Content management system

1. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS)
Submitted By:
Shubha Brota Raha
EMBA 2011-14
SIBM, Bangalore

2. Introduction:
This article deals with one of the most important and integral part of web development that
is Content Management System (CMS) and how it works to design an excellent website. A
CMS or Content Management System is basically an application that can be used to manage
and organize movies, text, links, pictures and other data. In short we can say that a content
management system is used to manage the content of a web site. A CMS basically consists
of two elements- The content management application (CMA) and the CDA (Content
Delivery Application).
The Content Management application will make the content manager or we can say the
author to modify, manage the creation, and removal of content from a website. This type of
application helps the author to modify the content without knowing any knowledge of
Webmaster. On the other hand, the CDA element uses and compiles all the information to
update the web site. The features of a CMS system mainly includes web based publishing,
revision control, format management, and indexing, search and retrieval. Many of the
popular websites in the world use free and easily available content management system
such as Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal, which further helps you to make an affordable
website design and in website development.
A website design includes informatics architecture, colours used, user interface, site
navigation, buttons, layouts, images and much more. These all important parts combine
together to make an affordable website that meets the goals and desire of the client and
designer as well
Thus, content management is the organizing, categorizing, and structuring of information
resources (text, images, documents etc.) so that they can be stored, published, and edited
with ease and flexibility. A content management system (CMS) is used to collect, manage,
and publish content, storing the content either as components or whole documents, while

3. maintaining dynamic links between components.
CMSs allow end-users (typically authors of some sort) to provide new content in the form of
articles. The articles are typically entered as plain text, perhaps with mark-up to indicate
where other resources (such as pictures) should be placed. The system then uses rules to
style the article, which separates the display from the content, which has a number of
advantages when trying to get many articles to conform to a consistent "look and feel". The
system then adds the articles to a larger collection for publishing.
The systems also often include some sort of concept of the workflow for the target users,
which defines how the new content is to be routed around the system.
How Content Management System Works:
1.A professional web developer designs a web page format - typically with a logo at
the top, and standard navigation options across the top, down the left hand side,
and/or at the foot of the page.
2. This new format is used to create a master template.
3.All the web developers in the organization get to use special software that lets
them add text and images to web pages, automatically using the master template.
4.Each completed page is submitted to an editor, who might make changes or send it
back to the writer for revision. When the page is OK, the editor clicks an on-screen
PUBLISH button and uploads the page to the web server, so that the world can read it.
5. Each page is usually saved on a text database. Most web pages have file names that end
in .htm or .html, but sometimes you will see pages ending in other file extensions, such
as .php. These are often generated by content management systems. However, some
CMSs will generate plain .html pages, which are more easily found by search engines.
6. The CMS also generates indexes, showing what files have been changed when, who
updated which file, and so on.
7. The more elaborate CMS perform a lot more functions (such as archives, built-in
search engines, permission control, and workflow management), but the above ones
are basic.
8. Giving control back to content owners, allowing them to user their web browser to
add and edit content on the site with no special knowledge required.
9. Separating page content from format and design, creating a more consistent look
and feel across the site.
10.Faster publication of content and updates as well as immediate site-wide changes.

4. 11.Automation of all navigation, internal links, and other site sections where rules can
be imposed on content, eliminating internal broken links or orphaned pages.
12.The ability to schedule the publication or expiration of a page and all links to that page.
13.Development of workflow and approval processes; turning management of your
website into a business process.
14.The ability to customize the level of design and formatting control given to site
authors.
15.Development of user templates for content delivery using existing site design or in
conjunction with a site redesign.
16.Development of customized approval workflow.
17. Creation of user accounts and roles to fit your desired level of control and access.
18. Integration with existing applications and databases.
19. User training to assist content authors in becoming familiar with the system
Benefits of Content Management System:
• Content Authoring: This allows your content contributors to create content
and store it in the repository. There are many tools and styles.
• Workflow Management: This allows you to monitor, adjust, and maintain the
process through which the creation and publishing tasks are done in your
organization. Systems range from highly complex to quite simple, but all give you a
set of tools to manage the activities of authors and the progress of content.
• Content Storage: This feature keeps the content sensibly organized and
accessible. Most CMS use a relational database; the point is to store the content
in one place and in a consistent fashion.
• Content Authoring: This allows your content contributors to create content
and store it in the repository. There are many tools and styles.
• Workflow Management: This allows you to monitor, adjust, and maintain the
process through which the creation and publishing tasks are done in your
organization. Systems range from highly complex to quite simple, but all give you a
set of tools to manage the activities of authors and the progress of content.
• Content Storage: This feature keeps the content sensibly organized and

5. accessible. Most CMS use a relational database; the point is to store the content
in one place and in a consistent fashion.
• Publication Management: This allows you to organize your content with metadata
and formatting. CMS have different ways of approaching this, but the better ones
allow you to define and manage your metadata and your templates.
• Publishing: Publishing allows you to merge the content data and the content
formatting and move it from the repository to your publication. Different methods
exist, but they all allow you to push the content out to some publicly accessible
place without the help of your tech team.
• Content portability: Since the CMS stores content as data, that data can be inserted into
any appropriate output format or template. If you want your article to appear with a blue
background in your Members section, but with a yellow background in your General
Information section, you don't need to write your article twice. Instead, you write it once
and assign it to the blue template and the yellow template.
• Design flexibility: Similarly, since the CMS stores the templates separate from the content
data, if you want to make a design change, however small (such as changing the font colour
on a particular type of page) or sweeping (such as changing the font colour, type, and size
throughout your site), you only need to change the template; the CMS handles the rest.
• Single Storage in a Single Place: In a CMS, all the content data is stored in one place, in a
consistent way and perhaps most importantly, only once.
• Workflow Management: Any good CMS will have some sort of workflow management
scheme. This usually involves defining certain roles -- such as author, editor, and publisher
-- and giving each of those roles some abilities and responsibilities.
• Automated Publishing: When it comes to freeing technical resources from publishing tasks,
almost any CMS shines. The CMS allows non-technical people to schedule, trigger, and
otherwise manage the process of moving the content to the production environment.
• Content portability: Since the CMS stores content as data, that data can be inserted
into any appropriate output format or template. If you want your article to appear
with a blue background in your Members section, but with a yellow background in
your General Information section, you don't need to write your article twice.
Instead, you write it once and assign it to the blue template and the yellow
template.
• Design flexibility: Similarly, since the CMS stores the templates separate from the
content data, if you want to make a design change, however small (such as changing
the font colour on a particular page) or sweeping (such as changing the font colour,
type, size throughout your site), you only need to change the template; the CMS
handles the rest.
• Single Storage in a Single Place: In a CMS, all the content data is stored in one place,

6. in a consistent way and perhaps most importantly, only once.
• Workflow Management: Any good CMS will have some sort of workflow
management scheme. This usually involves defining certain roles -- such as author,
editor, and publisher -- and giving each of those roles some abilities and
responsibilities.
• Automated Publishing: When it comes to freeing technical resources from
publishing tasks, almost any CMS shines. The CMS allows non-technical people to
schedule, trigger, and otherwise manage the process of moving the content to the
production environment.
WORDPRESS:
WordPress is an open-source and free Web publishing application, content management
system (CMS) and blogging tool built by a community of developers and contributors.
WordPress allows users to build dynamic websites and blogs that may be updated,
customized and managed from its back-end CMS and integrated application and
components.
Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little co-founded WordPress. WordPress started in 2003 with a
single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than
you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-
hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by ten millions of
people every day.
Steps to configure WordPress:
• Step 1: Install local server (WAMP or XAMPP).
• Step 2: Start server.
• Step 3: Wordpress package Copy from source and past in www directory.
• Step 4: Open PHP my admin and create database.
• Step 5: Open wordpress package in browser (local host/your folder name) and
configure according to your database name and password.
• Step 6: Run and install
• Step 7: Login in admin panel (local host/your folder name/wp-login.php)

7. • Step 8: Visit front site and enjoy with wordpress.
Dashboard of WordPress:
Marked in the screenshot above are “Posts” (A) and “Pages” (B) in Wordpress. Normally,
one will want to write a new Post. “Posts” are organized around categories (e.g., Blog,
News, Products, Articles, Services, Resources, Healthy Snacks) while “Pages” have no
category and standalone (e.g., Contact Us, Legal Disclaimer, Terms of Service, Thank You
for Shopping With Us).
Writing a New Post:
AA
BB

8. B. This is the ContentB. This is the Content
Input box to write a new post.Input box to write a new post.
A. This is the Title input boxA. This is the Title input box
Add tags to
your post
Select a category for
your post
Allow site visitors to
comment on your post
Publish your
Post

9. Edit your Post:
Editing a Post — the Editing Icons in Detail:
1. Bold
2. Italic
3. Strikethrough: Used most often to denote a correction or change from the original text.
4. Bulleted List
5. Numbered List
6. Block-quote: Indents a paragraph both right and left. This will look different depending
upon your theme’s style-sheet.
7. Paragraph Alignment: Left, Center, Right
8. Link/Unlink: For adding or removing a web hyperlink. The icons are grayed out until text

10. is highlighted.
9. More Tag: Inserts the word “More” and a link to the complete post allowing you to set
the excerpt for a post ends in archive and other aggregate pages.
10. Spellcheck Toggle: Turns the spellchecker on and off. When on, misspelled words are
underlined in red.
11. Expanded Menu Bar — Click on this icon to show (or hide) the second row of icons.
There are very few of the additional editing features that you’ll need right now, but
there are a few useful ones. These include:
• Formatting List — This feature provides a drop-down list of additional HTML codes,
such as Headings, that can be used to format text.
• Copy-and-Paste Plain Text — Click on this icon when you are pasting plain text, such
as text from a web page, into your post.
• Copy-and-Paste MS Word Text — Click this icon when you are pasting text that was
original written in Microsoft Word to avoid the custom editing code and characters
that MS Word uses are not pasted into your post. It also makes for safer posts,
ensuring your aren’t copying some hidden code that can be carried from MS Word.
• Special character palette — If you want to use a special character, such as a foreign
character or a financial or math symbol, clicking on this button where give you a
pop-up window of HTML entities that you can click on to insert a character.
Insert photo and/or other media:
Add Photo/ImageAdd Photo/Image
Add VideoAdd Video
Add MusicAdd Music
Add Other File Types, e.g. PDFAdd Other File Types, e.g. PDF
Upload Menu

11. In similar fashion, categories, pages, links, hyperlinks, etc. can be added/inserted/edited
too.
WordPress Themes:
WordPress themes are files that work together to create the design and functionality of a
WordPress site. Each theme may be different, offering many choices for site owners to
instantly change the look of their website. There are free themes available through
WordPress.org or premium themes for purchase all over the web. Think of it like you're
hiring a web designer, the difference is that the theme is already finished, as opposed to
waiting a couple of weeks.
WordPress Widgets:
Designed to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and control to a section
in your WordPress theme like a sidebar or a footer. Some plugins you download will
provide a widget with options to display certain functionality in a different or quicker way.
A very useful widget is the built-in HTML widget, which you can put any type of code or
third party embed code in, besides PHP, but there is a plugin for that.

12. WordPress Plugins:
Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. With all the available plugins you
can turn WordPress into a radio, news or photography content management system as easy
as installing software.
Over 18,000 plugins are available; some are free, others ask for donation or have a monthly
rate or one-time buy. With that many plugins it provides an opportunity to build a site the
way you want it.
Benefits of using WordPress:
WordPress has been around since 2003 and is the most popular blogging software on the
market. Over the last few years, WordPress has also become the content management
software of choice for non-blogging websites. Here are the top 10 reasons why WordPress is

13. so popular and why you might want to consider switching to a WordPress platform for your
company’s website.
1. Ease of Use
WordPress is very easy to use and has an intuitive interface. Adding new pages, blog posts,
images, etc. on a regular basis is a breeze and can be done quickly. Because the technology
is so simple, time spent on formatting is greatly reduced.
2. Manage Your Website from Any Computer
WordPress is browser-based. You can login from any Internet connected computer and
manage your site.
3. No HTML Editing or FTP Software Required
WordPress is a self-contained system and does not require HTML editing software (such as
Adobe Contribute or Dreamweaver). You can create a new page or blog post, format text,
upload images (and edit them), upload documents, video files, image galleries, etc. all
without the need for additional HTML or FTP software.
4. Search Engines Love WordPress Sites
The code behind WordPress is very clean and simple, making it easy for search engines to
read and index a site’s content. In addition, each page, post, and image can have its own
meta tag keywords, description, and title, and be optimized for specific keywords, allowing
for very precise search engine optimization. You can also use tags to further enhance your
search engine optimization efforts.
5. You Have Control of Your Site
No more waiting for your web designer to make simple updates to your site. With
WordPress, you have control of nearly every aspect of your site and can easily make those
simple updates yourself.
6. The Design of Your Website is 100% Customizable
WordPress acts as the engine for your website. The look and feel of the site can be 100%
customized so your brand can shine through on your site and provide a unique experience
to your visitors.
7. A Blog is Built-in and Ready to Go
Since WordPress was originally created as a blogging platform, blogging capabilities are
built-in and are easy to integrate, if desired. Setting up RSS / email subscriptions to your
blog, commenting capabilities, and automatically adding the most recent blog posts to other
pages of the site (your home page, for example) are also very simple to set-up, and help to
extend your company’s reach and make your site more dynamic and interactive.

14. 8. Extend the Functionality of Your Site with Plugins
Want to add an event calendar, video gallery, Twitter Feed, Facebook Fan Box, and more to
your site? WordPress makes this possible with plugins, most of which are free or very
reasonably priced.
9. Your Site Can Grow as Your Business Grows
WordPress sites are very scalable. You can have hundreds of thousands of pages or blog
posts on your site and the performance of the site will not be compromised in the least.
10. Have Multiple Users
As an administrator of a WordPress site, you can set-up multiple users for the website and
assign access levels and capabilities to each user.