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Build a CMS Website. The topics this chapter covers are:. • What is CMS ? • What you can do with CMS • The benefits and disadvantages of using a content management system. • What is CMS ?.
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The topics this chapter covers are: • What is CMS ? • What you can do with CMS • The benefits and disadvantages of using a content management system
• What is CMS ? • CMS works by storing pictures and text into a database. That allows you to create and maintain a website. • When a webpage is requested, the CMS system accesses the database and renders the webpage. • Because the data is separated from the code, changes to the data can be made using a web interface that requires no knowledge of HTML or ftp. • It is open source which means that it’s free.
You need four things to build a CMS website: • 1. A basic understanding of how websites work – for example, you should know that websites are comprised of web pages, web pages tend to include a navigation menu with items linked to other web pages and web pages can include various elements such as text, images,hyperlinkedtext, audio and video. • 2. An understanding of how CMS works – which, of course, is where these tutorials come in. • 3. The CMS(Joomla, Wordpress) software – and part of this course demonstrates how to download and install it • 4. An account with a web host – which is an organization
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH CMS • Simple sites On its own, CMS is great for creating simple sites with pages of text and images. • Complex sites CMS greatest strength is the enormous number of third party add-ons called extensions. • Specialist sites Some extensions allow you to create specialist sites such as magazine sites, e-commerce, membership sites and forums. • Custom applications If you need to develop some functionality that goes beyond the standard features of CMS, and no extension exists that does the job, then you can create a custom application. As the CMS framework is open source, web programmers can modify any existing functionality and add new functionality. • Design options Another aspect to consider is the look of your website. CMS pages are displayed using a file called a template. There are free and commercial ready-made templates or you can design your own template. Developing a website with CMS does not mean that you’re in some way restricted to a particular design or layout. You can create any design you like and fit it into the CMS structure.
THE BENEFITS OF USING A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM • The website is easy to update • The site can be updated from anywhere in the world – no installed software necessary • More than one person can update the site • Design changes are easy • No need to pay someone to keep site updated • You control when site is updated
THE DisadvantagesOF USING A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM • Potential to break your websites look and feel if not used properly • You may not have the resource to update website regularly • Software like asp, php or cgi must be installed on the server and the software written to fit the configuration of the server. • The overhead on server resources • Can require extra maintenance, backups, upgrades, security patches
Why Joomla? • It is free • It’s also Cross platform • Support • Long history • Thousands of extensions • Secure • Popularity
ALTERNATIVE CMS SOFTWARE • Joomla vs. Wordpress Wordpress was originally designed as a blogging platform. Wordpress frontend
ALTERNATIVE CMS SOFTWARE • Joomla vs. Wordpress Blogging, is still its core strength. Wordpress backend
ALTERNATIVE CMS SOFTWARE • Joomla vs. Drupal • It is nicer to code for Drupal better storage system and better access control. The interface is not intuitive.
Conclusion • If you are updating your website regularly; on a daily or weekly basis, then a content management system is a logical choice. • Ensure that you do some reallocation of staff duties to allow time for staff to update the website because although it may only take a couple of minutes to publish a webpage, someone still has to write, proof read, type set and reduce the size of images and that takes time. • Failure to reallocate human resources will often mean that many companies buy a CMS system but rarely use it
Conclusion • If you are updating your website regularly; on a daily or weekly basis, then a content management system is a logical choice. • Ensure that you do some reallocation of staff duties to allow time for staff to update the website because although it may only take a couple of minutes to publish a webpage, someone still has to write, proof read, type set and reduce the size of images and that takes time. • Failure to reallocate human resources will often mean that many companies buy a CMS system but rarely use it
Conclusion • If you are not going to update your website regularly, then a static HTML website is easier to maintain and cheaper to host. • HTML websites are not as resource hungry and can be moved relatively easily, if • It is also easier to find someone that can program in HTML than it is to find a developer to fix a CMS system should things go wrong or if you want to change hosting companies.