The Basic Functions Of Content Management SoftwareContent Management Software (CMS), or Content Management System is a popular means of organizing your documents, files and multimedia resources. CMS is most commonly used in reference to the web, but it is not restricted to internet use. CMScan be used "in house" to help organize and streamline the workflow and development of content, files, documents and multimedia resources within an organization. Content Management Software for a website is usually run on the server. CMS allows multiple users to control, track, publish and create files and documents. Users can be moved into groups, and each the group permissions can be set to restrict the responsibilities that they are allowed to perform. Web-based CMS can be accessed by users from any web browser program, and is not confined to one specific machine. Multimedia resources, such as image, sound or video files, can often be uploaded using the CMS rather than an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client. Most Content Management Software also gives non-technical users the ability to format the content using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor. This makes it quick and easy for all users to control the visual appearance of each document. Themes and templates play a big role in Content Management Software, as well. Themes control the colors, fonts and overall visual appearance of a page. CMS makes it easy to change the theme for an entire website with very little technical knowledge. Templates control the layout of the different elements on a page. Templates can also be edited or replaced to change the look of the entire website with very little work. Themes and templates are commonly configured using CSS (cascading style sheets), which is used to control the colors, fonts, backgrounds and positioning of various elements on the page. A very important feature of Content Management Software is the ability to oversee and manage the workflow of content. Administrators can require that content created by a set group cannot be posted live until it has been reviewed by a proper administrator. As an example, a user creates a document and uploads it to the CMS. Editors can then go in and review and make changes to the document before approving it. Finally, an administrator can review the final content and post it for all users to see. The CMS keeps a record of work completed, work in progress, what stage a given document is at and archived documents. Additional plug-ins are also available for most Content Management Software programs. Plug-ins are commonly referred to as modules. Modules enhance or extend the abilities of the CMS. Examples of modules can include News, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), Blog or Administration sections. Web-based Content Management Software utilizes databases to store all of their content and data. Theme and template information is also stored in the database. The information is retrieved by the CMS by using a scripting language. Some such scripting languages are, PHP, ASP, jsp and ColdFusion. Database types that are commonly used are MySQL, PostgreSQL and MS SQL. |