Surreal CMS Announces Plans for Plug-in API

By Eric Brown | Published Jan 15, 2009

Surreal CMS to Provide Plug-In API Surreal CMS, released in November 2008 by A Beautiful Site, LLC, has added some new features to their remotely hosted content management system. With content management being the topic of the day in the web industry, their announcement might be what they need to push them ahead of other similar offerings such as CushyCMS and Clover Content.

Remotely Hosted Content Management

Surreal CMS’s remotely hosted content management solution allows site owners who are not currently using any sort of CMS the ability to manage their content and administrate various areas of their website without having to completely rebuild it. This is done using an ftp installed content management system.

Surreal CMS has plans for plug-in API

By using a “class=editable” attribute (added to tags that contain areas you want editable), a designer or developer can make nearly any portion of a non-CMS site editable through an online user interface.

The Surreal system accesses your web files via FTP, bringing up the editable portions in an easy to use online interface that includes a rich media editor.

This option, rather than rebuilding a site, can be a simple, easily installed solution for many sites out there built using static HTML, XHTML and others.

Additional features of Surreal CMS

Access the CMS from your own domain – You can access your admin interface using your own domain. This is one of the key new features already added with the most recent update.
Have multiple sites on one account – A developer can administrate multiple clients sites from one account.
Assign various users – You can assign other users and give them limited access, such as their site only. This would be good for developers who want to offer CMS options to their clients but are unfamiliar with current self-hosted CMS’s.
There is nothing to install – All you have to do is add the class within tags containing portions of the site you want editable.
Edit CSS – You can edit your style sheet or entirely replace it.
Works with almost any FTP/SFTP server – This solution will work with virtually any FTP/SFTP server, provided you have administrative access to it (login information, etc.).
Brandable – While a free account option is available, for a small price you can give clients access to their sites only in an interface branded for you.

Surreal CMS announces new features
Rich Text Editor

Surreal CMS new features and plug-in API
CSS Editor

A New Plug-In API

At just two months after the release of Surreal CMS, A Beautiful Site announced that they are planning to offer a plug-in API for the service. The new plug-in API is not yet completed, but when it is it will enable designers to manage dynamic content and widgets for websites maintained by the Surreal CMS service.

"We're still gathering feedback and trying to determine what will be most useful for our existing clients," said A Beautiful Site, LLC. founder Cory LaViska. "We already know how we're going to do it, it's just a matter of letting the project mature a bit more and working out some of the details."

With the addition of a plug-in API, Surreal CMS is attempting to be a complete content management solution for those who would rather not rebuild their site (see our review of Clover Content for another example of this).

With everyone from CEO’s, to the guy selling car parts out of his garage clamoring for content management abilities, Surreal CMS and A Beautiful Site, LLC want to stake their claim in the remote hosted content management solutions corner.