Nino is a lean PHP foundation that gives conventional websites dynamic content—without becoming the project itself.
The website remains the project. Its visible result is built with individual HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Nino adds routing, multilingual content, reusable elements, forms, and other dynamic features without prescribing the page structure or design.
Optional tools for developers.
/_admin provides full access to the technical and editorial
structure of the project: element types, content, texts, images, pages,
routes, users, configuration, and restoration. Everything it changes
remains available as readable files and can also be edited directly.
Optional access for editors.
/_editor exposes only the content and operational areas that
an account is allowed to maintain. Editors can update texts, recurring
elements, and images or manage submissions and newsletters without gaining
access to the technical project.
Required once, removable afterwards.
A fresh checkout is configured through /_install. The guided
setup checks the environment, selects languages, modules, theme, and pages,
creates the project files, and prepares the first accounts. Once setup is
complete, the installer can be removed.
The missing layer between a static website and a full CMS.
Keep conventional HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as the foundation. Nino works around your frontend instead of replacing it.
Add multilingual content, recurring elements, forms, navigation, users, and backups only where the website needs them.
Use the management interfaces when they help. Remove them when the project no longer needs them.
The three-step path to a maintainable website
Start your project and create the initial state with /_install.
Develop the website with templates, CSS, JavaScript, content, and project-specific PHP.
Let editors maintain approved content while developers retain full control.
Small by design
Mostly like the website you would have written anyway.
Three calls run the website. Nino initializes the project, turns the incoming HTTP request into a response, and sends it to the browser. The public entry point needs no application bootstrap, dependency container, or package loader.
index.php<?php
require '_nino/Nino.php';
$appData = \Nino\init();
$request = \Nino\request( $appData, $_SERVER );
\Nino\output( $appData, $request );HTML remains HTML. Textfills insert editable page content, while the [elements] block repeats the developer-written <article> for the selected services. Nino supplies the data; the project keeps control of the markup.
templates/page-home.tpl[template /templates/html-header]
<section class="ui-section ui-section--alt">
<div class="ui-grid-row">
<div class="ui-grid-100">
<h1 class="ui-section-title">[[/page-home/title]]</h1>
<p class="ui-section-subtitle">[[/page-home/intro]]</p>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<section class="ui-section">
<div class="ui-grid-row">
[elements /services limit="3"]
<div class="ui-grid-100 ui-grid-m-33">
<article class="ui-article ui-article--alt">
<div class="ui-article-content">
<h2 class="ui-article-title">[[title]]</h2>
<p class="ui-article-descr">[[description]]</p>
</div>
</article>
</div>
[/elements]
</div>
</section>
[template /templates/html-footer]Extend the project, not the kernel. A custom module registers its behavior during init(). Once enabled in config.php, its shortcode can be used inside any template without changing Nino itself.
_nino/Project/Hello/Hello.php<?php
namespace Project;
class Hello {
public static function init( array &$appData ): void {
\Nino\Html::addShortcode(
$appData,
'hello',
[ self::class, 'shortcode' ]
);
}
public static function shortcode(
array &$appData,
array $args
): string {
return 'Hello from the project.';
}
}Explore the source.
Experience a website built with Nino, then discover how little stands between the frontend and the code.