After performing a number of interviews and internal research on processes, we decided to build the new websites on a shared platform. Terracotta decided that a database-based content management system wasn't for them, so we conceptualized a content-driven framework based on Smarty-PHP with a markdown-template-powered rendering engine. Essentially, content editors select a template they want to work with and write their content in markdown. The website renders the markdown in HTML and the markdown can also be used to generate PDF documentation for the Terracotta product documentation. Previously there were numerous different platforms being used to edit websites and documentation; now Terracotta has one codebase and can share content across multiple sites if needed.
Apart from markup, scripting and css development, work also included reworking the registration and authorization processes, Twitter, Google Search, news feed integrations, and a real-time markdown editor that is enabled for developers writing documentation content.
