Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. (via)
Through a friend, I learned of a new blog and content management system called ‘Serendipity‘. ‘S9y’ as it’s abbreviated, is an sort of entirely new CMS that sports a Plugins system that eliminates the need for PHP-file hacking. Also, Serendipity’s Administration Panel is claimed to have all the necessary bells and whistles so you don’t need to crack open the actual files on your server.
Which brings me to my first whine and moan. The Admin Panel is ugly. I guess you could skin it but I’d prefer if things were pretty to begin with. Nevertheless, it’s a minor moan.
Other than that, the Admin Panel is pretty good. The expandable menus make everything accessible at once (I personally prefer Wordpress Admin Panel’s tabs as they’re a little clearer). Serendipity does come with a slew of different styles (themes), which unfortunately all look alike. You can of course download lots of new ones off the Net and they install just like with Wordpress (upload and activate). There’s a similar sort of preview for each plugin as well.
Serendipity’s real Pièce de résistance are its Plugins and it’s media handling capabilities. S9Y uses an online repository called Spartacus that it uses to automatically check for plugins/templates upgrades and new functionality whenever you check the list. Editing the plugins doesn’t require digging through source code; a feature which Wordpress doesn’t have. Also looking for new plugins is really easy with Spartacus, as you can just check the list and install new plugins without having to upload files. Uploading media to your Serendipity-powered blog is just as easy with Wordpress but S9Y allows you to rotate, make different sized thumbnails and the like.
Up ’til now, Serendipity hasn’t been a awe inspiring experience but it’s still a pretty decent and extremely versatile blogging platform. The ability to import Wordpress-posts will definitely come in handy if I or any other WP user decides to switch. I won’t be doing so quite yet but it’s definitely a possibility. It could be a good platform for corporations, as it’s made under the BSD License. It also supports a wider variety of databases (SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MySQLi). I’ve put a test site up at binaryeuphoria.com/serendipity if you wanna check it out.
