Introducing Content Management Systems

One of the major recent advancements in web design and internet marketing is the transition of static HTML sites into content management systems. A content management system is a web based application that provides a user interface for editing and managing content on a website. Systems like these provide tools that make running and updating a website easy for everyone. Here is a list of the three leading open source content management systems:

WordPress

A Blogging Platform?

WordPress started as a PHP blogging platform but has recently become one of the most popular CMS for all sizes of websites. The user interface makes it a comfortable environment for beginners and is backed by the support of a friendly knowledgeable community. One of the nicest features of WordPress is its ease of installation. WordPress is the only CMS that can be downloaded and installed in five minutes or less, the easy step by step installation wizard creates a seem less installation experience.

WYSIWYG Editor

Not familiar with HTML or CSS? Not a problem with WordPress as it provides an intuitive WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor in the core installation. Pair this editor with the multimedia handling system baked into the core and you have a system that manages text and multimedia content without having to understand a single tag of mark up language. The back end is fluid and easy to navigate – test drive it and you'll see what I mean!

Community Support

Since content management systems are considered new technology to the web, I like to rank them based on the community support and documentation. The beautiful thing about WordPress is just that, pretty much every issue you can imagine has been documented or discussed somewhere in the community. The community minimizes common issues by documenting solutions, and provides insight into more complicated problems.

Drupal

Drupal Community

Drupal like WordPress is also supported by a large helpful community. The major difference between Drupal and WordPress is that Drupal is a pure CMS platform, unlike the focus on blogging that WordPress originated with. Out of the box Drupal is a far less usable system, and download to production website is a much longer path. The power of Drupal however comes with its ability to scale and grow to support any kind of website or application. Drupal is more of a platform or foundation for creating advanced web systems.

Extensive Extensions

Back to the community, we will see that extensive list of third party modules. Pretty much anything you can think of has already been created and documented as a plugin for Drupal. Social networking tools, multimedia management, user management are just the beginning of what you'll find.

Categorize that Content

The standout feature that gets Drupal into our Top 3 is the core Taxonomy module. This feature is what made Drupal what is, a pure CMS platform. Taxonomy allows the creation of multiple levels and types of categories to organize and manage content types. Taxonomy makes it easy to organize all kinds of content in a very easy to navigate clear way.

Joomla

Host Anywhere!

Joomla is a more advanced CMS at least in terms of available functionality and is produced to easily integrate into most web environments. One of the nicest things about Joomla is its seem less installation into any hosting environment. Whether you use GoDaddy, Rackspace, or whoever Joomla will install without problems.

Clean Interface

Joomla aligns more with Drupal in terms of content management and again is meant to be used as a platform for advanced systems. The administrative interface is a bit cleaner and navigable then Drupal, but can sometimes be a bit over whelming with all the drop down menu options.

Unfortunately You Gotta Pay

Joomla like Drupal and WordPress also has a very active supportive community and you can easily add functionality with the quick installation of a plugin. The reason Joomla falls a bit short in terms of community is because they rely on paid plugins and themes compared to Drupal and WordPress which provide free extensions. Joomla is a powerful CMS that can take on any size project, but be ready to pay for advanced customization and features.

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