e107 thailand.com: e107 Content Management System Thai Edition

I searched for a CMS after spending too much time trying to design one on my own (in perl yuck). I ended up finding opensourcecms.com over 3 years ago. I tried a number of the demos and narrowed it down to about 6 (many being the more mentioned names).I ended up selecting e107. Positives.
* solid core
* Easily modifiable themes.
* Easy to design Plugins (Blocks/Menus)
* Easy to understand Language system.
* Stable, ever version I've ran.

Negatives.
* Poor Documention, but getting better with the Wiki.
* Minor errors in some existing themes and Menu's. e107 is a good choice to create a unique looking site quickly, but it may not be a good choice for non-programmers who can't fix minor issues in themes and plugins to make them perfect, or those who can't find an existing plugins they want. However, if you are even a basic html/php programmer, I think e107 is an excellent foundation for a website.1. Minor issues with themes, languages, and Plugins can be fixed or modified easily.
2. Simple Themes and Menu's can be discected and understood easily to teach you to create custom ones.I come back to opensourcecms.com annually to see the newest additions or releases, and I still find e107 the simplest to customize. I just wish it had the well organized documentation that Drupal does when I began to learn it to help shorten the learning curve,. But It really didn't take all that long to open a theme, or Plugin, and disect and understand them well enough to create my own easily. I'd recommend at least loading it, testing it, discecting a theme and discecting a simple plugin so you will see how stable and easily customizeable it really is.

I have tried many CMS Portals and I keep coming back to E107. Pros: Easy to install and setup. Easy to navigate. Good selection of plugins. Good forums. Good support / user base.

Quoted from www.opensourcecms.com

Website Content Management System.
WCMS helps to create and manage complex websites easily without knowledge of html. An integrated WYSIWYG editor with a user interface similar to well known office applications helps the user creating the contents, while a sophisticated template engine enforces a site-wide corporate layout. 

e107 thai edited current version : this software is the e107 content management system based and have been modified and developed / re-organized some features, such as setup installer,editor,themes,plugins,graphics,and translated into thai language ready.Availabel to download at Sourceforge.net portal at now!.
เชิญดาวน์โหลด e107CMS Thai lite Version ได้ที่เว็ปไซต์โครงการ ได้ที่ Sourceforge.net เว็ปไซต์รวมโครงการของเหล่าบรรดานักพัฒนาทั่วโลกเขา มาสร้างกันไว้ที่นี่ครับ ลองคลิกที่ภาพ ซึ่งต่อไปหากมีการอัพเดทใดๆ ก็จะเอาไปให้ดาวน์โหลดกันที่นี่ด้วยนะครับ

ผศ.ประชิด ทิณบุตร
4/6/2551

ขอความร่วมมือในการตอบแบบสำรวจความคิดเห็นเพื่อการวิจัยและพัฒนาระบบ e107thai Edition ฉบับที่ 1 ประเด็นความคาดหวังในการใช้ประโยชน์จากการพัฒนาต่อยอด e107thai Edition ผู้ตอบแบบสำรวจได้แก่ทุกท่านที่เป็นสมาชิก และบุคคลทั่วไปที่แวะมาเยี่ยมเยือนและประสงค์ที่จะให้ข้อมูลที่เป็นประโยชน์ต่อการพัฒนาระบบนี้ และการพัฒนาองค์ความรู้ที่จะเป็นประโยชน์แก่วงการศึกษาและการพัฒนาวิชาชีพด้านการออกแบบเว็ปไซต์ต่อไป
เข้าทำแบบสำรวจ เชิญคลิกที่นี่ หรือที่ภาพ

MySQL is a relational database management system. It is a Open Source SQL database provided by MySQL AB. MySQL is very fast, reliable, and easy to use. It also has a very practical set of features developed in very close cooperation with our users. MySQL was originally developed to handle very large databases much faster than existing solutions and has been successfully used in highly demanding production environments for several years. Though under constant development, MySQL today offers a rich and very useful set of functions. The connectivity, speed, and security make MySQL highly suited for accessing databases on the Internet. http://www.mysql.com

       ระบบการจัดการเนื้อหาของเว็บไซต์(Content Management System : CMS) คือระบบที่พัฒนา คิดค้นขึ้นมาเพื่อช่วยลดทรัพยากรในการพัฒนา(Development) และบริหาร(Management)เว็บไซต์ ไม่ว่าจะเป็นเรื่องของกำลังคน ระยะเวลา และเงินทอง ที่ใช้ในการสร้างและควบคุมดูแลไซต์
       โดยส่วนใหญ่แล้ว มักจะนำเอา ภาษาสคริปต์(Script languages) ต่างๆมาใช้ เพื่อให้วิธีการทำงานเป็นแบบอัตโนมัติ ไม่ว่าจะเป็น PHP, Perl, ASP, Python หรือภาษาอื่นๆ(แล้วแต่ความถนัดของผู้พัฒนา) ซึ่งมักต้องใช้ควบคู่กันกับโปรแกรมเว็บเซิร์ฟเวอร์(เช่น Apache) และดาต้าเบสเซิร์ฟเวอร์(เช่น MySQL)
     e107 เป็นระบบบริหารจัดการเนื้อหาสาระต่างๆของเว็ปไซท์ ที่สร้าง แก้ไข กำหนดค่าต่างๆของระบบ โดยการกระทำหรือติดต่อผ่านเข้าใช้ระบบที่กำลังออนไลน์ เป็นโปรแกรมระบบที่เขียนขึ้นด้วย PHP และใช้ระบบฐานข้อมูลเปิดเผยรหัสที่นิยมใช้กันทั่วไปคือ MySQL เพื่อการบันทึก จัดเก็บ แสดงผลและค้นคืน เป็นระบบที่สามารถนำมาใช้ได้ฟรี และพัฒนาแก้ไข เพิ่มเติม ปรับปรุงต่อได้เองโดยอิสระ และมียังการพัฒนาอย่างต่อเนื่องe107 Thai Edition เป็นอีกหนึ่งในหลายเวอร์ชั่นที่ทาง ทิณบุตรดอทคอม

• Web content management systems assist in automating various aspects of web publishing, such as wikis.
• Transactional content management systems (T-CMS) assist in managing e-commerce transactions.
• Integrated content management systems (I-CMS) assist in managing enterprise documents and content.
• Digital Asset Management systems (DAM) assist in managing the lifecycle of digital media (video, graphics, marketing materials, photos, multimedia presentations).
• Publications management systems (P-CMS) assist in managing the publications (manuals, books, help, guidelines, references) content life cycle.
• Learning management systems (L-CMS) assist in managing the web-based learning content life cycle. See also managed learning environment.
• Document imaging systems are also generally considered under the family of general content management.
• Enterprise content management systems (E-CMS or ECM) vary in their functionality. Some support both the web and publications content life cycle, while others support the web content life cycle and either transactional content or customer relationship management content. The definition of ECM put forth by AIIM includes methods and tools that "capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver" content across an enterprise. "Manage" contains components like document management, collaboration, business process management, records management, email management, workflow and web content management. The ECM concept is not restricted to web-based technologies but includes client/server and hosted/On-demand solutions.
  
  Why do you need a CMS?
   The IT Sector has dreamed of a paperless, electronically managed office for over 30 years - so you might ask yourself - why the sudden big push towards content management ?
  The answer is that the push has not actually been that sudden. For those old enough to remember, organisations in the 1970's were revolutionised when the typing pool was replaced with software tools like MS-Windows and Lotus Notes. The CMS is arguably more of an evolution from those tools to a new standard, than a revolution. Typing pools had one major advantage over the technologies that replaced them, namely that the content that was produced was controlled, structured and often workflowed (albeit manually). The Achilles heel of the first generation of electronic content creation tools (at the same time as being one of their major benefits) was that anyone could suddenly produce information such as emails, letters and documents. But it is precisely this that has arguably led to the need for content management in many organisations. The escalation in the amount of electronic information that is now produced has gotten to the point where for many organisations it is literally out of control. Yet some of the technologies that are incorporated into the term 'Content Management' are also not new. Document Management Systems have been around since the late 80's and Web Content Management Systems can be traced back to the mid 90's. So what has changed that has suddenly made content management the flavour of the month ? For many organisations the urgency boils down to three main factors;
  1. Internal pressure - the desire to create and manage content in a more efficient manner
  2. An awareness that solutions are available (at a price that is not preventative to using them)
  3. Legislation !! Across the globe governments are tackling the accessibility of information and forcing organisations to comply
  However, it is important to recognise that the CMS solutions themselves have also evolved to the point where they are now;
  1. Genuinely easy to use
  2. Easier to deploy
  3. Stable products
  4. Less costly (which in turn improves the return (profit) on investment)
  5. Standards enforcing - so that the legislative requirements can be met using the tools
  6. Strategically significant to an organisations operations.
  With information being seen as an 'asset' (whether through legislation and/or an organisations strategy), the only real method of storing and retrieving information is in electronic format, which in turn creates the need for a solution - or a combination of solutions - to manage the process and the content held - also known as Content Management Systems....... Those companies that choose not to adopt CMS technology will suffer the same fate as those that thought they could carry on using the typing pool instead of implementing word processing systems. The ability of the organisation to function at the same rate as its competitors and its ability to comply with legislation, will require more resources and be less productive than if they had purchased a CMS.
  Each type of content management tool provides a different set of business benefits and collectively a whole combination of improvements that provide a return and increasingly a profit on the investment. Click on one of the links below to see the benefits for one of the CMS types. 1.Benefits of using a Web Content Management System (WCMS)
  2.Benefits of using a Document Management System (DMS)
  1.What are the business benefits of using a Web Content Management System (WCMS)?  A WCMS enables online information to be fresh, consistent and a high quality. Reduced customer (internal & external) dissatisfaction created by having incorrect information.
  Reduction in legal issues created by displaying incorrect information.
  Increased value perception of the information provided.
  There is a higher likelihood of a customer re-visiting the site.
  Some search engines rank pages that change frequently higher in search results.
   A WCMS facilitates the re-use of content The re-use of content across multiple web sites or pages creates an enhanced productivity value.
  The re-use of web output to broadcast over e.g. DTV, Mobile Phones, Kiosks creates new audiences.
  The syndication and re-use of content from other suppliers is made easier.
   A WCMS ensures enhanced productivity & job satisfaction of the web team Webmasters can focus on technology and areas such as redesign and functionality.
  A more appropriate use of the web team results in lowered production costs.
  Enables a quick response to changes on competitors web sites.
   A WCMS enables decentralised content creation This enables global contribution of content and information.
  The 'speed to market' of changes and new content is improved by avoiding the IT bottleneck.
  Content creators/editors are able to take ownership/responsibility for the information they provide.
   A WCMS facilitates centralised workflow, approval processes and rules Enables decentralised contribution without loss of controlled centralised process.
  Provides and effective audit trail that allows production with accountability.
  Ensures a controlled flow of content around internal processes.
   A WCMS provides either a competitive advantage or eliminates a competitive disadvantage Increasingly the web site is the window that investors use to evaluate a company.
  A dynamic, changing website creates the impression of a forward thinking company.
  It enables a 'speed-boat' response to changes in the competitive environment.
  2.What are the business benefits of using a Document Management System (DMS)?  Reduced Storage The cost of commercial property and the need to store documentation for e.g. retrieval, regulatory compliance means that paper based document storage competes with people for space within an organisation. Scanning documents and integrating them into a document management system can greatly reduce the amount of prime storage space required by paper. It also allows any documents that still have to be stored as paper to be stored in less expensive locations.
   Flexible Retrieval Retrieving documents stored as hard copies, or on microfilm absorbs time. A DMS increases creates electronic images of documents and stores them centrally. Less time is spent locating the documents as they can be retrieved without leaving a desk. DMS users can also access other systems available from the desktop at the same time as retrieving documents. With paper-based solutions documents are often removed from storage and taken back to the desk to access other systems (which can lead to loss, prevents others finding the same file, can be viewed by others).
   Flexible Indexing Indexing paper and microfilm in more than one way can be done, but it is awkward, costly and time-consuming. Images of documents stored within a DMS can be indexed in several different ways simultaneously
   Improved, faster and more flexible search Document Management Systems can retrieve files by any word or phrase in the document - known as full text search - a capability that is impossible with paper or microfilm. A DMS can also apply single or multiple taxonomies or categorisations to a document of folder that allow documents to be classified and stored in more than one way from a ‘single instance’ – something which is not possible with paper or microfilm.
   Controlled and Improved Document distribution Imaging makes it easy to share documents electronically with colleagues and clients over a network, by email or via the Web in a controlled manner. Paper documents usually require photocopying to be shared, and microfilm requires conversion to paper. This provides a cost saving by reducing the overheads associated with paper based document distribution, such as printing and postage and removes the typical delay associated with providing hard copy information.
   Improved Security A DMS can provide better, more flexible control over sensitive documents. Many DMS solutions allow access to documents to be controlled at the folder and/or document level for different groups and individuals. Paper documents stored in a traditional filing cabinet or filing room have the same level of security i.e. if you have access to the cabinet you have access to all items in it. A DMS also provides an audit trail of who viewed an item, when – or who modified an item and when, which is difficult to maintain with paper or microfilm based systems. A DMS also removes the possibility of having confidential material or trade secrets lying around unattended in an office.
   Disaster Recovery A DMS provides an easy way to back-up documents for offsite storage and disaster recovery providing failsafe archives and an effective disaster recovery strategy. Paper is a bulky and expensive way to back-up records and is vulnerable to fire, flood, vandalism, theft and other ‘Acts of God’
   No Lost Files Lost documents can be expensive and time-consuming to replace. Within a DMS, imaged documents remain centrally stored when being viewed, so none are lost or misplaced. New documents are less likely to be incorrectly filed and even if incorrectly stored can be quickly and easily found and moved via the full-text searching mechanisms
   Digital Archiving Keeping archival versions of documents in a document management system helps protect paper documents, that still have to be retained, from over-handling and keeps electronic documents in a non-proprietary and native format, such as Microsoft Word or Excel
   Improved Regulatory Compliance The risk of non conformance leading to fines, a withdrawn licence to operate, or in certain circumstances custodial sentences when an audit takes place is reduced and in most cases removed. A combination of security control, audit trails, archiving and disaster recover ensure that an organisation is able to authenticate the validity of information stored and demonstrate compliance with regulations and requirements.
   Improved Cash Flow The increased productivity of processing document-based processes such as invoices, debt collection and other "cash critical" business documents, ensures that the flow of cash can be controlled centrally and all documentation required to make cash flow decisions can be accessed immediately
  Other less 'tangible' benefits of a DMS might include;  Improved Internal Operations The reduced time to complete processes provided by the tangible benefits, improves the day to day operations of all functions within an organisation, leading to an improved flow of information, an increased perception of staff in their ability to solve questions and tasks and a general ‘feel good’ factor.
   Competitive Edge The same information that was previously stored as paper or microfilm, can now be distributed to customers and target audiences electronically. The ‘reduced time-to-market’ effect can be for products, services, support – all of which improves the impression the external recipient has of the organisation and provides a competitive edge over your competitors (or it removes a competitive disadvantage if they have already deployed a DMS).
   Improved customer service and satisfaction Reduced response times, a more professional response, a more accurate response with more controlled processes reduces the time spent on ‘manually’ ensuring customer satisfaction and allows staff to allocate resource to other core business activities.
   Preserve Intellectual Capital - Organizational Knowledge New or changed documentation can be ‘pushed’ to employees and no longer relies on ‘hallway conversations’ or ‘round robin’ emails. The locality of information is not locked away in the ‘heads’ of specific individuals and can be easily shared across departments and physical locations increasing the value of that information to the organisation.
  Choosing a Content Management System
  With the multitude of CMS solutions that now exist on the market, it is imperative that you choose your solution very wisely. The wrong product to manage an inappropriate form of content WILL have significant negative consequences for your organisation. Equally, the purchase of a niche product that only manages ONE type of content, could leave you stranded when you come to extend the types of content you wish to manage. Know the types of content you wish to manage.
  If you approach the CMS market and simply ask for a 'content management system', then the types of CMS solution that you are offered WILL overwhelm you. If you are not able to specify to the vendor the type of content and the manner in which you wish to manage it - then you should not be surprised if the vendor simply interprets how to use their product to manage your content. Every CMS solution that started out its development life, targeting the management of a particular type of content, can be 'stretched' to provide grey areas of functionality when it comes to managing another type of content. The more specific you can be in terms of your requirements, the less likely you are to be 'bamboozled' by what the vendor would like to sell to you. Example: An intranet is one of the key business tools that exists within most organisations - yet the CMS solutions to manage an intranet are varied both in terms of the single options and also the combination of content management options. For some organisations, the intranet could be 'web focused' and require a tool that allows non-technical staff to create web pages - which would suggest the use of a web content management system. For another organisation, the intranet could have more of a document focus, with authors using tools like MS-Office to create content at the document level. This would suggest the use of a Document Management System. Yet another organisation might decide that they have a document focus, but they would like the document content to be displayed as a combination of web pages and native documents, which would suggest the combination of a web content management system with a document management system, or a document management system combined with a document publishing tool. If any of the above organisations decided that they wished to personalise the intranet, then further CMS tools such as 'portals' could be used in combination with the above to display content. The above example should hopefully serve to demonstrate that the request for a solution to content manage an intranet, could lead to a whole host of different solutions and options. Only if YOU know the type and manner in which you wish to manage your content will you be able to select the CMS solutions that are appropriate to your needs. Think about tomorrow !
  When the CMS market was more fragmented and the business unit within an organisation realised they had a requirement to manage a type of content (or was sold a vision to manage content in a different way), the selection of a CMS was usually done in a 'vacuum', with no consideration to the impact that the chosen CMS would have on other business units within the same organisation. In some ways selecting a product in this environment was much easier. The formula for the purchase of a CMS being something along the lines of business unit has e.g. a website - business unit wants to be able to create web pages without needing IT - business unit buys a web content management system. With the maturing of the CMS market and that realisation within many organisations, that content increasingly needs to be viewed not at a business unit level but at an 'enterprise' level, then increasingly organisations are understanding that a solution that manages or provides an answer to only one type of content manipulation, is not going to enable the organisation to scale to future requirements. For example, the purchase of a Web Content Management System that only serves web pages - which is relatively inexpensive - turns into a nightmare scenario, if after two years it needs to be replaced because it a) offers no alternative forms of content management to allow the organisation to scale its requirements and/or b) offers no integration with other types of content management solutions that would make up the product shortfall. Many organisations make the mistake when purchasing a type of content management solution of only looking at today's requirements and purchasing the cheapest solution to meet those needs - often forgetting that post implementation there is a high likelihood that a) their usage and requirements will increase at a quicker rate than the development path of the cheaper solution and/or b) the more efficient management of content in one business area - together with the associated return (profit) on investment are likely to lead to internal requirements to manage other types of content in a similar manner. If a product cannot demonstrate that it is able to scale with the business needs of your organisation - then all you will have succeeded in doing is replacing your internal content management bottlenecks - with an externally controlled bottleneck - namely the vendors development path (or lack of it).... Finding a Content Management System
  Go back as little as five years - and anyone who wanted a Content Management System would have had to have gone to considerable effort to find a CMS vendor - and even more effort to get a short list worth comparing. The last two to three has arguably been a period of 'catch-up' to the extent that most high profile web sites and blue chip organisations are probably receiving as many call from CMS providers as they are from IT recruiters! So you could take the view that you may just as well sit back and wait to be contacted - and you probably will be - however, you have no assurance that the type of solution you will be presented with will meet your needs and requirements. If you prefer to go about your short listing in a slightly more pro-active fashion, there are a number of resources you could try.
  Search Engines
  Try typing in "content management" as a phrase in to Search Engines such as Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, Google, Hotbot etc - and see what comes up. After all, if a provider cannot use its own product to produce META tags and titles that a search engine will find, it might suggest that they are not as 'web-wise' as they claim. If you have gotten as far as identifying the type of content and manner in which you wish to manage it, be specific with your search terms - it will save you time. If a vendor does not target the search term with their website then the odds are that they don't really provide the type of content management you are looking for. Email Groups
  Join email groups or new groups that discuss the issues surrounding CMS. You may well find that the majority of answers are from CMS vendors touting their wares, but you will be able to ask questions in an open forum and by reading other contributions, you will begin to get a feel for the current issues. It may even raise questions that you had not even thought of. It is often better to read about other peoples mistakes, than go through the pain of making them yourself. Trade Shows
  Content Management is now such a high profile topic that trade shows specific to this area are beginning to spring up all over Europe. Most countries also host major IT trade shows where you will most definitely find vendors showing the CMS solutions. Professional Research Organisations
  Companies such as Ovum, Gartner, MetaGroup and Forrester have all commissioned reports on a number of CMS providers and the market in general. One downside to this source is that the reports are rarely free - and vendors have sometimes had to pay to be 'researched' by these companies. Hence the list of vendors is never entire and CAN be limited to those CMS vendors who are prepared to pay to be included. However, the reports will still give you a valuable indication of the key players in the industry. Word of Mouth
  Talk to managers who have implemented content management solutions. Most vendors list companies as 'reference sites' using their product. By talking to the people on the front line, you will get a true impression of the issues that made the installation worthwhile and what type of content the product is being used to manage. you may also get an insight into other 'non-tangible' issues, such as what the vendors post sale support is like?......Would the customer buy from the same vendor again given what they know now? Web Resources
  Last but not least - in our 'Topical links' page we have included a list of sites that we have found that contain varying amounts of information, vendors lists etc.
  User requirements
  How many different authors will be contributing content?
   Some WCMS systems are better suited to smaller number of contributors, whilst others enable large numbers of editors to contribute content. Also, some vendors price their products and licences according to the number of total and/or concurrent users. It is therefore useful to know how many employees would be adding content and whether this will increase over time. Where will the content authors be physically located?
   If your content authors are situated locally or within a Local Area Network - then WCMS products that require a 'client installation' (i.e. the software needs to be loaded on to every PC) can be easily installed, but if your content contributors are distributed geographically, or inputting from laptops and other mobile devices, or if your organisation consists of e.g. 500 plus PC's then a browser based WCMS product may be more suitable to your needs. Are the content authors technical enough to use a basic or more advanced tool?
   Some WCMS solutions focus very much on the lack of technical knowledge required to use their product. Their products will incorporate 'MS-Word-like' text editors and dumb down the graphical interface to the point where user training is not required. Other WCMS vendors take the approach that their tool will still need to be used by someone with a degree of technical ability - but as a result it may offer more technical scope to the content contributor. Since it is the ability of your content contributors to productively add content that will determine the success of your project. The WCMS has to be pitched at their level to ensure a smooth transition with minimum training requirement. Is there an approval process that needs to be adhered to prior to publishing?
   Approval processes and/or workflows are an issue that require close scrutiny. Most WCMS's offer some kind of password protection to define who can change which pages or pieces of content. If you need to have further levels of authority such as a senior editor, then this will involve the integration of workflow into your WCMS environment. There are varying degrees of workflow complexity - from the simple linear workflow - where work done simply passes from one person to the next until is is considered to be approved - to parallel workflow where content may require the concurrent approval of one or more users/groups before being released. Workflow - and its necessity - can often increase the price of the WCMS package - and it also requires careful documentation of existing and desired workflows within a website/intranet to ensure accurate replication of the intended approval process. If you are uncertain as to whether you will or won't need workflow - then it is probably advisable to choose a WCMS that at least has the facility for including workflow at a later stage if not in the initial phases. What sort of authority and access do you need? individual users and/or 'role' based?
   If you are intending to create an environment where e.g. a group of content editors all have the same rights, then your authority would reflect more of a 'role' based environment. If, on the other hand, you want to individually assign authority to different people to do different things, then this would reflect more of an individual based authority. Frequently, an organisation will need to be able to assign both individual AND role based authorities to reflect their publishing environments. You will need to know which type of structure you are aiming to replicate, as WCMS's do vary in their approach to this issue. At one extreme, you will have fixed role types that are only able to change/add content at the page level. At the other end of the scale, you will have products that enable you to decide down to a type of content on a page e.g. text or images, which group and individual roles are applicable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------Content requirements
  What sorts of content will be, or are being used across the site?
   Is the content purely text ? or does it contain images, movies, sound files etc.? Some simpler content management systems only allow you to change text via an online form. If this is all you will ever wnat to do then you should be able to purchase a WCMS at the lower end of the price scale. Equally, as you move up through the various WCMS's on offer, you will find that the majority can cope with images and text, whilst others have difficulty integrating content such as e.g. 'Flash' movies. Know your existing content and try to guestimate what other types of content you would like to integrate - both today and in the future. One of the best ways to achieve this is to look at contemporary/competitor websites and see what they are using. Ensure that the WCMS you choose has the ability to incorporate ALL the types of content you want to work with. What sort of content changes are required?
   Do you want content editors to simply make changes to existing pages, or should they also be able to add new pages or even add new links to the navigation bar? Again, different WCMS solutions will enable different degrees of content change. Is the content unique i.e. needed only once - or is it likely to be re-used?
   Accepting that most WCMS systems adhere to the seperation of layout (sometimes referred to as the 'look and feel' of a site) and content, via the use of templates that are re-used every time a page is built, you will need to ask yourself whether the areas that are available for content editors to add content are unique pieces of content that will be used only once across a site - or do you wish to create a central pool of content e.g. images, text etc., that can be added once and used as many times as you like by a number of different editors. WCMS's differ widely in this area. Some allow no re-use of content whilst others allow total re-use of content. Does the content need to be changed in 'real-time' or is a 'timely' publication sufficient?
   This is a very important question - and your answer will generally determine whether to select a fully dynamic WCMS, or a 'baked file' WCMS. It will also have a large impact on the licence costs that the WCMS vendor applies, as dynamic systems are generally more expensive than their alternatives. Dynamic content management systems i.e. ones that build web pages 'on the fly' (also referred to as 'upon request') are typically the only ones that can offer 'real-time' content changes, since they are always pulling the content and templates together using the most recently added changes. 'Baked file' WCMS on the other hand focus upon allowing the content to be periodically updated on the live web site - so that content changes are said to be 'timely' rather than 'real-time'. Your decision as to whether to go with a 'real-time' or 'timely' update, will depend largely upon the content you are managing. Since an applied workflow can often result in delays in any publishing process - it is arguable that a real-time system can only update what has been approved, so itself becomes also subject to a time delay before the live website is updated. Dynamic WCMS's also require a greater degree of technical integration and as a result are more expensive to implement than those that publish in a 'timely' fashion. Will it be necessary to have versions of content for archiving and/or auditing?
   Content versioning effectively creates a new copy of a piece of content every time a change is made to it. The advantages of versioning are the ability to rollback through previous versions and build up a trail of how e.g. a page has looked over time. This is not only useful for creating archives of information, but it provides a useful method of auditing who did what and when. On the down side, versions or any form of duplication, by its very definition requires storage space either on a database or in a file folder. Depending upon how often content changes, this could grow to be a significant size over time. If you think that your approval/workflow process is not enough of a safety net- and you would like the ability to roll back to previous content - then you will need to make sure that your WCMS offers content versioning. Do you need to content to have automated valid from / valid until properties?
   In the modern web world it is not uncommon to want a page or piece of content to appear and/or disappear on certain date or at a certain time. The ability for an editor to be able to give a page or piece of content a valid time period, means that they do not have to manually add or remove the content at the times required. This not only improves the 'validity' of content and the 'stickiness' of the web experience, but it also allows a certain level of 'dynamism' to be included in the web experience. Some WCMS vendors will combine the 'valid to/from' functionality with content versioning, so that one version has a time date different from another version of the same content. The ability to time stamp content also enables a content contributor to produce content ahead of its intended publication and thus becomes another way to workflow the production of content. Does the content need to be 'personalised' for the individual viewing the page?
   Personalisation comes in many different forms and has become one of the most mis-used words in the content management arena. In its basic form, personalisation can be a case of simply showing a user a different page based on e.g. their 'user-login' or a 'cookie' that has been copied to the PC. At the other end of the scale, a fully dynamic system that is using 'business rules', can build a page based on logins, cookies, items previously viewed and even to the point where a visitors selections during a 'session' or site visit are used to intelligently decide what to show on a page. Between these two extremes are varying degrees of so-called personalisation. There are varying claims about the negative performance impact of full personalisation and some vendors have developed patented methods that overcome some of these issues. It is fair to say though, that the more personalisation that you include in your content managed site, the more you will need to focus on the technical aspects of your web project to avoid a negative user experience. Equally, since all of the business rules that determines what a user is to be presented with as a personal experience have to be written, the more personalisation that is included, the more complex the development of the web project becomes. Whilst there was initially a 'trumpet fanfare' that heralded the introduction of personalisation, mainy companies are now realising that it takes considerable effort and committment to create and maintain, which can often outweigh the perceived benefits. Do you need a system that automatically generates and removes page links?
   Often referred to by WCMS vendors as 'dynamic linking', the ability for a WCMS to automatically add/remove page links is one of those 'gems' that make a WCMS worthwhile. Most of us have probably been to a website at least once where a 'click' on a link - results in an 'error page not found'. This is usually because at some point the page or article that corresponds to that link has been moved/deleted or even just simply renamed. Above a cetain price threshhold, most WCMS's include the ability to 'validate' a websites internal and external links, so that if a page or piece of content is not found, the system will automatically remove all the links to it and change any navigation structures to reflect the actual content. In this way, a visitor to the site is not even given the choice of clicking on the link as it does not physically exist. The only reason I can think of that you would not want this functionality is price - as it does tend to be a feature of mid-range WCMS's at the moment. Do you need a consistent, branded 'look and feel' to your site?
   Most WCMS solutions will seperate the layout ('look and feel') from the actual content using a series of layout templates that are used every time a page is created. The main benefit to this type of page creation is that it becomes very easy to re-design/alter e.g. one template, changing the look and feel of it, that may have an immediate impact on several thousand pages. Since most web projects will contain at least some amount of standardised look and feel - if only the navigation - the question becomes more of a case of how easy it is to create and change your branded 'look and feel'. If you envisage that your templates will change on a regular basis, you will need to make sure that the WCMS allows you to change them quickly, easily and using a programming language that you have available in house. For example, if currently you only have people inhouse with expertise in frontpage/html, then it would make more sense to use a WCMS that creates templates using html than e.g. ASP or JSP. Do you need multiple language support such as French and German?
   Increasingly WCMS's are taking on the 'globalisation' issue to the extent that many now offer you the ability to integrate different languages. There are essentially two questions you need to ask yourself, one linked to the other. 1. Do I need to have a version of my site available in one or more languages ?
  2. If I do need different languages - are they western alphabet such as German or French - or are they non western languages like Arabic or Japanese ? As with a lot of WCMS functionality - if you dont need other languages, then you will probably be able to consider a lower cost solution. If you do want to have your site represented in different languages, you will need to know which ones. At present, WCMS's that cater for multi languages will most probably allow you to integrate any of the western alphabet languages for both the templates that make up the 'look and feel' of your site and the content that is added by your content contributors. The leap that is currently being made is the integration of non western alphabet languages such as Japanese. Most of the major players are either projecting a date when non western languages will be available, or have it on their product plan for introduction in the near future. If it is an issue for you right now, then you will need to make sure that you can not only 'cut and paste' e.g. Japanese into a content area or template, but that it is possible to preview it as Japanese and that any text editor will allow the same text to be edited from within the WCMS in Japanese. It is also worth checking that you can use the WCMS functionality such as internal searches using the chosen non western alphabet. Does the content need to be viewed across other devices such as DTV, Mobiles, PDA's?
   Commonly referred to as 'tri-media' - if you want to be able to publish the same content across not just the internet, but also e.g. mobile phones, then you will need to select a WCMS that allows this. You may also hear the term 'template versioning' in conjunction with the ability to cater for tri-media, as this is most commonly the way that is used to take the same content as e.g. appears on a website and re-use it with a template that has a 'look and feel' (different source code) that makes it more appropriate for e.g. showing on a mobile phone or Digital TV. The idea is simple - write once and re-use many times. Even if it is not a consideration for your website at the moment - in a 'future proof' sense - it is not a bad idea to choose a WCMS that at least has the ability to cater for the expansion of your visitor base. As e.g. Digital TV becomes more popular, it is a relatively simple step to expand your content managed site quickly and inexpensively, IF it has been developed with tri-media in mind. If your WCMS does not offer this facility, then you are faced with changing your WCMS, using another software package in addition to the WCMS, or accepting the competitive disadvantage imposed upon you by your chosen product.
  Defining your Content Management requirements - Focus on Web Content Management
  User requirements
  How many different authors will be contributing content?
   Some WCMS systems are better suited to smaller number of contributors, whilst others enable large numbers of editors to contribute content. Also, some vendors price their products and licences according to the number of total and/or concurrent users. It is therefore useful to know how many employees would be adding content and whether this will increase over time. Where will the content authors be physically located?
   If your content authors are situated locally or within a Local Area Network - then WCMS products that require a 'client installation' (i.e. the software needs to be loaded on to every PC) can be easily installed, but if your content contributors are distributed geographically, or inputting from laptops and other mobile devices, or if your organisation consists of e.g. 500 plus PC's then a browser based WCMS product may be more suitable to your needs. Are the content authors technical enough to use a basic or more advanced tool?
   Some WCMS solutions focus very much on the lack of technical knowledge required to use their product. Their products will incorporate 'MS-Word-like' text editors and dumb down the graphical interface to the point where user training is not required. Other WCMS vendors take the approach that their tool will still need to be used by someone with a degree of technical ability - but as a result it may offer more technical scope to the content contributor. Since it is the ability of your content contributors to productively add content that will determine the success of your project. The WCMS has to be pitched at their level to ensure a smooth transition with minimum training requirement. Is there an approval process that needs to be adhered to prior to publishing?
   Approval processes and/or workflows are an issue that require close scrutiny. Most WCMS's offer some kind of password protection to define who can change which pages or pieces of content. If you need to have further levels of authority such as a senior editor, then this will involve the integration of workflow into your WCMS environment. There are varying degrees of workflow complexity - from the simple linear workflow - where work done simply passes from one person to the next until is is considered to be approved - to parallel workflow where content may require the concurrent approval of one or more users/groups before being released. Workflow - and its necessity - can often increase the price of the WCMS package - and it also requires careful documentation of existing and desired workflows within a website/intranet to ensure accurate replication of the intended approval process. If you are uncertain as to whether you will or won't need workflow - then it is probably advisable to choose a WCMS that at least has the facility for including workflow at a later stage if not in the initial phases. What sort of authority and access do you need? individual users and/or 'role' based?
   If you are intending to create an environment where e.g. a group of content editors all have the same rights, then your authority would reflect more of a 'role' based environment. If, on the other hand, you want to individually assign authority to different people to do different things, then this would reflect more of an individual based authority. Frequently, an organisation will need to be able to assign both individual AND role based authorities to reflect their publishing environments. You will need to know which type of structure you are aiming to replicate, as WCMS's do vary in their approach to this issue. At one extreme, you will have fixed role types that are only able to change/add content at the page level. At the other end of the scale, you will have products that enable you to decide down to a type of content on a page e.g. text or images, which group and individual roles are applicable. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------Content requirements
  What sorts of content will be, or are being used across the site?
   Is the content purely text ? or does it contain images, movies, sound files etc.? Some simpler content management systems only allow you to change text via an online form. If this is all you will ever wnat to do then you should be able to purchase a WCMS at the lower end of the price scale. Equally, as you move up through the various WCMS's on offer, you will find that the majority can cope with images and text, whilst others have difficulty integrating content such as e.g. 'Flash' movies. Know your existing content and try to guestimate what other types of content you would like to integrate - both today and in the future. One of the best ways to achieve this is to look at contemporary/competitor websites and see what they are using. Ensure that the WCMS you choose has the ability to incorporate ALL the types of content you want to work with. What sort of content changes are required?
   Do you want content editors to simply make changes to existing pages, or should they also be able to add new pages or even add new links to the navigation bar? Again, different WCMS solutions will enable different degrees of content change. Is the content unique i.e. needed only once - or is it likely to be re-used?
   Accepting that most WCMS systems adhere to the seperation of layout (sometimes referred to as the 'look and feel' of a site) and content, via the use of templates that are re-used every time a page is built, you will need to ask yourself whether the areas that are available for content editors to add content are unique pieces of content that will be used only once across a site - or do you wish to create a central pool of content e.g. images, text etc., that can be added once and used as many times as you like by a number of different editors. WCMS's differ widely in this area. Some allow no re-use of content whilst others allow total re-use of content. Does the content need to be changed in 'real-time' or is a 'timely' publication sufficient?
   This is a very important question - and your answer will generally determine whether to select a fully dynamic WCMS, or a 'baked file' WCMS. It will also have a large impact on the licence costs that the WCMS vendor applies, as dynamic systems are generally more expensive than their alternatives. Dynamic content management systems i.e. ones that build web pages 'on the fly' (also referred to as 'upon request') are typically the only ones that can offer 'real-time' content changes, since they are always pulling the content and templates together using the most recently added changes. 'Baked file' WCMS on the other hand focus upon allowing the content to be periodically updated on the live web site - so that content changes are said to be 'timely' rather than 'real-time'. Your decision as to whether to go with a 'real-time' or 'timely' update, will depend largely upon the content you are managing. Since an applied workflow can often result in delays in any publishing process - it is arguable that a real-time system can only update what has been approved, so itself becomes also subject to a time delay before the live website is updated. Dynamic WCMS's also require a greater degree of technical integration and as a result are more expensive to implement than those that publish in a 'timely' fashion. Will it be necessary to have versions of content for archiving and/or auditing?
   Content versioning effectively creates a new copy of a piece of content every time a change is made to it. The advantages of versioning are the ability to rollback through previous versions and build up a trail of how e.g. a page has looked over time. This is not only useful for creating archives of information, but it provides a useful method of auditing who did what and when. On the down side, versions or any form of duplication, by its very definition requires storage space either on a database or in a file folder. Depending upon how often content changes, this could grow to be a significant size over time. If you think that your approval/workflow process is not enough of a safety net- and you would like the ability to roll back to previous content - then you will need to make sure that your WCMS offers content versioning. Do you need to content to have automated valid from / valid until properties?
   In the modern web world it is not uncommon to want a page or piece of content to appear and/or disappear on certain date or at a certain time. The ability for an editor to be able to give a page or piece of content a valid time period, means that they do not have to manually add or remove the content at the times required. This not only improves the 'validity' of content and the 'stickiness' of the web experience, but it also allows a certain level of 'dynamism' to be included in the web experience. Some WCMS vendors will combine the 'valid to/from' functionality with content versioning, so that one version has a time date different from another version of the same content. The ability to time stamp content also enables a content contributor to produce content ahead of its intended publication and thus becomes another way to workflow the production of content. Does the content need to be 'personalised' for the individual viewing the page?
   Personalisation comes in many different forms and has become one of the most mis-used words in the content management arena. In its basic form, personalisation can be a case of simply showing a user a different page based on e.g. their 'user-login' or a 'cookie' that has been copied to the PC. At the other end of the scale, a fully dynamic system that is using 'business rules', can build a page based on logins, cookies, items previously viewed and even to the point where a visitors selections during a 'session' or site visit are used to intelligently decide what to show on a page. Between these two extremes are varying degrees of so-called personalisation. There are varying claims about the negative performance impact of full personalisation and some vendors have developed patented methods that overcome some of these issues. It is fair to say though, that the more personalisation that you include in your content managed site, the more you will need to focus on the technical aspects of your web project to avoid a negative user experience. Equally, since all of the business rules that determines what a user is to be presented with as a personal experience have to be written, the more personalisation that is included, the more complex the development of the web project becomes. Whilst there was initially a 'trumpet fanfare' that heralded the introduction of personalisation, mainy companies are now realising that it takes considerable effort and committment to create and maintain, which can often outweigh the perceived benefits. Do you need a system that automatically generates and removes page links? Defining your Content Management requirements - Focus on Web Content Management
  IT Infrastructure requirements
   What skills do you have in-house to manage the site? and what technical skills does the WCMS require?  If in-house skills are short, will it be easy to make up the shortfall using outside consultants? are they readily available? and at what cost?  Does your in-house webteam need support for specific design tools (e.g. Frontpage, Photoshop, Dreamweaver)?  What IT budget do you have for the inital project? have you a budget to cover ongoing annual costs?  How tight is your timetable? How important is the 'go-live' date using your new WCMS?  How much content do you already have and how many authors do you intend to integrate? Does this impact upon the cost and the performance of the WCMS? Does the WCMS provide its own tools for creating,editing and adding content? or does it rely on existing desktop applications such as word, excel - If so, which versions?  Are you going to start from scratch and build a new site or convert and existing one?  Do the editing tools need to be installed on the 'client' machines or can they be run from the server?  Does the WCMS need to run across multiple environments - PC's and/or MACs?  Is the 'client' environment purely windows based? NT? 98? 2k?  What repositories does the WCMS require e.g. Oracle, Sybase, Informix? or is it a flat file system?  If the WCMS needs a database, do you already have a licence for it?  Which directory / membership services do you use (NDS?,LDAP?)? Do you want to integrate these with your WCMS? can it offer this?  If your organisation needs total compliance to either UNIX or NT - can the WCMS provide this?  Is the WCMS solution 'open' i.e. adhering to accepted industry protocols, or does it deploy proprietory technologies? Does the WCMS require that you use a proprietory browsing tool, editor, webserver or database?  Do you need the WCMS to be able to interoperate with other systems you have in place? If so - does the CSM provide common APIs, or a pre-developed API to enable integration? Are these free with the standard WCMS solution?  What types of data/content do you currently have and are there others you are likely to be using in the future?  If the system 'fails' for wahatever reason, what resources are available internally to support and maintain the 'up-time'? What resources and services does the WCMS vendor have and at what cost are they available?  Does your organisational standard require that all changes are archived in order to provide an easily viewable audit trail?
   
   Often referred to by WCMS vendors as 'dynamic linking', the ability for a WCMS to automatically add/remove page links is one of those 'gems' that make a WCMS worthwhile. Most of us have probably been to a website at least once where a 'click' on a link - results in an 'error page not found'. This is usually because at some point the page or article that corresponds to that link has been moved/deleted or even just simply renamed. Above a cetain price threshhold, most WCMS's include the ability to 'validate' a websites internal and external links, so that if a page or piece of content is not found, the system will automatically remove all the links to it and change any navigation structures to reflect the actual content. In this way, a visitor to the site is not even given the choice of clicking on the link as it does not physically exist. The only reason I can think of that you would not want this functionality is price - as it does tend to be a feature of mid-range WCMS's at the moment. Do you need a consistent, branded 'look and feel' to your site?
   Most WCMS solutions will seperate the layout ('look and feel') from the actual content using a series of layout templates that are used every time a page is created. The main benefit to this type of page creation is that it becomes very easy to re-design/alter e.g. one template, changing the look and feel of it, that may have an immediate impact on several thousand pages. Since most web projects will contain at least some amount of standardised look and feel - if only the navigation - the question becomes more of a case of how easy it is to create and change your branded 'look and feel'. If you envisage that your templates will change on a regular basis, you will need to make sure that the WCM