Web site design is not a one-size-fits-all practice. As web sites can serve a number of different purposes – supply information, attract new sales, create a community, etc – it only makes sense that web design possibilities be just as varied. One of the first considerations in creating a web design is whether a content management system, or CMS, makes sense. There are some situations when a CMS is clearly the best choice, while it may be an unnecessary collection of bells and whistles at other times.

What is a content management system?

In a nutshell, a CMS is software that organizes, powers and monitors a web site. It includes a “front end” viewable by any web user and a password-protected “back end” the general public does not see. Management of the site is centralized from this back end. Depending upon how the site is built, a content management system could include features for archiving older content, entering new content, accessing traffic metrics, managing navigation, banner rotation, polls, streaming media uploads and shopping carts, for example. The possibilities are limited only by the content management system’s configuration and capabilities.

How are traditional web designs and content management systems different?

Unlike a CMS, “traditional” or basic HTML-based web design does not include a front and back end. Effective management of these sites requires knowledge of good coding practice, the ability to create new or integrate pre-written scripts to add functionality as needed and the creation of an efficient file/directory structure to accommodate growth.

A content management system, on the other hand, does not require specialized technical skill to use. Managing or expanding the web site is a centralized process. More advanced coding knowledge would only be required should installation of additional functionality be desired.

Major benefits of a content management system

* Coding skills are not required – A good CMS back end will be as complex to use as basic word processing software. Adding content is a simple matter of entering and formatting the text. Accessing features should be no more complicated than using a pulldown menu.

* Convenience – A content management system provides a centralized administration area from where a wide range of features from archiving to metrics may be accessed. Consequently, multiple users can manage their respective areas of the site or a single user can run the site in its entirety.

* Scalability – A properly configured CMS can accommodate the management needs of a growing website as well as accept “add-on” components to power new features as necessary.

When is a CMS unnecessary?

Despite its convenience and options, a content management system is not always the best choice. Web sites created to act only as a point of contact for a brick and mortar business, for example, may have no need for CMS functionality. Similarly, small informational web sites with no plans for future growth would not benefit from a content management system’s scalability. If the benefits of using a CMS do not speak to the purpose or scope of a site, it really can be an unnecessary choice.

Choosing the best web design

Whether or not a web design should be CMS-based or not depends entirely upon the site’s purpose, plans for growth, functionality, and the availability of a webmaster or technically-savvy personnel to manage the site. A CMS would be the ideal web design choice for a business seeking to offer its customers the convenience of Internet orders, but not for a business only wishing to inform it customers of its location and hours of operation.

There are dozens if not hundreds of different Content Management Systems (CMS) in existence. Many of these are free to use and are built using Open Source principles; that is, many different developers contributor their time and expertise to the particular project for free and the code is there for all to use. All these CMSs are created using dynamic server-side development languages, with PHP being the most common followed by http://ASP.NET, Python and Ruby.

But don’t worry, you don’t need to have any working knowledge of these languages in order to use them, although a knowledge of HTML and CSS is very useful if you really want to get to grips with designing and developing your own site that is built with a Content Management System. I create websites for people all the time with different CMSs and I often build them so that the user doesn’t need any knowledge of web design at all in order to update it. Perhaps first it may be worth noting what Content Management Systems you should avoid. PHP-Nuke and many of its forks such as Postnuke were once the most popular CMSs, but today few serious users would go near them as they have lagged behind new innovation for years.

Dragonfly CMS though, one fork from PHP-Nuke, has a band of loyal, dedicated followers – and the same goes for XOOPS. The two most popular CMSs in existence are Drupal and Joomla. It’s hard to know how many websites are built with either Drupal or Joomla, but many hundreds of thousands would be a fair estimate. Both are quite easy to download and install, and if you rent server space that has Fantastico as a feature in the control panel it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons in order to have a full working website up and running. Joomla tends to attract the less experienced website creator as the administrator interface is more user-friendly and there are thousands of free and paid template themes.

In contrast, there are a great deal less ready-built themes for Drupal. The documentation for Joomla is more thorough than the equivalent guides for Drupal, but both have extremely large online communities where you can seek advice. Drupal forums have over 500,000 members, while Joomla has over 250,000 – it’s always best to use the search function first to see if your query has been asked before as 90% of the time you’ll find that it has. The biggest problem for the novice Drupal user is getting to grips with the administration back-end section.

This can be very confusing for those new to Drupal, however this situation should improve by the time Drupal version 7 is released as they are spending a great deal of time and money in fixing the poor usability aspects of the CMS. A recommended book to help you understand Drupal better is Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6 by David Mercer (Packt Publishing). This starts at the basics and is easy to for anybody to read and follow. Drupal and Joomla is fine for most small to mid-sized concerns, however for large, popular sites that will see a lot of traffic it may be worth looking at eZ Publish or ExpressionEngine.

Don’t let the name fool you – eZ Publish, from the Norwegian company eZ Systems, is far from easy to learn! The robust CMS, ExpressionEngine, created by EllisLab, has won over a lot of professional web designers in recent years. ExpressionEngine offer a free limited core, with a full paid version if you intend to use it for commercial reasons. eZ publish is free and released under the GPL licence but there is a paid supported version called Publish Premium.

So here are some ideas for picking the right Content Management Systems. Often, website creators find their own personal preference after trying out a number of different CMSs – it’s good to try out as many as you can to see if they fit your needs and requirements.

Content management system or CMS as it is popularly known would be of a numerous benefit for a website containing hundreds of pages which need continuous updation in the web host and written by multiple authors. CMS will make it easier for people to create, edit and publish content on the website without even any technical knowledge like HTML, DHTML etc, of the user. It eases the technical difficulties in the publication of content and reduces the time-to-publish.

A CMS web site is database driven as it allows one to create and store thousands of pages in the database without the need to update each one of them. As the design of the site template is separate from the content, this allows one to change the design any time without affecting the content stored on the site.

Problems created by inaccurate or contradictory content, can be easily overcome by automated approval procedure as it ensures that the content is correct before publication. By using user-definable workflow to notify assigned approvers of changes to content, Publication is automatic once approval has been signed-off.

A CMS makes it easier for the Web Manager to locate the creator, editor and the publisher of the content, as it allows defining and allocating specific publishing rights to various individuals. Multiple user access can be set up in the administration panel. More over authors and editors can access the site from any computer with an internet connection and can update the site at the same time from any location in the world. Publishing content can also be controlled by creating a draft first then publishing it later. This is very useful when one needs to coordinate content from multiple authors and editors.

Some CMS website design automatically generates the Meta Tags for each web page, which will ultimately help them to be listed by the search engines. It not only generates pages that are search engine friendly but can produce many links from the new content that is added.

A CMS site attracts visitors because of the frequency of updation. This causes generation search engine friendly pages which can produce lots of links from the new content that is added and syndicated.

Really Simple Syndication or RSS is integrated automatically into many CMS sites. Every time you create a post or make a comment, it creates a feed for it. This allows visitors with RSS Feeders to read the post at their own convenience.

Concisely, a content management system is a powerful tool for an e-commerce businesses that want to present lots of content from multiple authors and attract more visitors along with the capability to expand as the business grows. A Content Management System establishes the design philosophy and ensures it is applied consistently throughout the site to maintain corporate identity and branding and protects the value of content by accelerating and automating publication processes.

I remember the days when everybody needed to learn HTML to build a small site with a few pics on it, some phrases and an weird-looking background. Php was available, but was rarely used and mostly by ‘professionals’, so it wasn’t really ‘weapon of choice’ for the masses.

How did it start?

Actually it started when the web developers started providing php and database driven websites at a low cost to the market. Soon the competition grew and free limited or trial versions were offered to boost sales. The demand wasn’t very big by today’s standards, but for that time it was huge. Soon enough free systems saw daylight and they grew ever since.

How is it looking now?

The number of content management software (free and comercial) available today is huge and it is growing exponentialy due to the increase of internet usage. Also the development of php and database software offers more and more features and at the same time makes it easier to use.

Why use a CMS?

There are some that say “I want to create my website from scratch so that i’ll be familiar with every aspect of it and i won’t be begging for support when my site has serious issues”. In most cases this is a bad approach to this subject and here’s a few ideas why:

1) If you are not entirely familiar with the programming language you are using it might turn out that the script has lots of bugs , either it is consuming lots of server resources, thus creating a big hosting problem.

2) It will take a lot of time to create the code from scratch

3) The features probably won’t even come close to the complex content managent software already on the market today

The advantages of using a CMS are, on the other side, quite obvious:

1) A group of professionals that use a lot of time to make sure that the software they are creating is usable, bug free and has no security problems

2) Continuous updates to increase the number of features and functionality

3) Support and documentation to help you use it

And the best of all: Easy to use admin tools so that everyone can create a website without even having to dwell with the code.

How’s the future looking?

We are currently just at the starting point of the CMS boom, supported by the competition and huge interest in this domain. In the following years we’ll probably see their number increase daily to fill out the gaps that other software neglect.

The content management systems have created a small revolution in the way websites are created, helping the www gain in quality and interest. Almost every internet-able user can now build his own website, thus making the web a richer place for all of us.