Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS)

1. Open Source
Content Management Systems
Krishna priya
November 8, 2016
C-DAC, Hyderabad

2. Presentation Overview
 Content
 Content Management
 Manage content online
 Content Management System (CMS)
 Open Source CMS Types
 InDG Portal – a case study
 About InDG
 InDG Web Portal Features
 Conclusion

3. Content??

4. Content
 Content from the perspective of media and
publishing may be thought of as
information and experiences created by
individuals, institutions and technology to
benefit audiences in contexts that they
value.

5. What is Content Management??

6. Content Management
 Content management is the way of
organizing, categorizing, and structuring
the information resources (text, images,
documents, etc.) so that they can be
stored, published, and edited with ease
and flexibility.

7. Example: University Website
Home Page
University Info. Progammes Admissions
For Students
Gen. Info.
Jobs
Faculty
Undergrad.
Graduate
Postgrad.
Executive
Fin. Aid
Online App.
News & Events
Search, FAQ,
Site Map
Archives
Library Computer Labs Research Pages
Courses, etc.

10. Manage content online
but
HOW??

11. Simple Solution!!
Hire a team to develop a website

12. So What Do We Do?
 Traditional approach:
 Hire a team to make and manage website.
 Team comprises of:
 Web designers
 Web coders
 Content Authors
 Domain Experts/Content Managers
 Approver / Editors

13. So What Do We Do?
 Team will:
 Manage technical aspects of website.
 Collect information from various departments.
 Edit information, put it in web format.
 Upload information to website.
 Maintain information; direct website queries to
concerned people; etc.
Content Authoring Process………

14. Conventional Content Authoring
Process
Content
Author
Manager
Editor/
Approver
Web
Developer
Website
Draft
Approval
Request for
updating pages
Update &
publish
Web
Pages

15. Scenario
 What if content author misses out some
important information or just wants to add
more information to the existing content
What will s(he) do now??

16. What to do now??
 Content Author now informs the Manager
who in turn approaches the Approver.
 Approver now informs the Web Team to
make this slight change.
 Again s(he) redesigns the web page and
finally puts it in the website.
…………….quite time-consuming!!

17. Problems with Traditional Approach
 A sizable team is required:
 Web designers
 Web coders
 Document editors
 Managers
 Managing a large number of documents
(many hundreds!) is very hard.
 The content authoring process is very
time-consuming.

18. Problems with Traditional Approach
 No single person/department can write all
documents required to make a comprehensive
website.
 Maintaining a uniform and consistent design
across the website is not easy.
 Problems:
 Lots of documents
 Multiple authors, multiple editors
 Multiple styles (page design and writing style)

19. What do We do now??

20. Content Management System
(CMS)
….…….to the rescue……….

21. What is this CMS?
 A tool used to manage document:
 Creation
 Storage
 Editing
 Publication
in an increasingly collaborative
environment.
 Usually online, accessible from the web.

22. New Approach
 Use a Content Management System:
 Web people (coders and designers) set up
skeleton site.
 Each department now fills (and maintains) its
own section of the site [shift of responsibility].
 Web people can train staff and facilitate the process
(as document editors, for example).
 Publishing happens automatically
 Once documents go through the workflow process.

23. Automated Workflow Process
using a CMS
Template
Content Author
Manager Editor/Approver
Web Developer
Creates
Draft
Approval
Publish
Uses
Website

25. How Will This Make Things Better?
 Everything else happens automatically!
 Sections and pages are linked automatically.
 Search is automated (including advanced search).
 Formatting is kept uniform throughout the site.
 If workflow is used properly content is up-to-
date and correctly edited at all times.
 Content authoring-to-publishing cycle
becomes shorter.
 Overall, website management and
maintenance is significantly simplified.

26. How Will This Make Things Better?
 Web developers:
 Make site structure.
 Define page formats (templates) for each
section (or one for the entire site).
 They then focus on the website’s functionality
instead of being burdened with managing all
the content.
Templates

27. But…..
Which CMS to pick??

28. ………..there are so many!!

29. So Now What?
 Define a content strategy:
 Content requirements
 Forecast development over time
 Figure out operating environments:
 Operating Systems, databases
 Document standards (technical and other)
 Align requirements with features and pick
a CMS product.

30. Picking a CMS
 Different functionalities:
 Document Management System (DMS)
 Internal documents, metadata, revision histories, etc.
 Digital Asset Management (DAM)
 Like DMS, but works on binary (multimedia) content
 Web Content Management (WCM)
 Lets you publish from DMS to web; syndication
 Learning Content Management (LCM)
 A WCM structured to comply with online education
standards (SCORM, AICC, IMS, etc.)
* Sharable Content Object Reference Model;
Aviation Industry CBT Committee; IMS/IEEE
using XML

31. Commercial CMS
 Commercial or propriety systems are still a
popular choice of CMS for many people who are
reassured by the technical support, service level
agreements
 There is also the fact that many commercial
systems are already ready-built which means that
they are quicker to implement than many open
source systems
 If you are looking to save time (but not money)
then a commercial system is a good choice. .
Examples of Commercial CMS : SiteCore, EpiServe, Ektron,
Alterion, Alterion and Sitefinity
,

32. A Third Option: Open Source
 Low cost alternative:
 Software is free
 Consultancy is optional (can do in-house)
 Highly customizable:
 Content, by nature, requires customization
 Feature-rich:
 New features developed regularly

33. Basic CMS Features
 All CMS’ generally have:
 A content repository
 Dynamic page generation
 Workflow procedures
 Additional features include:
 Editing tools
 Internationalization
 Multiple sites
 Syndication
 Personalization
 Caching

34. Comparison of CMS

35. CMS Example: Drupal
 Structure is divided into Blocks, views,
menus, nodes.
 The administrative screens for configuring a
site have a huge number of options and
settings, making them harder to interpret
 Understanding what the system offers and
how to configure it is more difficult than
WordPress or Joomla.
 Many steps to make a web page.

36. Open Source CMS
Joomla

37. CMS Example: Joomla
 The system is divided into three types of
pages: Sections, Categories, and Articles.
There’s a bit of a learning curve to
understand
 Joomla is not the best choice for sites that
will be edited by many different content
authors, as it doesn’t offer an easy way
create a workflow based on section or type of
content
 Can not create your own types of content

38. Open Source CMS
Wordpress

39. CMS Example: Wordpress
 It’s designed primarily to support simple
arrangements of two types of content—blog
posts and pages
 Pages are like posts - just one content area.
Sidebar content is fixed. If URLs change things
break. End user cannot select page types.
 Tools to create / manage pages limited.
 Content sharing is hard.

40. Open Source CMS
Plone

41. CMS Example: Plone
 Comprehensive DMS (Zope), WCM (Plone)
 Technical specifications:
 OS: Linux/Solaris/BSD, Windows, Mac OS
 Language: Python
 Uncommon, but powerful and mature language
 Uses own application server
 Can run behind popular web servers (Apache/IIS)
 Can use other databases (MySQL, Oracle, etc.)

42. CMS Example: Plone
 Powerful, flexible, secure and Open Source.
 It allows non-technical people to easily
create and manage content
 Extensible workflow Capabilities
 Able to manage multilingual content easily
 Content Locking
 Search engine friendly
 Wide range of add-ons

43. Features of Plone
Easy to get started
Batteries Included
Supports Linux, Windows, Mac OS X,
FreeBSD, Solaris. The installers get you
up and running within minutes. No
complex set-up procedures.
Speaks multiple languages
Supports over 35+ languages including
22 Indian languages.

44. Features of Plone
User Friendly
Lets You Focus on
Your Writing
Plone includes a powerful, rich editor with
text formatting,image and link insertion
abilities. If you’re used to working
with an office suite, you’ll feel right at
home.
Instant, Full-text Searching
All content is searchable immediately;
even Word documents and PDF files.
LiveSearch puts it all at your fingertips.
Built-in Image Handling
Upload an image, and it’s automatically rescaled to a variety of sizes, ready to be used
in your content. No Photoshop needed..

45. Features of Plone
Powerful
Powerful Workflow Engine
Make your business processes part of
the document workflow-complemented
by fool-proof security management.
Speed and Scalability
Comes out-of-the-box with clustering
capability and intelligent caching proxy
integration.
Syndicate and Aggregate
Smart folders and smart updates. Plone
automatically produces RSS feeds from
folders, search results and more.
Security and Flexibility
Fine-grained role-based security model
secures the content in the website.

46. Features of Plone
Standards Compliant
Accessibility Compliant
Meets or exceeds U.S. Government Section 508 and W3C's WAI-AA standards for
sight and motor impaired individuals. All JavaScript usage comes with fallback
modes that work in any web browser.

47. Features of Plone
Support
Great Documentation Online
Several books are available in print as
well as online.
Innovative and Extensible
Hundreds of add-on products are
available — forums, issue trackers,
blogs and collaboration tools.
Open Source, Open Standards
Plone is available under the same
open source license as Linux, and
uses the open source Python
programming language and Zope
application server. This avoids vendor
lock-in, expensive licenses, and gives
you a predictable future — and the
freedom to innovate.
World-class Support
Whether you use the online
documentation, mailing lists and chat
rooms — or the services of the hundreds
of companies around the world that
support Plone — you're never alone.

48. Plone CMS
 InDG web portal runs on Plone
 Sites using Plone:
 NASA/JPL (including Mars Rover site)
 Defence Academy
 European Aeronautic Defence and Space
 Lufthansa (vendor extranet)
 Nokia
 Warwickshire Police
 NATO Internal (runs Zope)
 CBS NY (runs Zope)
 Nokia
 Panasonic

49. Thank you