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SmallerContent Management System – A database-driven system that has a suite of tools that allows a staff to manage, maintain and change the content of a Web site. This is how large sites are managed today. The one-person managed Web site where he/she handles content, design and programming is a thing of the past.
A CMS allows editors from various Web sites to easily share content and technology. Sharing the workload lets people focus on what they know how to do best – writers write, designers design, and programmers program. Also, people handle the information they know best. For Ball State, this means that communications people handle press releases, the catalog people handle the catalog, the departments handle departmental information, etc…
ADVANTAGES OF A CMS:
Consistency of Appearance – Unlike a Web editing program like Dreamweaver or Front Page, a CMS stores the text separately from the presentation of the content. This means when a visitor comes to a Web page, the CMS is pulling the various parts and pieces of the page from a database and dynamically generating it. CMS' use templates to ensure pages display consistently across the site – even if different people are managing the site. People from various departments who manage a site cannot change the overall look and feel.
See examples of Ball State sites using a CMS.
Sharing Content – Because content is in a database, it is not tied to a single page. Content can be shared among various Web editors and the "owner" of that content can be the one to update it – and that change is made automatically on all Web sites using that piece of content.
Examples:
Repurposing Content – Again, because the content is in pieces, it can be easily rearranged and displayed in a variety of ways for a variety of media. For example, templates can be created to display the same info on a Web page that is displayed for a PDA or for a plain text Web page. Also:
Example:
Information on the Site Can Interact with Other Programs – For instance, if you are interested in attending a campus event (example) that you find on the campus calendar, you can add this event to your Outlook calendar. In addition, in Ball State's Vignette system, you can create forms (example) for users to fill out and the results can go into an Access database.
Publish and Expire Dates – This allows editors to have content appear and/or disappear on certain dates.
Management of Multiple File Types – A CMS should be able to handle a variety of file types from plain text to graphics, video, sound files, multi-media, PDFs, forms, etc….
Distribution of Work – Multiple people can work on a Web site at once. Ball State currently has more than 180 sites in the CMS. These Web site editors simply go to a login screen on Microsoft Explorer and edit their pages directly from this. Users do not need to know html or have any graphic design experience. This work is handled by programmers and designers on the back end.
Workflow Management – With so many people updating a Web site, a workflow system is critical. A workflow system allows information to be put into the system and then edited/proofread before it goes live.
Source:
Some information from this presentation appeared in "From Traffic Jam to Easy Street," by Michael Stoner, CASE Currents, May/June 2003.
