N2 is a lightweight CMS framework to help you build great web sites that anyone can update. Using it's interface is intuitive and empowering. The developer story is something exquisite. Give it a try and you'll see.

Enough Fluff

For those looking for an out of the box experience N2 CMS contains a package of functional templates with News, Wiki, Photo Galleries, FAQs, RSS, Data Entry, Polls and more. With these you'll be up and running no time (demo).

The functional templates are completly optional. If you want you can just use an adaptive editing interface that integrates quite nicely into any ASP.NET code. Features include full control of content and nodes, drag&drop, versioning, wizards, export/import, security, globalization and more.

Functional Templates and Edit Interface alike relies on a CMS Library with powerful data definition, wide database support, data binding and templating on ASP.NET and very much more.

Programmatic CMS

N2 is an opinionated piece of software. The core principles are "code speaks" and separation between view templates, content model and database.

We assume you want total control over the presentation layer, prefer to build your content model using .NET classes and are just as happy without doing the database or administrative forms.

N2 CMS speeds up development by taking advantage of the .NET type system. It generates editor interfaces based on attributes on your content classes. With virtually no boilerplate code you can benefit from intellisense, source control, true FTP deployment and greater maintainablility.

The CMS is extendable through events, the content classes themselves, custom editable attributes, plug-ins and other enabling hooks.

Behaves on ASP.NET

Like any well behaved CMS N2 doesn't mess with your user interface. It just provides a useful set of APIs and ASP.NET controls to insert content data in the right spots. A front controller maps friendly URLs to the appropriate ASPX template which can be developed just like you normally would.

The framework plays in shared hosting environments and with most databases including SQL Server and MySQL (through NHibernate ORM).

One benefit of it's modular and lightweight approach is that the CMS can be integrated into existing ASP.NET solutions and ASP.NET MVC.

Reviews

"N2 is the perfect example of the right tool for the job. It doesn't set out to solve your business' workflow problem, nor is it enamored with the frequent dead end of WYSIWYG web layout. No, it zeroes in on the focal points of serious middle-weight CMS+web development with a highly approachable object model and 100% integration into existing ASP.NET paradigm."

"Best CMS framework I've seen. Looking forward to using for many applications to come. "

"N2CMS is GREAT. I downloaded the VB.NET sample one and it runs straight after unzip."

"I have been working on a project that requires a website to be customised from a Winforms application. I found N2 CMS a couple of weeks ago, and I'm impressed with the power it offers developers. Most (if not all) of the CMS packages I've worked with require things to be implemented a certain way, and this can cause problems when a client asks for a feature that doesn't fit well into the CMS model. N2 is definitely one of the best .NET CMS packages available."