This page will explain in depth how INZU uses cloud technology to provide a software as service application (SaaS) that encompasses both content management (CMS) and e-commerce.

The cloud

In a nutshell a cloud application is a service which a user connects to at the point of use rather than using an installed version of the application.

The major advantage of this is that the user will always be using the latest software and no upgrades are necessary. It also means no storage space is used by the application on the user's device.

As well as the application being stored and used remotely, media can also be stored remotely and then accessed by multiple devices. INZU is a combination of these two concepts.

The application

The INZU cloud application is not open-source - it is a subscriber-based cloud application. The reason for this is to produce a coherent, well-directed product that can move quickly with the times; a fully open-source project can suffer as it grows, as developments start to overlap with conflicts between various developer pools.

However plans are on the drawing board to allow developers to produce plug-in style additions to INZU which may also include mini-applications.

Currently INZU is focused on providing a streamlined user-friendly operating system and CMS that covers the fundamentals of operating a website in one easy-to-use made application.

We are quick to respond to user suggestions and are in constant dialogue with our customers. This makes sure all users enjoy the benefits of INZU's comprehensive web site management system.

There are currently very few content management systems (CMS) utilising cloud technology, and even less combining e-commerce with content management.

We believe and can demonstrate that these technologies can be successfully put together in one system and operated by non-technical users, this achieved by employing the best possible user interface design throughout the system.

Developers

What the INZU cloud application is not, though, is a replacement for building websites through programming and design. We do offer a product that allows users to create a website on the INZU domain without having to use a designer or programmer. But for a more bespoke result we still believe in, and value the work of, designers and programmers.

The implementation of the application with a user's own domain is, while a technical exercise, one we believe that has been made as elegant and trouble-free as possible. In fact, using our demo site available to download for free from developers.inzu.net, programmers and designers will soon see how quickly INZU cloud sites can be created, yet how normal all the code looks.

Many web applications tend to impose a new coding structure or templating system that can take programmers and designers an age to fully understand. This is a cumbersome and unnecessary way to go about content management. INZU works completely differently; when you come to build an INZU cloud site you'll not see any strange new mark up, no complicated and restrictive templating system, in fact you'll see nothing.

You'll see nothing because nothing from INZU has to be installed on your website's server. Everything is done through a fully documented API. The API allows your site to connect to INZU through a series of dynamic highly flexible data feeds provided in JSON and XML. What this means is that you access data as and when you need it, limiting the data to only the essential information through the use of SQL style parameters. The API experience is just like connecting to a database, except each time you create a site you won't be setting up any databases and you'll find accessing data easy with ordering, pagination and text searches all available.

So an example call to the API may be a news page:

This is how the call would look in PHP connecting to the JSON API asking for the first 3 news items. Pretty straightforward and less lines of code than connecting to a MySql database.

And to display the first article all we need is:

That's it. 3 lines of code and we have data from the INZU CMS on your website. This a basic example, but every API call follows this structure. Your pages can pull in data from all around the INZU system and you can create sites with endless combinations of data streams all with really nice clean code at the end.

Don't worry about having to memorise the structure of every data feed. Each one is detailed on developers.inzu.net for you use as a quick reference.

Designers, you have even less to do because when it comes to building an INZU cloud based CMS site the process is pure CSS, HTML or even Flash and Mobile Applications.

With INZU, data is separated from design entirely. As you can see above, getting data from INZU is quick and easy, with very little code, so you can get designing sites with complete freedom of layout and device. As long as your user's device can connect to JSON or XML data, you're home free, and the good news is that it covers just about every design system you are likely to employ.