Use BlogEngine.Net as a Content Management System

I've used BlogEngine.Net for a CMS a few times now and I'm happy with the way it has worked out for the very small business sites that I maintain.   I'm comfortable in this programming environment and so that's why I choose it over WordPress.

Its easy to modify so that each BlogEngine.Net category is directed to a separate page.  So, in the case of one of my customers when they want a news page that they can update and also a tips page that they can update – I set it up like this.  Create a category called news and a category called tips in the Admin area.

Here's how I set it up.  In the [User controls] folder is a control called PostList.ascx.  I added a property to this control called PageCategory.

Here's the code from the .aspx page which will set the PageCategory properly for the page:

 
<%@ Register Src="User controls/linksSide.ascx" TagName="linksSide" TagPrefix="uc2" %>
<%@ Register Src="User controls/PostList.ascx" TagName="PostList" TagPrefix="uc1" %>
<%@ Import namespace="BlogEngine.Core"%>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="head" runat="server">
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="ContentPlaceHolder1" runat="server">
<div id="divError" runat="Server" />
<uc2:linksSide ID="LinksSide1" PageCategory="cleaningtips" runat="server" />
<uc1:PostList ID="PostList1" PageCategory="cleaningtips" runat="server" />
</asp:Content>

 Here's the code which implements the PageCategory property inside of PostList.ascx. 

Basically, it all comes down to making sure the only posts which display are those which  match the category.

  ( Linq would work great on this)

foreach (Category cat in Category.Categories)
{

	string name = cat.Title;
	if (name.Equals(PageCategory))
	{
	
		List<Post> visiblePosts = cat.Posts.FindAll(delegate(Post p) { return p.IsPublished; });
		if (Posts == null || visiblePosts.Count == 0)
		{
			hlPrev.Visible = false;
			hlNext.Visible = false;
			return;
		}
		else
		{
			hlPrev.Visible = true;hlNext.Visible = true;
		}
	
		LoadAll(visiblePosts);
		break;
	
	}
}