CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

What is a Content Management

System?

A content management system (CMS) is a computer application that allows publishing, editing and modifying content, organizing, deleting as well as maintenance from a central interface. Such systems of content management provide procedures to manage workflow in a collaborative environment.

In Simple Words A content management system is a computer application

that manages digital content on web pages.

What is ‘Content’ ? Content in its essence is any type or unit of digital

information.

It can be text, images, graphics, video, sound, documents, records etc.

In other words, it can be anything that is likely to be stored in a digital form.

Types of a CMS The nature of the content or ‘digital record’ e.g. video, text, graphics, blog etc. dictates the type

of CMS .Thy are categorized as follows-

Web CMS - Enables user to create or amend a web page without any requisite

technical skills.

based upon a series of templates which form the structure of a website

and are used for content creation. The content author/editor inserts

content into these templates which are then published onto the site.

applied to internet websites, intranets and extranets.

Enterprise CMS - handle the content, assets, records and other information which

defines the structure and hierarchy of an organization.

employs a range of processes, tools and strategies to do so. It

includes scanning, tracking, indexing and collaboration with the aim of

streamlining the management of company information.

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Mobile CMS - systems which can manage content for smartphones, PDA’s, mobile

phones and other handheld devices.

originally designed for the business to customer (B2C) market but

have expanded to include business to business (B2B) and business to

employee (B2E).

Component CMS - systems which manages content at a deeper or ‘granular’

level.

refers to a single piece of content such as a paragraph of text,

a photograph or a graphic rather than a complete document,

which is stored within this system

each individual piece of content has its own workflow and is

tracked either as a single entity or as part of a larger system.

Features of a CMS

1. Basic Functionality - The content management system should be able to

perform basic functions like creating, deleting, editing and organizing web

pages. There are certain simple CMS solutions that allow creation of

content but organize the same as per default settings .One should check

about this feature if want to have total control over the contents of your web

pages.

2. WYSIWYG Editors - The WYSIWYG editors let you add, edit and change

the website contents without any knowledge of HTML whatsoever.

Moreover, the editors enable you to mark up headings, lists, links and other

elements on a web page without providing any specifications about their

appearance.

3. Management - The CMS should enable content providers to manage

images and files efficiently. In addition, it should also provide basic editing

tools like cropping resizing, rotating etc. Apart from all this, another

important consideration should be the ability of the CMS to upload and

attach PDFs, Word documents and other files and how they are displayed

to the website users.

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4. Customization - The CMS should be flexible enough to

accommodate your needs and requirements. Rather than following

technology as a default setting, it should seek to allow separation of

design and content. It should allow flexibility for the data to be

retrieved and presented.

5. User Interaction - The CMS should enable the gathering of user

feedback or allow a third party plug-in to do the same. If you have a

community or forum on your website, then your CMS should enable

provisions for chat, comments, ratings and other user interaction tools.

The CMS should enable you to post forms and collect responses.

6. Different Roles - The CMS should be able to control who can edit

what part of the website contents. For example the HR department of

the company would need to edit content on the 'Careers' page of the

website while the development team would keep track of the 'Portfolio'

page. Thus the CMS should support permissions that allow

specifications about what users can edit what pages and what

sections of the website.

Some more features…

Multilingual support

Support for mobile devices

Online marketing tools

High Performance and scalability

Extensibility and integration

Advanced security management

Multisite support

Advantages of a CMS

Quick and easy page management - Any approved user can quickly and

easily publish online without complicated software or programming.

Consistent brand and navigation - Design templates provide a consistent

brand and standard navigation across all websites.

Workflow management – An integrated workflow process facilitates better

content management.

Flexibility for developers – Because the CMS enables non-technical users

to easily publish content, this frees up technical developers to focus on

functionality and enhanced features.

Design is separate from content - You can manipulate content without fear of accidentally changing the design.

Database-driven – You only need to change data once for it to be

updated throughout your site.

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Shared resources – Website managers will have access to shared

resources, such as modules, images, audio and video files, etc.

Approval systems – You can give different levels of access to different

users, and the CMS has mechanisms to ensure content is approved

before going live.

Mobile ready – The CMS automatically scales your site to fit tablets,

mobile devices and smaller browser windows.

Archive capabilities –You can track who has made changes to your

page and archive previous versions of your page.

Remote access – You can access and update your site from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Search engine-friendly – The CMS helps to optimize your website so that

search engine users can easily find your information.

Some famous CMS

Wordpress - WordPress is a top-ranked CMS program that includes

hundreds of add-ons and strong community support to help you create a fully

functional business website.

Joomla - Joomla is a good CMS choice for web designers with enough

experience coding to create a unique and professional business website.

Drupal - Drupal is the best choice for creating a powerful website capable of

supporting large amount of traffic and managing extensive numbers of pages.

ocPortal - ocPortal is a CMS that includes all the basic tools for small and

medium businesses without having to upgrade to a higher version.

WebGUI - While it doesn't have as many templates and themes as other

CMS solutions, WebGUI includes all the important content management

system tools to manage web content.

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Rubedo - Rubedo CMS is simple to use on the front end and back

end.

MODX - The MODX CMS is a developer-friendly program that is

organized so you can easily create, upload and manage content.

concrete5 - concrete5 is a CMS solution that is a good choice for

creating high-end business websites in addition to supporting

backend projects with document management and project tracking.

X3 CMS - This CMS software can help you create basic websites,

though you will end up spending a lot more than other programs in

order to get business tools.

THANK YOU!