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Content Management

What is a content management system?

A content management system (CMS) is a system used to manage the content of a web site. A CMS 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 features of a CMS system vary, but most include web-based publishing, format management, revision control, and indexing, search, and retrieval.

Which CMS?

There are a number of open source content managment systems available, some of the more popular ones being WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. Depending on the requirements of your web site it may be worth exploring the various options each of these CMS’ has to offer. If none meet your needs then you may need a custom CMS designed specifically to meet your requirements, although this will see your costs increase dramatically as it will need to be built from scratch.

WordPress

WordPress

WordPress

For me, WordPress is the content management system of choice. Check out the information below and I’ll explain why.

Definition

Dynamic publishing tool for managing website content using a web browser. The platform is opensource and widely used by leading news agencies and corporations. Has a user friendly interface for publishing text and media. Also works great to optimize a website for search engines with plugins.

User Friendly

You don’t have to be experienced to use WordPress. The administration section is easy to navigate and it is easy to add articles/content/photos to your website.

Standards Compliant

WordPress fully adheres to all the web standards proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

SEO Friendly

WordPress uses different functions which allow it to be search engine friendly. For example sending pings to other sites, making categories, tagging your posts, use of h1/h2 tags etc.

Large community Support

Recent statistics suggest WordPress is used on more than 1% of the websites on the Internet. There is a large user community backing WordPress development; so, whatever problems you face, you can easily find the answers through the available WordPress forums and communities.

Plugins

Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. For a full searchable list visit the following page http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/.

I use a number of plugins on the various WordPress sites I have designed, here is a short list of the best.

  • NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a Flash slideshow option.
  • Nextgen Smooth Gallery is a WordPress Plugin that allows you to use the amazing JonDesign’s Smooth Gallery viewer on your NextGen-Gallery galleries.
  • postTabs allows you to easily split your post/page content into Tabs that will be shown to your visitors.
  • Twiiterfeed is not a plugin as such, but is a very useful tool to keep your social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook up to date. By using the WordPress RSS feed whenever you post a new article Twitter and Facebook will be updated automatically, rmoving the need to add the update manually.

Examples

I have designed a number of web sites using WordPress (including this one), check out the following sites for some WordPress inspiration.

Joomla

Joomla!

Joomla!

Definition

Joomla! is an open source content management system platform for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets as well as a Model–view–controller (MVC) Web application framework.

What can Joomla be used for?

Joomla is used all over the world to power Web sites of all shapes and sizes. For example:

  • Corporate Web sites or portals
  • Corporate intranets and extranets
  • Online magazines, newspapers, and publications
  • E-commerce and online reservations
  • Government applications
  • Small business Web sites
  • Non-profit and organizational Web sites
  • Community-based portals
  • School and church Web sites
  • Personal or family homepages

Showcase

Companies using Joomla can be found in the Joomla Community Site Showcase.

Support

Joomla is the most popular open source CMS currently available as evidenced by a vibrant and growing community of friendly users and talented developers. Joomla’s roots go back to 2000 and, with over 200,000 community users and contributors, the future looks bright for the award-winning Joomla Project.

Examples

Here are just a few examples of Web sites that use Joomla:

Drupal

Drupal

Drupal

Definition

Drupal is a free modular content management system. It is particularly popular for building online communities. Drupal is an English transliteration of the Dutch word “druppel” which means “drop” (as in “a drop of water”).

What can You create with Drupal?

  • Simple static website
  • Company website
  • Weblog
  • Dating website
  • Myspace-like website

Why you should use Drupal?

  • Easy to use (even if you don’t know html, php…)
  • Lots of modules
  • Lots of themes
  • Great established user community
  • You can make a website in terms of hours, even minutes

Support

Large user community, visit the forum here.

Examples