Skip to main content

Jadu CMS

Jadu CMS is primarily focused on public sector and service delivery. It's built to support structured content, workflow approvals, and multi-site management, making it a good fit for councils, universities, and other large organizations.

Key Features​

  • Built-in form builder via XFP (XForms)
  • Native support for multi-sites, known as Galaxies
  • Designed around set content types, each with a distinct role:
  • Pages – Static content pages
  • Homepages – Landing pages or section overview pages
  • Documents – Structured service/info pages
    • Searchable
    • Organized by categories or service areas
  • Articles – Often used for blogs or news
  • Forms – Built separately in XFP

Editing Experience​

  • Uses widgets and snippets to insert pre-built components (e.g., accordions, contact boxes)
  • More like ACF in WordPress—not a drag-and-drop or visual builder like Gutenberg
  • Content layouts are typically templated and locked down, offering less flexibility but more consistency

Templating & Frontend​

  • Templating is done using Velocity (a proprietary XML-based templating language)
  • You can use standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript within these templates
  • Template structure and layout is usually controlled by developers or admins
note

Is built using PHP and Symfony. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symfony

warning

CMS update is currently a road block to change.

tip

Reviewing github code for accessibility issues on github

Approval Workflow​

Jadu has a built-in content approval system, ensuring controlled publishing. The workflow usually looks like this:

  • Content editors can create and edit pages
  • They cannot publish directly—instead, content is sent to a senior editor or comms team for review
  • Content is then either:
    • Approved and published
    • Sent back with comments
    • Rejected

Other features include:

  • User roles and permissions (Author, Approver, Publisher, etc.)
  • Workflow rules per content type or section
  • Audit trail to track changes, edits, and publishing actions
  • Email notifications for review/approval stages

Version Control​

  • Pages and documents support version history
  • You can roll back to previous versions
  • Depending on configuration, accidentally deleted content can often be recovered (soft delete)
tip