CMS (Contents Managment System)

A web content management system is a computer system used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A CMS facilitates document control, auditing, editing, and timeline management.

A Web CMS provides the following key features:

Automated Templating:
Create standard visual templates that can be automatically applied to new and existing content, creating one central place to change that look across all content on a site.

Easily Editable Content:
Once your content is separate from the visual presentation of your site, it usually becomes much easier and quicker to edit and manipulate. Most CMS software include WYSIWYG editing tools allowing non-technical individuals to create and edit content.

Scalable Feature Sets:
Most CMS have plug-ins or modules that can be easily installed to extend an existing site's functionality.

Web Standards Upgrades:
Active CMS solutions usually receive regular updates that include new feature sets and keep the system up to current web standards.

Workflow management:
Workflow is the process of creating cycles of sequential and parallel tasks that must be accomplished in the CMS. For example, a content creator submits a story but it's not published on the website until the copy editor cleans it up, and the editor-in-chief approves it.

Document Management:
CMS solutions always provide a means of managing the life cycle of a document from initial creation time, through revisions, publication, archive, and document destruction.

The term Content Management System was originally used for website publishing and management systems. Early content management systems were developed internally at organizations which were doing a lot of web publishing, such as on-line magazines, newspapers, and corporate newsletters. In 1995, CNET spun out its internal web document management and publication system into a separate company called Vignette, which opened up the market for commercial content management systems.

As markets evolved, the scope of products promoted as content management systems greatly broadened, fragmenting the meaning of the term. Wiki systems and web-based groupware are often described as content management systems, in contrast to the original website publishing management system definition.