Quickstart

Learn how to get started with the Elements CMS

Elements includes a built-in CMS that makes it easy to create a blog or content-driven site using Markdown files.

The quickest way to get started is with the free Microblog project from the built-in Elements Store. This provides a working example of a CMS-powered blog, including post listings, individual post pages, and basic navigation.

Elements CMS requires PHP 8.4 to be installed on your server. You'll need to ensure your page extension is set to .php on any pages you wish to access CMS data from.

How the CMS Is Structured

CMS content lives inside a dedicated CMS folder in your project. A typical blog setup looks like this:

• posts

  Contains your blog posts as Markdown (.md) files

• authors

  Contains author profiles, also as Markdown files

Each Markdown file includes two parts:

1. Frontmatter at the top of the file, which defines metadata like title, date, and author

2. Markdown content below, which is the body of the post

Elements uses this data to automatically populate your blog pages.

How Blog Pages Work

A basic blog in Elements uses two main page types:

• Blog page

  Uses a CMS Collection component to list posts from the posts folder

• Post page

  Uses a Single Item component to display one post at a time

The Collection controls where the content comes from, while the Item page defines how an individual post looks.

Writing Posts

To add a new post:

• Create a new Markdown file in the posts folder

• Fill in the frontmatter fields such as title, date, and author

• Write your content using standard Markdown

When you preview or publish the site, Elements automatically generates the blog listing and individual post pages.

Styling and Design

All visual styling is handled in Elements, not in the Markdown files.

This means you can change fonts, colors, layout, and spacing across your entire blog without touching your content.

Preview and Publish

You can preview the blog locally at any time using Preview in Browser.

When ready, publish as normal and your CMS-powered blog will be live.