A content management system (CMS) is the collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The procedures are designed to do the following:
- Allow for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data
- Control access to data, based on user roles (defining which information users or user groups can view, edit, publish, etc.)
- Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
- Reduce repetitive duplicate input
- Improve the ease of report writing
- Improve communication between users
In a CMS, data can be defined as nearly anything: documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, scientific data, and so forth. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, revising, semantically enriching, and publishing documentation. Serving as a central repository, the CMS increases the version level of new updates to an already existing file. Version control is one of the primary advantages of a CMS.
DNN Community Platform - Web Content Management System
DNN® ( formerly DotNetNuke® ) is the leading open source web content management platform (CMS) in the Microsoft ecosystem. The product is used to build professional looking and easy-to-use commercial websites, social intranets, community portals, or partner extranets. Containing dynamic content of all types, DNN sites are easy to deploy and update. The DNN Platform has been downloaded more than 8 million times and powers more than 750,000 websites globally. A community of more than 1 million members forms a powerful support network.
Thousands of commercial extensions, apps and skins are available at the DNN Store that make extending a DNN site fast and affordable.
Free open source extensions are also available from the DNN Extensions Forge.
In addition to robust content management, the free, open source DNN Platform includes the following built-in features:
- A rich-text editor
- File management
- Cloud-ready with MS Azure compatibility
- Mobile API and basic mobile device detection
- Core written in C#
- Single installation, multiple portals
- Social API (in DNN 6.2 and above)
- Modern client-side Web tools like CSS 3, HTML 5 and JQuery
- Bulk email
- Robust security
- Administration features like: security roles, protected content and site log
DNN Community Platform, a WCMS is a software system used to control a dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents, images and other forms of media). A CMS facilitates document control, auditing, editing, and timeline management. A WCMS typically has:
- Automated templates
- Create standard output templates (usually HTML and XML) that can be automatically applied to new and existing content, allowing the appearance of all content to be changed from one central place.
- Scalable expansion
- Available in most modern WCMSs is the ability to expand a single implementation (one installation on one server) across multiple domains, depending on the server's settings. WCMS sites maybe able to create microsites/web portals within a main site as well.
- Easily editable content
- Once content is separated from the visual presentation of a site, it usually becomes much easier and quicker to edit and manipulate. Most WCMS software includes WYSIWYG editing tools allowing non-technical individuals to create and edit content.
- Scalable feature sets
- Most WCMS software includes plug-ins or modules that can be easily installed to extend an existing site's functionality.
- Web standards upgrades
- Active WCMS software usually receives regular updates that include new feature sets and keep the system up to current web standards.
- Workflow management
- Workflow is the process of creating cycles of sequential and parallel tasks that must be accomplished in the CMS. For example, one or many content creators can submit a story, but it is not published until the copy editor cleans it up and the editor-in-chief approves it.
- Collaboration
- CMS software may act as a Collaboration platform allowing content to be retrieved and worked on by one or many authorized users. Changes can be tracked and authorized for publication or or ignored reverting to old versions. Other advanced forms of collaboration allow multiple users to modify (or comment) a page at the same time in a collaboration session.
- Delegation
- Some CMS software allows for various user groups to have limited privileges over specific content on the website, spreading out the responsibility of content management.
- Document management
- CMS software may provide a means of collaboratively managing the life cycle of a document from initial creation time, through revisions, publication, archive, and document destruction.
- Content virtualization
- CMS software may provide a means of allowing each user to work within a virtual copy of the entire Web site, document set, and/or code base. This enables changes to multiple interdependent resources to be viewed and/or executed in-context prior to submission.
- Content syndication
- CMS software often assists in content distribution by generating RSS and Atom data feeds to other systems. They may also e-mail users when updates are available as part of the workflow process.
- Multilingual
- Ability to display content in multiple languages.
- Versioning
- Like Document Management Systems CMS software may allow the process of versioning by which pages are checked in or out of the WCMS, allowing authorized editors to retrieve previous versions and to continue work from a selected point. Versioning is useful for content that changes over time and requires updating, but it may be necessary to go back to or reference a previous copy.