For Developers - Spark Web Management Suite

Let's face it: traditional web site development with tedious coding using basic ASP.NET infrastructure is too complex, repetitive and expensive. You can hardly justify the costs of such development in the era of content management systems that provide ready-to-use frameworks oriented on storing, updating and publishing content.

Spark Builder provides a flexible, content-oriented framework based on ASP.NET platform that allows you to cut the development time from hours to minutes. What used to require writing ADO.NET code, SQL queries and using databound controls, can be done with a few mouse-clicks in Spark Builder CMS.

With cool features such as page and 'parent-children' page replication available - you will soon see the benefits of using SPARK Builder.

Fully Extensible Framework

Build upon the power of SPARK Web Management Suite and provide your own custom controls, themes and pages. Creating Controls is the same as standard ASP.Net and you can integrate these into the Content Management System.

You can integrate your controls directly into the site Masterpages (Templates) or allow the user, through the SPARK administration back-end, to create instances of your control as they would with any other content.

Enterprise Strength Architecture

Robust system operation is paramount and to this end we have build the SPARK CMS on tried and tested technologies.

Key architectural features include:

Built on ASP.Net version 3.5
LINQ
JQuery
Microsoft ASP.Net Ajax
SQL Server 2005
Allows for standard and custom Membership Providers for enhanced security

This list is not exhaustive and in order to develop upon the SPARK components you do not need to be an expert in these technologies. In fact, you need only understand how to create pages and controls in ASP.Net to get started. Full documentation and tutorials are available in the developer documentation site.

Built On ASP.Net 3.5

Utilising ASP.Net version 3.5 to provide the SPARK Web Management Suite allows us the ability to a create attractive, functional systems but based on robust techniques that you will see lacking in many open source projects.

With SPARK Web Management Suite you will find a system that is both friendly and extensible which will provides a secure operating environment for your business now and handle however your business evolves in the future.

JQuery & Ajax

If you are not a developer then you will not know about these technologies and the quiet revolution that these technologies have brought the internet. What they give you is a responsive user experience providing the sort of use you would normally expect from a windows or Mac application. You will have seen these techniques in many popular websites today such as Facebook, Hotmail, Google Mail and the BBC Homepage.

Using these technologies effectively will provide your users with an effective, easy to understand user experience closer to using a desktop application rather than a clunky web based application most people are used to seeing. Effectively, efficient use makes our system easier to use and understand.

The SPARK Web Management Suite uses these techniques where appropriate providing the best balance between speed and usability.

Microsoft SQL Server

The database engine is the industry standard SQL Server 2005. Offering resilience and reliability to your business.

If you are looking to host your own version of SPARK CMS you will be pleased to know that the system has been designed to run seamlessly on SQL Server Express edition.

Full control over HTML Code and Design

The main issue with many of the content management systems available is that they make you use a hard-coded, table-only HTML code and that do not produce valid XHTML code. This has obvious disadvantages and not only limits the performance of the site but hinders the flexibility.

Spark Builder CMS gives you full control over (X)HTML code, graphic design, site structure and navigation.

One Distinct Code Base

At the heart of the system is one core code base that is available to update just a few clicks away.

The core of the system for the SPARK CMS and components is a set of libraries. These can be hosted either through our managed hosting service or on your own server.