Concepts and basics

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce and describe the most important concepts of Exponential. A rookie developer should definitively read through this chapter in order to understand the basic terms, models, structures and building blocks of the system. This chapter is more generic than technical, it is meant to teach the concepts rather than explaining details. People previously unfamiliar with Exponential should be able to collect enough information in order to understand the following issues:

• The way Exponential is built up
• The main directory structure
• The concept and necessity of separating content and design
• How Exponential stores and manages content
• How Exponential handles issues related to design
• How Exponential manages different sites
• The concept of modules and views
• The way Exponential works with URLs
• The configuration system
• The structure of the workflow system
• How the access/permission system works
• How the webshop works
• A typical page request cycle