What is Content Management System and How Does it Work?

Everything You Must Know About CMS

In most cases, managing a website and taking the right decision regarding its features becomes increasingly complex, as it requires time versus effectiveness. Although there are hundreds of programs on the market, known as Content Management Systems (CMS), whose purpose is to make life

easier, especially when it comes about online business and commerce, it seems quite difficult to choose the right one. When opting for such a program, it should be considered their effectiveness and benefits, as they are priceless tools for any webmaster.

Content management system is the systematic and structured process of creation, processing, management and presentation of the content. A CMS can range from a basic script to a complex program with multiple features.

Before explaining what the advantages of using Content Management Systems are, we should understand why they are so important. A CMS is mainly a dynamic online program and organizational tool used to manage multiple websites instantly, while recording any changes that take place and producing uniform changes effectively across the website pages. Most of them operate with simple and easy to use concepts, leading to an overall high quality browsing experience. CMS also helps you save money and time, including data files, images, audio files, electronic documents and informational web content. It can be integrated in any data base: MS Access, MS SQL, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

The major problems encountered in designing and implementing content management systems are the following:

ü The commercial software is too expensive and requires more time to be implemented and adjusted;

ü Integration difficulties;

ü Difficulties in responding to the system's requirements;

ü Difficulties in integrating the existing content;

ü If the users have a limited disk space, a CMS size (2-20 MB) will result in corrupted files during the upload process;

ü Security problems caused by the questions and answers posted on forums;

Studies conducted by Jupiter Research in 2003 proved that 61% of the companies using CMS update manually the websites. The users ask for:

- Compact and simple systems;

- Comfortable and adaptable interfaces to create and update content.

It is necessary to develop CMS models that would resolve the problems mentioned, accelerating the process of creation and websites maintenance.

Content management system benefits

The main principle of a CMS consists in making accessible in the online environment various files of a department or company, being also used as an electronic archive. CMS is designed to be integrated in any kind of website. It encourages the collaboration between people, leading to a productive management.

A content management system may include:

ü Content development, analysis and classification;

ü A search application;

ü Posting comments

ü Forums;

ü Blogs;

ü Rating systems;

ü Projects collaboration platform;

ü Personal profile pages;

ü Communication between the users or managers of a website;

ü New custom themes, templates and design changes;

ü Administration of menus and submenus;

ü Provides a custom user interface in several languages;

ü User registration and management;

ü Assigning modules of application to the users;

ü Access restriction to the website by username, email address or IP address;

ü Statistics and reports for users;

ü Cache systems to improve the website reaction to intense traffic;

ü SEO friendly URL;

ü Chat platforms;

ü Webmaster support;

ü Editor support;

ü Users support;

ü Currency converter;

ü Weather displaying systems;

ü Dynamic generation of pages;

ü Delimited design and content;

ü A database for storing content;

ü uses the concept of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor; this way, the users don't need to have HTML knowledge;

ü Automatic syndication (RSS or Atom)

Online content management systems are often used to sort, control and check the versions and publishing industry-specific customer documentation such as news articles, operating manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, marketing brochures, or what the customer needs.

A well designed content management system should include the following facilities:

ü Importing and creating documents and multimedia materials;

ü Users identification;

ü The ability to assign roles and responsibilities for different categories of users;

ü The possibility to track versions and send notifications to users when a change is made;

ü The possibility to change the color scheme or the general appearance of the website;

ü Adding plug-ins and additional modular construction;

ü CMS use OOP and MVC (Model View Control) - delimited content and presentation.

Open-source CMS vs. Personal CMS

There are on the market a series of systems that are improved constantly, having a considerable documentation, which can be personalized for each user. Most content management systems are open-source; therefore, developing a personal CMS is an inexpensive method.

The advantages of using an open-source CMS than a personal CMS are various:

ü Minimum expenses: An open-source CMS is free, the client pays only for personalizing and implementing the CMS; developing a personal CMS is expensive and requires time

ü Constant improvement: Open-source CMS are used by people worldwide; thus, any possible errors and maintenance issues are fixed due to the users' constant feedback; a personal CMS is tested only by the company and employees who created it;

ü Flexible and elegant design: There are several templates and themes that can be personalized for each user. Changing the webpage appearance and design can be made in a short time;

ü Easy maintenance: The website administration based on CMS is simple and doesn't require advanced web programming knowledge. By using a user friendly administration interface, even the company's employees can update the website, having only basic HTML knowledge and the ability to work with a text processor;

ü Extensibility: Content management system functions can be extended easily by installing new modules (galleries, a news module, a blog platform, etc.)

ü updating content through a WYSIWYG interface;

ü HTML not required;

ü Multiple contributors.

ü The code generated for the website is SEO optimized

If the website is a small one, which doesn't require multiple changes, it is better to use a static site, which will consume less disk space, being easier to use and understand than a content management system.

The concept of content management is the current solution for a problem of management from the past, -the human communication management. Content management is a concept with many facets, being an activity that must be centered on the user: it must consider the users' problems and needs, applying the appropriate technologies to help people in their work. Knowledge, information and content are the main resources of the modern economy. The way in which we create and manage them determines our success as individuals and / or organizations.

The previous experience and fierce competition has consolidated the CMS solutions market and the standardization of content management systems. It is known that the content is more important than the technologies used for its management.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management, webdesign.about.com/.../contentmanagement/.../aa031300a.htm, compnetworking.about.com/.../aa122999b.htm