Building a website by yourself is a very difficult task. So difficult in fact that it is rarely done. If you do decide to build the website without assistance, unless you have extensive experience in website design, and you’re an excellent author at the same time, then chances are your site will be mediocre at best. Cooperation and collaboration is standard in the website creation industry. There are very few people that can establish a professional website without at least seeking the knowledge of another person before hand.

When you work on a site building project with multiple users, having the ability to set restrictions and delegate website duties is imperative. You’ll need to be able to run the operation with precision and authority, in order to same yourself time and frustration. To do this you’ll need a good content management system. Selecting the right open source content management system be a difficult task in and of itself. To make the task easier on yourself, perform the following steps.

Assess Your Needs

The first step is to find out what kind of features you’ll need in a content management system. Will you be delegating work to authors? Will you be working with multiple programmers and designers? If so then you’ll definitely need a secure administrative interface that will give you the ability to designate certain tasks to each of your team members. Write down what kind of features that will be most essential and then you can begin the search.

Look For Compatibility

It is important to remember what kind of operating system you’re using and remember that not all content management systems are compatible with all operating systems. You’ll also need to remember what kind of operating system your sever operates on. It is also important to note which programming language your site uses. The most combination that you will find is PHP language and MySQL databases, being run on an Apache servers. If you don;t want to go through the hassle of finding a compatible content management system, then you may want to find a host that has these features, which most content management systems will be compatible with.

Compile a list of Suitable CMS

Now that you know exactly what you’re looking for it is time to compile a list that will narrow your options and make the final decision easier for you. Open a word processor  or pull out a sheet of paper and a pen and get ready to do some web searching. Finding the top content management systems will not be as hard as you would think. There are many review sites that have already compiled long lists of all of the top content management systems for you. All you have to do is eliminate the content management systems that are not compatible with the needs we assessed above.

Narrow Your Options

Now that you have a large list of CMS to choose from, all that is left to do is to narrow the list down to one CMS. One by one, check of each one as being compatible or not compatible. When you’re finished you should have a list of about 3-5 content management systems. Next visit each one of their websites and test their support team. The final decision will come down to reliability and cost efficiency.

With so many choices available, picking a content management system for your business website can be a very difficult task. All of them claim to be the best, and the truth is that most of them are capable of the same basic functions. However there are some CMS that go beyond the boundaries of what a normal CMS is capable of by offering unlimited expandability within the software. These CMS are called “open source” CMS, because they are an ongoing open project.

Any developer or programmer  that is interested in designing web applications for these CMS can do so without any limitations or legal ramifications. Fir this reason, the features and capabilities of these CMS are rapidly expanding. As the capabilities of your CMS expands, so does the capabilities of your website, and ultimately your online business.

The Cost of an Open Source CMS

With all of these wonderful benefits, you would expect an open source CMS to be very expensive. Surprisingly most open source software is free, including open source CMS! One such example is the ever-so popular WordPress which is used by millions of webmasters around the world to handle everything from everyday tasks such as email, to more complex tasks such as website design. WordPress even gives you the ability to outsource the work to multiple users within a single account. These users can be given certain permissions, such as uploading, content publication, and template administration. This feature alone really helps boost the productivity of your site by giving you a workforce that you can deploy with full control. It really is hard to believe that all of this comes at zero cost!

Just How Expandable are Open Source CMS?

Even without all of the incredible plugins and applications that are available, these tools provide powerful administrative capabilities. Now imagine adding an unlimited amount of features. Imagine having the ability to say “ I want this,” and then making it happen by hiring a freelance programmer. This is the kind of freedom and expandability experienced by open source CMS users on a daily basis! With literally thousands of applications available, even the worst open source CMS can be made into a fully functional super software with just a few additional applications. Although WordPress is already capable of just about everything one could ask for, the applications available for it really take it to the next level. Thanks to CMS like WordPress, webmasters can setup websites with pre-designed themes and templates in a matter of minutes.

Why Use a Free Software When You Can Afford an Expensive One?

The answer to this question is really quite simple – you don’t need to pay, because all of the features you’re “paying for,” are available for free through web applications that can be added to your free CMS in a matter of minutes. In fact some CMS  even have integrated applications that will make the installation of additional applications quick and simple. With features like these, the real question should be Why should you pay for a CMS, when you can get one for free that does the same thing…. and more?

Frog is an ideal CMS for users who are not afraid to get down and dirty with a little hands on development.  While it doesn’t necessarily require that you learn PHP, it does help that you pay attention and expand your knowledge of the language if you want to make the most of the platform.  Aside from that, Frog is straightforward and relatively easy to manage for the savvy user.

Features

Frog is pretty basic in terms of features.  The most notable features are related to the flexibility of page design.  Everything from the homepage to articles and beyond are organized in hierarchical fashion.  Pages are easy to move around and snippets of code can be added to provide added flexibility where needed.  Frog offers a built-in file manager, but has no viable facility for managing images.  Luxuries such as this must be provided via plugins.

Ease of Use

The major selling point to the Frog CMS is simplicity.  It offers built-in drag-and-drop functionality that makes content creation a breeze.  This feature helps you save a lot of time and can actually add a little fun to your project.  Image resizing is also made easy, provided you have installed the free plugin that enables this functionality.

Content Management

Frog gives you a default administrative back-end that includes two tabs: plugins and settings.  The plugins tab offers a menu of all the plugins you have installed, including the most recently installed version, and options that allow you to easily enable or disable it.  The setting tab allows you to choose from two administrative themes, which Frog considers layouts, 20 different language options, an administrative site title, and various default options.  If your website is configured to receive comments, a comments tab will be automatically added to your administrative back-end.

Security

Frog does not offer a state of the art security system.  In fact, the only security features built into the software are granular privileges.  However, this is a great security to have.  The permission system allows you to create groups, assign users and establish privileges for different users from the menu in the administrative panel.   This makes it simple for a user to delegate work regardless of their experience or the technical aspects involved.

Community Support

Frog is an open-source CMS, so the only support you get for the software is provided by the community.  There is help online in the public forum where both developers and users hangout.  Unfortunately, nothing is guaranteed here as community support can be less than desirable depending on the situation.  Right about now, the lack of support is the biggest knock on the Frog CMS, but hopefully this changes as the project progresses and the community grows.

Final Thoughts

Frog isn’t necessarily the complete CMS that will meet all of your needs, but it is serviceable for many of them.  The software is small, lightweight and enforces good design and development practices.  While it is not the solution for everyone, it makes a fine choice for the niche market of developers who need to build a content rich site for themselves, or clients.

“e107, It’s a candy store (and you’re 8)” proclaims the web site of the open source CMS program e107.  One of the older and more well-known open source content management systems around, e107 strives to be a community based program with a lot of input from its users.

Beginnings

What began as a web site related to the Windows shell replacement Litestep, quickly started gathering speed and evolved into e107 (the seventh project taken on by the owner of this content management system).  Officially open to the public in July 2002, e107 was already a few months old and into its 2.1 version.  As with most CMS programs, attempting to do it alone is never a good idea so the program owner brought on board a few seasoned developers.  Several updates and revisions late and e107 has its current stable 0.7.16 release available to the public (the owner changed version numbering partway through its early production stages).

Plugins

Once e107 is installed and running, enhancing this content management program is a breeze.  The site is affiliated with e107 Plugins (separate entity but tied in with the main web site) and this area is overflowing with downloadable files to add to the base core of e107.  Administration tools, e-commerce, file and directory, and multimedia are a few of the categories covered in this plugin web site.

Themes

e107 has two design web sites affiliated with its main core program – e107 Themes and e107 Designs.  This is where the one downfall with this CMS program may lay.  While there are a number to of designs to choose from, the total number is limited to under 200.  This makes the likelihood of having a unique e107 run web site fairly slim.  However, the program is based on PHP and if the user of the program has a bit of experience with PHP coding, creating a unique web design for the program should be a fairly easy task.

Community

As e107 depends heavily on community input and feedback, the forum area of this open source program’s web site is extremely active.  Covering topics such as third party coding, support, theme request and more, e107 keeps tabs on what users want, what they don’t like and what they have to offer to enhance the software overall.

Sites

e107 is proud to showcase the many web sites utilizing their open source software.  Among the more diverse sites to be found on their webring are Waves of Faith, KISS 105 FM of Indonesia, and CuartoPoder.com.mx (touted as the first newspaper site powered by the CMS).

Conclusion

While not one of the top heavy hitters when it comes to open source content management systems, e107 is a great product with quite a lot to offer.  If one is in need of a CMS that has more than a couple hundred designs to choose from, this program may not be the best choice.  However, for those with a bit of PHP knowledge and some time on their hands to create their own design, e107 can be a great addition to help create and maintain a business web site.

Open source technology has been around for quite some time and has struggled over the years to place itself in the higher echelons of business and government.  The United States’ current President, Barack Obama, has been a vocal proponent of an open and transparent administration.  To further emphasize this, the President recently approved the use of the open source CMS (content management system) Drupal for the WhiteHouse.gov web site.

About Drupal

Drupal is a free open source CMS that allows easy publishing and managing of web sites.  There are tens of thousands of web sites online now that utilize the program and include site types such as community web portals, corporate web sites, resource directories and even social networking sites.

The program is designed to allow quick additions of modules that enable a web site to expand its functionality.  Some of these modules allow for newsletter publication, picture galleries, e-commerce and much more.

As Drupal is open source software, it is constantly being checked, debugged and new updates are constantly being released.  The advantage of this is ensuring that the safest and most secure edition is available to its users.

The word from Dries Buytaert

According to Dries Buytaert, creator and founder of Drupal, his software is well matched and up to the task of helping further the platform of an open and transparent government.  He goes on further to state “Drupal’s flexibility and modularity enables organizations to build sites quickly at lower cost than most other systems.”  Dries feels this move to use open source technology and software indicates that governments are realizing that open source does not present any added risks when compared to propriety software.

One important point Dries brings up is the ability for the Drupal-run WhiteHouse.gov web site to allow for open communication and participation.  This, by itself, is worth seeing the new site and checking out what one can accomplish with respect to open participation.

Not the only government site

Surprisingly, the WhiteHouse.gov is just the pinnacle of government offices using Drupal to publish their web sites.  The Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, the General Service Administration and the Department of Education have all been using the Drupal CMS for some time.

Other large business, company and entity web sites currently running on Drupal include the New York Observer, Yahoo! Research, Christian Assemblies International and Sony Music.  The list of Drupal-run web sites continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Future looking open

Going on into the future, the hope is that with Drupal’s latest coup of the White House web site, other government agencies, big businesses and even government entities world-wide will see the awesome potential of open source software and technology.  Further, this may also show the world that open source technology is a huge step in the right direction – especially in the area of cutting costs.  Perhaps this recent Presidential approval will start a web site trend and we’ll begin to see more and more “big guys” realize the advantages of open source.

Type in “content management system” in a search engine and one will find an overwhelming number of commercial and open source options available.  One such program offered is TYPO3.  As open source content management systems (CMS) go, TYPO3 is an extremely flexible and extendable program that features a large number of interfaces and modules.  It is one of the earliest created CMS on the market and is one of the more popular CMS programs around.

History

Created in 1997 by  Kasper Skårhøj, TYPO3 was coded out of a need to be able to separate design from content.  According to the story on TYPO3’s web site, Kasper came up with the name of the software due to an accidental erasure of a week’s worth of coding.  After resolving to recreate the lost bit of coding, Kasper thought it would be ironic to create even better coding as a result of a typo.  After releasing the third version of the software and having that version become rather successful, TYPO3 stuck and it has been so named ever since.

Setting up and running

TYPO3 is considered a small to midsized enterprise class CMF (content management framework).  It goes to work for users as soon as it’s installed and running.  The program comes set with standard modules and is able to easily accommodate just about any kind of customized solution or extension.  It offers something for each type of CMS user.

Authors benefits

Authors can expect a very user friendly bit of software.  Producing and maintaining web pages is as simple as a single click of the mouse.  If the web site is to have multiple authors, TYPO3 is designed to allow shared authoring and collaboration.

Admin and content manager benefits

Administrators and content managers can look forward to being able to implement an extensive user permissions system.  Having this at their fingertips, administrators can worry a bit less about content creation conflicts and be able to spend more time actually administering the web site.

Web design concerns

For the web developer, TYPO3 offers the separation of design and content.  This means when the web site is in need of an updated design, there need not be any worry about the content of the web site possibly being lost or not being integrated into the new design.

Additional capabilities

Additionally, TYPO3 works very well with multimedia sites.  The software offers seamless integration with several multimedia content types and allows for dynamic server-side image generating and manipulation.  If the web site needs to have some form of internal messaging capability, TYPO3 has got that covered as well.

Conclusion

TYPO3 is a great, extendable and expandable content management system that has clearly considered the issues with content and design.  All aspects of web site control have been considered with respect to authors, administrators and web development and design.  This is truly a fantastic piece of software that is highly recommended to all considering either a switch to a more robust program or for those just stepping into a newly created web site