Content Management Systems

Web Based Content Management Systems

Overview

The Web

The internet offers us a powerful communication and community collaboration opportunity. Having a website is as necessary as having a phone number, and in many instances more so. Setting up a basic html website has become a fairly simple and available process for the masses. However, keeping a basic html website up to date with relevant and meaningful content is a burden that crushes the potential of most website endeavors.

Web 2.0

Enter Web 2.0, which refers to the latest generation of website development focused on making the content of your website as easy to update as sending an e-mail. Web 2.0 includes such websites technologies as blogs, wikis, forums, social networking sites, and other varieties of content management systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2

The CMS and the Portal

The most popular format of Content Management Systems or CMSs is the portal, or the window to an organized collection of content. Websites like yahoo would be a good example of successful portal technology.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/13033.asp

Open Source

The development of these highly interactive and dynamic web based content management systems has recently become available to everyone through freely licensed Open Source technology. Some of the best web site tools are now freely available as part of the Open Source movement, one such tool is the CMS.

http://www.opensource.org/

CMS and Joomla

Setting up and administering a CMS is now as easy as installing a program on your PC. First a CMS is installed to your web server in much the same way as you would install an operating system on your computer. Once the operating system is in place you can add programs to give the user functionality. The CMS operates in much the same way. There are currently many CMSs in development, a few of which seem to be rising to the top of wide adoption and support by the Open Source community. Joomla, recently was awarded the top CMS project under development by the Open Source Community.

http://www.joomla.org/content/view/2275/1/

Joomla In Action

Joomla has proven to be a versatile and easily configurable CMS tool. A wide variety of websites are currently running on the Joomla CMS and offer their users content delivered as blogs, forums, real estate sites, online stores, intranets, community organization sites, and general internet forums.

Some of the top Joomla Sites

http://www.stella-polaris.no/ , a Travel Agency

http://www.earthcorporationenterprises.com , a artistic community portal

http://www.amstelhof.com , a health club

http://www.kmcsolutions.nl , an IT company

http://www.aboutdj.nl , a DJ community portal

The Back End and the Front End

One great feature of the Joomla CMS is that the content and structure of your website is separated from the presentation of your website. The Front End, or what people see when they go to your website, can look however you want it to. Custom templates can be designed with limitless creative freedom. The Back End, or what the administrators of the website work with, is separate from the front end design. So you can give your website a face lift whenever you want and you don't have to redo any of your content or the basic organization of your website. Its like choosing a new theme on your PC, you can change the icons and the wallpaper without having to reinstall all of your programs. These template themes are being developed by a variety of professional designers. You can pick one of these templates as a starting point for your site, then you customize it with your colors, logos, graphics, and layout choices. It's the fastest way to get a highly functional website with professional design elements and your custom branding.

Some Joomla Template Designers

http://www.rockettheme.com/

http://www.templateplazza.com/

http://www.joomlashack.com/

http://www.joomladesigns.co.uk/

The Components

Once you have your Joomla website up and running and you have picked out a template its easy to add new functions to your website. If you want to add a calendar tool to your website, its as easy as installing a program on your computer, except you are installing a "component" into Joomla. The components work with the core element of Joomla without having to do any custom programming. You just pick where you want the new component to show up for your users.

Just a few of the components you can install

E-mail News Letter Senders
Calendar
Forums
Download Managers
Chat
Photo galleries
E-commerce
Podcasting

Online Collaboration

The built in accounts system of Joomla makes it easy to coordinate the updates and activities of your website with a group of people. Registration is a very simple web form that takes less than a minute to complete. Once someone is registered with the site they can be given permissions to contribute and manage the content and functions of the website. This offers an integrated approach to sharing the duties of a community endeavor. All of the interactions with the website are done through intuitive web forms that approach the functionality that people are use to in their word processing and e-mail management PC programs.

Support

By choosing to develop your website with an open source tool like Joomla, you are simultaneously entering into a support community of thousands of developers and IT professionals. The Joomla CMS system is actually in its 5^th generation of software development over several years of contribution by hundreds of web programmers. 3^rd party developers are actively developing hundreds of free open source extensions for joomla every month. Some of these developers also offer commercial licenses of their products for the price of a single seat of software, usually between $30 and $100, that offer more robust solutions and a commercial level of support options.