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Options for Content Management Systems (CMS)

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Our choice of CMS for a client would very much depend what they want and need to achieve and we would set this against the priorities identified to us. We would be looking at issues around customisation and developing appropriate functions and features, and how effective the CMS would be to deliver an appropriate and good value solution. The other area to address is the different types of users you may have on your CMS. They may have different skills and requirements. This adds another dimension as you may need to consider not just creating an interface for the ‘public; but also one for your content creators and editors.

Additionally, we would consider the development cycle for a CMS to ensure that the choice is robust, secure and will provide an appropriate platform for the future.  For example, the massive increase in mobile-access to web sites is a key factor to get real value out of your investment in a CMS.

Worpress

This can be an innovative and easy-to-use blogging platform. It has an expanding array of themes, functional enhancements through plugins and widgets, Wordpress is also used for other website formats such as E-Commerce and magazine type sites.

Technical experience is not a requirement; as it is intuitive and quite simple to set up quickly.

Wordpress’s main benefit is its ease of use, yet it is powerful enough for professional web designers to build powerful websites which, with minimal instruction, clients can effectively use.

It is great for fairly simple web sites and provides blogging.

download Wordpress

Joomla

Joomla is more complex than Wordpress and less complex than Drupal. As such it offers a middle-ground between ease of use and complex web site requirements.

Joomla offers middle ground between the developer-oriented, extensive capabilities of Drupal and user-friendly but more complex site development options than Wordpress offers.

It is designed to provide as a community platform, and comes with strong social networking features.

Joomla lest you build a site with more structure, flexibility and content than Wordpress offers and better supports E-commerce, social networking and more.

download Joomla

Drupal

Drupal provides, by default, basic pages, blogs, forums, news articles and comes with a robust standard themes. Beyond that it offers a framework fur subsequent development and web site enhancements. It is a powerful, developer-friendly tool for building complex sites. It requires some expertise and experience to operate but is capable of producing the most advanced sites. With each version, it is becoming easier to use.

Content can be formed around Drupal’s powerful taxonomy. This gives the ability to tag, categorise and to organise complex content.

As Drupal lets you start with a simple site, its versatility allows you to grow towards a complex and advanced web presence.  If your require complex data organisation; a community platform, or multiple users it is ideal as well as for online stores.

download Drupal

Update on Drupal 8

Drupal 8 is aiming to make development faster than ever.

Some changes which appear to be simple can be complicated by the problem of deployment. Drupal 8 will provide improved deployment tools to allow a more efficient development cycle with a more consistent way to transfer configuration settings built right into the core CMS.

This will allow upgrades and site enhancements to be more efficient.

Drupal 8 also seeks to enhance how web pages are created and presented through standardised templates. This is to allow designers to create web designs more effectively

A website cannot simply ‘work’ it needs a presentation layer which engages users and looks good. Many changes to web sites are about the presentation of content.

Every website has its own theme, colours, and layouts, and this can be difficult for developers to quickly make changes. Drupal 8 is aiming to improve the pages are rendered, and to standardise how layouts are applied. This is to allow designers and developers to make changes associated with style and presentation quicker and with less hassle.

Mobile Ready Web Sites

With mobile web access growing, it is now set to overtake traditional desktop PC usage in the next few years, the Drupal 8 mobile-ready initiative is worth considering. There are three main elements -

  • Responsive themes: The default themes (Bartik, Seven, and Stark) set as responsive designs. This allows them to maintain consistency whether they are being viewed on a laptop, a smart phone, or a gaming PC.
  • Mobile-friendly administration tools: Currently the default administration tools work very well when viewed on a PC monitor; however, but not so effectively on mobile devices. Drupal 8 is currently making improvements in this area.
  • Front-end performance: Mobile devices have less processing power than PCs, and less bandwidth to work within. This is a critical area. It is not just about the CMS application but the options for upgrading and appropriate design. Drupal 8 is making performance enhancements to the front-end processing

Please note:

Drupal 8 is only at a development stage and should not be used for a live web site. However, checking compatibility of your current site and preparing for upgrades is worth considering.

Verinote has a lot of experience in upgrading web sites from Druapl 6 to 7, as well as auditing sites for ‘preparedness’ for migration to Drupal.

Recently we have migrated sites from Wordpress to Drupal as well as from Joomla to Drupal. This has always been at the request of clients who have required more complex and powerful web sites.

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We are frequently asked about the choice of CMS. There are many options out there.

We have identified three open source options; WordpressJoomla and Drupal.

These are all free to download.

Each of these will probably approach the same level of flexibility and power in the coming years.

 

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