Why Content Management Systems?

About Content Management Systems
We Build in a number of different content management systems, depending on what out client requires. Sometimes there requires important analysis when choosing the content management system for a client, and understanding their needs for now and in the future.

What is a CMS?
Although vague, in my opinion the term Content Management System can mean the management of any content, in this case we are looking to allow our clients to manage, edit, and add new content to their site.

When we say CMS, we are referring to a Web CMS, which is defined by Wikipedia as: A Web Content Management System is content management system (CMS) software, implemented as a Web application, for creating and managing HTML content. It is used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents and images). A WCMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and essential Web maintenance functions. The software provides authoring tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of programming languages to create and manage content with relative ease. 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_content_management_system

This can also is quite vague, as to what the term ‘content’ refers to, as many clients need an understanding of what, when the site is completed will they be able to edit.

In large organisations the content management system means the visual style and branding of the site can be locked down from editing, and the content (text and images) within the page will be editable to the variety of users within the organisation. The content can also be written and reviewed by other departments before being published to the public. Therefore allowing for multiple users to manage the site, while maintaining strict Branding Guidelines, and communicating the companies message clearly. This can refer to meeting the visual style outlined by company branding, using fonts and colours that complement the brand automatically overriding any other styles. Benefitting from simple and quick style application and ease of updating the site.

In smaller organisations this isn’t always the case, sometimes the user may want to be able to take more control over their site, and find the ‘template’ locked down style and branding to stifling for their organisation and allow for more flexibility.

These are just two examples of the dilemmas and decisions in choosing the best content management system for a client, and also how best to implement it.

Factors to consider when choosing a CMS

  • Clients web knowledge and literacy
  • How often the site needs to be updated, and how often they will maintain it.
  • How hands on the client want to be, and how much they are looking to build on their site and develop
  • Budget
  • Timeframe
  • Flexibility
  • Maintenance

Content Management System Comparisons
Below are a few of the major CMS solutions, and some important comparisons in use and management. Content correct as May 2010

WordPress is an excellent CMS for blogging and publishing quickly and simply. Recent Developments have made it possible to be used as a full CMS solution, with few limitations and with the release of WordPress 3.0 and its new features it is competing as a Publishing tool in a variety of areas. As of September 2009 WordPress is being used by over 202 million websites, and is the most popular blog software today. Changing WordPress into a CMS involves customising the Theme and the Administration Panels through the use of coding and WordPress Plugins. Current limitations such as multiple content panels can be overcome with the use of plugins and theme development providing a fast and full featured solutions - http://wordpress.org/

SilverStripe is a free and open source content management system for creating and maintaining websites. The CMS provides a web-based administration panel that enables users to make modifications to many parts of the website. This panel includes a WYSIWYG website editor. SilverStripe is a young CMS in comparison to some of the others, but has had good publicity with large websites such as the Democratic National Convention helping to build its profile. It has a steep learning curve for building themes, but once understood can be a valuable tool to an organisation. For the user, the interface is straightforward for editing and easy to pick up. Some problems in installation and setup, and some speed issues that hopefully don’t overshadow the usability this CMS can offer. - http://silverstripe.org/

ExpressionEngine is a Content Management System developed by EllisLab. It is available as a Commercial version after paying a one-time fee. ExpressionEngine is intended to be simpler to use than other content management systems; for instance, it requires no knowledge of PHP, and has extensive online documentation and a good network of developers. However much of the features of EE are made up of 3rd Party add-ons to extend the functionality of the CMS, and comparisons on features have to be made for added the cost compared to open source solutions. - http://expressionengine.com/

Joomla is suitable for creating networks, membership areas, newsrooms, forums, articles, and sites that require community involvement. It allows the client a lot of power over your site, and this is noticeable in the admin section where there are many options. This does mean that maintaining the site and back end of the CMS are more complicated, and require in-depth training, or customisation of the Administration.
Joomla has a complicated structure and is a a learning curve to master the layout system. Speed issues can also be a factor due to the heavy system and variety of options that Joomla provides. – http://www.joomla.org/

Further in depth comparison and testing can be found at: http://www.cmsmatrix.org/

Factors to consider when offering a CMS solution:

  • Installation
  • Management Interface
  • Theme Building options
  • Templated pages
  • Multiple content areas on one page
  • Client ability to build upon their site themselves
  • Support options

Understanding the limitations of CMS
The limitations can vary on the CMS, some while embracing the features wanted by their users may not allow for the future development of the site and may lack the support that is needed for the designer/developer of the theme. While others may lack the community of users/developers that form the open source development of the CMS. Some may just require thorough training and regular maintenance which may not suit your clients time or budget. Each are different, and thorough testing is needed before offered to a client as a solution. Tools such as the comparison above, and in depth comparison sites such as www.cmsmatrix.org may help you choose those to test.

Open Source
Many CMS solutions are open source, as this means that the development of the software is being done by a community, meaning there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. This also means that it is free to use and no licence fee in order to use it. Whenever possible we try to work on an Open Source Platform in order to offer our clients cheaper solutions, less maintenance costs and better long term possibilities.

What does open source mean? Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in. For more info read the Open source initiative - http://www.opensource.org/

Sprout Designs CMS solutions
We build in all the Content Management Systems outlined above depending on which is right for the client. In some cases this can mean creating only a theme and templates, while in other cases we provide a full service from consultation, build, content generation and hosting solutions.