Posts Tagged ‘web content management’

Open Source Content Management Systems – An Overview

Publishing documents on the World Wide Web can seem daunting for the self proclaimed ludites out there. Let’s face it HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript to name just a few of the technologies that you would need to be familiar with in order to develop a truly professional looking website for yourself or your business. Fortunately there is a solution to the problem, it is called a content management system and it is an easier way for just about anyone willing to learn to publish to the Internet.

Some of these content management systems have stemmed from the need of publishing data to the web. CNet for example created one of their own in house content management systems which they later spun off into a separate company called Vignette. Since publishing to the web began to take off in 1995 the development of these systems has really begun to progress. However my focus will be only on open source versions of the web content management systems.

The first open source system that I want to mention is called DotNetNuke (http://www.dotnetnuke.com) which is a AsP.Net based system. By far one of the more popular open source projects out there today DotNetNuke has an avid following of hundreds of thousands of users. The benefits of using this system is the rapid updates to the platform and the intense support you will receive from it community. These are two very important factors when considering an open source system, the level of updates and the support you will receive from its creators or users of the platform. Further the innovations that are built into this system make it one powerful application by any measure. For instance the skinning mechanism is by far one of the easiest to modify and customize and the scheduling processor reduces some of the more mundane tasks of maintaining any website.

However DotNetNuke does not come without any drawbacks. Since this system was developed in ASP.Net this means that you will need at least Visual Studio 2003 Professional or greater in order to truly modify the source and customize the system as you see fit. This can be a serious drawback as the cost of this development platform can run into the hundreds of dollars.

The second open source system that I have some experience in using is called AXCMS.Net (http://www.axcms.net) which is again built upon the .Net platform. This system is as feature rich as other open source systems such as DotNetNuke. However, this system has some definite drawbacks. First is its somewhat difficult setup and deployment problems that can seriously hinder any project. Also, there does not seem to be as an avid user base as DotNetNuke. However the system is as “solid” as they get and you will definitely be rewarded by your efforts once you have the system fully setup and ready to use. Also since this system is really a neat way to get introduced to the development team any updates or customizations you may need will be for a fee from the creators of the system. This really hinders the community support of the system and makes adoption that much harder.

There are many other open source systems out there with some more being developed as I write this article. The main factors when adopting any open source content management systems you should consider are: how well is this system supported by the community and how often is this system updated by its core development team. Even an open source system can have some hidden cost that must be considered before adoption into any business or enterprise.

Author: Richard Callaby
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Benefits of PHP Programming in Contract Programming Industry

PHP is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. While PHP was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1995, the main implementation of PHP is now produced by The PHP Group and serves for PHP as there is no formal specification. PHP is free software released under the PHP License and is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It generally runs on a web server, which is configured to take PHP code as input and create web page content as output. It can be deployed on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free of charge. PHP is installed on over 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.

PHP itself is a server-side programming language and it is vastly used by software developer to build dynamic web pages and to develop textual user interfaces. As a programming language it is vastly used in different segments while developing a professional website. With the help of PHP coding we can develop synergistic, capable and money making websites.

Custom web development, database driven website development, website with dynamic pages are the core aspects of PHP programming language. Custom PHP programming can be applied in several areas in web development like

1. Back end Administration Panels
2. Shopping Carts
3. Banner and advertising management
4. Web content management
5. Membership management
6. Blogs management
7. Mailing systems
8. Product catalogs
9. Visitor tracking
10. Feedback form
11. Forums and message boards
12. Event Calendars

PHP itself is a server-side programming language and it vastly used by software developer to build dynamic web pages and to develop textual user interfaces. As a programming language it is vastly used in different segments while developing a professional website. With the help of PHP coding we can develop synergistic, capable and money making websites.

Foremost features of the PHP Programming language

1. Ease of writing interfaces to other libraries.
2. Various HTTP server interfaces.
3. PHP codes are platform independent thus can run on (almost) any platform.
4. Several types of database accessibility like My-SQL, MS SQL, Oracle etc.
5. PHP programming syntax is similar to C and C++ thus easy understandable by programmers.
6. PHP is an extensible language by nature.
7. PHP is Open Source, thus costly registration fee are not required here.

Advantages of PHP Programming

1. Speedy, trustworthy, stable, easy to understand and high performance programming language.
2. Compatible with various servers like IIS and Apache.
3. PHP codes can be run on any major operating systems like Windows, Linux and Unix etc.
4. PHP Providing design structure to produce rapid application development.
5. PHP has powerful output buffering system.
6. PHP programming can be used in a large number of relational database management systems.
7. It offers flexibility during and after the initial project to PHP programmers.
8. PHP provides quick execution of complex application solutions.
9. PHP is versatile programming language which is supported on most web servers.

At last, PHP is an open source language and hence free access to the source code is available for your development. It can be easily installed and we do not require paying thousands of dollars for registration. The most recent version of PHP is PHP5 which is really very programmer friendly and completely object oriented.

Author: Cristina Gomes
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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