University Web Design - Content Management Faq

Content Management Faq

What is a Content Management Tool

A content management tool, as you would expect, is used to maintain the content on a complex web site. Some of the features in such a tool includes:

Easy creation and modification of content by non-web-experts.
Automated maintenance tools, like identification of bad links, expiration of information no longer relevant, etc.
Easy organization and retrieval of content using appropriate menus and search technology.

This faq discusses different approaches to content management tools, from all-in-one packages, to tools designed for a specific limited task (like on-line calendars or e-mail archivers).

What are the advantages of a Content Management Tool?

Content management tools have the following advantages:

End users can enter information into the system without having to be expert HTML coders.
The content manager provides and enforces a standardized appearance to the web site that remains consistent from one department to another.
End users are much less likely to do something that would destroy a web page, as they are limited as to what can be changed on the web page.

How does a Content Management Tool work?

A content management tool can be implemented as an all-in-one package, or implemented as a collection of separate programs each doing a specific task. However, they generally have these common features:

A web-based forms front end for maintaining, updating, or creating information.
A "database" to store the information. This could be a real database program, or it could be a collection of web pages that are maintained by the program.

What are some All-In-One Content Management Tools out there?

Many universities have "rolled their own" content management tools using cgi-scripts. However, there are a few commercial products out there. For a list, please refer to the Content Management section of the UwebD Useful Links site.

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