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08.23.06
WordPress
And CMS: How To Make It Work
 By
Danny Wirken
Since the release of WordPress, web users have customized this
blogging software to suit their own needs.
One of the most established needs in today's computing world
is the need for content management, particularly, a Content
Management System (CMS). With its rich set of features and flexibility,
WordPress can be customized into a major CMS.
Content Management System
Content management can be described as the process of creating,
managing and publishing online content sans any programming
or technical skills. If used properly, content management saves
time and money. Effective content management can be attained
by utilizing a content management system.
A content management system is a web-based application connected
to a database that allows users to update a website without
having to know any HTML (Hypertext Markup Language, standard
language with which all web pages are built). It is software
used to manage websites and web content. A CMS facilitates the
maintenance of content but not the design on a website.
Without a CMS, updating a website say, posting a new article
would involve manually changing the home page and archives and
creating a new page from scratch for the article itself. Coupled
with this, if a user wants other pages to link to the article
like a list of current articles in the sidebar of pages, he
has to change all these manually as well.
With a CMS, a user just logs in and adds the article heading
to a specific category. He then enters the content and ends
by selecting some tags to describe the article. The CMS will
automatically put the title, date and the first paragraph on
the home page. He then constructs a new page for the article
and adds the article to an archive by date and category.
As can be gleamed, CMS does away with inconvenient manual tasks
and streamlines the updating process. A CMS manages content
efficiently from the time of creation to publication. A content
management system establishes a definitive approach to effectively
publish, store and organize content for the users.
Content management systems offered by different vendors have
varied benefits and functions that a user can select from according
to his needs. A CMS can be expensive or absolutely free like
WordPress. It really depends on how complex the site is and
what needs to be done.
Most blogging software programs are considered a particular
type of CMS. They have CMS features for creating and maintaining
a blog. They make publishing on the Internet as easy as writing
an article, giving it a title and setting it up under one or
more categories. Basic blogging software provides an interface
where a user can work in an intuitive manner while the blogging
software handles the presentation and publication. A blogger
gets to concentrate on writing and the blogging tool functioning
as a content management system takes care of the rest of the
site operation. WordPress is an example of blogging software.
WordPress - An Overview
WordPress is a well-structured personal publishing system written
in PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor, a popular open source server-side
scripting language constructed specially for integration with
HTML available in Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) and backed by
MySQL (open source Structured Query Language database implementation).
WordPress is licensed under General Public License (GPL) and
is available for free. WordPress started in 2001. Since then,
it has grown to be the biggest self-hosted blogging tool in
the world, utilized on a multitude of sites. WordPress focuses
on ease of use, speed and a wonderful user experience. It is
an open source program. Hundreds of people all over the globe
are working on it. It offers a service in http://WordPress.com
that lets a user get started with a free WordPress-based blog
in seconds.
WordPress is an advanced blogging software program that provides
a sophisticated set of features. Via its administration panels,
a user can set options for the presentation of his blog and
be published on the Internet instantly. WordPress focuses on
aesthetics, web standards and usability.
WordPress as a Content Management System
A distinct characteristic of a CMS is that it singles out content
from presentation. Content consists of text, images or other
information shared in posts. This is separate from the structural
design of a site which provides the foundation into which the
content is inserted and the presentation of a site which involves
graphic design. Content is stored in a database. A user can
change the look of a site with a few changes to style sheets
such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and other layout features
that define the font styles and sizes, colors, backgrounds and
positions. In like manner, WordPress stores content in a database
and the WordPress Theme (layout/design) controls the look of
how the content is displayed.
A CMS has control over what content shows up and where ads,
related posts, comments and other interactive elements appear
on a web page. But with the plug-ins and add-ons available in
WordPresss, a user can also add these features to his blog.
A user can turn WordPress into a full-fledged CMS with the many
options, customizations and controls accessible to him.
There are a number of options a user can use to make WordPress
works like a CMS. Most CMS sites control what articles appear
on the front page. In WordPress, a user can make use of the
Semiologic Opt-in FrontPage Plug-in that lets him choose which
post will appear on his front page. Podcasting, videoblogging,
adding music and images are possible with WordPress. There are
plenty of elements that a user can add to WordPress to enhance
connectivity and functions. Signing up for mailing lists, newsletters
and other information to be disseminated can be done with WordPress.
A user can even set up e-commerce with WordPress. Adding ads
to a WordPress site is as simple as placing the ad information
into the proper template file. Forums and bulletin boards are
integrated with WordPress. Every WordPress user has a role that
determines his rights within the application. This is particularly
useful to control the flow of certain content. Another valuable
feature of WordPress is its built-in moderation feature. This
allows the user to approve messages before they get posted.
The WP-ShortStart Plug-in renders Statistic monitoring. Lastly,
a user's CMS site won't be complete without a way to handle
external and internal links. WordPress has a number of plug-ins
that can be used for this purpose.
Simply put, WordPress has sophisticated features that make it
a powerful content management system.
About
the Author:
http://www.theinternetone.net
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