Content Management Systems for Small Budgets
by: Rebecca Ragland
Content management systems (CMS) are critical to Web sites that often update their information. In the world that we live in, it is critical that a Web site be constantly updating information if it hopes to retain a place of prominence in search engine listings.
There are large numbers of Web developers, including EREE Web that will use these low-cost engines as a base for your site. This will save a great deal of money for you in the construction of your site over time. It will also give you complete control over your content with no need to hire highly skilled Web site management or webmasters.
As usual, it is good to start out with some basic definitions of what we are talking about.
What is Content?
Content is, in essence, any type or 'unit' of digital information. It can be text, images, graphics, video, sound, documents, records, etc., or in other words, anything that is likely to be managed in an electronic format.
What is Content Management?
Content management is effectively the management of the content described above by combining rules, process and/or workflows in such a way that its electronic storage is deemed to be 'managed.'
What is the CM System (CMS)?
The system itself is definable as a tool or combination or tools that facilitate the efficient and effective production of the desired 'output' using the managed content.
"A CMS is a tool that enables a variety of (centralized) technical and (de-centralized) non technical staff to create, edit, manage and finally publish (in a number of formats) a variety of content (such as text, graphics, video, documents, etc.), whilst being constrained by a centralized set of rules, process and workflows that ensure coherent, validated electronic content."
A CMS may support the following features:
1. The identification of all key users and their content management roles.
2. The ability to assign roles and responsibilities to different content categories or types.
3. The capacity to define workflow tasks for collaborative creation, often coupled with event messaging so that content managers are alerted to changes in content. This is especially useful if editorial approval is necessary prior to going live on the Web.
4. The ability to track and manage multiple versions of a single instance of content.
5. The ability to capture content (e.g. scanning).
6. The ability to publish the content to an archive to support access to the content.
7. Automatic formatting of layouts in predetermined ways thus eliminating the need for html or coding knowledge.
Some of the most popular Open Source CMSs are:
http://www.joomla.org/
Joomla is designed to be easy to install and set up even if you're not an advanced user. Many Web hosting services offer a single-click install, getting your new site up and running in just a few minutes.
Since Joomla is so easy to use, as a Web designer or developer, you can quickly build sites for your clients. Then, with a minimal amount of instruction, you can empower your clients to easily manage their own sites themselves.
Joomla Features:
• Completely database driven site engines
• News, products, or services sections fully editable and manageable
• Topics sections can be added to by contributing Authors
• Fully customisable layouts including left, center and right Menu boxes
• Browser upload of images to your own library for use anywhere in the site
• Dynamic forum/poll/voting booth for on-the-spot results
• Runs on Linux, FreeBSD, MacOSX server, Solaris, and AIX
Extensive Administration:
• Change order of objects including news, FAQs, articles, etc.
• Random newsflash generator
• Remote author submission Module for news, articles, FAQs, and links
• Object hierarchy—as many sections, departments, divisions, and pages as you want
• Image library—store all your PNGs, PDFs, DOCs, XLSs, GIFs, and JPEGs online for easy use
• Automatic path-finder—place a picture and let Joomla! fix the link
• News feed manager—choose from over 360 news feeds from around the world
• E-mail a friend and print format available for every story and article
• In-line text editor similar to any basic word processor software
• User-editable look and feel
• Polls/surveys—Now put a different one on each page
• Custom page modules—download custom page modules to spice up your site
• Template manager—download templates and implement them in seconds
• Layout preview—see how it looks before going live
• Banner manager—make money off of your site
http://drupal.org/
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 Web site. 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
• E-commerce applications
• Resource directories
• Social networking sites
http://www.opencms.org/en/
OpenCms from Alkacon Software is a professional, easy to use Web site content management system. OpenCms helps content managers worldwide to create and maintain beautiful Web sites fast and efficiently.
The fully browser-based user interface features configurable editors for structured content with well-defined fields. Alternatively, content can be created using an integrated WYSIWYG editor similar to well-known office applications. A sophisticated template engine enforces a site-wide corporate layout and W3C standard compliance for all content.
OpenCms is based on Java and XML technology. It can be deployed in an open-source environment (e.g. Linux, Apache, Tomcat, and MySQL) as well as on commercial components (e.g. Windows NT, IIS, BEA Weblogic, Oracle).
As true open-source software, OpenCms is free of licensing costs.
OpenCMS Features:
• Advanced link management with the Content Relationship Engine. The OpenCms internal link management has been greatly improved to keep internal links intact after move/rename operations. The user will also be informed about broken links when deleting or publishing contents.
• Related resources with the Content Relationship Engine. Related resources can now be published together with a file or folder automatically. Content categories can be assigned to each OpenCms resource.
• Restore (undelete) operation for deleted resources. Even files that were deleted and are not visible anymore in the OpenCms Explorer view can now be restored using this new feature.
• WebDAV support. Full support for the WebDAV protocol was added to OpenCms to make content editing easier using external editors and synchronizing the resources with OpenCms.
• Publishing simplified with the publish queue. The publish process was optimized to eliminate the waiting time for a publish job to be finished. Content editors can now keep on working while their changes are published in the background.
• Improved internal system roles and organizational units. Internal system roles have been extended to assign them to OpenCms workplace users. Organizational units enhance the account management.
• Improved permission options and switch-user function. The permission options have been enhanced to be able to create complex permission scenarios more easily. The new switch-user function allows administrators to switch to another user in the workplace without knowing the user’s password.
• Improved context menus. The context menus are now generated using Ajax technology. Submenu structures were introduced for a better usability.
• Search option in the OpenCms workplace. Search the OpenCms workplace using the integrated full-text search engine Lucene.
• Configurable search options. The integrated search engine has been enhanced to index fields definable by the user.
• XML content auto correction. Changing the XSD of structured content items does not break already existing content anymore. The content will automatically be repaired in the background when editing it.
• Time Warp in OpenCms Workplace. A view on the Web site contents of the past or of the future is possible using this function without having to change release or expiration dates of files or folders.
Other Resources:
Hosted Services
Clickability: Clickability Platform http://www.clickability.com/
CrownPeak Technology: CrownPeak CMS http://www.crownpeak.com/
Marqui: Marqui http://www.marqui.com/
Squarespace: http://www.squarespace.com/
Commercial Open Source
Alfresco: Alfresco WCM http://www.alfresco.com/products/solutions/ecm/wcm/
Magnolia: Magnolia CMS http://www.magnolia.info/home.html
Open Source
Plone: Plone CMS http://plone.org/
TYPO3: TYPO3 http://typo3.com/
WordPress: The Great Real Estate Plug-in"
We have long supported WordPress as an excellent solution for Real Estate professionals on a budget who wanted a Web presence that looked great and functioned well without the expense of having to hire a developer. It is easy to customize and has a wide variety of templates or themes that fit most tastes. Even if you do want to call on a designer to help with the customization of a theme, it would be very reasonable to do so.
We use
WordPress for our Professionals Blog on Exec MediaGroup, LLC. So far, we have experienced no problems and even went through an upgrade without a single glitch. In the past that has been a nightmare with some applications making it necessary to literally start over.
I had already decided to write about WordPress, and in the process of researching I came across the “Great Real Estate Plug-in.” Awesome! Now not only can you get a highly functioning Web site for the price of a song, but you can get a plug-in that will let you incorporate listings. Everywhere I looked I found glowing reports. I have to admit that I have not had the time to test it myself, but I have downloaded the plug-in and intend to test it this month.
The man responsible for developing the “Great Real Estate Plug-in” is Roger Theriault, a Real Estate professional himself. I wanted to know what he had to say not only about the plug-in itself, but about his plans for the application. Here is what he had to say:
"The plug-in developed in a roundabout way. When I initially developed my Real Estate Web site I created a lot of back-end content management in native PHP (the same Web programming language that WordPress runs on). I gradually added to it, including an "opinion articles" section [aka "blog"]. Then last year I converted the opinion portion over to WordPress to make editing easier... and this year I converted the whole site to WordPress. My old site included some listings management, so I added that to the WordPress software. And since I always wanted to provide a Web site solution to other agents, I decided to modularize it into a WordPress "plug-in" that other agents and web developers could simply install and use. WordPress is a great Web platform and I know that agents have been using it, but the one thing it really lacked was Real-Estate-specific tools to manage listings.
"Future versions will have additional features aimed at managing sellers and their listings, including listing appointment and feedback tracking. The next couple of releases will mainly add a bit more functionality, such as geocoding of map locations, some additional ‘featured listings’ display types [a map preview is on his Web site at http://RogerTheriault.com/listings/] and some feedback-driven features and localizations for various parts of the world.
"If you take a look at my LinkedIn profile [see his About page] you'll see I have a fairly long technology background with Web development. I'm getting a lot more involved in the Web again, after six years of mainly using it as a tool for my Real Estate business, and will likely be producing more WordPress plug-ins as I get the time."
This is excellent news for all of you out there who want to take the time to look into an affordable Web site with great capability. Here is a description of what features are available in the current version of the “Great Real Estate Plug-in” and how to get it. These details come directly from Roger’s site.
Screenshots: (you can see screenshots on
Roger's site here)
Overview:
The “Great Real Estate Plug-in” is a Real Estate content management plug-in for WordPress. The initial version allows management of listings. Note: There are many themes that you can use to give the plug-in your own look.
Need an idea of what it can do? Here is a live demo:
Roger’s Real Estate site - demonstrating the Featured Homes widget configured in Basic mode, highest price first
Roger’s listings index page - the default output, plus the Featured Homes widget configured in Text mode, sorted by title
Roger’s listing detail page with all the bells and whistles turned on
Requirements:
WordPress 2.5 installation. For additional functionality, you may wish to enable one or all of the third-party plug-ins listed below.
Features:
Integration with NextGen Gallery plug-in for listing photos
Integration with WordTube plug-in for videos
Integration with FPP-Pano plug-in for 360 VR photos
Integration with DownloadManager plug-in for PDF attachments such as brochures
Integrated Google Maps pinpointing the listing location
Easy form-based entry of listing data—right on the Edit Page screen!
Customizable starter templates for your listings index page and for the actual listing pages
Tab-based access to property description, gallery, videos, panoramas, maps, and downloads
Gracefully handles users with JavaScript disabled as much as possible
“No Branding” option for use as link in MLS—restyle your page to hide the navigation elements
Featured Listings widget or template for your front page
Pre-designed templates for use with Feed Wrangler plug-in to automatically feed your listings to Trulia, Zillow, and Google Base, plus a custom RSS template for My Yahoo! and iGoogle supporting listing photos
Future Versions may include:
Map and live search options for your listings index page
Showings management
Seller dashboard
Download:
The "Great Real Estate Plug-in" is available for download
in the WordPress.org Plug-in Directory.
License:
The plug-in is licensed under the GPL version 3.
Support:
