Moritz Limanski
Web Designer
Why are you using Craft CMS?
Like probably many who use Craft, I know the guys from Pixel & Tonic from ExpressionEngine days, and their plugins were always the best. I had been wondering for a while before I heard anything about Craft when they would finally build a CMS that would fix all the pet peeves and shortcomings that bothered me about EE. And that's Craft.
Craft is fun! It lets me build and structure everything precisely how I want, not just my templates but the entire site architecture. It builds on established components like Yii and Twig. It offers faster and more transparent development. Support is always available and helpful. The community is growing steadily.
My customers love Craft because it's simple and they only see what they need. Some can't wait to enter their content. - Moritz Limanski
What was your first craft project?
The site of the Schuman program was my first craft website. Previously I had only tinkered around a bit locally. The Robert Schuman Program organizes student exchanges in Saarland.
The site had to be implemented in two languages (DE/FR), and the guys from Craft were kind enough to give me some tips to do this without the module provided for this purpose, but for free. The illustrations are by the awesome Chrissie Salz.
What's your favorite project you've done with Craft CMS?
DRadio Wissen was my biggest project so far. We had a complex task, exciting content, many people involved, and little time. My job was the design and front-end development, while Tom Schulze programmed the tough stuff I'll never understand. I can't imagine a brisk hand-in-hand work/design/programming as this site required under any other CMS than Craft.
The relaunch came with a complete realignment of the radio station; overnight, everything was new - including the CMS for all editors. It was and still is very exciting to see so many people working day in, and day out with a site you've worked on.
What are the biggest benefits of Craft?
- The Matrix, hands down. The Matrix has completely changed the way I design and implement pages. And it's only at the beginning of its potential.
- The template engine Twig is also very intuitive and powerful after the initial familiarization phase.
What improvements to the content management system would you like to see?
- Documentation. More (code) examples would make it much easier to get started.
- The Matrix. More is possible here, and I want the Matrix in the Matrix - Matrixinception.
What are your favorite plugins?
- Smartmap: Google Maps integration in minutes. Very nice address input with Ajax address suggestions.
- a&m nav: There are now a few plugins for building navigations in Craft. This one suits me the most so far.
- Linkit: Almost essential. It is easiest to set the most diverse links through the CMS and style them differently.
- Sprout SEO: All-in-one solution for search engine optimization, including Facebook and Twitter. It also creates the sitemap and is a fantastic plugin for a dull topic overall.
- Shortlist: I've just started playing around with it, but this plugin promises excellent possibilities.