-
-
Content Management Systems - Joomla, Mambo, Drupal..
Who came up with these names?Content management systems are systems that are used to manage or supervise web content on a website. There are two central elements that make up a CMS system – the Content Management Application (CMA) and the Content Delivery Application (CDA). These two elements allow the website owner to create or modify any of the website content without having any expertise as a webmaster or with html. The Content Management Application simply compiles and converts the information entered in order to create an update to the website. There are a number of features offered by the CMA system including revision control, format management, Web-based publishing and indexing, retrieval and searching.
All of the web-based components of this software allow users to create a template or a set of templates. These templates are created for the website content utilizing various software-wizards. The Content Management System provides organization features and other various tools that allow users methods to modify or create web content.
Additionally, there is a “Format Management” feature of CMS that allows users to scan paper documents, such as legal documents or important records, into an HTML or PDF format for hosting on the website. The “Revision Control Feature” provides the ability to rationalize and update web content into a newer version, or restored to a previous version. All changes that are made to the files are logged and tracked by the Revision Control system. These are important change control features that allow website owners an easy way to revert to previous versions if they make a major mistake. The system also has excellent search, retrieval and indexing functions. A CMS system is extremely useful to systematically index and organize data. This allows the user to search data through searching on keywords.
CMS systems also offer an excellent tool for one-to-one selling or marketing. This marketing is a tremendous asset that a website can use to modify content and advertise that content update to a specific set of users
If an organization is considering investing in a CMS system, it should consider two important factors. The first major consideration is the geographic dispersion and size of the organization, especially if it is distributed globally across many countries. In that case, the migration to CMS could be extremely complicated. Another concern would be the diverse electronic data that is in use in some organizations. Content within an organization can be much more difficult to manage if the format of that content is in the form of graphics, audio, video, and diagrams.
Most often, a Content Management System is used for controlling, versioning, publishing and storing specific documentation within industry. For example, a CMS would make a valuable tool when management operators’ manuals, news articles, sales guides, marketing brochures, and technical manuals.
The following are typical features that are offered by a content management system:
- Assigned accounts and roles for every key user.
- The ability to assign responsibilities and roles to different types of content and content categories.
- Event messaging and alerts can be sent to content managers so that managers can review content updates, and either modify the content or approve the updates.
- The capability to manage or track multiple versions of any content.
- The system provides a repository so that many users can access the same web content, and allows easy retrieval and enterprise-wide searching of that content.
- Content management systems provide a wide array of formatting features that can even automatically set fonts, layout or default colors.
A number of well-known users are recognizing that the buzz surrounding CMS systems are accurate. A few examples of Content Management Systems include Joomla, Drupal, Plone and Mambo. In the fast growing landscape of the Internet, each website needs to update content often, and it should have a clean design and intuitive navigation. Every administrator of a website typically wants to have a website up instantly, and wants to have the ability to quickly add content and easily make changes to existing content. This can be accomplished through the use of any of the leading Content Management Systems.
For those with a tight budget, Joomla and Drupal are good choices. For more powerful needs, Plone is the best bet. However, Drupal is the choice that excels above most others, with a great deal of functionality, and uncomplicated set-up. Its only drawback is that it uses up a lot of system resources. Drupal is easier to use than most of the other content management systems, and it becomes more powerful with every release.
Undoubtedly, all of the tools available for content management are ready for prime time. As a beginning content manager, you may require the help of a web-developer to initially set up the website the way you would like it to look. However the maturity and set of features provided by all of these products provide an excellent resource for creating attractive, useful and secure websites. Any of these products will provide you the ability to easily post images, to produce cleanly designed content, and to simplify your website update process tremendously as well as provide you with a very effective way to easily interact with your entire organization.
-