Content Management System
Content Management System refers to a system which stores content in a database and uses scripting language such as ASP.net or PHP to generate HTML pages dynamically. Dynamic websites allow you to change the content of your website because the content is stored in a database. A CMS system is the right choice for your business if you have a lot of website content that requires frequent updating and you require a custom designed site.
Over the last few years many website design companies have launched open source CMS or managed CMS. The major differences betwen our system and other CMS products;
- Our CMS has been built through knowledge gained in asp/asp.net programming from more than ten years and each version of the CMS is an improvement over the last version of the site. We have used open source software and found it lacking for many reasons and though it is cheaper, it is certainly not a bargain because of inherent problems with ongoing support and difficulty with customization and producing a cohensive project. See Open Source Risks
- Each company website has its own MS SQL database. The MS SQL database is not shared. We do not utilize MS Access for our CMS system. MS Access is the poor brother of MS SQL and does not provide the performance of MS SQL.
- Clients have access to website statistics to track visitors and website performance (a feature not offered by many CMS providers)
- A separate hosting account in a secure data centre managed by experienced technicians 24/7, 365 days a year. Hosting is best outsourced to experienced technicians rather than handled in house by a website design company
- A CMS system that allows you to use SEO techniques like changing metatags, title tags, URLs, and keywords, add links, as well as have full control over images and text, alt tags and page names. You will be able to move pages, archive pages and add custom functionality like web forms, password protected pages, search, forums, to your website. ** The ability to specify the name of the URL is a significant overhead in a CMS system and most CMS systems use a page id number in the URL or use a dodgy form of URL rewriting, which is simply utilizing a redirect and as a consequence of both these methods, search engine ranking of a website built with a CMS system is compromised. We have built this CMS specifically with search engines in mind and use it for our own websites. Many website developers do not use their own CMS because they know how much their system disadvantages their company website on search engines.
- Our CMS system uses tableless CSS and a DIV layout which is preferred by search engines. It also integrates Google XML Sitemaps.
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Ease and custom fit - your site would be completely set up and customized to your requirements. If you buy off the shelf CMS, you are limited in customization because the code is compiled. Unless your business fits perfectly with the model that the off the shelf, or managed CMS is built for, you will find that it is like having a dress that covers you up but does fit you properly. We have the entire source code to the CMS project can customize a CMS to fit the needs of a company; many CMS providers sell one size fits all CMS solutions because they do not have access to the full source code.
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Intuitive and easy to use interface - Passion Computing's CMS is easy to use
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Competitive advantage - our success is dependent on your success and unlike companies that sell CMS solutions by the hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands, our business is far more personal and therefore each customer is not a number on a balance sheet. We know each and every customer, and work to understand their business and organisation.
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High end programming at an affordable price.
Who should develop a CMS website?
CMS websites are ideally suited to organizations that update their website frequently. If you are considering a dynamic website and you have a brochure website displaying products and services and that would not regularly need to be updated, a static HTML website is the best option for you. Static websites are written in HTML and the vast majority of our customers who have static HTML websites update their own website written content using a HTML editor and ftp program.
Most small businesses are better suited to HTML websites than a CMS solution because they rarely update their website. Perhaps even consider our DIY website. as a good alternative to building your own website without any HTML.
HTML is the language that enabled webpages to be created. A dynamic website generates html. ie code + database = HTML. Static HTML websites are really cheap to host and because it does not rely on server software, scripting language or databases, there is very little that can go wrong with a HTML website and ongoing maintenance and hosting costs are relatively low. See Custom Websites for examples of custom websites. Any website can be customized to incorporate a CMS system but whether or not it is economically feasible to do so, depends on the number of pages the site has and how often it will be updated.
So unless, you are building a website that needs to be frequently updated, if you are just building a brochure website with products/a bit of news/contact details/bookings – then HTML is the way to go. Not only can you easily learn how to keep it update with a few of hours of training but your site is not at the whim of technology changes that affect CMS sites. Sites like ebay have teams of developers, who not only add more features but are constantly doing maintenance and securing their systems. You can add some dynamic features like a forum is a separate module that can be added, or you might have RSS news pages and although these features are subject to the effects of technology change, the fundamental parts of your website are created in HTML.
What is the process of having a dynamic CMS set up?
Firstly, you provide us with information, images, company logo, proposed layout and we create a website in consultation with you. There is no software to download or large manuals to read. We want you to enjoy the benefits of technology without the hard work. Initially the process is very similar to developing a static HTML site, we finalize the homepage, links and content both images and text and come to an agreement on design.
How do I obtain a quote?
Please let us know that you want a CMS system and provide any proposed designs, logos, images, website content and any specific information about the style or type of website you are wanting to develop, using URLs of other websites as examples. We can use this information to issue a quotation.
What is the difference between a CMS and a DIY website?
There is a huge difference between a custom CMS and a DIY website. Although, you will be able to update your site with both systems, the DIY website is limited. The software is "as is" and you cannot customize the design of the site to be exactly as you want. eg. The colours on each template are fixed to a few choices. The administration of a DIY website is clunky in comparison to Passion Computing's CMS. However, the DIY website is cheaper and you can change the website template as often as you want. Passion Computing's CMS allows you to have more customization, whereas with a DIY website, you must fit your website content into its structure and templates.
Why are Content Management Systems more expensive?
To answer this question, one needs to understand the Internet and how it works.
The Internet started when in the late 1960s, researchers gained funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a computer network concept. In September 1969, the first pair of nodes was installed at the University of California and the first external link was to Stanford Research Institute (SRI), several hundred kilometers away. The network was dubbed ARPANET. The two crucial protocols thatform thefoundation of the internet areTransmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), and with the addition of the DNS (or domain name system) create what we now call the Internet. Basically, the internet is lots of computers networked together and as more IP addresses were added to the University of California (UCLA) and SRI – the network of computers expanded to what we now know as the Internet.
HTML (the coding language that creates webpages) was invented in 1989 and it is still used today. It has changed very little in 18 years.
Around 1996, programming languages like ASP, and PHP were developed that allowed us to build database websites (dynamic websites) where the database would hold the content and images separate from the code and an interface could be programmed, so that people without programming knowledge could change images and text.
Unfortunately, ASP and PHP are in constant flux – that is, since we first start developing dynamic websites, we have basically rewritten the system several times and had to do changes to the system whenever a major change in software occurred. Eg. ASP, changed to ASP.net v1 and then ASP.net v1.1 and now it is changing to ASP.net v3.5, the server that ran ASP, moved to Windows 2003 and that same server software is also on the verge of upgrading. When WORD changed to WORD 2003, we needed to change the code to make sure that cutting and pasting from WORD would still work, and every time there is a browser change like from IE 6.0, to IE 7.0 and when the system changes from Windows 98, to XP to Vista and when the database changed from MS SQL 2000 to MS SQL 2003, the CMS needs to be rewritten or adapted because the dynamic website relies on
(1) local software that is on your office/home computer
(2) the server software that is on the web server at the hosting company
(3) the scripting language ASP, PHP, ASP.net.
(4) the databases that run the site, ie Access. MySQL or MS SQL
The DIY website products sold are volume products. They are designed to fit the business owner who needs a website fast and doesn't have the time or money to build a custom site. They are a good first step to website development and generally lag behind in terms of usability and design. DIY websites are cheaper because they have less features and because are sold in volume in a one size fits most architecture. If your business cannot fit into the DIY website model and you would rarely update your site, then a custom HTML website would be a better choice for you.
HTML websites are less prone to changes in technology, are cheaper to host, and can be designed fit your specific design requirements but they are harder to update and if your site has many pages, become quite difficult to manage because every time you need to add a new page, you will need to add the menu link code to every page on your HTML website.