About Content Manangement Systems

Why a Content Management System (CMS)? 
Long gone are the days of web administrators having to update content manually or "on request". Content needs to be more dynamic. Users want to be able to add or update their own content or add to other peoples content. This makes a CMS a good choice.  Updating the content directly on the website removes the need for another person to do it, lowering your costs.  The page you are looking at now would actually display like the screenshot below if you had the access to edit this page.  When you edit the page, you are given a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor for easy editing!

Website owners still want to have control over certain aspects of the website, and they do when using a CMS. Visit Wikipedia's definition of a CMS or the definition of a Web Content Management System for more information.

 

What is Drupal?

Well, the folks at Drupal can say it best.  Here's what they have to say about it (taken from Drupal.org/about):

Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power scores of different web sites, including

  • Community web portals
  • Discussion sites
  • Corporate web sites
  • Intranet applications
  • Personal web sites or blogs
  • Aficionado sites
  • E-commerce applications
  • Resource directories
  • Social Networking sites

The built-in functionality, combined with dozens of freely available add-on modules, will enable features such as:

  • Electronic commerce
  • Blogs
  • Collaborative authoring environments
  • Forums
  • Peer-to-peer networking
  • Newsletters
  • Podcasting
  • Picture galleries
  • File uploads and downloads

and much more.

  

What other websites use Drupal?

What can be done with a CMS (Drupal)?
To be honest, pretty much anything you can think of. Drupal comes with "out of the box" features to help you get your website going right away.

  • User Management - Create or remove users of your site
  • Permissions - Give users different access to various sections of the website or types of content
  • Content Management - Users can post different types of content; Other users (e.g., Editor) can approve that content before it's visible on the rest of the site
  • Private Contact Forms - emails aren't displayed to users and SPAM bots
  • Poll - take a vote on a particular topic

What else can you do with Drupal?
JMS Website Solutions has experience in other features that you can add to your website:

  • Images - Users can upload images; have a portfolio or album.
  • Embedded Videos - For example a player that shows your YouTube video.
  • Facebook Integration
  • Scheduled Content - Automatically show or hide a web promotion, sale, or other information on a certain date.
  • Google Maps - Special content can include a Google Map
  • Shopping Carts - used to sell advertise and sell products.
  • SPAM Control - Don't allow SPAM bots to submit garbage to your site.
  • Groups - Build a group of people you know. This can be a club or just a group with the same interests. Content can be made public or it can be private to just that group.
  • Friends - standard friend management found in other social networking websites like MySpace or Facebook
  • Mail Features
    • Newsletters - Compose and submit newsletters or announcements to subscribers on your site
    • Tell-a-friend - An easy way to let your friends and family know about a website
    • New User Notification - get notified when someone signs up on your website
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Google AdSense - Google Ads so you can make money on clicks
  • Theme - Your website can have a specialized theme; users can also choose a different them if you allow them
  • User Points - Users gain points when they add content

 

You can find more information on what Drupal is by visiting these sites:
http://drupal.org/about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal