In general, a Content Management System (CMS) is a system that manages work flow, usually in a collaborative environment. This system is a collection of procedures that simplify some complex or repetitive tasks. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. Website management is one of the tasks that needs some system to create, edit and manage content. Web pages are a typical example of content. You need some editor to create pages, some database to store them and some system to generate and retrieve pages when they are needed.

Web Content Management System (CMS) is a web application designed for creating and managing HTML content–web pages. Web CMS is used to manage a large collection of web resources (text, HTML code, images, PHP scripts, etc). Web CMS functions usually include: content creation, content control, content editing, maintenance functions, and functions special to each CMS. In general, web content management software applications provide authoring tools designed to allow users with little or no knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to create and manage content with relative ease. Therefore you don’t have to know anything about HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, AJAX or other fancy codes.

Web content management systems use a database to store content, metadata, or additional data that might be needed by the system. A web CMS usually contains a presentation layer which displays the content to web-site visitors based on a set of templates. A template is a basic page layout that contains content place holders, page styles and other page data that does not change.

Most web CMS applications use server side caching to boost performance. This works best when the web content is not changed often but visits happen on a regular basis. Administration of web CMS is typically done through web-based interfaces, but some systems require the use of a desktop client. A web CMS typically requires an experienced administrator to set up and add features, but is primarily a Web-site maintenance tool for non-technical administrators. It allows non-technical users to easily make changes to a website with little or no training.

There are many open-source web Content Management Systems you can download and use for free. Some well known free CMS systems are WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal to mention only the most popular. Those mentioned are based on PHP scripting language. There are also other CMS applications based on other languages like.NET, ASP.NET, Java, Java Bundle, Perl, Python, Ruby on Rails, etc.

A system that can be used to manage the content of a website is called content management system (CMS). In other words, CMS is a tool to create, edit, and remove details/information in a website. The definitive advantage of the CMS being that you can carry out most of the task without any technical expertise.

The contents managed can be of various types that include web contents, media files, e-documents, online transactions, etc. and they are classified based on the requirements.

Types of CMS

The different types of CMS are as follows,

Browser based CMS:

The most convenient and the cheapest CMS is the browser based CMS. It is easy to access and can be edited from anywhere in the world. Most of the other CMS require software to be installed but whereas this CMS does not require any software and can be simply logged in by using a username, password and the contents can be edited.

Transactional based CMS:

This type of CMS can be employed by E-commerce organization where they need to manage large data of transactions though online.

Digital based CMS:

Information is also stored in digital format, hence the digital equipment needs to be organized and kept in a system that is effective and functions properly. For this purpose, you can use a digital asset management system which will help in organizing all the media files. The digital media may contain audio, video, stills, graphics, and other media related files.

Business Process CMS:

This is a CMS which is related to transaction details such as invoices, sales order, application forms, etc. Further, the system offers the businesses to integrate and expand in the corporate environment and also provides the support to organize the work steps systematically and improve better communication among the users.

Enterprise CMS:

This system offers the users to access, scan, store and manage all information within an enterprise. The system supports all types of functions, it can be web based or E-commerce based or CRM. The enterprise CMS is designed in a way that can integrate with client server and hosted solutions.

Finally, it is very essential that you need to understand the various types of CMS which enable you to decide on the one that best suits your business. If you are not sure about the CMS that works cost effectively and efficiently for your business, contact us and we are happy to offer you the best possible help.

Vijayakumar Palaniappan

Marketing Manager

Samran Technologies

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Content Management Systems – Background Information

One of the biggest challenges faced by any company or individual with an internet presence is the problem of maintaining and developing their websites. Dealing with ever increasing numbers of often complex web pages and maintaining the navigational links between them is causing headaches for webmasters throughout cyberspace.

The Solution?

Many organisations have tackled the issue by installing a Content Management System (CMS) to manage their websites.

What is a Website Content Management System?

Content Management Systems (CMSs) are available in a variety of guises and are normally considered to be a set of software tools for creating, amending and managing web content. A large number of software vendors have entered the CMS marketplace and the products on offer vary widely in price and functionality.

Websites have moved on from the early days of being sets of ‘hand-crafted’ HTML pages. Nowadays, web content can be almost any kind of digital information, including text, graphics, images, sound and video. Any serious CMS needs to be able to handle this multiplicity of digital data and also be able to retrieve information from databases, incorporate output from a variety of other software (e.g. PDF files and spreadsheets) and ideally be able to integrate with e-commerce, groupware and social networking functions.

In order to build and maintain a successful website, this mixture of digital content needs to be managed in a coherent manner. One of the functions of a CMS is to ensure that the content is displayed in a consistent and easy to navigate fashion.

Choosing a Website Content Management System

As with other software suppliers, many Content Management System (CMS) vendors indulge in excessive marketing hype in the way that they promote their CMS offerings. When choosing a CMS, it is important to identify the features that are relevant for the administration of your particular websites.

Most CMS software incorporates three main features:

- access to web content ‘documents’ by multiple non-technical authors, including version control and access to previous versions;

- workflow control to allow editing and quality issues to be resolved before publication online;

- separate storage of web content documents and web publishing templates (which control the ‘look and feel’ of the website); web pages are created by using different combinations of web content and web publishing templates.

Some CMS software packages offer additional functionality including:

- real-time online publishing: software incorporating easy to use content authoring and online publication tools which facilitate the rapid creation and update of web logs (blogs) and electronic magazine and news websites;

- e-commerce: ability to create online shopping websites including acceptance of payments by credit card and online payment systems (e.g. PayPal);

- document management: enables management of all documents used within an organisation, not just documents used in web publishing, (this functionality is particularly useful for organisations where collaborative working on documents is useful, e.g. multinational companies, the legal profession, government departments, etc).

Future CMS Developments

When making decisions regarding the purchase of any new computer software, likely future technological advances should be anticipated wherever possible. This consideration is particularly pertinent in relation to web-related software, if rapid obsolescence is to be avoided.

Attempts are ongoing to provide web content on a variety of hardware devices beyond the desktop PC. Some of the earlier efforts (e.g. the WAP mobile phone) had limited success but digital television and newer mobile devices including smartphones and WiFi-enabled PDAs are increasingly being used to display web content. A number of vendors are now marketing CMS software which will control the distribution of web-based material to different hardware platforms in a unified manner.

One thing is certain – with the increasing ubiquity of the web, website content management systems are here to stay.

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AdSense ads are in fact a few lines of JavaScript code that we can embed anywhere on the webpage. If you have static pages then this is pretty easy. You simply paste AdSense code where you want ads to appear. Of course, you have to paste each ad unit individually unless you have some template for the website. Things are not so simple when you are using some content management system like Joomla.

Joomla uses a template system which defines the website layout and module positions. Module positions are places where you can insert page elements like menus, tag clouds, search boxes, social bookmarking widgets or ads. To include AdSense ads in Joomla you can install a dedicated AdSense module or a general purpose code insertion module. Each solution has some advantages and disadvantages.

Dedicated AdSense module is very simple to use. You simply enter your publisher ID, select ad type and size, define channel number, colors, publish module at the desired position and your ad is online. The disadvantage of this approach is that you have no control over the generated code. Google explicitly prohibits any changes to the ad code. In general, AdSense modules accurately regenerate the code defined by Google and there shouldn’t be a problem. However, if for some reason this code changes you will have a problem. You should periodically (once in a month or so) check the source code of your website. Not just because of the ads, simply to be sure that all on-page SEO elements are present. When you add new modules and plugins to the Joomla website you may inadvertently cause some changes in page layout, header or at some other not so visible place.

The second approach to include AdSense ads is to use a general module like CustomCode. This type of modules inserts arbitrary code at any module position. This is very convenient where you would like to have total control over the inserted code. The disadvantage of this method is that you must be very careful when changing colors or ad format. It is very easy to change code at wrong place. Of course, you will use this approach if you are an advanced Joomla user and you know exactly what you are doing. With this approach you have also the possibility to add some custom PHP script like displaying advertising only to unregistered visitors or to randomly change ad colors.

Both approaches to insert AdSense ads into Joomla website are pretty simple with appropriate module. And for each module you can select pages where the ads will appear. This way you have a very powerful control over the appearance of ads on your website.

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The ability to easily edit and add new content to your website is the most obvious reason to run your website on a content management system (CMS). But using a CMS can be tricky enough never mind trying to get it to look the way you want. What you need is a truly simple solution — enter WordPress.

WordPress is the leading blogging platform, but it can also function as a feature rich CMS right out of the box. With a little more work and a few plugins you can expand your WordPress installation into a pretty powerful CMS.

Step one: Get a working installation of WordPress set up. Most web hosting companies make it as simple as one click to setup WordPress on your domain.

Step two: Find a free theme that suits your needs. You can find themes at the WordPress theme directory or just search Google for “free WordPress themes” and you will have hundreds to choose from.

Step three: Make some small design changes to your new theme to make it your own. Insert your logo, tweak the colors, and of course modify the titles and description of your site.

Step four: Create WordPress pages to hold your website content. Fill these pages with your content just as you would with a traditional static web page. Don’t forget to include a contact page. There are many great free plugins that let you create a contact form with no programming knowledge.

Step five: Set WordPress to display a static page as your home page. This will make your website look like a normal site as opposed to a blog. You should create a page called “home” then set it to be the front page. This is easily accomplished by going into the settings panel and clicking on the “reading settings” option. Then where it says “Front page displays” select “A static page” and choose your home page from the “Front Page”drop-down menu.

That’s it — you now have a website that you can easily add pages to and edit content at any time. Of course you can also use it to keep your website fresh by blogging, and I encourage you to do so.

At some point you may find that your website has grown beyond the capabilities of WordPress. The good news is that there are many useful plugins already available to extend its functionality. Another great thing about WordPress — it will grow with you. New plugins are being developed all the time. If there is something you want to do with WordPress, chances are someone has already released a plugin.

Joomla is a great content management system. It is used by many people worldwide for personal websites, blogs, online shops, or for some other type of website. Joomla is also used by some companies for their homepage. Because Joomla is universal and has a lot of extensions you can use it for almost anything.

Installing Joomla is a very simple process. You need some web hosting account. With it you get disk space where you will upload your files, FTP account for transferring files and MySQL database which Joomla needs. Before you start with installation make sure that you domain is pointing to your hosting and the FTP account works and you can transfer files. The next step is to create a MySQL database. Simply log in to your hosting control panel and go to the database management. You can also use phpMyAdmin utility to do the same. Create one databases and one user which should have complete access to this database. For Joomla installation you will need database name, user name and password.

Now you should go to the official Joomla website and download the latest version. You will get a compressed archive file. You can either upload this file to the web server and unpack it there if you control panel has some file manager or you can unpack it on your local disk and then upload individual files to the web server. Once you have all the files on you web server at your hosting company you can start the installation process.

Simply go to your domain and you should get Joomla installation page asking for language selection. If you get some error then check if the domain is working, you have uploaded Joomla files to the correct (public) folder and the hosting account is working. If everything works as expected then simply follow instructions. Joomla installer will check your configuration and warn you if something is missing or there is some setting that may cause you trouble. When asked for database data enter database name, user name and password of the database you have created earlier. You will also be asked whether you would like to install sample data. Unless you are an experienced Joomla user you should do this so you will have some sample articles and news to start with

You will be also asked for FTP account. This is a good workaround to allow Joomla to access your files with Read/Write permissions without having direct access to the files. The last step after the installation process is finished is to remove the “installation” folder. Now your Joomla website is up and running. Go to your domain and you should see default Joomla website. Log in to the Joomla administrator and start creating your pages.

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Joomla is an open source content management system (CMS) that allows you to build and launch websites within minutes. Since Joomla is open source, upgrading and adding additional functionality can be done with no or minimal cost.

What is a content management system? A CMS allows you to make changes to your website easily with just a few clicks modifications are instantly applied to your website front end. The days of updating outdated links or contents on every page of your website are over. Joomla offers a user friendly interface that can be learned within a few hours, even people with little to no knowledge of web design will find its operation smooth and simple. What types of sites can I build with Joomla?

Joomla is scalable as well as extremely customizable. Whether you are creating an online store or a simple 5 page company overview, Joomla offers the flexibility to change applications on the fly. Some of the types of websites you can run with Joomla are:

Portal websites Member Based Websites Online Stores Blogs or News Sites Corporate Websites Personal websites

As I stated before Joomla is easily expanded depending on your needs. Joomla components are easily installed and allow you to offer your visitors tons of fresh content. Some of the components available are:

Forums and Message Boards Photo Galleries and Portfolios Chat and Instant Messaging Directories and Classifieds

There are hundreds of free modules and component created by third parties located at the main Joomla website Joomla.org. If you are looking for a website that won’t become outdated within a year, take a look at Joomla.