Downdijk CMS Aragorn (v8.0) (outdated)

PHP 8.0

Every 4 - 5 years, PHP releases a major update, removing old (deprecated) functions and adding significant new features. Partly for this reason, we decided to completely renew and rewrite Downdijk CMS, utilizing object-oriented programming, the MVC design pattern, and strict coding practices. For example, we completely updated the framework, and all database functions were adjusted so that no old functions are used anymore.

Bootstrap 5

Twitter Bootstrap, which has been integrated into Downdijk CMS for years, also released a major update. Twitter Bootstrap is used as a styling package for websites, but also for Downdijk CMS and other systems. We use the general styles created by Twitter Bootstrap, as well as the responsive web design features and components that Bootstrap has made available. Because 4k and 2k monitor screens are being sold and used more and more, we have adapted Bootstrap 5 to also support a larger screen, namely larger than 1600 pixels and the screen between 1400 and 1600 pixels. As a result, Bootstrap 5 now supports 7 screen sizes (> 1600, 1600, 1400, 1200, 992, 768, 576) in Downdijk CMS and websites / webshops created by Downdijk, representing large desktop screens, small desktop screens, large laptops, small laptops, large tablets, small tablets, large mobile phones, and small mobile phones, each brand, model, and type having their own screen sizes.

HTML 5, CSS 3, and Sass (scss)

Years ago, the W3C organization was established to create guidelines for using HTML on the internet. These guidelines are also used by search engines and give your website/webshop a score on how well the site uses these guidelines and contains no errors in the HTML. In 2014, HTML5 was added and released because HTML4 was very limited in the tags available to provide better names to developers and search engines. For example, HTML tags such as article, section, address, header, and footer were added to give specific places and designations of text, but also HTML functions and types were expanded, including input fields expanded with date, time, and number, allowing developers to expect specific text in the input fields.

With the rise of responsive web design, mobile devices, and innovative techniques, CSS has been significantly expanded with many new codes that can be used to better style your website/webshop, but also Downdijk CMS. Since CSS is a styling language and cannot load files into other files without additional programming language, Downdijk decided to add Sass (SCSS) to Downdijk CMS to write extra functions in CSS, place and apply global styles, and add more structure to the styles.

JavaScript and no jQuery

To make the website interactive and show smooth animations, JavaScript was used for a long time, particularly jQuery, because this library made it even easier to use JavaScript. With the arrival of CSS3 and all the new features in ES6 of JavaScript, jQuery is becoming less important by the day and is even becoming a library/plugin that only takes up space and connections on your website/webshop, as well as in your online applications, causing a loss of speed (for more information on website speed is very important). These are also some of the reasons why Twitter Bootstrap decided not to use jQuery anymore in Bootstrap 5, which made Downdijk think to adopt this idea and standardly not use jQuery anymore in Downdijk CMS from Downdijk CMS Aragorn (v8.0) onwards. To make the transition to the "no jQuery" integration smooth for the upcoming versions of Downdijk CMS, jQuery is still present but is no longer used for the standard functions in the system.