CMS (Content Management Systems)

Certify and Increase Opportunity.
Be
Govt. Certified E-Commerce Professional

CMS (Content Management Systems)

A CMS is software which is used for website authoring, collaboration, and administration to allow non-technical users to create and manage website content easily. Usually a CMS is  an web-based application which provides web site content editing. It is a system that collects, manages, and publishes information and functionality. A CMS is responsible for the collection, management, and publishing of chunks of information.

CMS Architecture

A CMS intakes raw information which runs through a collection system and turns into content components. A management system, which is a sort of database, stores these components. The publication system draws components out of the management system and turns them into publications. Access control mechanisms are also present.

CMS Components

As illustrated earlier, a CMS usually is composed of a collection system and management system.

The Content Collection System – A CMS content collection system is responsible for all the processes that happen before a piece of content is ready for publication. It turns raw information into a well-organized set of content components. It has the processes of authoring, acquisition, conversion and aggregation which, are explained.

Authoring – It creates the content from scratch. A CMS can help the author work efficiently and effectively by doing the following

• Providing an authoring environment (a full application or extensions for author).
• Providing a clear purpose and audience for the author’s efforts.
• Providing aids for including standard information like create-date, author’s name, etc.
• Providing templates which include places to type a title, summary, and body for the component’s author to create.
• Providing workflow, status, and version control for content that’s in process.

Acquisition – It gathers the content from some existing source which usually are

• Syndications: They are sources designed for reuse as the information is delivered in a useful format (like XML) and the information is already segmented and has metadata attached.
• Found sources: These are files are provided and must be processed and added to the CMS. It is usually pre-existing information like paper photographs, analog video, and printed text.

Conversion – It strips unnecessary information from the content and change its markup language and consist of

• Stripping: Removing and discarding unneeded surrounding information such as page headers and footers, unnecessary content, and unwanted navigation.
• Format mapping: Changing the information’s binary format to a standard one that the CMS supports, as well as separating its rendering format from its structure.
• Structure mapping: Making the information’s structure explicit or changing it as necessary.

Aggregation – It edits the content, divide it into components, and augment it to fit as per desired metadata system. It brings disparate information sources into one overall structure by using

• Editorial processing: Performing the familiar functions of styling, consistency, and usage.
• Segmentation processing: Breaking the information into chunks that I call content components.
• Meta-torial processing: Performing the less familiar function of fitting new content into the prescribed metadata system. The metadata that you apply to the content enables the system to effectively store and retrieve it. This system consists of the rules that you create for how to supply metadata values for each new piece of content that you bring into the system.

The Management System – It is responsible for the long-term storage of content components and a range of other resources. The management system contains the repository, workflow, and administration facilities. At the highest level, it enables to know what has been collected and what its disposition is and it usually explains the following

• Details about your content, including what kinds of components you have and where in its life cycle each is now
• How well utilized your staff is and what bottlenecks are coming up
• How you’re using components in publications and which content is unused or ready for removal
• Who has access to what content and who has contributed the most

CMS Types

CMS can be categorized depending upon different criteria. They share the same foundational goal and some basic features each type of CMS focuses on very different sets of objectives and features provided. Different types of CMS are

• Proprietary CMS software is paid for – there is usually an initial licence fee, and sometimes an annual charge for updates and user support.
• Open-source CMS software can be downloaded at no initial cost. Popular open-source CMSs are created and developed within a user community environment like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal
• Cloud CMS – Similar to web-based email from Yahoo or Gmail, CMS is located ‘in the cloud’. It can be ‘Fully cloud’ CMS is often provided as part of a package or service. Usually the functionality cannot be modified to suit the user’s needs or it can be ‘Partial cloud’ CMS is located on the user’s own cloud-based web-server.
• Enterprise Content Management System – It is an intranet-like tool that allows everyone in the company to access, manage, and review documents, templates, media, and other information assets
• Document Management System – A place to store, access, and manage your PDFs, MS Word, or other documents.
• Learning Content Management System – It stores, manages, and publishes or allows users to experience learning and training content.