What is a CMS - A One page overview of CMS's from Scotweb

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Taming the beast
(a non-technical introduction to web site content management systems)
David A Robinson
http://www.scotweb.com


Web sites have come a long way since Sir Tim Berners Lee first linked a few documents for the
purposes of academic research. Everything from television programmes to supermarket products
have an associated web site and love it or hate it the web is here to stay, for most businesses some
kind of web presence is not just a luxury, it's a key business asset.
Sadly for many businesses running a web site has not been a wholly positive experience. The most
common problem with large and small businesses alike has been keeping the thing up to date and
relevant. An out of date web site can be likened to a bakers window being filled with last weeks
stale cakes, it's not going to instill confidence in 'passers by'. Thankfully there is a low cost simple
solution to this problem and it's called a Content Management System or CMS.
Firstly, in all but a few cases the real key to a successful web site is content. The content of your site
is usually the reason people visit it and certainly the reason people re-visit it. Until recently the way
a typical web site would be kept up to date went something like this. A content provider would
write something and then fight with the overstretched IT department, or the expensive third party
web company, to add it to the web site. Only when it was added and there for the world to see
would the author spot his or her embarrassing typo which would take a further three weeks to
correct because 'the guy who does that is off sick'. The whole process leaves a nasty taste in the
mouth and the site languishes bearing last months news and last years prices, not that good for
business really......
Enter the CMS. In essence a CMS separates content, that is to say the words, pictures and document
downloads, from the presentation such as the navigation bars, design and overall look of the web
site. In very simple terms, when a link is clicked on a CMS based web site it tells the underlying
software to go and grab the applicable content from a database and lay it out inside a web page. To
the end user or web site visitor it looks just like any other page. In the same way, when a content
editor or contributor needs to add or edit content the software can grab the same content and put it
into an editor and save it back to the database when the change or addition is complete.
A good CMS takes the technicalities of web publishing away and presents non technical users with
a powerful and simple tool that allows entire sites to be managed, extended and generally owned by
the people who should own them, the people who create the content. Most of the best CMS's do not
require any software to be installed on the editor or contributors PC, more often than not all that's
needed is an Internet connection and a modern web browser. From here new menu items can be
added, news items can be added or deleted, the latest images of your latest widget can be added
minutes after the picture was taken, whole sections of your site can be created off line and published
or made available to the outside world when you decide and the list goes on. Taking it to the
extreme if you go away on business and seal a big deal then just pop into an Internet cafe or switch
on your smart-phone and update your web site news section and tell the world!
Taking control of your valuable web asset has never been easier. The web wasn't intended to be the
domain of the tech heads and the CMS definitely makes sure this isn't the case!



Lifted from: Scotweb's site

- g