Taking Notes

The types of websites we generate tend to be based on "Content Management Systems", "CMS" which is all well and good but what does it mean to our customers? By using a CMS as the basis for your web site it opens up a number of features:

 

• An easy way to update the website with new content whilst maintaining a consistent look and feel
• Flexibility - as the design is modular, additional functionality can be added, such as shopping carts etc...
• They are database driven, so integration into existing directories and systems is possible using open standards.
• The layout of the site is separate from the content: There are thousands of "templates" available that dictate the look and feel, and these too can be customised.
Why are these features important?
• Web sites are not static media; they need to change and adapt as your business changes and adapts to an increasingly demanding market place.
• New ways of communicating your message become available periodically. Examples would be RSS feeds, Blogs. Adding these types of features is easy in a modular design without the need to totally re-write the site.
• By using open standards we can use readily available tools to support the site, for back up and restore etc rather than the proprietary route that most closed source products direct you towards.
We use a number of "Open Source" CMS products such as Joomla, Mambo, Drupal and PHP Nuke. The reason for this is not so much that they have a lower cost of ownership but rather that they have a wealth of support available to them and a proven robustness. This site is built with Joomla, www.joomla.org. The technologies behind it are Apache, PHP and MySQL. When combined, these are one of the major forces that drive a large proportion of the Internet sites today. So when planning to deploy a CMS site, consideration has to be given to the type of hosting service used and what control they give to their customers. Wireless and Web does not re-sell hosting but will advise and co-ordinate where necessary.