Elanat has made an important decision regarding the future of its content management system.
Elanat CMS 2.2 will be the final version of Elanat CMS. After version 2.2, Elanat CMS will be permanently retired and no new versions will be released.
This decision does not mean that Elanat is leaving the CMS space. Instead, we have decided to begin a new CMS project with a new name: Gloria.
Gloria will be a new generation CMS built from the ground up using the latest versions of .NET, the CodeBehind Framework, and WebForms Core technology.
Why Are We Retiring Elanat CMS?
Elanat CMS has become a very large software system.
The current project contains approximately:
- 2,894 files
- 1,667 folders
The size of the project is not itself a problem. In fact, this size reflects the amount of functionality and structure that has been developed in Elanat CMS over the years.
The real challenge is the cost of making fundamental architectural changes to an already large system.
Elanat CMS was originally designed around an SSR architecture with vanilla JavaScript for client-side interaction. The system also contains many structures that were appropriate for its original architecture and development period.
Changing fundamental parts of such a large system is possible. We could continue modifying Elanat CMS and gradually replace its internal structures.
However, we reached the point where continuing to modify the existing system would require increasingly complex changes.
Instead of continuously modifying an old architecture, we decided that it would be more appropriate to build a new system from the beginning.
From Elanat CMS to Gloria
The new system will be called Gloria.
Gloria will not simply be a new version of Elanat CMS.
It will be a new CMS project with a new architectural foundation.
The goal is to use the latest versions of .NET together with the latest capabilities of the CodeBehind Framework and WebForms Core.
This will allow us to redesign the internal architecture instead of carrying every historical implementation decision from Elanat CMS into the new system.
One important example is data access.
Some parts of Elanat CMS rely on structures such as Stored Procedures. In Gloria, we want to move toward modern approaches such as ORM-based data access where appropriate.
This is one of the reasons why a clean rewrite is more suitable than attempting to transform the existing system piece by piece.
Gloria Will Continue the Elanat CMS Philosophy
Although Gloria will be a new system, it will not abandon the concepts that made Elanat CMS what it is.
Some important concepts and structures will continue in Gloria.
The add-on-oriented architecture will remain an important part of the new system.
The concepts of components, add-ons, and the way different parts of the system are organized will also continue to influence Gloria.
Naming conventions and several structural ideas from Elanat CMS will be carried forward.
Therefore, Gloria should not be understood as an unrelated CMS.
It is better understood as the next generation of the Elanat CMS direction, implemented with a new technical foundation.
The Elanat Ecosystem
Elanat's ecosystem currently consists of three major technologies and products:
- CodeBehind Framework
- WebForms Core
- Elanat CMS
CodeBehind is the modern full-stack framework developed by Elanat under ASP.NET Core. It supports multiple development patterns and provides the foundation on which Elanat CMS was built.
WebForms Core is Elanat's server-side UI manipulation technology. It introduces a server-side WebForms class and a browser-side WebFormsJS runtime for executing commands against the HTML DOM.
Elanat CMS was built on the CodeBehind Framework and developed as a large, modular CMS with an add-on-oriented architecture.
The new direction brings these technologies closer together.
Gloria will be built on the latest generation of CodeBehind and WebForms Core.
This means that the new CMS will be developed using the technologies that Elanat has been building and improving independently over recent years.
Why a New Name?
We deliberately chose a new name instead of simply calling the project "Elanat CMS 3".
There is an important reason for this.
Gloria will not be a normal major version upgrade.
It will be a new system created from the foundation up.
Calling it Elanat CMS 3 would suggest that the project is simply continuing the existing codebase with another major version.
That would not accurately describe what we are doing.
Elanat CMS 2.2 is the end of the existing Elanat CMS project. Gloria is the beginning of a new CMS project.
A Clearer Name and Identity
There was also another consideration behind the decision to introduce a new name.
The name Elanat CMS is closely associated with Elanat, the organization and technology ecosystem behind the project. Over time, this similarity sometimes created confusion between the name of the CMS itself and the name Elanat as the broader ecosystem.
Elanat is no longer limited to a single CMS. Its ecosystem now includes CodeBehind, WebForms Core, and Elanat CMS, each representing a different part of the technology stack.
For this reason, introducing a distinct name for the next-generation CMS will also provide a clearer identity for the product.
The new name, Gloria, separates the identity of the CMS from the identity of the Elanat ecosystem while preserving the project's connection to its history.
Gloria will therefore have its own product name, while remaining part of the Elanat ecosystem.
The Elanat Logo Will Continue
Although Gloria will have a new name, the project will retain the Elanat CMS logo.
The logo is part of the visual identity and history of the project, and we want that connection to remain visible.
Gloria therefore represents a new technical beginning while preserving part of the identity that came from Elanat CMS.
In this sense, the relationship is simple:
Elanat CMS → Gloria
The name changes.
The architecture evolves.
The experience gained from Elanat CMS remains.
And the development continues under the Elanat ecosystem.
What Happens to Elanat CMS 2.2?
Elanat CMS 2.2 is the final version.
There will be no Elanat CMS 2.3.
There will be no Elanat CMS 3.
After version 2.2, the Elanat CMS project will be considered retired.
The existing project will remain part of Elanat's open-source history, but active development will move to Gloria.
The decision also means that we will not attempt to transform the existing Elanat CMS codebase into Gloria through an endless series of migrations.
Instead, Gloria will start from a clean foundation.
A New Beginning
Large software projects accumulate history.
That history can be valuable because it contains years of development experience, architectural experiments, solutions to real problems, and ideas that have proven useful.
But history can also make fundamental redesign increasingly difficult.
Elanat CMS has reached a point where we believe a new beginning is the more appropriate engineering decision.
We could continue modifying the existing system.
Instead, we chose to build something new.
Gloria will take the lessons, concepts, structures, and experience of Elanat CMS and combine them with the modern technologies developed by Elanat.
The target is a CMS that is substantially more modern, easier to evolve, and better aligned with the current Elanat technology stack.
Repository Transition
The transition to Gloria also includes a change in the project's repository structure.
The new Gloria project is being developed in a separate repository:
The existing Elanat CMS repository will be archived:
Archiving the repository does not mean that the history of Elanat CMS will be removed. The repository will remain available as an archived record of the project and its development history, while active CMS development moves to Gloria.
This separation is intentional.
Elanat CMS represents the previous generation of the CMS, while Gloria represents a new implementation built around the current Elanat technology stack.
Elanat CMS 2.2 is the final release. The Elanat repository will be archived, and active CMS development will continue in the Gloria repository.
From the Past to the Next Generation
Elanat CMS was an important part of the development of the Elanat ecosystem.
It helped establish concepts such as an add-on-oriented architecture, modular system design, components, and a CMS structure capable of supporting a wide range of functionality.
Today, the ecosystem has evolved.
CodeBehind has become a modern ASP.NET Core framework.
WebForms Core is a server-side UI manipulation technology for working with HTML through server-generated commands.
The next step is to bring these technologies together in a new CMS.
That CMS will be Gloria.
Elanat CMS 2.2 marks the end of one chapter.
Gloria will begin the next one.
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