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Getting started with Roe CMS

Before Roe

Install Roe if you haven’t. I have a feeling this is going to be an important step.

First Steps

  • Visit the Admin and click Posts in the navigation
  • Create a new Post
  • Click Preview to open up a live preview of the Post in a new tab.
  • Put the Preview tab/window on one side of your screen and the Post on the other
  • As you save the Post, the Preview will auto-refresh so you can see your changes as you make them.

This is a great way to learn how things work as you can see the changes live. Try out the buttons in The Editor.

What is Roe

Roe CMS helps you build a website with nothing but Markdown files, media and YAML. You can dive deeper and edit the CSS if you please but this is not required to build a full/working website with Roe. An understanding of Markdown Syntax will be helpful but you’ll be able to figure out what’s going on by working on a Post with a Preview open as suggested above.

Important things to know

Structure of your site

Since Roe is built on Markdown files, the basic structure of your site will be:

  • Header/Navigation
    • Edit the Navigation in Admin > Layouts
  • Page/Post Content
    • Create/edit Posts in Admin > Posts
    • Create/edit Pages in Admin > Posts
    • Create/edit Products in Admin > Posts
      • (you must enable the Store first)
  • Footer
    • Edit the Navigation and Footer in Admin > Layouts

Unique features of Roe

Roe was built with the idea of taking simple/modular building blocks and combining them to create more complex sites. For this reason Roe does not use a templating language. Instead it uses Roe-anji, simple markdown exentions and syntax that allow you to do all kinds of cool things: Collections, Cards, Galleries, and more.

Roe-anji - Collections

A Collection in Roe is similar to a blog feed in other systems but it’s much more flexible. Most often, it’s a list of Posts but it could be a list of Pages, Documentation, Products. In Roe, you can add them anywhere using a simple syntax. And you can customize them to create any kind of content Collection you want. Learn more about Collections →

Collections are generally added to Pages since they’re often collections of Posts and Products but you could:

  • put a Collection into a Post as well. Perhaps 3 related Posts or 3 featured Posts at the bottom of an article.
  • put a Collection into a Product page, perahps 3 related Products at the bottom of each one.

Roeajni - Cards

Cards allow you to embed styled elements directly in a Markdown file: pullquote, post link, aside. Learn more about Cards →

Roe-anji - Image Galleries

Galleries allow you to create complex grids of images with very simple syntax. Learn more about Galleries →

Onwards… What could you build with Roe?

Roe supports a full newsletter system, store and memberships with payments through 3 integrations: Postmark, Snipcart and Stripe. It also has a full podcast system, no other hosting required.

If you wanted to, you could replace about 5 other paid services with Roe, save a ton of money and have more fun running your site.

Please reach out with any issues, feedback, feature requests or just to say hello.