Content Management Systems for Web Sites

Course Overview

Organisations' Web sites have become the repository for information and data from diverse sources, making the use of traditional Web design tools to maintain those sites no longer time or cost efficient. CMS provides a solution to professionally edit content and implement sophisticated features, without HTML and programming skills.

In this course, you acquire the practical knowledge and skills to successfully implement a CMS solution within your organisation.

Audience

This course is valuable for those involved in the evaluation, planning, designing or implementation of a CMS-driven Web site, including system administrators, managers, Web developers and others.

Skills Gained

• Design and implement a Content Management System (CMS) solution
• Install and configure a CMS site foundation
• Develop the site layout using templates, menus and content pages
• Delegate content creation to author and editor roles
• Publish informational content using database-driven plug-in modules
• Support collaborative online communities

Course Outline

Introduction to Content Management Systems (CMS)

The CMS revolution

• Simplifying Web publishing
• The CMS product spectrum
• Advantages and disadvantages over traditional Web development

Creating the content-managed site

• Deploying feature-rich sites
• Empowering Web authors to edit content

Configuring Your New CMS

Architecting the CMS

• Developing a strategic plan
• Determining OS and platform requirements

Installing the site foundation

• Uploading the CMS software
• Setting up the database
• Executing the installation scripts

Populating Site Content

Designing the look and feel

• Producing a consistent style
• Choosing existing templates
• Building custom layouts

Implementing site navigation

• Analysing the menu hierarchy
• Constructing and placing the menus

Creating the content pages

• Positioning text containers
• Inserting images, links and media

Enabling CMS Security

Assigning users to roles

• Allocating team member tasks
• Controlling editor access to page content

User registration and membership

• Configuring the login interface
• Establishing the user profile

Implementing Informational Modules

Finding pages through keywords

• Incorporating site search features
• Tuning search results

Disseminating timely information with plug-in modules

• Announcements
• Event calendars
• Banner advertising
• Contact lists
• Scheduling

Establishing Community Dialogue

Soliciting customer input

• Gathering feedback with inquiry forms
• Providing support through help-desk forms
• Configuring e-mail forwarding
• Surveying opinions and rating content

Connecting syndicated applications

• Harnessing external news sources through Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
• Hosting and publishing blogs

Sharing documents and ideas

• Collaborating with discussion groups and forums
• Cataloguing shared files
• Presenting images with galleries and slide shows

The Evolution of Your CMS

Building multilingual sites

• Adopting CMS facilities for switching languages
• Obtaining language packs

Extending your CMS

• Installing third-party modules
• Integrating with enterprise-authentication schemes
• Anticipating the future of CMS