Content Management Systems

Apart from the ISO images of four FOSS distributions in this month’s DVD, we have also managed to pack in some of the best content management systems (CMS). We hope you deploy and test them all. Well, if you really do, let us know your feedback on them, or write a comparison article if you have the time :-)

Drupal is a FOSS modular framework and CMS written in PHP. It is used as a back-end system for many different types of websites, ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate and political sites. The standard release of Drupal, known as “Drupal core”, contains basic features common to most CMSs. These include the ability to register and maintain individual user accounts, administration menus, RSS-feeds, customizable layout, flexible account privileges, logging, a blogging system, an Internet forum, and options to create a classic brochure-ware website or an interactive community website.

Joomla CMS enables you to build websites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular website software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

WebGUI is a platform for managing all your Web-based content and applications. WebGUI is modular, powerful, secure, and user-friendly. Most users find themselves managing content within hours, and developers can easily plug-in functionality to maximise a site’s potential. It is an easy to use content management system, which has ability to create and install custom applications. With WebGUI, you can publish articles, participate in forums, create photo galleries and can even create interactive event calendars.

WordPress is a state-of-the-art Web publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, Web standards, and usability. It’s arguably the de-facto blogging platform.

TYPO3 is a free and open source content management system written in PHP. TYPO3 offers full flexibility and extendibility while featuring an accomplished set of readymade interfaces, functions and modules. The system is based on templates. People can choose an existing template and change features such as logo, colours, and fonts, or they can construct their own templates using a configuration language called TypoScript.

Mambo ( formerly named Mambo Open Source or MOS) is a free software/open source content management system (CMS) for creating and managing websites through a simple Web interface. It has attracted many users due to its ease of use. Mambo includes advanced features such as page caching to improve performance on busy sites, advanced templating techniques, and a fairly robust API. It can provide RSS feeds and automate many tasks, including web indexing of static pages.

e107 is a content management system written in PHP and using the popular open source MySQL database system for content storage. It’s completely free, totally customizable and in constant development.

XOOPS is an extensible, object oriented, easy to use dynamic Web CMS written in PHP. XOOPS is an ideal tool for developing small to large dynamic community websites, intra company portals, corporate portals, blogs and much more.

Plone is a free and open source CMS built on top of the Zope application server. It is suited for an internal website or may be used as a server on the Internet, playing such roles as a document publishing system and group ware collaboration tool. Plone is designed to be extensible.

OpenCms is a professional, easy-to-use website CMS. 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.

Moodle is a Learning Management System (LMS). It is a free Web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites. It’s open source licence and modular design means that people can develop additional functionality.

Source of Information : Linux For You May 2009