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Before you implement that CMS! (Content Management System) It dawned upon me the other day that as a technician and developer I've built a number of sites with various types of CMS. Some implemented 3rd party systems, some CMS I've built myself. I've been doing this on and off for about the last 6 years. In addition to the above, I've recently looked at a lot of public domain CMS most of them free and based on php and mysql. Although their is a lot of interesting stuff out their no one product really stands out. Hence this article. My thoughts and concerns generally regarding CMS implementation can be ordered into 3 broad and some times overlapping areas. Technical, Human interaction and Planning. I'll start with Planning. If your going to be evaluating a few CMS The first thing to do is to find a machine you can use as your test server. Although it doesn't have to be the greatest and latest it is important that you make sure the php Apache and mysql versions are the same as those to be employed on your final production machine. Double check this! Or ask your service provider for this information if your going to have this externally hosted. Unless you are a mysql whiz install a copy of phpmy admin on your machine this will allow you to back up and transfer information to your production machine if you want to recycle some of your test site. You will probably want to install and test various products so be prepared to break and fix this machine until you are very, very comfortable with the software. A copy of all your installers (burn them all to a dvd ?) are a handy thing to have about. People have to be committed to having a web site and as Jeff Veen discusses an editorial process. Another thing to consider is that if that staff member moves on is there anyone else in the company who know's how to manage the system? Are the passwords written down anywhere? It will also help if the person, people who are involved in this are allotted time to be trained to learn how to use a new CMS. A buddy system with a sympathetic tech is a good idea. I helped someone build a CMS recently. This company had multiple branches all over the country. A junior had to bludgeon out of everyone a written professional profile (with photograph!) Getting content and getting it organised and keeping it up to date can be like cat wrangling . I think it wise to ask the question is this really worth all the effort? Even with the best CMS in the world you are still going to need to deal with and maintain all that content. Which gives rise to the question. Do you empower a few people to have control of the site? Or do you descend into site management by committee? Both have their pitfalls and good sides but think carefully about these things and consider impact on time lines, budget and egos! You can spend a lot of time looking at CMS but don't be to hasty. Look at the subtly of your data needs. Can this CMS product easily achieve the task you are asking of it. A good thing to do is sketch out how you want your database driven CMS to serve you! Do you have a current hand crafted flat html site? Can your CMS product do this as well as the flat file product? How much information will this product need to deal with? You may even want to look at some sort of ULM product. If at all possible find a graphic designer who is proficient with 1 or more CMS systems. If you can find people who are passionate about creating good content you may suddenly find you have a winner on your hands! Human interaction A lot of CMS has horrid human interface when it comes to the back-end management system. As has already been discussed be prepared to consider how this effects taxonomy. Templateing (applying a look and feel to every page) is usually a difficult thing to get your head around. Often this comes with module's and sub modules code snippets and other functionality. Be prepared to spend a fair amount of time getting comfortable with this. See if you can get 1 or more installs of the software on a testing server so you can break it and then fix it again. It's important to feel in control before you go live! Also get your head around how the templateing system works as soon as possible or as already mentioned find a designer who is familiar with the product. On one level CMS is meant to remove the need for people to write code. No matter how good the system though I would argue that knowledge of HTML and css xhtml etc, is valuable. Consider this when you are choosing the people who are going to be the content managers / CMS managers. Some technical thoughts People who code with php and mysql sometimes tend to get carried away with the possibilities . I must admit I'm probably guilty of this myself and am working on a 12 step programme for it. If your comfortable with the terminal try running your CMS and also running top -tl 10000 | grep httpd or top -tl 10000 | grep mysql While your running your CMS and doing something like editing or user management. Is your CMS a resource pig? Will it be growing and if so by how much? In closing I take some solace from the fact that even if some of our customers do just email me that word document once every month. I can dump it into the CMS myself in a matter of minutes. As opposed to hand codeing it in Html. I suppose there is still some good use for CMS even if it is only to help a tech head like me get on to more important things. Oh yes you are reading this via a CMS system. I built it ...... It's simple it's perfect and it's all mine :) Postscript Seems as if a Mr Jeffrey Veen has covered a lot of ground thinking about CMS systems and anyone thinking of implementing one would do well to look at these 2 articles. Making A Better CMS Why Content Management Fails Also well worth a look http://opensourcecms.com/ 
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