A CMS (content management system) is a specialize piece of software that allows you to efficiently maintain and update all the contents of your website.  Drupal is one of the very best at this, offering tremendous out of the box functionality along with support for a number of additional modules that can be used to extend its default capabilities.  Being an open-source software application, a community of users have contributed many components and modules for the overall betterment of the project.

Easy to Install and Set Up

Installing Drupal on your web hosting account is simple, especially when using an easy to use application installer such as Fantastico.  After installing the program, you can go through the process of designing your site and select from the array of content types that it will be compromised of.  A comprehensive wizard is available to walk you through the entire process and when setting things up, you are able to see a preview of what your site will look like when it is done.  This gives you the luxury to go back and make edits at any point during the design process.  Learning how to master the basic functions and options of Drupal is something that can literally be done in a matter of minutes.

The Benefits of Drupal Hosting

Due to its soaring popularity, Drupal has become a mainstay on the hosting market as several hosts now offer the software in their service plans at no additional cost.  Even though it has a reputation for being more complex than similar packages such as Joomla, all it takes is a basic level of technical skills to create a powerful and professional Drupal site.  In fact, if you can work with a simple word processing application and web browser, you can excel from the default functionality this dynamic CMS has to offer.  Drupal requires no programming knowledge of PHP or HTML to either create, maintain or update your website.

Conclusion

Drupal is a robust software package that offers the ability to create, manage and update various types of content.  It is primed for Web 2.0 applications so you can easily implement desirable features such blogs, forums and much more.  There are many CMS hosting solutions on the market and honestly, Drupal may not be suited for your needs.  For this reason, you should evaluate this product in and out to determine if it can meet your content management requirements.

What is CMS Made Simple?

CMS Made Simple is an open-source content management system that takes the complexity out of the management aspects.  The name says it all.  The platform is easy to install, set up and maintain.  Thanks to a user-friendly interface, managing all of your content is made simple, allowing you to save time by working more efficiently.  CMS Made Simple offers a unique ability that lets you create and run multiple websites while maintaining the content of each one independently.  Instead of spending time wrecking your brain on trying to figure out how the software is supposed to work, you can walk through a short learning curve and get your projects done much faster.  These are a few of many qualities bundled in CMS Made Simple.

Instant Search Engine Appeal

Before deciding on an CMS, it is good idea to research and find out how the software ranks in terms of SEO .  If visibility matters to you, it is important to go with a platform that is capable of generating URLs that appeal to search engines such as Google and Yahoo.  Even the mighty Joomla platform has its shortcomings in this regard.  In order to create your pages in a search engine-friendly manner, you have to install add-on modules, which presents more complexity to the inexperienced user.  CMS Made Simple has you covered from an SEO aspect by enabling the easy creation of search engine-friendly web pages to keep the spiders crawling to your site.  With this CMS, there is no need to install any add-on modules that may or may not work correctly.  This factor alone gives CMS Made Simple a huge advantage over some of the most highly touted open-source programs.

Additional Features and Capabilities

CMS Made Simple offers a fast and simple way to create a content-rich website and effectively manage all of its key components  Although most of the tools you need to integrate blogs, polls, and forums are available by default, this CMS is fully modular and highly extensible.   Aside from search engine friendliness right out of the box, the software also provides a facility for easy user and group management, a nice selection of built-in templates, a file manager, WYSIWYG editor, multi-language support and much more

A Simple CMS Choice

CMS Made Simple is light on server resources and runs efficiently with the support of a MySQL database on any server running PHP.  If you are hunting for open-source content management tools, this is one you definitely want to put on your list.

In order to determine whether WordPress is a CMS or not, you should first become acquainted with the three main types of content management systems, as outlined below.

Open-source Systems – Software packages like Drupal and Joomla that are becoming more popular for small to medium sized ventures.

Enterprise Systems - Proprietary solutions like Microsoft Content Server.  This type of CMS is geared towards corporate users that require powerful business applications and frequent database interaction.

Home Grown Systems – These systems are developed in-house by webmasters who have specific requirements for content management.

When comparing the WordPress platform to the software in these classifications, it falls short as merely an over-hyped content delivery system.  Though it has a tremendous following and a number of benefits, WordPress doesn’t have what it takes to be called a real CMS.   In fact, it lacks several of the necessary protocols the average CMS provides as standard.  This includes update features, security tools, user permissions and more complex content management functionality.  When considering the all the capabilities it is missing, calling WordPress a CMS may be like unfairly moving it up in weight class.

Should WordPress be a CMS?

Perhaps the real issue should be whether or not WordPress needs to be more like a genuine CMS.  While this software gives you a lot, there are limitations and thus disadvantages.  Ask a fan of Mambo or PHP-Nuke and they will probably tell you that WordPress is highly inferior.

Despite the shortcomings, it still is a very efficient tool and rightly embraced by millions of users around the world.  It can also be a nice alternative to some of the more complex and intimidating content management systems.  For the most part, the user community is happy with the functionality and would probably prefer to keep things as they are.  After all, turning the platform into a true CMS would tamper with a relatively clean code and possibly cause the software to lose some of its natural appeal.  Besides, simplicity and ease of use are two of WordPress’ biggest advantages.

Conclusion

There is no denying the capabilities of WordPress.  The overwhelming enthusiasm the community shares for this platform is certainly warranted.   It is very cost effective and makes and ideal tool for small to medium sized operations and can even move up to a larger scale as well.   Be that as it may, tagging WordPress as a content management system is not inherantly accurate.   In order to earn that title, the software would require a major overhaul which would in turn, cause it to lose so much of the qualities that has made it so popular.

Common Usage

The phpWebSite application is mainly used by community groups and for educational purposes.  While it is available to the public for other uses, the software’s primary focus is serving staff at Appalachian State University.  In fact, phpWebSite was initially designed to make it easier for university staff to create and manage their websites.  Over the years, the system has been greatly enhanced with features you will commonly find in other popular content management systems.

phpWebSite Features and Capabilities

PHP is a fully modular, customizable software package, allowing you to install, modify and update numerous components.  Its customization is extended through a wide variety of themes and HTML templates.  Although phpWebSite extensions typically consist of common features like photo galleries, blogs and bulletin boards, these elements don’t offer the functionality of standalone applications like Coppermine, WordPress and phpBB.  Because many of phpWebSite modules are intended for university users, they tend to lack the features you would find in applications such as Joomla or Drupal.

By default, the phpWebSite CMS offers functionality that makes it useful in many situations.  Some of its major capabilities include:

Content Creation and Management – phpWebSite’s built-in tools allows administrators and users to create, display and manage content on the system.  This includes text, files, images links and other forms of content.

Content Organization and Navigation - With phpWebsite, you can easily organize and present your content in a way that is simple to access and mange.

Communication – phpWebSite is ideal for running a community-based side as the software enables communication through various mediums.  This includes email, internal messaging and data interchange among other methods.

Configuration and Administration – As the website administrator, you have the ability to assign administrative privileges to staff and assign other permissions to users.  phpWebSite allows you to effectively manage every member within the community.

Development – Because phpWebSite is open-source, anyone can write extensions to enhance the software.  The integrated development tools allow you to set permissions for your internal developers to custom build modules for the system.

Presentation – phpWebSite offers a nice mix of pre-designed themes but there are many options for customization.  If you are familiar with CSS stylesheets, you can design and incorporate your own templates.  If not, there are several themes available on the web, ranging from free to premium.

phpWebSite Requirements

The features and user-friendliness of phpWebSite makes it a good choice for an open-source CMS.   In order to get the best out of this software, you will need a server equipped with the Apache web server and PHP programming language.  Though the PostgreSQL is supported, MySQL is recommended.

What is Fantastico?

Fantastico is an extremely useful application that usually comes free in web hosting accounts powered by the cPanel control panel.  Designed to run on Unix-like platforms, its purpose is to facilitate the simple installation of a wide range of popular scripts.  These add-on programs are totally free and can literally be installed in a matter of minutes.  The Fantastico advantage is all in the software and below are some of the categories you will find.

Blogs

The blog represents one of the very first social networking platforms and Fantastico gives you a wonderful variety to choose from.  Both Nucleus and b2Evolution are included but the most notable of all has to be WordPress.  Easily the most popular blogging application available, WordPress is widely supported by a large community and can be enhanced through a number of themes and templates.  If you’re looking to delve into the Blogosphere, Fantastico has you covered.

Content Management

Content management systems provide webmasters with a more effective way to build and administer their websites.  Even though most web hosting accounts come integrated site builders, these utilities fail in comparison to the power of a CMS.   This type of software is ideal for running medium to large sized websites and has the ability to assign varying levels of administrative access and permissions.  Some of today’s most popular community-based sites are running on content management systems.  The CMS lineup you will find in Fantastico includes Drupal, Mambo, Tiki Wiki, XOOPS and Joomla among several others.

Customer Relations

Establishing trusting relationships with customers is vital to the success of any business.  Fantastico betters the chance of keeping your customer base happy with applications like Help Center Live, osTicket, PHP Support Tickets, Support Services Manager and more.  These programs give you the ability to create the ultimate support center where your customers can get assistance through support tickets, FAQs, video tutorials and downloadable documentation.  Even if you can’t be around to answer the phone 24/7, such resources can assure that your customers are still able to get the help they need, when they need it.

E-commerce Tools

Fantastico has a little something for everyone, including those who desire to sell products and services online.  You can set up a web-based storefront in no time with popular open-source programs such as Cube Cart, osCommerce and Zen Cart.  Shopping cart software can get pretty expensive but these highly functional applications won’t cost you a thing with Fantastico.

These are just a few of numerous scripts that come bundled with Fantastico.  Other programs include discussion boards, photo galleries, project management tools and website builders.  Fantastico contorts to the novice, allowing those with little to no technical skills to instantly enhance their web presence. One could say that cPanel is a trendsetter as more control panels are being developed with application installers that mimic the abilities of Fantastico.

1. Search Engine Friendly – Drupal offers enhanced control over URL structure, making this CMS search engine friendly right out of the box.  Each piece of content can become customized with clean URLs that better your chances of ranking well in the search engines.

2.  Custom Content - The CCK (Content Construction Kit) in Drupal allows you to easily create various types of content.  Common examples include news stories, blog posts and tutorials.  With the Views Modules feature, you can display these content types in numerous ways.  While the average CMS requires complex coding to enable these tasks, Drupal makes it all simple as no programming experience is required.

3. Revision Control – Drupal allows you to save new versions of your web pages every time they are edited.  This gives you the ability to revert back to your old versions at any time.

4. Advanced Categorization – Drupal’s taxonomy system lets you organize and tag content with ease.  Known as vocabularies, each set of categories can be organized as certain types of content.  For instance, you could have blog content that permits free tagging while other sections can be limited to different list of categories.  When combined with the CCK and View Modules feature, this functionality makes it easy to target keywords you want to implement into your site.

5. User Management - The Drupal CMS was designed to support community-based sites, proven by the enhanced user and access control functionality it offers.  There are no limits to the user roles and access levels you can create and customize.  The best thing about Drupal is that it lets you keep advanced management features disabled and then enable them when your site grows and requires more community features.

6. PHP-based – By default, Drupal uses a PHP template theme engine, allowing you to instantly enhance the presentation of your site.  Applying themes in Drupal is easier than the WordPress environment and as long as the they are completely scripted, you don’t have to know anything about PHP to install them.

7. Excellent Community Support – Of all open-source content management systems, Drupal has one of the largest and most active communities.  You will understand how well supported the CMS is when taking a look at the long scroll of modules that have been contributed to the project.  There are many ways to get support including Drupal forums along with a number of video tutorials, podcasts and online documentation.  Drupal’s popularity gives you the assurance that this CMS will be around for a long time.

Joomla is highly functional yet lacks out of the box search engine friendliness.  WordPress is easy to use but can’t handle larger websites.  Where these systems and other platforms fail, Drupal picks up the slack with instant functionality able to satisfy a wide range of needs.

1. What’s Your Goal?

No two systems are the same.  Some are suited for personal sites, some for publishers while others are specifically designed for corporate solutions.  Before deciding on a particular product, it is best to decide what you plan do with it.  Are you looking for enhanced blog functionality or looking to create a huge news publishing site?  Are you trying to build a corporate intranet or create a social network?  There is a vast selection out there and most systems are geared towards a particular purpose.

2. What Functionality do You Require?

Most CMS software has the ability to be greatly enhanced while others only support limited plugins.  You need to determine the level of functionality you require out of the box as well as flexibility that grants more power in the future.  CMS features range widely but here some of the basics you will find in the more popular products.

Forums – While forums are a common feature, not every CMS supports them.  The good thing is that forums can be incorporated in a number of ways.  For example, they can be custom built into a CMS or implemented via plugin.  If your project requires forums, be sure to do some research and find out how many come included or what method is required to incorporate them.

Polls – Polls are another hot CMS feature.  If you want to allow your users to vote on specific content, you will need a product that supports this feature.

WYSIWYG Editor - Short for What You See Is What You Get, the WYSIWYG editor can make your life as an administrator much easier.  This tool offers a simple word processor interface that gives you the ability to easily add text and pictures.  If you’re not proficient with programming languages, the WYSIWYG editor is one feature you can’t do without.

3. Compatibility

When deciding on a CMS, you need to keep your web host in mind and find out if they actually support the software.  For instance, there are some systems that are entirely based on PHP while others cater to Ruby on Rails and other languages.  Aside from the language, you need to know what database your host supports.  Some products are designed for MySQL, others are designed for MS SQL.  Versions are important as well as a CMS based on PHP 5 may not integrate well on a server equipped with PHP 4.

4. Customization

Depending on your goals, you may want a CMS that is easy to customize.  Rest assured because themes are widely available for most systems.  Drupal, Joomla and Mambo are just three of many products supported by a wide range of additional themes.

5. Support

Whether its open-source or commercial, finding a CMS that offers support is vital.  If you purchase a product, be sure that you can get technical support from the vendor.  If you opt for an open-source product, be sure to select one with an active user community

For the most part, every content management system is designed to produce the same results.  What mainly sets them apart is ease of use and features.  One product might lack some of the basic features but make up for them with add-on support.  A system that doesn’t have a WYSIWYG editor, for example, may offer support for an add-on module such as TinyMCE.   A product that has a complex interface could be enhanced by modifying the menu system or customizing layout templates.  When it comes to the open-source CMS, it isn’t so much about native features as it is flexibility.  You can access the overall flexibility of a system by viewing it from these angles:

Default Capabilities: The default capabilities of a CMS basically entail what is included with the installation, and determine if you can perform essential tasks without any problems.  When assessing the flexibility of any system, it is important to look for one that offers an acceptable level of basic functionality and provides the structure for creating a dynamic website.

Add-on Support: Most systems support add-on modules so it is up to you to find out what capabilities they possess.  Aside from features, consider how easy they will be to incorporate into the existing system as well.

Templates: Templates are a major part of any CMS as they allow you to modify the look and feel of your content.  If you are proficient with coding, you may want to find a product that lets you write your own templates.  In this case, you would need a system that supports the languages you are familiar with.

SEO: Many content management systems offer search engine appeal right out of the box.  However, not every product does.  Visibility is crucial for a large site so it is best to find a product that enables the easy creation of web pages and appeases the search engines.

Product Recommendations

The open-source CMS market is huge and there are a variety of products available.  Two of the most widely used systems on the market are Drupal and Mambo.  Drupal is a robust system with quality design and clean code.  It comes loaded with exceptional default capabilities as well as templates and layouts that are easily to manipulate.  Drupal is one of the most comprehensive systems available and the preferred choice for many businesses.

Mambo is easy to install and enables the simple management of content-rich sites.  The system includes a number of default features that provide support for multiple authors with little training required.  Both systems are SEO-friendly and support various add-ons for enhanced functionality.  Keep in mind that each product requires that you have a basic understanding of HTML and PHP.

More commonly known as a CMS, a content management system is a type of software used to create, edit and manage content on a website.  These robust systems enable processes and workflows to be streamlined and typically involve the organization, categorization and structuring of information.  This technology allows you to store content as entire documents or configurable components, all while maintaining the links in between, making the CMS is great tool for search engine optimization.  Most systems enable the complete control of a website from working with scripting languages and building pages to managing files and actual programs.

Years ago, most web hosting companies only granted their clients with access to areas that permitted them to upload content to the server.  Rarely did they provide a means for controlling management and the structuring of data.  Even corporate users were limited as the tools provided didn’t allow them to monitor what changes had been made to their sites and who made the alterations.  With a CMS, users are fully equipped with tools that offer extensive control over the management functions of their website and all of its content.

Due to mass popularity, web hosting customers with a large amount of content now have various options for implementing content management systems.  With the development of open-source solutions, providers are offering these programs for next to nothing as a part of their monthly hosting plans.  Some of the options you will commonly find are Joomla, Drupal, PHP-Nuke, Mambo and Xoops to name a few.  Here are some other choices on the market:

OpenCMS

Hence the name, OpenCMS is an open source content management freely available to developers and users.  This software is preferred by many small to medium sized businesses as it enables them to create highly customized sites with interactive functionality.  OpenCMS supports a number of web-based programing languages including PHP, XML, Java, JSP and several others.

Microsoft Content Management Server

The Microsoft CMS is more suited for larger enterprises.  This system offers transparent content management and integration along with data transformation and syndication, all of which seamlessly combine various information and business processes.  The Microsoft solution is more advanced than most open-source packages as it has the ability to present information based on the customer’s needs.  The major difference between the Content Management Server and other systems is that it is a Microsoft commercial product, and therefore more expensive.

Regardless of what your requirements are, there is sure to be a CMS out there for you.  These programs go far beyond the basic tools offered by a provider and have the power to transform your site into an interactive, user-friendly platform.  As nearly every host is offering some type of system, it’s safe to say that the CMS is a driving force in the web hosting industry.

Far from the Average

Both Joomla and Drupal are robust systems, meaning they are geared for complex applications and steep requirements.  For this reason, anyone with a small business or site would get more benefit out of a system such as CMS Made Simple or Website Baker.   What sets Joomla and Drupal apart from these small, simple systems is that they offer a greater level of flexibility but are also more complicated.  Both will grant you with extensive administrative capabilities including authoring, editing and the ability to grant privileges to others.  Anyone with a bit of knowledge of web-based programming languages can get by with a little training.

Joomla

While there are a few similarities, the differences set these two systems apart by far.  Joomla is perhaps most known for its plethora of templates and ability to handle complex layouts.  The software lets you arrange content in various locations, capable of creating a number of different looks from a single layout.  However, because the HTML generated isn’t always the cleanest, this freedom could make your content difficult to management.  Joomla designed pages also tend to load slower as the system makes a number of requests to the server.  Additionally, one of the biggest complaints from the user community is that it isn’t as search engine friendly as other systems.

Despite the drawbacks, Joomla works well and is responsible for some of the best sites on the internet.  With an active community, improvements are constantly being made along with numerous add-ons that increase the program’s value.  Many of these modules are templates which give you more options for enhancing the presentation of your site.

Drupal

The programming functionality of Drupal enables it to handle the complex layout issues you would encounter with Joomla.  Unlike like its competitor, the code generates clean and the pages load very quickly.  Additionally, Drupal is one of the most search engine friendly systems right out of the box.  This software goes beyond the average portal as it is extremely flexible and can be customized to suite your needs.  At the same time, its flexibility is heavily tied with technical jargon and complex coding that can leave the beginner stomped.  Apart from being more challenging, Drupal is an elegant system capable of doing much for your website.  Learning how to master this CMS is worth the frustration.

The downside to Joomla and Drupal are one in the same – coding.  Anyone without basic knowledge of CSS and HTML cold have a very hard time.  Because PHP programming and the MySQL database play a major role, learning about these technologies wouldn’t hurt either.

If you can walk the steep learning curve, you will have the power to build several feature-rich sites that appeal to your visitors.