Professional Website Design

Today, the world is dominated by the internet. We continuously seek information and get entertained from umpteen websites on the web. Have you ever wondered how these websites are created and maintained? Although you can hand code a site and host them through a suitable website hosting company, a much better, elegant, and professional way to generate and maintain a site is through a Content Management System (CMS). This is all the more important for corporate and business sites. In this article, we will explore the web design process through a CMS.

What is a Content Management System?

Technically, a content management system is a computer application that you can use to create a website and to maintain it throughout its life cycle. Through this application, the website content is published online in an organized manner. Through a CMS, the web content is stored and its versions are maintained. The variety of content that a CMS can handle is really rich. Industry-specific documentation such as news reports, brochures, technical manuals, and media files etc. – all can be handled adeptly by a CMS.  In this context, one thing is to be noted here. A CMS can handle both web content for the internet, and also corporate documents published internally. In this article, we will mostly consider web content management systems. 

Capabilities of a CMS

A CMS can create and control a dynamic website in an organized fashion. It helps in document layout, organization, and auditing. You can expect the following advantages when you start working with a CMS:

• You can work with a variety of automated HTML and XML templates. These templates can be easily applied to text content and the look changed instantly.  You can manage the look and feel of the pages centrally through a single interface.  
• The web content can be edited easily through in-built What-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor.
• With increased demands from your site, your CMS too can stretch to meet your requirements. Most CMS applications include plug-ins and utility modules that provide enhanced features to your site.
• In most professionally maintained sites, there is a process of content approval before publication. By issuing appropriate rights to authorities, you can smoothly address this requirement through a CMS. CMS allows multiple people to log in and work, often simultaneously. In the process, the workflow management activity gets streamlined.
• A CMS helps in managing documents published on the web through proper versioning and archiving.

Types of Content Management System

According to the deployment patterns of Content Management Systems, they can be classified into the following:

• Offline Processing CMS: Offline Processing CMS, or pre-processing CMS applications usually process all contents in advance before publishing them on the web. These systems do not require a server for application of templates and relevant design work. They can be considered much advanced and technically superior web design tools. Bricolage and Adobe Contribute are examples of this class.
• Online Processing CMS: These applications are characterized by their abilities to apply templates on demand. HTML can be generated automatically when a user visits the page or it can be obtained from cache. Popular web content management systems like Drupal, Joomla!, eZ publish, and Plone etc. fall under this category.
• Hybrid CMS: Some content management systems combine both online and offline capabilities. Applications under this category generate executable codes in JSP, PHP, and Perl outputs. Their capabilities are not confined to create static HTML web pages only. Content management trough this category of CMS applications does not require the tool to be deployed on every web server. Blosxom is an example of this kind of CMS.  

Few popular Content Management System tools

Whether you wish to create a blog-oriented site or a more professional one, you can easily find a CMS application that suits your needs. Both open-source and high-end commercial CMS tools are available. Below we discuss about a few popular CMS tools.

• Drupal: Drupal is a highly popular open source content management system tool. Its installation process is quite easy and it provides power-packed features that you can use effortlessly.
• Joomla!: Joomla! is another popular open-source content management tool. This award-winning application is easy to install and use. Through Joomla!, you can build websites and web applications having lot of useful features. Among its useful features, easy extensibility in sync with the increased needs of your website has made Joomla! the most sought-after CMS tool to web professionals. 

How to select the CMS tool you want

If you are on the lookout for a CMS for your website, follow these steps:

1. First, jot down your requirements. Be as specific and inclusive as you can. After you list your requirements, rank them in order. Your ranking should take into consideration priority and urgency elements.
2. Second, jot as many names of CMS applications that meet your specific criteria as you can. To fetch them, search the web extensively. You can also bank upon various online forums, discussion boards, and communities. Do as much preliminary evaluation as possible.
3. Third, narrow the list (may be three to four) so that you can evaluate them on your computer within a small timeframe. If you are evaluating a commercial product, ask for an evaluation copy. For open-source tools, download and install them on the server and try evaluating from your home PC. It should not take more time to decide which tool you really need to go for.