MIIS: A Markdown File-based CMS for IIS and Azure

A Markdown and HTML file-based CMS system for IIS by @jm_alarcon.

IMPORTANT: This repository uses two Git Submodules IISHelpers and MIISdotliquid that are needed as dependencies. They are Git submodules so, when cloning the repo for the first time, you should use: git clone --recursive https://github.com/jmalarcon/MIIS.git so that the source code for these dependencies is cloned into the correspondent subfolders at the root level. You can later use git submodule update --recursive --remote to keep them updated with the latest changes.

MIIS is a perfect blend between a traditional CMS (such as Wordpress) and a Static Site Generator (such as Jekyll). Get the best of both worlds:

• No backend database or special setup needed
• No need to recompile and deploy after any change
• Lightning-fast, without unneeded bloat
• Support for Liquid tags, templates with inheritance and many more features similar to Jekyll

Set up your Markdown-based documentation system or web site in less than 30 seconds!

System Requirements

• .NET Framework 4.5 or later (usually already installed on the server)
• Internet Information Server on Windows Server, or an Azure Web App with ASP.NET 4.5+ enabled.
• IIS URL Rewrite extension (you can install it directly with the Web Platform Installer too)

Features

• Create full-fledged web sites and documentation sites based on Markdown and HTML files
• Easy support for custom templating and navigation for the served files. You can create a CMS (Content Management System) directly from Markdown files in no time!
• Generate site pages on the fly from Markdown files or HTML (.mdh files), with navigation and all the common elements in the site
• Super-flexible and easy template creation, with "includes" support, Liquid tags, parameters, file enumeration, inheritance...
• Custom properties that can be used in any file
• Powerful "Fragments" and "Component" features that allows to assemble contents dynamically from several files.
• Use query string or form parameters, cookies and server variables as part of your content (and to make decisions with DotLiquid).
• Process files in folders from Markdown or HTML: to create a blog, create multilingual sites, manage authors...
• Markdown file caching and template caching for maximum performance
• Customize per folder: define different look&feel, layout, navigation, fields/properties for specific files or folders using different web.config files.
• Several documentation site templates included out of the box
• Great support for Markdown and Markdown extras for the content

Documentation

In the following video you can see how to install IIS (Internet Information Server) and the URL Rewrite extension, and put your first MIIS site to work in a freshly installed Windows Server machine. It includes instructions on how to install the samples in the source code that explain all the features of MIIS. Make sure you check all the samples before creating a real site, so that you can take advantage of all the advanced features.

⚠ You can check a basic documentation (and old one, without all the advanced features, but interesting anyway, here)

Showcase

These are some sites that run with MIIS:

• MIIS Documentation Site. Azure App.
• campusMVP: On-line training company. More than 300K unique users monthly. Windows Server.
• jmalarcon.es: My personal (non-technical) blog. Azure App.
• SELF LMS: Site and blog for a Learning Management System software. Windows Server.
• Krasis.com: Basic corporate website. Windows Server.
• Alquiler Sanxenxo: Seaside flat rental site. Azure App.
• Krasis Intranet: private, OAuth 2.0 protected Intranet site. Azure App.

If you use MIIS to create a website, the documentation for your project, a document-based site, etc... please tweet it to me with the URL 😊 Thanks!