Managing Your Content: Everything You Need to Know about the CMS

Slide 1: Nicole C. Engard September 4, 2007 Princeton Public Library – Tech Talks Managing Your Content

Slide 2: When the Web Began When Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, • he envisioned a read/write Web. But what had emerged in the 1990s was an essentially read-only Web on which you needed an account with an ISP (Internet service provider) to host your web site, special tools, and/or HTML expertise to create a decent site.1 1. http://www.authorama.com/we-the-media-3.html

Slide 3: The 1990s Way In order to create the page on the right you need • to know how to write the code on the left. Image from the Joomla Tutorial: http://tinyurl.com/hagn7

Slide 4: The New Way Design is pulled out into a CSS file, still • requiring that know how to write the code on the left to create the page on the right. Image from the Joomla Tutorial: http://tinyurl.com/hagn7

Slide 5: The CMS Way With a Content Management System (CMS) all • you need to know is how to type the red text on the left to create the page on the right. Image from the Joomla Tutorial: http://tinyurl.com/hagn7

Slide 6: What Does that Mean? No more asking IT or Web Developers to edit • content No programming knowledge necessary to • create web pages The right experts are working on the right parts • In short: Content and Presentation are kept • separate.

Slide 7: CMS Options Proprietary options like MS Sharepoint • − Provides you with an enterprise solution that only a professional IT person can install and set up − Minimal control − Costs $$$$ Learn More: • http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/default.mspx

Slide 8: CMS Options cont… Open source options like Joomla and Drupal • − Provides you with a file that anyone can download, install and administer − Lots of control − Costs 0-$ (depending on external support) Do It Yourself • − All of the control − Costs $-$$$$

Slide 9: Benefits of the Open Source CMS Consistent website design • Availability of pre-packaged modules • Active open source community (for support) • Empowers staff and potentially customers • Encourages communication and collaboration • Content can easily be repurposed • Content is organized and searchable •

Slide 10: Benefits of Doing It Yourself Designed specifically for your organization • Access to staff input throughout the process • Complete control over ever aspect of the site • Empowers staff and potentially customers • Encourages communication and collaboration • Learn More: • Engard, Nicole C. \"DIY: Developing Web − Applications In-House.\" Online Magazine 30.6 (2006): 35. (http://tinyurl.com/yqyb9u)

Slide 11: Open Source Resources Open Source CMS: www.opensourcecms.com • Demo open source tools before installing them on your machine. [click Portals (CMS)] Joomla: www.joomla.org • An easy to use, award winning, open source content management system. Drupal: www.drupal.org • Highly respected, widely used content management system.

Slide 12: Do It Yourself Resources Thomson, Laura, and Luke Welling. PHP and • MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library). U.S.: Sams, 2004. (ISBN: 0672326728) Williams, Hugh E. Web Database Applications • with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition. Portland, OR: O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2004. (ISBN: 0596005431) Yank, Kevin. Build Your Own Database Driven • Website Using PHP and MySQL. Stockholm: Sitepoint, 2004. (ISBN: 0975240218)

Slide 13: Nicole C. Engard Metadata Librarian Princeton Theological Seminary Library nicole.engard@ptsem.edu & nengard@gmail.com Website: http://web2learning.net Thank You