CondationCMS, the java based flat file cms

✍️ This article was originally published on dev.to

A couple of years ago, I worked for one of the major CMS vendors here in Germany. That’s when I really fell in love with content management. Even after I left the company, the CMS world never quite let go of me. I kept testing new systems—especially open-source ones. There's something fascinating about seeing how different teams solve the same core challenges in entirely different ways.

As a developer, my head is always full of ideas. Whether it's a web app, a software tool, or just a “what-if” concept—I always have something brewing that keeps my spare time interesting. In the early days, WordPress was my go-to platform for nearly every web project. But over time, I started looking for alternatives—systems I could shape more freely and build on in my own way.

Eventually, I hit a point where even the best open-source solutions didn’t quite give me what I needed. Either they were too bulky, too rigid, or simply not fun to work with. That’s when the idea hit me: Why not build my own CMS? It was one of those long-time "dream projects" that had been sitting in the back of my mind for years. Now it was time to bring it to life.

The initial goal was modest: a lightweight, flexible platform with support for plugins, themes, templates, Markdown, and multisite functionality. Nothing fancy—just enough to experiment and build a few websites. One key decision early on: no UI. I wanted everything to be editable directly in the filesystem, using whatever code editor you prefer.

After a while, the system became surprisingly fast and stable. That’s when friends started asking me to build websites for their small businesses. I agreed—but only on one condition: I wanted to use my custom CMS. When they said yes, I was thrilled (and a little terrified). Suddenly, my little side project had real-world users.

And that’s how CondationCMS was born—the first Java-based flat file CMS. It all started about three years ago, and the journey is still going strong.