Content Management Systems (CMS)

If you are looking for a way to manage and update your website using a web interface, and you lack programming skills a `content management systems` (CMS) makes this possible. Depending on the script you install, content management systems can allow users to easily change content on their website. They can also be used to change the site appearance site-wide by modifying a template, provide a search engine, site map, web statistics, online file manager, online content editor, etc. Most seem to require the site to have a SQL Database, while others work with an ordinary web hosting account.

Choosing a Content Management System

With the multitude of CMS solutions that now exist on the market, it is imperative that you choose your solution very wisely. The wrong product to manage an inappropriate form of content WILL have significant negative consequences for your organisation. Equally, the purchase of a niche product that only manages ONE type of content, could leave you stranded when you come to extend the types of content you wish to manage.

Free Content Management Systems

Joomla! is an open source content management system (CMS) that can be used to power your website and allow you to easily manage it from an online interface. It includes an integrated WYSIWYG editor, support for multiple users/editors, a simple poll engine, several templates, etc. You can augment the features provided by the basic CMS installation by adding their extensions. Extensions available include blogging software, calendars, directory services, email newsletters, e-commerce and shopping cart engines, image and multimedia galleries, forums and chat software, banner advertising systems, business and organizational directories, dynamic form builders, etc. Joomla! requires that your web server be running Apache and has PHP and MySQL installed.

Drupal is an open source content management system (CMS) or platform that uses PHP and MySQL. It allows an individual user or even a community of users to publish, manage and maintain your website. You can use it to create blogs, forums, picture galleries, file upload and download sites, forums, collaborative authoring environments, podcasting, peer-to-peer networking sites, etc. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

OpenCMS is an open source website content management system (CMS) that uses Java, JSP, XML, MySQL on Tomcat (a Java Servlet container and web server). It comes with an integrated WYSIWYG editor and a simple text editor for Internet Explorer and Mozilla-based browsers like Firefox. ( Get Firefox with Google Toolbar ) The CMS software allows you to view your workspace in an Explorer-like window, edit files by changing specific elements within the page or directly editing them using the built-in WYSIWYG editor, etc. This program is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

PHP-Fusion PHP-Fusion is a content management system (CMS) that uses a MySQL database to store the contents of your website. It requires PHP 4 running on an Apache server. The program is released under the GNU General Public License.

CMSimple is a simple content management system; for the smart maintenance of small commercial or private sites. It uses very low resources, the complete content management system is less than 100 KB in size. It is simple to install and easy to modify. The entire site is stored in a single HTML-file, so you dont need a database. You edit your entire site with your favorite HTML-editor, upload the content file and get a dynamic website! It is small - simple - smart! CMSimple Content Management is designed for webmasters with relatively small sites (less than 2 Mb in text content). It has an online JavaScript-based WYSIWYG editor that works in Mozilla and IE 5.5 and above (doesn't work in other browsers). The program is free, but requires you to preserve the link to their site.

phpwcms is an Open Source web content management system released under the GNU General Public License. You can use it for free. phpwcms is optimized for fast and easy setup and works on any standard web server platform that supports PHP/MySQL and was tested successfully on Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista, Mac OS X and LINUX. phpwcms is perfect for professional, public and private users. It is very easy to learn and gives you the flexibility to separate layout and content. Lots of powerful but simple implemented features assists publishers and web developers too. It includes multiple WYSIWYG editors, a frontend CSS editor, image resizing capabilities, file manager, support for meta tags, template editor, W3C conforming frontend rendering, etc. It can be installed on Windows 2000/XP, Mac OSX and Linux. The package is released under the GNU General Public License.

TYPO3 is an open source content management system that is multilingual; allows WYSIWYG editing using a rich text editor (this feature is only for IE Windows users); has wizards for making tables, bullet lists, mail forms, etc; allows multiple page editing; allows offline editing, preview of content online, scheduled publishing; has an indexed search engine, a direct mail or newsletter system, etc. Administrators have access control (the ability to control access to various parts of the system), statistics, logging, version control with unlimited undos, raw database access, etc. You can use HTML templates, PHP scripts, create protected areas, and so on. The entire system is released under the GNU General Public License.

phpCMS This PHP content management script includes a file manager, full text search engine, online editor, statistics, dynamic menus, etc. Unlike many of the other content management systems (CMS), this one works with flat files. Admittedly - the flexibility of phpCMS makes life not always easy for HTML-beginners. But experienced web designers, who want to create an unique website rather than clicking inflexible template blocks together, will find in phpCMS a tool which gives them all the freedom they need to support their creativity. This might be a reason why several web design companies are using phpCMS to create their own companies website. But one of the best features of phpCMS is that it is Open Source (licensed under the GPL) and is available free of any charges - a CMS can not be more cost-efficient.

ezContents is a website content management system based on PHP and MySQL. Features include maintaining menus and sub-menus, adding authors that write contents, permissions, workflow, and layout possibilities for the entire look of the site by simple use of settings. It offers great flexibility for the web site developer and a user-friendly interface for the editor. It gives you a choice to integrate external scripts. It supports frames as well frameless designs. The HTML output is correct for Explorer and Netscape browsers.

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