What is a content management system?
In the early days of the Web, most people wrote web pages by hand, in raw HTML. That worked well—for a while. Then, as the Web expanded, people wanted to publish increasingly-complex web sites and maintain them over time. Raw HTML wasn't enough, and it turned out that the first-generation of graphical HTML editors, such as Dreamweaver and FrontPage, weren't enough either. More sophisticated systems for creating and managing thousands (or millions!) of pages were needed, and from this need, modern CMSes were born.
A content management system is a software application that allows you to create, edit, and publish information on the Web in a consistent, structured way.
Content management systems provide a wide range of features that support the process of creating and editing the content, including:
- Separation of content from presentation: By keeping the presentation (formatting) separate from the content (text, images, and so on), content management systems help to ensure that the web site content is formatted in a consistent way. Non-technical users don't need to be concerned with the details of how things should look.
- Security: Gone are they days when a single person published all of the content on a web site. With different people contributing content to a web site, it's important to ensure that people are only doing the things they're supposed to be doing. Content management systems provide security and workflow mechanisms that let you define and enforce appropriate permissions for your site.
- Site structure: Content management systems understand how different pieces of content relate to each other, and can automatically construct appropriate site navigation elements.
- Searching: Content management systems typically include powerful search tools that help users find the content on the site that they're looking for.
- User interactivity: Modern web sites invite user participation through commenting, rating, bookmarking, and the creation of new content. Content management systems let site users participate and help turn web sites into lively places for building communities.
In short, content management systems are the beating heart of most modern web sites. By automating routine tasks, they allow web site authors to focus on writing compelling content, and by opening up new horizons of interactivity, content management systems turn web sites into living, breathing communities.