Book Image

Managing eZ Publish Web Content Management Projects

Book Image

Managing eZ Publish Web Content Management Projects

Overview of this book

open-source CMS (content management system) and development framework with functionality for web publishing, intranets, e-commerce, extranets, and web portals. In this book, Martin Bauer of designit.com.au an eZ publish Silver partner, teaches you how to successfully manage and implement an eZ publish web content management project. He shows you how to produce quality results in a repeatable manner with the minimum of effort, and end up with eZ publish solutions that will delight your clients. The book presents strategies, best practices, and techniques for all steps of your eZ publish project, starting from client requirements, through planning, information architecture and content modeling, design considerations, and right up to deployment, client training, maintenance, support, and upgrades.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Managing eZ Publish Web Content Management Projects
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
Index

Why Use a Content Management System?


There are a number of reasons why content management systems have become a specific type of solution, and have business advantages to be gained from their use. Initially, websites were simply static HTML pages that linked to each other. Maintaining these sites required an understanding of HTML and the ability to create web graphics. This meant that anyone wanting to keep their website up-to-date would either have to learn HTML or pay someone who understood HTML to make the changes for them. Given that keeping a website current is an important factor in its success, the ability to manage the content on the website becomes increasingly important. Over time, custom-built applications emerged that allowed people to update content without needing technical skills; also, clients wanted to save costs by having content managed in-house rather than having to outsource it to web professionals.

The end result is that a market emerged for web-based applications that allowed clients to control the content on their websites without having to be technically proficient in HTML: i.e., content management systems. There were other advantages as well: the separation of presentation from content, the ability for the client to enter the content and be sure that it would be presented using the correct look and feel, the ability to easily re-use content, the ability to have all content searchable, the ability to schedule the release and removal of content on the site, the ability to dynamically create related content to keep the reader interested, the ability to have multiple content creators working on the system at the same time, etc.

The key to content management is allowing non-technical people to keep websites up to date. It means that the people who create content can focus on what they do best, create content. The system provides them with a way to easily present that content on the Web, and that's why content management systems have become so popular. But what has emerged is that there is a lot more to content management than simply cutting and pasting content into the system; there is a range of other factors to consider.

A content management system is only a tool that helps achieve a business goal. It's a web publishing system and, like any printed publication, there are numerous decisions to be made: e.g., the purpose of the publication, the audience, the nature, source and structure of the content, the way content is to be presented, etc. The additional dimension that content management systems bring into play is that they are dynamic. The content can be re-shaped and represented in many different ways; it can also change depending on who is viewing it, e.g., members of a site might see more than the general public. A CMS can also contain interactivity that requires business logic and rules.

In summary, a content management system is far more than just software that allows people to easily update websites; it's a publishing and communication system that allows people to communicate and interact via the Web.