Content Management System

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Content Management Systems

A Content Management System (CMS) is a system used to organize and facilitate collaborative creation of documents and other content. It allows many people to directly contribute to maintaining a web site. See Wikipedia for more background.

The website CMS Matrix allows you to compare features on approximately 100 different CMS solutions. The "Search the Matrix" feature allows you to filter the list according to the features that you need for your site.

The website Open Source CMS Systems allows you to demo approximately 40 to 50 LAMP-based software packages. (LAMP means Linux Apache MySql Php - based).

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Plone

Cost: FREE: GPL license

Advantages: Easy to create events, news items, new documents, photos, and other files. It uses both HTML and an easy to use Structured Text for those who are unfamiliar with website design. Has many add-on products that extend features available. Very flexible security/permissions structure allows different people and groups in different roles to have control over different aspects of different parts of the site. Excellent standards compliance and accessibility. URLs are friendly to both users and search engines, rather than being littered with numbers and query strings. Supports syndication via RSS. Runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, BSD etc. Large developer community, and commercial support is available. Under the hood, uses modern object oriented programming concepts implemented in the delightful language Python.

Disadvantages:

• Uses Zope as the web server rather than or in combination with Apache. Steep learning curve for the webmaster. Resource-hungry on the server - requires over 75 MB RAM dedicated to your site which tends to cost from $15 to $40/month.

For more insights, see http://plone.org/documentation/faq/is-plone-for-me

Examples:

• Spindletop Unitarian Church
• Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem
• The Mountain Desert District of the UUA is developing their new site with plone.

To try it out, create your own free site at http://www.objectis.org/ or create your own account at a plone-based community site like http://plone.org/ For more flexible production hosting, you might look at http://zettai.net, http://interlix.com, http://quintagroup.com, or http://imeme.net.

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Drupal

Cost: FREE (distributed under GNU General Public License)

Notes: Not dissimilar to Plone but implemented in PHP. Originally developed for 'community' web sites where everyone in the community is contributing content (think Slashdot). Today the program is currently being used for a much wider range of uses, including online magazines and galleries. It can therefor be used both for congregations implementing limited access by just a few or by a very expansive community of users and authors.

Advantages: Easy to create news items (blogs), new single author and multi author documents (pages & books), audio & video posts (podcasts), galleries (image collections), etc. Many theme templates and lots of additional modules available. Common modules include kits which can be use to create custom content types and views. Content can be written in HTML and structured text using a choice of tunable editors. Regulation of user roles and privileges is highly tunable and editing experience and viewing experience can be customized for different users. Content categorization and use of categorization is highly flexible and pervasive. The version 5.x system is compliant with web standards including w3c (XHTML strict and CSS) and accessibility which facilitates creation of compliant web sites and portals. Technical support is available through an active user community on Drupal's community support site.

Disadvantages:

• Many modules are not mature and many others have not been adapted to run under either the current 5.x or the previous 4.7 versions. Administration is done through same interface as is used for general site viewing (rather than a purpose specific back end interface). Strict enforcement of design and coding creates requirements that may pose difficulties for some trying to make customizations.

Examples:

• Follen Church Society
• If you google "church drupal" you can also find quite a few churchs of other denominations using it.

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Mambo/Joomla

Cost: FREE (both Mambo and Joomla are distributed under GNU General Public License)

Notes: Perhaps the most popular CMS. Mambo and Joomla share a common design heritage. In mid-2005 the Miro corporation set up a "Mambo Foundation" in an attempt to exert more control via their ownership of the trademark. This was strongly resisted by the Mambo developer community, which left en-masse and are continuing their development using the name "Joomla". As these two programs continue development they are likely to become much more distinct and less able to share. Several web hosting services support use and installation through one or more of these through automated installation scripts or "one-button installs".

Advantages: Administration is done through a separate "back end" interface to avoid limitations of the "front end" interface used during normal site viewing and navigation. Administration interface has an graphic icon driven interface that makes use less intimidating for some. Theme templates and module extensions are easily loaded remotely since the interface accepts compressed modules remotely, transfers them, and unpacks on the server before loading them for use. The popularity of the system has resulted in good availability of themes, extensions and experienced developers. Supports blogs, web feeds, multimedia, calendars, galleries, and podcasting through options and extensions. Administration interface and loose enforcement of constraints makes modification of theme templates easier than some other CMS.

Disadvantages: The current 1.0 release is in need of revision to achieve compliance with w3c (XHTML transitional and CSS) and accessibility standards (WCAG and Section 508 requirements). This release relies extensively on the use of tables in ways that are no longer recommended practice. Improvements in these areas are a major goal of the version 1.5 release. Version 1.5 because of this represents a major redesign and future release date is uncertain. As of February 2007 beta 1 was available and beta 2 was being prepared. Due to the large amount of base design and extensions built outside of standards, it is not clear how readily or thoroughly the design improvements will be achieved. The 1.0 administration interface has been extended such that structure is not always clear and some functions lack the visual and logical clarity of the other sections.

Examples:  Some UU sites are listed below

Mambo:

• First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor

Joomla:

• The Church of the Younger Fellowship
• First Parish in Concord
• First Universalist Church of Rochester
• James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation
• May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society
• Southwestern Unitarian Universalist Conference Young Religious Unitarian Universalists (YRUU).
• Universalist Unitarian Church of Joliet

Contentor

Cost: FREE

Advantages: Contentor was designed for small to medium-sized web sites, typical of sites for/by small non-profit corporations or individuals. It was developed by a fellow UU, Earl Daniels.

Disdvantages: Unclear how much usage or support there is.

Examples:

• UUism.net

UU Template project

Cost: FREE

Advantages: Designed specifically for use by UU congregations with the purpose of creating new web sites for those that don't yet have one, but can also be used as add-on or in re-design. Supported by fellow UUs and there's an email list to communicate with other users.

Disdvantages: New as of May 2006; specs for future version being considered to improve it. Problems have been reported.

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