Posts Tagged ‘CMS’

Content Management Solutions

Posted: November 21, 2010 in CMS
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I have been working on many Web Applications and Content Management Solutions for many years and based on my experience I want to share expected features out of any content management system for wide acceptance and long survival …

Must Have Features –

  • Manage content – Based on Culture (en-US, en-IN, en-NZ … etc) for international support, active/inactive, Schedule (start/end date, culture based timezone selection), Freequency based (0%, 25%, 50%, 100% … etc, i.e. serving multiple contents randomly on a section of the page or on the page)
  • Content organization – By Hierarchial Folders, Content grouping (Like Taxonomy in Ektron), Content placeholders or placements
  • Meta data support
  • Html Editor – For easy content management
  • Content approval workflow process
  • Native support for XML & XSLT
  • Version/History – Check-in/Check-out, Rollback, Compare content options
  • File Management – Images, Document, Videos (upload files directly to CDN or backend process)
  • Template Management – Content producers who are not familiar with html can edit content through templates – Velocity template system, JSON builder, XSD builder for XML … etc
  • Form Management – To quickly create user action forms (Like XML based Smart Forms in Ektron)
  • Page Management – To quickly create static web content pages based on existing content and make it live in few minutes (Like Page Builder in Ektron)
  • Filter or Rule based content – (Preferred Cul, IP Culture, Logged in, User Range, Query String … etc)
  • Notification system – subscribe to everything for updates, Email Templates, culture based email message management
  • Site Navigation Management (Like Menus in Ektron)
  • Direct links to entire system – Easy bookmarking, share options, links in notifications
  • Polls, Surveys, Message Boards
  • Search – Content, Images, Documents, Videos
  • Simple URLs (Like URL aliasing in Ektron)
  • Security – User Management (Users, Roles & Rules or Rights), Rights for all features, Rights delegation on content folder hierarchies
  • Content Archival
  • Clicks & impressions tracking
  • Reporting system
  • Audit across system for all activities
  • Personalization, Widgets

Good to have Features –

  • Browser Add ons – Locate CMS content sections, content, version
  • Security – Word verification (captcha … etc) while posting content can be optional and user specific
  • Security – Integration to Directory Services (Like Active Directory)
  • Content Indexing
  • Social networking features – Forums, Blogs, Wiki, Chat Room
  • Podcast or RSS
  • Standard advertisement sections/template options – Skyscraper, Full Banner, Half Banner, Gutter (transperent page background), Leaderboard, Rectange, Medium Rectangle
  • Custom control library with AJAX which has native CMS support (Like Ektron control Library) (Server control API, Web service API, Plug-In extension API)
  • Debugging system – Way to identify and quickly fix when a page or site is down. Track Page wise content sections and their recent updates, Site wise recently updated content items across pages
  • Quick links, Hyperlinks, Image Collections
  • Developer/Content Producer workarea – Daily tasks, notifications, reports, checkouts
  • Multi site support – Content syncronization or replication between geographical servers

Performance –

  • Create & maintain content files (xml or text based) pushed to all prod servers based on updates. Don’t access CMS server directly from web applications
  • CDN based images, script files, css files and static pages

Tools & Techs & References-