Roll Your Own Content Management System Using Incremental Development and Open Source Tools Rose Pruyne Penn State University November 2005 [email_address] content.psu.edu/ppt/cms.ppt

Roll Your Own Content Management System Me Programmer-Analyst/Web-Database Administrator Built first CMS (solo) over 3 ½ years in “spare” time – about 3,500 hours. (I really liked doing this.) Built second, enterprise-level, CMS as part of a team of developers – took 10 months to version 1.0.

Roll Your Own Content Management System Your choices Buy Build Open-Source Hybrid

Roll Your Own Content Management System Why choose build/open source? Build/open-source costs are spread out over time No hidden costs tied with licensing structure (e.g., fees tied to number of accounts) No binding contract associated with commercial product No disruption due to mergers and bankruptcies

Roll Your Own Content Management System Why choose build/open source? Customizable functionality Can develop exact match for institution’s needs Upgrades and versioning incremental, controlled by institution’s schedule, not mandatory, more manageable (not tied to typical yearly rollouts) Web Standards/Accessibility compliance can be ensured

Roll Your Own Content Management System Why choose build/open source? Widespread support community Support community frequently includes the original developers Support frequently better than with commercial products Most of this support is FREE.

Roll Your Own Content Management System Determining your requirements Determining Content Management System Requirements by Bill Rose, Lead Instructional Designer College of Arts and Architecture Penn State content.psu.edu/ppt/CMSRequirements 101104.ppt

Roll Your Own Content Management System Building CMS components Develop incrementally Start with high-need, high-maintenance information: News, Press Releases, Announcements Calendar Personnel Information: contacts, vitae… Publications

Roll Your Own Content Management System Start with user needs/expectations. What must you present to them?

Roll Your Own Content Management System Start with user needs/expectations. What objects must you present to them? Media Links to more information Links to related stories Headline Teaser Publication dates Byline Break-out text Full story

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Tie-in with calendar/announcements

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Tie-in with image/media database

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Tie-in with personnel database

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Automated post and fade dates

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Multiple displays for multiple venues

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Multiple displays for multiple venues

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Searchability

Roll Your Own Content Management System What functionalities are required? Administrative Forms Login/Security/Permission Levels Workflow: Add, Update, Editorial Review

Roll Your Own Content Management System What technologies? ColdFusionPhPJavaPythonASPPerlRuby … SQLOraclePostgreSQLMySQLFile-based … WindowsUnixLinux …

Roll Your Own Content Management System Develop the data structure

Roll Your Own Content Management System

Roll Your Own Content Management System

Roll Your Own Content Management System

Roll Your Own Content Management System

Roll Your Own Content Management System

Roll Your Own Content Management System

Roll Your Own Content Management System Develop the public interface tblNews: txtHeadline tblMedia: strMediaFileName strMediaAlt dtPostDate strAuthor tblNews: txtBreakout tblNews: txtContent

Roll Your Own Content Management System Develop the administrative interface

Roll Your Own Content Management System CMS components Database Administrative Interface Public Interface

Roll Your Own Content Management System Airplane view of core CMS data structure v 1.0

Roll Your Own Content Management System Building CMS components Start small. Develop incrementally. Roll out changes early and often. Make your users part of the development process. Create a robust, scalable data structure. Leverage open source. Fix bugs quickly.

Leveraging open-source A few examples of what I have used: ………… ......…online form calendar widget ......…online calendar…………...... www.proverbs.biz … Web log analyzer…….. www.mrunix.net/webalizer ……… .bug/web request tracker…..…….. mantisbt.org ………… .…..online form WYSIWYG tool ……... fckeditor.net

Leveraging open-source A few examples of what I have used: Roll Your Own Content Management System Mambo ……………… ..portal engine/cms…………........ mamboserver.com Drupal ………… ..……..cms/blogspace………………….……........ drupal.org …… .cms framework………..……….….……........ zope.org Linux …………… ...operating system..……..……….….……..... linux.org ……… .Web server……..……..……….….……..... apache.org Apache

Roll Your Own Content Management System Leveraging open-source A few examples of what I have used: ……………………………… .. ktdms.com ……… .document management system / digital asset management system….... dspace.org

Roll Your Own Content Management System Open-source content management systems ……………… .. php/MySQL …………........ typo3.org Drupal ………… ..……………….. php/MySQL …………........ drupal.org Mambo ……………… ..php/MySQL…………........ mamboserver.com

Roll Your Own Content Management System Open-source content management systems ……… ColdFusion/multiple db…………….... ………………………. farcry.daemon.com.au ………………… .. php/multiple db…….…........ drupal.org ………… .… Python/Zope Object Database (ZODB) ………………………………..……….…........ zope.org ……………… ..xml……...……….…… lenya.apache.org Lenya

Roll Your Own Content Management System Open-source content management systems: WebLion

Currently about 10 Zope Web sites at Penn State. Out-of-the-box templates that comply with University policy AD54 (Web Standards/Section 508/Design Standard). Interoperability: Web services, including RSS, XML RPC, and Soap. Open-source content management systems: WebLion Project is 6 months old. Free downloads for academic and administrative units around Penn State. Partnership/support option.

Roll Your Own Content Management System Open-source content management systems: WebLion Most popular open source content management framework in the world. By far. More than a million downloads worldwide. Application framework that makes use of plug-ins. Most popular Zope CMS Built with the Python Customization of Zope First released in 1998. Uses Plone Plugin Browser-based content editing Built-in security Workflow Handles wide range of doc types Supports Dublin Core W3/Section 508 compliant Silva DMS supports DC and other metadata schemas Extensible & customizable Most plugins are free

Roll Your Own Content Management System Resources OpenSourceCMS: Try Before You Install…………...….. opensourcecms.com Open Source Application Foundation……………….…..….. osafoundation.org OpenLogic……………………………………………….…….…..….. openlogic.com Web Standards in the Real World: Molly Holschlag talks about standards-compliant CMS…………………………………………………………………..…..….. ………………..… . www.uie.com/events/uiconf/articles/holzschlag_interview Open-Source Calendars……….……….. www.devscripts.com/PHP/Calendars WebLion…………………………………………………….……….. weblion.psu.edu CMS Watch……….…………………………………………...……….. cmswatch.org Determining Content Management System Requirements……….………………..………………………………………...……….. ….………………………………… content.psu.edu/ppt/CMSRequirements 101104.ppt