Drew Wilson

Jan 31 2008, 6:28 pm

As promised here are some screen shots of Firebolt, the CMS I have been working hard to release to you all. It really will let designers and developers control any type of website without holding anything back.

You may notice the screen shots have missing images in them and other bugs... but that is just the way it goes with software being under constant development.

To get updates on Firebolt subscribe to the official newsletter here: GetFirebolt.com

Many more great things to come, and as you can tell I am holding a lot back. There is going to be great opportunity for the Firebolt community to help each other out and develop mini apps and functions that everyone else can plug into their own FIrebolt.

I will post a screen cast soon, once Firebolt is a bit more ready. Feel free to ask questions in the comments!

Oh and I just finished the design for the GetFirebolt.com site, and it is blowing my mind!!! :) But it will have to remain a secret until the official release.

Peace,
Drew

Firebolt

30 Comments

Adam Says,

Drew, Yeah, Slide Show Pro has a management app called Director which is all Ajax/CSS/... (interestingly NOT flash) and is very well designed with drag n drop, resizing and overall attention to design and ease of use. Keep us posted on the progress! -Adam

19 March 2008, 12:04 pm

Maxx Says,

Hi Drew, I think Adam is dreaming about a CMS with an implementet image administration, to use the files in SSP, Director is not a cms, its just a way to manage albums, galleries and images in your browser. Let´s wait for firebolt, maybe it should be easy to implement some stuff. What javascript framework do you use? Looks like jquery (i appreciate it)... or not ? Anyway, here´s your german translator, php, css and javascript debugger (under Max OS X)... waiting for the Beta....

15 March 2008, 10:29 pm

Drew Wilson Says,

Adam,

Thanks bro! What do you mean by SSP Director? Do you Mean SlideShowPro? Curious to know, in what way do you see the comparisons? I haven't ever used SSP Director... so I am curious to know how they might compare.

Peace,
Drew

7 March 2008, 9:40 am

Adam Says,

Drew, I'm waiting with bated breath for this. I went thru a couple years of developing my own CMS, and eventually sorta bagged it. I can sympathize with all of the variables involved. This looks just like what Ive been witing for- a CMS with the great look and functionality of SSP Director. Rock on!

7 March 2008, 8:31 am

Drew Wilson Says,

Paul,
I will definitely let you know when the Beta Testing time comes around. Keep an eye on my blog, and in the next few months I will make a post requesting a few testers. Thanks Paul!

Kip,
Firebolt is written in PHP4 because not may people use PHP5, and PHP6 isn't out yet. Also there is much more support, and hosting providers that support PHP4. Even though PHP4 is older, Firebolt will be able to be used by more people by going with it.
I chose PHP because it is my language of choice and the majority of developers on the web use PHP. So it is the most wide spread and widely supported web language. Which makes Firebolt available to more people. Eventually I will release Firebolt for Ruby as well, but that is version 2.0 talk :)
Thanks Kip!

Peace,
Drew

24 February 2008, 9:10 pm

Kip (Nobledesigns) Says,

Hey Drew. Why is Firebolt built on Php4? its going to be "put to death" soon.. Just wondering and i still cant wait for its release. I wanna be the FIRST person to do a write up on it!

24 February 2008, 4:07 pm

Paul West Says,

Hey Drew-

Looking for beta testers for FireBolt or your Out Sourcing Management project? Let me know. I'm really looking forward to those releases, and would be happy to help in the development & testing.

Keep us posted!

-Paul

24 February 2008, 11:27 am

Sigg3 Says,

Looks flaming to me... :D

14 February 2008, 6:26 am

tim moser Says,

so excited about trying this one out. still waiting on rebuilding my personal site till this guy comes out :) tm

12 February 2008, 11:10 am

Jordan Says,

Just so you know drew. I would be capable and more than happy to beta test firebolt for you as it nears completion. Just throwing that out there..

7 February 2008, 2:00 am

Keven Says,

This looks killer. As a designer, I'm always looking to design and build a site and then plug in the areas that require CMS. Is that what you meant by "Template independent"? Cheers!

5 February 2008, 4:02 pm

Mert TOL Says,

Very nice Drew! I'm so exciting for using Firebolt. We can't try Firebolt at the moment , can we? and when are you release offical website?

4 February 2008, 6:49 am

Nicolas Alexander Says,

how much is this gonna cost ?? :D

3 February 2008, 8:48 pm

Colum Says,

Looks really cool. Let me guess. Ajax: prototype. And OMG! my name is in one of the screenshots!

3 February 2008, 4:50 pm

François Greze (paris, france) Says,

Wish you the best for your project ... Looks very powerful and "a la mode" ....^^ Could you tell us witch technologie you did use for it ?.. Can't wait for this release . FG PS: thanks for your mail.

3 February 2008, 3:33 am

Alexander Radsby Says,

This looks really great Drew, I'm a new visitor of this site. Love everything actually. Firebolt seems nice. Building from scratch right?, man that needs work. I've been checking out CodeIgniter for PHP instead. Making things easier with a framework behind the scenes. Keep up the great work mate!

3 February 2008, 3:22 am

Derek Says,

What framework if any are you developing Firebolt on? Is Firebolt going to be open source and when do you think we can expect a release?

Thank you,
Derek Herman

P.S. It really looks beautiful, great design Drew.

1 February 2008, 2:07 pm

Kip Says,

Drew. I cant wait for firebolts release!

1 February 2008, 1:24 pm

Drew Wilson Says,

Ann,
Great question. Blaze is going to be the way you pull things from the database in Firebolt. You do not need to know any templating language or PHP. I am writing my own templating language and calling it: Blaze. You don't need to learn the Blaze language though, because I am making a widget that does all the coding for you. It will be sweet.
Peace,
Drew

1 February 2008, 12:16 pm

Ann Says,

Firebolt's looking super clean! What's that Blaze widget all about?

1 February 2008, 12:00 pm

Paul West Jauregui Says,

Looking forward to getting behind the wheel of Firebolt. Thanks for the updates.

1 February 2008, 11:04 am

Danny Silva Says,

Very nice Drew. I've been a fan from afar for while....this stuff looks just as good. I'm definitely interested to see how it shakes out. Danny Stage5 Studio

1 February 2008, 7:53 am

Andrew Verboncouer Says,

Wow! Looks super clean. I can't wait until it's released, keep up the good work!

1 February 2008, 7:50 am

Drew Wilson Says,

Josh,

Thats a good point :) Lucky for me my wife is finishing up her Masters degree (online classes), so she spends a lot of time on the computer in the office with me. So it works out. But she graduates in June... so I gotta hurry up and finish Firebolt :)

Russell,

Thanks for the question. Firebolt is built on PHP4, MYSQL, and Apache.

1 February 2008, 7:35 am

Russell Heimlich Says,

Wow, developing a whole CMS on your own? That sounds crazy! I'm not really looking for another blogging tool, but I should move my portfolio into a CMS one of these days. What is it built on? PHP/MySQL? Rails?

1 February 2008, 7:13 am

Syler Says,

Really nice!
Hope release soon

1 February 2008, 6:50 am

Josh Tilton Says,

Any tips on keeping the wife happy while spending so much time designing and developing ? Lol!

I also gave you a blog entry on my site to hopefully give you more exposure. Blessings.
http://gripcreative.com/blog/drew-wilsons-firebolt

1 February 2008, 2:19 am

Alexander Says,

I like the appleish ui, nice one.

31 January 2008, 10:58 pm

Drew Wilson Says,

Josh,
Thats right :) Everything from the first sketch in photoshop, and the first line of code. I am going solo on this... but Firebolt has been through 2 versions already, and I have used it with many client websites. So it has a lot of R&D behind it.

Peace,
Drew

31 January 2008, 10:01 pm

Josh Tilton Says,

WOW!

Super nice UI! You did everything from the first line of code?

Big accomplishment and wish the best for this endeavor!

31 January 2008, 7:08 pm