Silex v3: Design On Real Data With Free/Libre No-Code Software
TLDR; Internet 2000 web studio is investing time to develop the next major version of Silex free open source website builder. Here is why.
On the same subject: an article about what is Silex v3?
Hello makers!
I would like to tell you why we, as a small web design studio are investing time and efforts in the new version of a free and open source website builder.
Here are three reasons why, here you go :)
A new paradigm in the web design world: design on real data
The first reason why we do this is that Silex, the #1 free and open source website builder is not a website builder anymore until it has this feature which was made a standard by Webflow, this great website builder, a leader in the no-code movement. They invented this thing they call design on real data.
How does it work? Webflow includes a cms, fully integrated into the tool. The user can design visually with the content of the CMS directly in the website builder. In “the designer”, you can drag and drop lists, texts and images, design pages which were created in the CMS. You manipulate the real data seemlesly.
When you update the content in the CMS you see it updated in the designer.
Even better: when you publish a new version of the design, the data stays dynamic. If you or your client make edits to the content, the website keeps updating.
We want Silex to benefit this new way of designing in our favorite website builder.
No-code + open source = free as in learning, growing, making
The second reason why is that we want this no-code magic to be free and open source, community driven, collectively maintained.
We have used Webflow for a while and - beside the problems of pricing, we suffered from limitations as we wanted the code of our websites to be exactly the way we wanted (we do eco-responsible websites) and it wasn’t possible even if we had the skills, budget and time to do it. We couldn’t do it in Webflow, we can do it with the open source silex.
Also did you notice that no-code and open source have a lot in common? They both empower people with new opportunities, it is made for you to grow with the tool and the community is really at the center of these.
No-code + JAMStack = ultimate performance
The last reason why we went for a rewrite of the open source website builder Silex is that we need the latest most efficient tech. As a buisness, as professionals, we want our websites to be static, we want to design JAMStack web sites with no-code.
With Silex v3, that is exactly what we do
What does it look like?
Here is the technical one sentence pitch: bring your own headless CMS, bring your own static site generator.
At Internet 2000 we chose Directus and 11ty.
You have access to the CMS data in Silex and design a website which is static.
The alpha version has been released and the beta is coming soon. Come and visit silex.me where there is an article explaining the plan . And here is the corresponding road map.
Oh and you can join the beta tester program
