A Web Content Management System (WCMS) is a software system which provides website authoring and administration tools designed to allow users with little or no knowledge of web programming/markup languages or the Internet (domains, DNS, etc) to create and manage the site's content with relative ease and often no training. This means you pay a one-time setup cost, and then update the site according to your schedule and needs, without paying a webmaster to add your new information.
Most systems use a database to store content, metadata, or artifacts that might be needed by the system. A presentation layer displays the content to Web-site visitors based on a set of templates that usually allow for impressive graphic design and a very professional look and feel both on computers and mobile devices.
Adding and updating content, as well as administration, is typically done through browser-based interfaces, so you can comfortably use any OS (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc) and any browser (Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc). Unlike web “site builder” applications, a website CMS allows non-technical users to make changes to a website. A CMS typically requires an experienced coder to set up, implement a design (style, look, and feel) and add features, but is primarily a website maintenance tool for non-technical administrators and users.
What are the common features of a CMS?
A web CMS is a software system used to control a dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents, images, PDFs, and other forms of media). A CMS facilitates document control, workflow, auditing, editing, and timeline management. A web CMS typically has:
- Easily editable content
- Scalable feature sets
- Standards upgrades
- Workflow management
- Delegation
- Content syndication
- Multilingual
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