Get a better understanding of content managment systems and how they might help your business.
Who Should Read This Book
This eBook is targeted primarily for the business community as consumers of web design, marketing and development solution providers. It is also of value to those same solution providers such that better understanding of these topics and the issues presented will better serve their customers.
Table of Contents - 24 pages
- Who Should Read This Book
- What is Content Management
- Static vs Dynamic Websites
- When can a static site still be the best solution
- At what point does a dymaic site become a serious consideration
- Web Content Management Systems
- Three Types of CMS Categories
- Software as a Service
- Proprietary Solutions
- Open Source Solutions
- Overview of some Open Source CMS soluions
- Three Types of CMS Categories
- How do I know if I need a Content Management System
- Matrix for Evaluating Your requirements
- Wrapping it up
- Appendix A
- Technology Resource Sponsors
- About the Authors
- John B. Moore
- Melanie Moore Bermudez
Sample excerpt from ebook
Static vs Dynamic Websites
In the beginning all websites were static. Webpages consisted of file on the server with the .html extension that use the Hypertext Markup Language to express the way the browser was expected to present the page. Soon (approximately 1993) it was enhanced with server side scripts using the CGI standard (Common Gateway Interface) that allows the web server to delegate the generation of the web content. This has evolved into a number of related extensions and architectures that essentially allow the web server to pass the request to a linked or embedded process to run code to generate a webpage.
These techniques revolutionized websites form static files to dynamic process that could change and respond to requests from viewers.
When can a static site still be the best solution?
There are times when a pencil and paper is still the best solution, similarly on the web there are still times when the static webpage is still the best solution. Some quick examples:
- Minimal overhead for simple 1-4 pages sites.
- Custom features or styles that might be difficult to support or develop in the current CMS systems.
- At times it is the most cost efficient way to maintain some types of content presentations.
- Never a limitation – Working within a CMS system means that the programmer must “follow the rules” of the CMS framework. This can sometimes mean that the programmer finds themselves “crossing the road by way of China”. What that means is there are times when the quick turnaround or deployment of new features on a website would be inhibited by the CMS overhead.
At what point does a dynamic site become a serious consideration?
At some point your website becomes a repository of information that evolves and changes. This generally requires a database and a way of serving content based on different conditions or queries. Many modern business websites are falling into this requirement. Another consideration is the ability to manipulate the pages without any knowledge of HTML or CSS. Given together the following conditions for the website owner would indicate that a dynamic system should be considered:
- Comfort with web interfaces and technology.
- Basic technical skills or understanding. (i.e. familiar with standard web based forms: uploading, downloading, layout, and posting)
- Available technical support (Examples: Involved in support groups online or locally or local web business or educational organizations that provide support. SonicSpider's SonicWebTech.com program.)
- Automated tools for aggressive SEO.
At this point we will assume that you want to consider a dynamic web system. One way for the non or limited (programming) technical person to do this is though modern Content Management Systems for the web.
