Introduction CMS

Definition :

A web site's content is a combination of different components like texts, graphics, images, scripts, embedded files such as flash animations, audio/video streams or downloadable files. All of these may be components of one document (or HTML page in case of a web content management system).

Content management systems (CMS) are computer software systems for organizing, displaying and facilitating collaborative creation of this content.

One principle of many content management systems is, to separate the content from the layout, which makes it easier to preset the same content in different layouts for different media ("cross-media publishing") like webbrowser and printer. Separating content and layout also enables website designers to concentrate on the presentation, while others attend the content.

This can be achieved by storing the content and the layout in different ressources and dynamically merge them together to the final document.

Advantages of Content Management Systems

• CMS facilitate the collaborative creation of websites. People can concentrate on the content while others care for the template to present the content. Also many CMS provide systems to enable users to add or modify content via their webbrowser
• CMS make it easier to display the same content in different ways, like a normal view for webbrowsers and a printer friendly view
• CMS make it easier to create new documents as one can concentrate on the content and do not have to care about the layout
• CMS make it easier to modify the layout of a website as one only has to modify the template at a single source instead of having to modify each single page to reflect the change
• CMS often can automatically create additional content like menus, sitemaps etc.
• CMS often provide methods to find content, for example by providing search functionality on the content
• Praveen has Edited This.

Different Types of Content Management Systems

There are a lot of different Content Management Systems available, and beside the main common feature of offering the division between layout and content, the modes of operation can be very different.

Flatfile vs. Database-driven CMS

Flatfile-CMS

On a flatfile-based CMS, the content is (usually) saved in clear text files. Depending on the concept, layout elements can be saved in separate text files as well, dividing layout and content, and having the CMS put those two together on accessing the page (or any other defined action).

Database-managed CMS

With a database-managed CMS, all data is saved in a database and will be requested from there. Using such a system therefore requires a database (including the rights to modify it).

From a technical point of view, using a database has the advantage of a better scaling system on really huge amounts of data - provided that the database is properly accessible. On the other hand, a flatfile-based CMS can be much faster with a moderate amount of data, just because the database communication is not needed. This can be especially important in a shared-host environment (one server, multiple domains hosted), as server load and reduction thereof directly influences the website speed.

Portal systems

Portal systems still are very popular, and there are a large number of different systems (especially in the open source sector). The main advantage of those portals is often their main disadvantage: Using such a system, you can easily (and in a short time) build a complete portal that can be changed in look and feel using "themes" and "skins" (prepared layouts).

On the other hand, those "themes" and "skins" make portal systems quite inflexible when it comes to own enhancements, modifications and changes. Especially regarding the page design, a user has only very limited options. Additionally, nearly all portal systems need a database, and most are a bit on the slow side. Those who just want to set up a portal quickly might be well advised to use such a portal system, but if you have specific ideas or need special functionality, you might find portal systems lacking some flexibility.