Zenith Content Management System

The Zenith Content Management System was originally developed by Bruce Davis Associates.
Early versions were developed using Microsoft Access as a database with an ASP wrapper to provide the interface. However, this proved to be unsatisfactory, and the system was quickly re-written using the de facto standard of PHP and MySQL as a database. The latest version in this form was 3.22.
Following the demise of the web development arm of Bruce Davis Associates in early 2008, Network Ltd adopted support for the system. Due to the architecture of the system it was deemed unsuitable for future development, and is currently only in an extended support phase.
Zenith 4.0 is currently being developed. Instead of being a stand-alone system, it is a plug-in module for Drupal. Inkeeping with Drupal methodology it has been released as Open Source software (GPL).
Architecture
Versions of the Zenith CMS up to and including 3.22 were designed around a data-centric paradigm. Individual objects are stored in individual tables with minimal normalisation having taken place. There was minimal linking between objects, and all data validation was carried out within PHP code as opposed to database-level constructs. This resulted in some unfortunate bugs such as images becoming badly ordered.
However one of the slight curious advantages of the design was the methodology for page layouts. Each page within the CMS can take a pre-defined theme with slots for images which could be uploaded independently of page content. Whereas other CMS designs allow page content to be inter-mixed with additional content, the Zenith CMS allows users to place images at pre-defined sizes in given positions only. This prevents users detracting from the designer's theme, which generally results in a better quality result.
From Zenith 4.0 onwards, the developers have carried forwarded the layout methodology, but have built the system as a Drupal module. This substantially improves the scope of the system since it can make full use of available modules. It also makes the system more resilient since it engages with Drupal's inbuilt capabilities and is not reliant on bespoke code.

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