Templating System is a set of server-side scripts that makes it easy for web developers to separate content from code when building sites.

Contemplate assembles text content, page layouts, and server-side or client-side scripts into dynamically generated or precompiled web pages based on arguments you pass into each page.

From simple, content-oriented websites to complex, data-driven web applications, Contemplate separates different production tasks and allows writers, front-end developers, and web programmers to focus on what they do best.

Contemplate is distributed under the Apache Software License, which provides for free distribution and use for any purpose. The license forbids, however, the use of the name Contemplate for new products derived from the source code, and requires that Type A be credited in the source code and documentation of any derivative products.

The Contemplate source code is managed under an open source, closed development model, which means that users may view and modify the source for their own purposes, and may submit enhancement suggestions to Type A, but do not have direct access to Type A's development environment. Suggestions relating to performance, security, and consistency between the different ports are particularly welcome.

Contemplate was originally written in Perl and subsequently ported to both PHP and ASP, so you'll need one of those three scripting languages installed on your web server. We recommend the ASP version of Contemplate for Microsoft IIS servers and the PHP version for other servers, including Apache.

ASP comes pre-installed on all IIS servers, and PHP comes pre-installed with many Apache distributions; you can install PHP from a free download if your server does not already support it. The three Contemplate versions work identically, except for occasional differences noted in the documentation.

Since Contemplate stores its content in standard HTML files, you don't need any database software on your web server, and you can even switch from one version of Contemplate to another (for example, if migrating from a Windows to a Unix server) without modifying your content files or templates.

And Contemplate includes a Flattener utility, which allows you to develop on a server that supports server-side scripting, then compile your website to plain HTML pages and post it on any web server --even one with no scripting support at all!

What's New in This Release:
Reporter readability improvements and miscellaneous bugfixes.
Recommended for all users.