Off-the-shelf Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems allow you to update and change the content on your site via a Web browser. This is a necessity if you want to keep your site fresh with lively content. A CMS is also the way to go for Web designers who want to give their clients the ability to make changes to their own sites without technical assistance.

I have built custom content management systems for clients in both Perl and ColdFusion. But things have changed. During the last couple of years, PHP and MySQL, both free products, have become the de facto standard for most Web systems of small to medium scope (when you get into huge corporate Web sites, other technologies still hold a strong position). Some PHP content management systems scale just fine to the top end, and are in daily use in corporate America.

Awhile back, it became obvious to me that available off-the-shelf open source CMS systems were just as good for most applications as anything that could be custom built. I no longer build such systems from scratch. It is more cost effective to assess a client's needs and choose an appropriate CMS system that can be easily modified to meet those needs. In most cases, for most clients, very little customization is required beyond modifying a template for appearance.

Coming up next, an article on when you should choose a CMS backed by a database (usually MySQL) and when you're better off selecting a CMS that relies instead on text or xml files.

Later on, reviews of content management systems including Drupal, Jaws, Drake, MuCMS, Joomla, TypoLight and more! And other alternatives including WordPress and SimplePHPblog, blog scripts that can easily pull duty as a content management system.

Categories: CMS, Comparison