Content management system

A content management system (CMS) is a computer software system used to assist its users in the process of content management. CMS facilitates the organization, control, and publication of a large body of documents and other content, such as images and multimedia resources. A CMS often facilitates the collaborative creation of documents. A web content management system is a content management system with additional features to ease the tasks required to publish web content to web sites.

Web content management systems are often used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators' manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. A content management system may support the following features:

• Import and creation of documents and multimedia material
• Identification of all key users and their content management roles
• The ability to assign roles and responsibilities to different content categories or types.
• Definition of the content workflow tasks, often coupled with event messaging so that content managers are alerted to changes in content.
• The ability to track and manage multiple versions of a single instance of content.
• The ability to publish the content to a repository to support access to the content. Increasingly, the repository is an inherent part of the system, and incorporates enterprise search and retrieval.
• Some content management systems allow the textual aspect of content to be separated to some extent from formatting. For example the CMS may automatically set default colour, fonts, or layout.

Forms

Content management systems take the following forms:

• a web content management system is software for web site management - which is often what is implicitly meant by this term
• the work of a newspaper editorial staff organization
• a workflow for article publication
• a document management system
• a single source content management system - where content is stored in chunks within a relational database.

Web content management systems

Main article: Web content management system

A web content management system is a computer system used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A CMS facilitates document control, auditing, editing, and timeline management. A Web CMS provides the following key features:

Automated templates

Create standard visual templates that can be automatically applied to new and existing content, creating one central place to change that look across a group of content on a site.

Easily editable content

Once your content is separate from the visual presentation of your site, it usually becomes much easier and quicker to edit and manipulate. Most CMS software include WYSIWYG editing tools allowing non-technical individuals to create and edit content.

Scalable feature sets

Most CMS have plug-ins or modules that can be easily installed to extend an existing site's functionality.

Web standards upgrades

Active CMS solutions usually receive regular updates that include new feature sets and keep the system up to current web standards.

Workflow management

Workflow is the process of creating cycles of sequential and parallel tasks that must be accomplished in the CMS. For example, a content creator submits a story but it's not published on the website until the copy editor cleans it up, and the editor-in-chief approves it.

Document management

CMS solutions may provide a means of managing the life cycle of a document from initial creation time, through revisions, publication, archive, and document destruction.

History

The term Content Management System was originally used for website publishing and management systems. Early content management systems were developed internally at organizations which were doing a lot of web publishing, such as on-line magazines, newspapers, and corporate newsletters. In 1995, CNET spun out its internal web document management and publication system into a separate company called Vignette, which opened up the market for commercial content management systems.

As markets evolved, the scope of products promoted as content management systems greatly broadened, fragmenting the meaning of the term. Wiki systems and web-based groupware are often described as content management systems, in contrast to the original website publishing management system definition.

Operation

A web site content management system often runs on the website's server. Most systems provide controlled access for various ranks of users such as administrators, copy editors, senior editors, and content creators. Access is usually via a web browser program, possibly combined with some use of FTP for uploading content.

Content creators submit their documents to the system. Copy editors comment on, accept, or reject documents. Layout editors lay out the site. The editor in chief is then responsible for publishing the work to the live site. The content management system controls and helps manage each step of this workflow, including the technical task of publishing the documents to one or more live web servers.

The content and all other information related to the site is usually stored in a server-based relational database system. The content management system typically keeps a record of previous website editions and in-progress editions.

The pages controlled and published through the content management system can then be seen by the visitors to the website.

In larger organizations these server based documents need to communicate with desktop applications and Open Document Management APIs perform the necessary "translations". They have made substantial cost and time savings to document management overall, and assist in smooth flow of documents through enterprises, applications and processes.

Lately CMS systems have been associated with CRM, Customer Relation Management or Constituent Relationship Management, software programs. Because of that some software companies are beginning to create software platforms that bundle CMS and CRM functions[1].

Terminology

The following terms are often used in relation to web content management systems but they may be neither standard nor universal:

Block

A block is a link to a section of the web site. Blocks can usually be specified to appear on all pages of the site (for example in a lefthand navigation panel) or only on the home page.

Module

A content module is a section of the web site, for example a collection of news articles, an FAQ section, etc. Some content management systems may also have other special types of modules, for example administration and system modules.

Theme

A theme specifies the cosmetic appearance of every page of the web site, controlling properties such as the colours and the fonts.

Types of CMS

Module-based CMS

Most tasks in a document's life-cycle are served by CMS modules. Common modules are document creation/editing, transforming and publishing.

TODDS CMS

TODDS is a system that was created to conteract the MOSS System. It is an acronoym that stands for Totally Organic Data Driven System. It is a new tool that is helping IT departments do their jobs more effiecently, especially when they should belong in a Marketing type organization.

Document transformation language-based CMS

Another approach to CMS building with use of open standards. XSLT-based CMS compile ready documents from XML data and XSLT-template. XML Sapiens-based CMS compile a document from the stream of ‘pure’ data, design template and functionality templates.

Web-based CMS

Another approach to CMS building uses databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL or MS SQL, and scripting languages or tools such as Coldfusion, PHP, jsp or ASP to interact with the data to parse them into visual content. Data stored in a database are queried and compiled into html pages or other documents and transformed using cascading style sheets. These systems can include a number of other functions, such as discussion boards, blogs, or email newsletters.

See also

• Digital asset management
• List of content management systems
• Enterprise Content Management

External links

• Content management at Curlie
• Make the Right Choice: A Nonprofit's Guide to Content Management Systems from Common Knowledge

Directories of available systems

• CMS Matrix Overview of (web) content management systems.
• CMS Watch Annotated lists of major enterprise and web content management systems.
• Open Source Scripts Open Source Content Management Systems.
• OpenSource CMS Open Source CMS Reviews and Demos
• PHPXref CMS page Library of cross referenced Open Source Content Management Systems written in PHP.
• Comparing static webpages with Content Management Systems
• Content Management 365 Portal of content management system vendors