Content Management Systems

What is a CMS?

A Web Content Management System (CMS) is a set of tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to create and manage content with relative ease..

A CMS is a system that separates the content of a web site (the text, images, and so on) from the framework of linking pages together and controlling how the pages appear. In most cases, this is done to make a site easier to maintain than would be the case if it was built exclusively out of hard-coded html pages. At least, that is the goal.

The main features of a CMS:

Automated templates - standard templates can be automatically applied to new and existing content, allowing the appearance of all content to be changed from one central place.

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.

Scalable feature sets -  Plug-ins or modules that are developed independantly of the CMS can be easily installed to extend functionality of the core CMS

The biggest disadvantage of a CMS:

CMS sites primarily use templates for design, typically a 2 or 3 column design with boxes placed in various positions to accommodate the content.  Many folks would argue that being confined to using templates for design limits flexibility and uniqueness of design. This is quite subjective.