What Makes A "real" Cms(content Management System) "really Good"
By Scott Taylor, Fri Dec 9th
As the market floods with CMS solutions offered by a hundreddifferent companies, one may start thinking "How in the world amI going to find a CMS that will firstly gives me what I want andneed now and secondly will that system be able to provide mewith what I am going to need in say 4 to 10 years from now?".Finding a CMS that fills this category can be the singletoughest thing you can undertake in your quest for CMS bliss!
I have been developing CMS solutions for various companies forthe last 10 years so I have learned a thing or two about what ismost important in a CMS and what makes a CMS stand out from thecrowd, so if you are in the market for a CMS solution considerthe following:
1. Can the system you choose be extended. What does that mean?Very simply can the CMS you choose change with your needs, cannew modules or page elements be added/developed?
2. Is it Search Engine friendly? Many CMS's use content out of aDatabase or content repository, this content is often accessedwith session variables or URL parameters. I am sure thateveryone of you have seen those URL's I am talking about, thingsthat look like this in your browserhttp://www.somecmssite.com/page.cgi?page=3&session=987988987655&someparam=whatever&anoutherparam=65&wherewillthisend=idontknow&idontthinkitwill=true these types of URL's are not Search Enginefriendly they will not get indexed by Search Engines at all. TheCMS you choose should have human readable URL's likehttp://www.somecmssite.com/somepage.xml
3. Also ask yourself: Is the system you have choosen"Future-Orientated" by this I mean, is the vendor of the CMS inquestion dedicated to its product or is it just a side thoughtor extra product/service listed? Will this system be developedfurther? And how are you going to benefit from the futuredevelopment, are there any features listed on the "InDevelopment" page of the vendors web-site that you would likeand is it going to cost you to receive these features when theyare finished? Also make suggestions to the vendor as to featuresthat may be "Nice to have" and judge their response, was it apositive response andwill they seriously consider developingthese new features, or was it just a blow-off?
4. Support Support Support. What kind of support do you receive?What is the vendors policy on bug-fixing? Can you report a bugand how long will it be before you receive a response/solution?This is one of the most important questions when choosing a CMSso ask the vendor about how their product is supported.
5. This is a very important point that not many give a thoughtto: Can the system you choose publish pages to differentformats? All Web Content Management Systems can publish pages asHTML but very few can publish that same content to a PDF file,Word document, WAP enabled devices or even to SVG(ScalableVector Graphics). Why is this necessary you ask? In answer tothis I ask, how many variations of the same document do you wantto keep up to date? How many different programs do you use andhave to learn to create all these documents? How do you evenkeep track of all these documents, as they are most likely goingto be stored in different locations... The concept that I liketo refer to as SDMOF or "Single Document Multiple Output Format"is a growing requirement for many businesses, imagine making anonline advertisement in HTML and being able to publish that samearticle to a PDF file which you may send to any number ofcustomers or even send that article to a print company which maythen be mailed to customers mail boxes! With the system that Iam proposing the same document could be viewed by someonesurfing your site with a WAP enabled mobile phone...
Thepossibilities are unlimited. So maintain one document not many.
6. What kind of content authoring environment does the CMSprovide? Most CMS's provide browser based content authoring,this kind of environment is very limited in functionality, alsofor any changes to a page the browser must connect to the serverbefore proceeding with anything else... And you may only work onone thing at a time... This can be a slow and tedious process.One thing I have found out about browser based contentauthoring: It is not possible to upload multipleimages/documents, either you must leave the browser and start upa FTP program or upload each image/document separately, now whowants to do that? Browser based content authoring can also lockyou into a particular browser or Operating system, so whathappens if in your company the management department is usingWindows and the Graphics department is using Macintosh? All ofthis can be solved by a content authoring environment which isdeveloped using Java/Swing, which will if properly developed runon just about any system, not only that but you will be using arich, responsive and friendly content authoring environment.
7. Is the system you choose an all-in-one solution or are yourequired to purchase or install any other special software forthe system to run... A good CMS does not require you to purchaseany other software, as this can become an expensive andcomplicated way of running a CMS.
8. If you choose a commercial and license based CMS what kind oflicense model are you getting. Some CMS's have time basedlicenses which you must renew every year or so, some have a userbased license model(Which can become very expensive veryquickly), some use a per-cpu license which can also become veryexpensive. Very few CMS's have a simple licensing structurewhich lets you purchase a license and that is it, for exampleCuppaWEB(http://www.cuppait.com/cuppaweb/index.xml) has such a license structurewhich has no time limit, user limit, cpu limit or even any otherSoftware/Database to purchase. Think about your budget verycarefully and don't get in over your head but don't try to savemoney where you shouldn't.
9. If you do choose a "Free" CMS what kind of support do youhave? And ask yourself; am I trading cost for what I reallywant? Will this "Free" system do everything you want and howeasy is it to learn? When you have a problem who can you turnto, will it be an expensive consultant? If so how are you goingto save money with this "Free" system? Even before you can startentering content the system must be installed and configured,can you do this yourself? If not this could become an expensive"Free" system! I have tested many of these "Free" CMS solutionsand I have found that they are not always what you would expectfrom a professional CMS. So be careful and think about thisbefore deciding. I would prefer to spend a little more money tosave time, as time in any businesses is your greatest asset.
So in conclusion, do your research and take your time inselecting a CMS, don't make trade-off.'s and ask the vendor manyquestions including those listed above. And really consider willthe CMS you choose be sustainable and is it Future-Orientated
About the author:Scott Taylor - Head Developer, Internet Consultant and Owner ofCuppaIT(www.cuppait.com).
Scott has 10 years experience in the CMS and softwaredevelopment field, he has worked in Europe and Australia forcompanies like Siemens, Deutsche Telekom and OČ Germany he hasrecently founded a company in the South West of WesternAustralia and developed the Content Management System CuppaWEB.
