CMS Review

A content management system (CMS) is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content, though in many cases, It is a piece of software that runs on a server. Typically a database application, a CMS makes it easy to publish and administrate content. Content management systems require special client software for editing and constructing articles. The market for CMS remains fragmented, with many open-source and proprietary solutions available.  A web content management system (WCMS) is a software system which provides website authoring and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage the site's content with relative ease.

Most systems use a database to store content, metadata, or artifacts that might be needed by the system. Content is frequently, but not universally, stored as XML, to facilitate, reuse, and enable flexible presentation options.

A presentation layer displays the content to Web-site visitors based on a set of templates. The templates are sometimes XSLT files.

Most systems use server side caching boosting performance. This works best when the WCMS is not changed often but visits happen on a regular basis.

Administration is typically done through browser-based interfaces, but some systems require the use of a fat client.

Unlike Web-site builders, a WCMS allows non-technical users to make changes to a website with little training. A WCMS typically requires an experienced coder to set up and add features, but is primarily a Web-site maintenance tool for non-technical administrators.

 Typically, a CMS consists of two elements: the content management application (CMA) and the content delivery application (CDA). The CMA element allows the content manager or author, who may not know Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), to manage the creation, modification, and removal of content from a Web site without needing the expertise of a Webmaster. The CDA element uses and compiles that information to update the Web site. The features of a CMS system vary, but most include Web-based publishing, format management, revision control, and indexing, search, and retrieval.

The Web-based publishing feature allows individuals to use a template or a set of templates approved by the organization, as well as wizards and other tools to create or modify Web content. The format management feature allows documents including legacy electronic documents and scanned paper documents to be formatted into HTML or Portable Document Format (PDF) for the Web site. The revision control feature allows content to be updated to a newer version or restored to a previous version. Revision control also tracks any changes made to files by individuals. An additional feature is indexing, search, and retrieval. A CMS system indexes all data within an organization. Individuals can then search for data using keywords, which the CMS system retrieves.

A CMS system may also provide tools for one-to-one marketing. One-to-one marketing is the ability of a Web site to tailor its content and advertising to a user's specific characteristics using information provided by the user or gathered by the site (for example, a particular user's page sequence pattern). For example, if you visit a search engine and search for "digital camera," the advertising banners will advertise businesses that sell digital cameras instead of businesses that sell garden products.

Some basic features that is common to all CMSes:

Separation of content, structure and design

A CMS improves the lifecycle of your website for years to come. The "look and feel" of your site can be changed or relaunched, leaving existing content and page architecture untouched. No need to worry about copying and pasting content into another site, simply publish your new design and the CMS will pull the content into the new look.

Easy content production, no programming skills required

Once content is separated from the visual presentation of a site, it usually becomes much easier and quicker to edit and manipulate. Most WCMS software includes WYSIWYG editing tools allowing non-technical individuals to create and edit content. If you can use a computer, you can manage the content for your website. Using a graphical user interface, authors can simply create text, insert images and multimedia files, schedule content (and much more) to build and maintain a dynamic website.

This is especially true if you take advantage of TYPO3's server-side graphics generation for making image menus, graphical headlines, etc. You will never need to make another menu button again, or pay a web designer to do it for you. Each time you add or change a page, the menu will automatically update to reflect the change. Having to learn or purchasing photo editing software will not be necessary. You can upload images straight to the web from your digital camera / DV camera or a scanner.

 A CMS is designed to perform the following tasks:

§  Allow for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data

§  Control access to data, based on user roles. User roles define what information each user can view or edit

§  Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data

§  Reduce repetitive duplicate input

§  Improve the ease of report writing

§  Improve communication between users

In a CMS, data can be defined as nearly anything - documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, scientific data, etc. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, revising, semantically enriching, and publishing documentation.

Common advantages of a CMS:

1.      Decentralized maintenance.
Typically based on a common web browser. Edit anywhere, anytime. Bottlenecks removed. CMS allows you to create standard output templates (usually HTML and XML) that can be automatically applied to new and existing content, allowing the appearance of all content to be changed from one central place.

2.      Designed with non-technical content editors in mind.
People with average knowledge of word processing can create the content easily. No HTML skills required.

3.      Configurable access restrictions.
Users are assigned roles and permissions that prevent them from touching content in which they are not authorized to change.

4.      Consistency of design is preserved.
Because content is stored separate from design, the content from all authors is presented with the same, consistent design.

5.      Navigation is automatically generated.
Menus are typically generated automatically based on the database content and links will not point to nonexistent pages.

6.      Content is stored in a database.
Central storage means that content can be reused in many places on the website and formatted for multiple devices (web browser, mobile phone/WAP, PDA, printer).

7.      Dynamic content.
Extensions like forums, polls, shopping carts, search engines, news management are typically drop-in modules. A good CMS also allows for truly user defined extensions.

8.      Daily updates.
You do not need to involve web designers or programmers for every little modification - you are in control of your website.

9.      Cooperation.
Encourages faster updates, enforces accountability for content editors via log files and promotes cooperation between authors.

10.  Content scheduling.
Content publication can often be time-controlled; hidden for previews; or require a user login with password.

11.  Workflow management

Workflow is the process of creating cycles of sequential and parallel tasks that must be accomplished in the CMS. For example, a content creator can submit a story, but it is not published until the copy editor cleans it up and the editor-in-chief approves it.

12.  Multilingual

Most CM systems allow you to create multilingual webpages and manage multilingual content making websites more desirable and attractive for remote visitors.

Two factors must be considered before an organization decides to invest in a CMS. First, an organization's size and geographic dispersion must be considered especially if an organization is spread out over several countries. For these organizations, the transition to CMS is more difficult. Secondly, the diversity of the electronic data forms used within an organization must be considered. If an organization uses text documents, graphics, video, audio, and diagrams to convey information, the content will be more difficult to manage.

Some of the leading Content Management Systems are:

eZ Publish:

eZ Publish is one of the world’s leading Open Source Enterprise CMS and development architecture. Some users might consider this complex framework to be complicated, but generally agree that eZ Publish has one feature that stands above the rest: the ability to create different content classes in the administration interface. If you want to create your own custom site on a solid framework, this CMS could be for you. With eZ Publish content management system, if it’s not included, it’s a free add-on when it comes to built-in applications. Extensions, as they are called in this system, are many and easily downloadable from the developer’s site. This system lets you easily publish content such as files, photos and articles using the Website Toolbar – directly from your web browser. When you log in you will see the toolbar which will give you the option to publish, move, replace or even translate your content. There is no HTML coding required when adding content – the rich text editor is WYSIWYG and offers the formatting functions you would see in a word processing app. You can also publish your content right from your word processing program using OpenOffice. This makes it possible for you to create content independent of internet access then upload the document using a client or the front-end of your site.

Standout Features

• Web publishing
• Intranets
• E-commerce capability
• Commercial support and documentation
• Wiki capability

 

Drupal:

Drupal is content management system software that is much-beloved by a large and thriving developer community. Its modules, users and developers value flexibility, simplicity, utility, modularity, extensibility and maintainability in the code. The theory here seems to be that the core files are made light and feature-less – a blank canvas on which to create.  This system is lacking in built-in features.

Standout Features

• Modules – thousands of them for utility, content, third-party integration, admin, content, media, e-commerce, and on and on.
• Intense levels of personalization – considered to be the “core of Drupal.”
• Fully indexed and searchable content.
• Role-based permissions – not so different from our other highly ranked systems, but vital nonetheless.

Shortcomings:

Main criticisms of Drupal include that the countless modules are also its biggest drawback: a site in this system is nothing without many installed modules and conversely maintenance on 20+ modules is a nightmare. Also, this system is not object-oriented, which a lot of potential users find off-putting.

Joomla:

Joomla is known as one of the leading and most powerful content management system software out there.  Built-in applications are a-plenty with this system. The blog function is quite comprehensive. Between the built-ins and the plug-ins Joomla can be used to create corporate sites or portals, corporate intranets and extranets, online zines, newspapers and other publications, e-commerce and online reservations, small business sites, non-profit sites, school and church Web sites and even personal or family sites. Joomla  applications will keep track of every piece of content on your site from text and photos to music and video. Choose to manage menus, content, components, extensions or tools from the admin navigation bar. The text editor is self-explanatory.

Standout Features

• Easy installation
• Flexible configuration
• Mobile plugin that optimizes Joomla! for mobile
• Free plugins for all commerce options