Pixie - The Small, Simple, Site Maker

A few years ago (about 2000 - 2002) my band needed a website. I had only ever previously made a handful of sites and I tried my best to create us the most interesting site I could. It soon became outdated and the band wanted more. We wanted to be able to update the site with gigs, news, biographies and anything else we could think of. I set to work, learning PHP and came up with a very basic tool (I called it SMX) that saved everything we needed into text files and then loaded that info into the public site. It was hard to use and implement but it worked and everyone was happy for a few months. SMX planted the seed in my head for what is now known as Pixie, the software you can download from here.

Pixie is not just for bands any more, it is for anyone and everyone. The more websites I made the more I realised how similar things were and that these similarities would help me create a powerful, yet simple site manager. The web has changed a great deal since 2000 and Pixie has always been one step behind, but now, with its release, I am hoping it will always be one step in front... especially if we all help to make it better.

Why Did I Create My Own?

It is a good question because a lot of great tools exist that tackle a similar problem to Pixie. But I found that most of them left me confused and frustrated. I failed to understand how they worked or they were filled with very advanced tools that I simply would never need. After a long time searching it became apparent that I would be better off trying to make my own software, that worked in a way that was logical to me (and hopefully to you too).

Where Next?

I have a fair few features I would like to see in future versions of Pixie but we all need to decide what features - if any - are important. Pixie is not just about features or being better than everyone else. Pixie is about being small, simple and fun.

Some plans for the future include:

• Hosted Pixie - We will host Pixie for you... for free! A simple sign up form and your site will be ready to use. This helps remove the technical barrier of getting Pixie setup on your own web server.
• Pixie Pro - For a small yearly fee you will get access to "Pixie Pro", an area on the Pixie site where you can download exclusive add-ons (themes, modules etc). The great thing about Pixie Pro is that if you donate your theme, add-on or extra to it, you will get free access to the goodies!
• Core framework - The code that powers Pixie could do with improving, we will be looking at redeveloping the entire code base.

If you have questions about this page head to the Pixie forums.