What is Content Management?

Friday, 14 November 2008 17:25

Content Management Systems are a type of dynamic website(Don't know what a dynamic site is? Look here.) They're generally referred to as a CMS. When you visit a site that is a CMS, you're only seeing part of the site. It's like when you go to Fred Meyers: everything is neatly arranged into categories, rows, and shelfs. There is the electronics section, the clothing section, the grocery section, and the hippie grocery section(if you're in Portland, at least). However, there is a warehouse part of the store that you never see. You're also never there at night when the workers are setting out new groceries and re-arranging items.

Content Management Systems are similar. Things change on the site and they're changed from the warehouse part, where customers never see. This is opposed to a normal, static, brochure style site. If a store was a static site, a contractor would build it once, glue the groceries to the shelf and nail the displays to the floor. There is no warehouse, no personnel, and no manager. There are a lot of sites like this, and when you want to change anything, you have to call up the contractor, have him remove the glue and nails, move everything around, and then re-glue and re-nail it to the floor.

In this analogy, the contractor is a webmaster. Static websites require webmasters, but CMS's do not and if someone does hire a webmaster for a CMS, they're job is made tremendously easier.

A Magic Page

Okay, we're going to re-examine what a CMS is through a different analogy. Let's say that the internet is a Hogwarts library (Harry Potter library -- magical). Within that library there are lots of books, which are our websites. Let's say you have a book that is 364 pages. If you have a normal static site, the content of your book never changes. If you have a CMS, you open your book, turn to page 364 and write your name and password. Suddenly several new pages appear: 365, 366, 367, and 368. In these pages you can control the content of the entire book. You can move Chapter 6 to Chapter 3, you can change the font on page 88, the author on the title page, whether or not there is an index, and etc.

CMS's allow you to manage the content of your website: images, pages, links, menus, video, audio, and etc. Any part of your site is content, and a CMS makes that content malleable.

Page 364 is what is commonly referred to as a, "back end." Much like the back end of Fred Meyers, or the back end of our book, the back end is where our content is managed. On a CMS website there is a location that you go to to enter the back end of the site. For example, if your website is, http://www.yoursite.com, when you go to, http://www.yoursite.com/admin/ you're prompted for a username and password. This is the equivelent of page 364, or the double doors in Freddies that say, "Store Personnel Only." Using the back end of a CMS does require training and practice, but it is no more than learning how to use a new program. The interface is point and click and you don't have to know or write code.

The Usual Suspects

You've undoubtedly visited many CMS-type sites. There are specialized CMS's that most internet users are familiar with: shopping carts, wikis, and blogs. These CMS's are organized around specific functions: selling goods(shopping carts), organizing group knowledge(wikis), and managing essays and their responses(blogs).

However, if you talk to someone about a CMS, they will be thinking about a generalized content management system, not a shopping cart, wiki, or blog. Some popular open source CMSs that you might check out are Joomla!, Drupal, and CMS Made Simple. Also, if you're already comfortable using Wordpress you might employ it as a general CMS. It's not as flexible or powerful as the three I listed above, but it is easy to use, and many people find it to be good enough.