About Content Management Systems
In web terminology, CMS stands for “Content Management System”. It describes a method of managing website design, development, and more importantly to the end user, the website's content, workflow, and collaboration.
CMS are online software installations, typically installed on the site owner's hosting server and require initial and often ongoing configuration.
CMS have effectively revolutionized the way people think about, and control content on websites.
CMS allow designers and developers an effective and quick way to easily modify site design and functionality. This almost always means that everything you need or want to do with your website will be cheaper and easier than ever.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Web content management system
A Web Content Management System (WCMS)[1] is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languagesto create and manage website content with relative ease. A robust WCMS provides the foundation for collaboration, offering users the ability to manage documents and output for multiple author editing and participation.
- Most systems use a Content Repository or a database to store page content, metadata, and other information assets that might be needed by the system. A presentation layer displays the content to website visitors based on a set of templates. The templates are sometimes XSLT files.[2]
- A WCMS allows non-technical users to make changes to a website with little training.
A WCMS typically requires a systems administrator and/or a web developer to set up and add features,
Wikipedia - Web content management system
but it is primarily a website maintenance tool for non-technical staff.
Web CMS’s are designed to simplify the production and publication of content on a website, allowing less technically inclined users to create and publish without having to know a lot of web programming.
In today's web market, “Open Source” content management systems like MODX, WordPress, and Drupal have become practical and inexpensive solutions to almost any online presence requirement.
Open Source CMS are are free to download, install, and customize. They are extremely powerful, and provide businesses of all shapes, sizes and industries with the ability to create and maintain their own website/online content either from the ground up with templates and plugins they can install and configure themselves, or more complicated development with professional assistance.
Plugins and addons are often free, developed by the open source community. Premium templates and addons are also commonly available.
