Content Mgmt Goes Social

There is a transformation taking place now in the CMS space.  These systems that were quite content to be content management products are getting a “social” upgrade.  This is part of a broader pattern as large social suites compete with the social technology integration into the traditional enterprise IT stack.  How soon until we see social RDBMS, social routers, and social tape archive systems is not clear, but the category of CMS has taken the plunge.

At the center of any modern eCommerce solution are several core components and one of them is a CMS or content management system.  The CMS takes responsibility for managing all of the digital content assets that are used within the eCommerce system.  Most modern CMS solutions have been rapidly advancing to take on the functionality of a portal and a social platform.

This progression further simplifies the architectural specification for a modern eCommerce solution.  The assets managed by a CMS range from blocks of text to images to videos.  Modern CMS solutions also address the presentation of the collected content using visual templates and guides.  And the interaction with that same content is generally facilitated through highly-focused programs which are integrated into the CMS using plug-in and widget frameworks so that a highly tailored eCommerce solution can be built with the unique functionality required by the business.

While there are numerous CMS solutions, a small number stand out as compelling approaches toward a cost-effective formulation supporting an eCommerce need. Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Liferay, Alfresco are five open-source content management systems that have commanded attention through significant use across the marketplace and each has specific advantages.

 

Drupal

Official site: http://drupal.org/  —  Drupal was formed in 2001

Notable Features:

• Multiple sites can be managed with Drupal and across multiple languages.
• Utility ranges from a blogging site, corporate site, personal site, gallery, or full eCommerce site.
• Site users can be managed using standard registration, including OpenID support.
• There are multiple access controls to help manage the activity of site users.
• A custom menu system, template customization, advanced search, RSS feed aggregator

 

Joomla

Official site: http://www.joomla.org/  —  Initiated as an offshoot of the Mambo CMS in 2005.

Some Notable Features:

• Supports control of multiple sites and in multiple languages natively.
• Utility ranges from a blogging site, corporate site, personal site, gallery, or full eCommerce site
• Site users can be managed using standard registration, including OpenID support.
• Full support for Access Control Lists.
• Page cashing for increased performance.
• Network asset linking does accomodate moderately descriptive URLs
• Many Extensions: Over 6,000 free and commercial plugins available

 

WordPress

Official site: http://wordpress.org/  —  first released in 2003

Notable Features:

•     Highly optimized for blogging.
•     Custom and easy to switch themes.
•     Users can re-arrange widgets without editing PHP or HTML code.
•     Support for tagging. Advanced search by tags.
•     Highly intuitive UI (User Interface).

Native applications exist for Android, iPhone/iPod Touch, and BlackBerry which provide access to some of the features in the WordPress Admin panel and work with WordPress.com and many WordPress.org blogs.

Liferay

Official site: http://www.liferay.com/

Notable Features:

•     Can tag and categorize contents.
•     Document Library Manager, Recent Documents.
•     Alfresco, Documentum, and other document library integration.
•     User management based on various roles and groups (ACL).
•     WebDAV Integration (which allows edit and management from remote web servers).
•     LDAP Integration
•     Microsoft Office Integration
•     Calendar/Chat/Mail/Message Boards/Polls
•     Wiki (supports Creole as well as MediaWiki syntax)

 

Alfresco

Official site: http://www.alfresco.com/  —  Introduced in 2005

Notable Features:

•     Document Management.
•     Web Content Management (including full webapp & session virtualization).
•     Multi-language support.
•     Officially runs on Windows, Linux and Solaris.
•     Desktop integration with Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org.
•     Pluggable authentication: NTLM, LDAP, Kerberos, CAS.