Savvy CM installation is very easy. There are no installation programs to be run on the server, instead you copy your files to the web server, modify the includes.cfm file with the correct information for your installation, register the database in ColdFusion, then upload your templates.

There are a few things you need to consider. Savvy includes an application.cfm file so if you are installing Savvy into an existing application (which is possible) you need to take some additional steps in order to allow the use of the Savvy application.cfm. Again these are outlined in details in the online docs.

Next you modify a file, includes.cfm, in which you define you datasource, some path information, site name and description and some other general settings.  Next you run a diagnostic utility which will check your configuration, verify your datasources and warn you if you need to fix anything. If all looks well you can then use the same diagnostic page to create your database.

The few glitches I encountered during installation and configuration were all covered in the documentation.

Once you have Savvy installed and configured the next step is to create a template!

One of the blogs I frequently read is Joshua Cyr’s and at some point I noticed he worked for Savvy Software.

I spent some time digging around the Savvy site. I was especially impressed with the level of documentation they had available online as well as the video tutorials they had created which covered all aspects of the CMS – covering everything from installation, administration and general use.

Another concern was if Savvy would run on the CFEclipse server (Linux with a MySQL back end). A quick look through the online docs and I found the system requirements:

• OS: Windows 2000/2003 , Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS & ES 3.0 or 4.0, SuSE Enterprise Server 8 or 9, Sun Solaris 8+, OSX 10.3.9+
• Database: MSSQL, MySQL
• ColdFusion MX 7 or Higher (see www.adobe.com for ColdFusion requirements)

I also checked out Joshua Cyr’s CFMeetup presentation on Savvy.

Impressed I contacted Joshua to see if Savvy would be interesting in donating a copy for the CFEclipse site. Joshua indicated several of the Savvy staff used CFEclipse and that Savvy would be happy to donate a copy. I soon had a copy of the software to install!!

Next… Installation!

I just launched the ‘new and improved’ CFEclipse.org site this morning!

The old site was a bit difficult to update and the content was getting a bit outdated. The new site uses the Savvy CMS and is now much easier to maintain. Savvy also provides very granular permission controls so if someone wants to volunteer to maintain a particular page or section, we can allow that kind of access.

I’ll be fixing a few things here and there and updating some of the older content as time permits. If you see any typos, busted links or have any other suggestions let me know!

I’ll also be doing a few posts about the Savvy CMS. They kindly donated the software for the CFEclipse site and I’ll blog about my experience building the CFEclipse site.