Content
Bespoke Content Management Solutions
Content management is a crucial element of any web-site development strategy.
Although a number of modular, off the shelf, content management systems are available It has been our experience that in the same way that no two web-sites are the same the systems built to manage their content will ideally be tailored to the particular needs of a particular site.
Access compliant development as required by the Disability Discrimination Act is another issue. Many off the shelf, modular content management systems have still not taken on board the requirements of disabled access compliance. For example, while they will almost certainly make provision for the upload of images, do they enable you to add "Alt Text" (Alternative Text describing those images) one of the most basic requirements of access compliant development?
It is our contention that for little, if any, extra cost a bespoke content management system offers an enormous amount of added value enabling us to tailor your web-site specifically to your needs.
An unnecessary mystique surrounds content management systems. All CMS' are built on similar foundations. The truth is you can ask a CMS to do more or less what you want it to. The crux of the problem is knowing what you want. We will work with you, not to shoehorn your organisation's requirements into our pre-existing system, but to understand clearly what will work best for you in terms of your needs and the resources you have available. It is important to remember that the CMS is just a tool, the content it manages needs to be sourced and edited, that takes time, something few organisations have a great deal of.
Content Management Basics
A content management system or CMS allows people with a password to log onto a web-site and instantly and securely update and change its contents. Content can be anything from basic text and images to audio or video files.
All content management systems are built on similar foundations:
- Secure Log in - In order to administer the web-site a user must first log in using a user name and password.
- Site Administration - While best practice generally recommends that a CMS have a single overall Site Administrator it is often useful to distribute tasks particularly in larger web-sites. Access and editorial rights can be allocated to any number of individuals, tailored to the requirements of particular areas within the site. However, it would always be recommended that changes made to any area in a web-site would be alerted to the overall system administrator and / or to the person charged with editorial responsibility for that area. For example, in an online gallery it might be agreed that each artist have access to their own particular area in order that they can add, edit or delete files. Any changes made within the online gallery would be alerted to the overall site administrator and, if appropriate, to the member of staff with curatorial responsibility for the online gallery.
- Fixed Interface / Dynamic content - The pages of any web-site managed by a CMS will have a fixed interface and architecture within which the dynamic content will slot. The CMS will style the dynamic content appropriate to where it has been placed within the page. The architecture is essentially a template. Templates can be more or less complex but most will benefit from being tailored to the needs of a particular site, many off the shelf CMS cannot offer this. For the more complex areas within a web-site, for example an online gallery, showcase or exhibition area, not only is a tailored look, feel and function desirable but the ongoing archiving of material within these pages - often a crucial issue - can only be handled in the most basic way by anything but a truly tailored system. Though functionality may differ all pages within a CMS managed web-site are administered in a similar way.
Managing Content
Text and images form the bulk of site content, however, we prefer to talk in terms of media - since our content management systems can recognise and handle audio and video as well as images and text.
Media files always need some preparation for inclusion in a web-site. For example, images files will need to be scaled, cropped and compressed to fit the size of the screen, the layout of the page, and user connection speed. Our CMS' can automate this process saving on time and resources. In web-sites where image quality is paramount it is generally preferable for a person with a fine eye rather than a piece of software to control this process. In these cases we can provide help files and training and will always build safety features into the system itself guarding against fundamental errors - the system will alert you to what you have done wrong and offer guidance on how to correct it.
Search
Content Management Systems lend themselves very well to creative search solutions.
The most basic form of search is search by key word. Many sites benefit from advanced smart search solutions. Users should also have options on how to sort results. We have a great deal of experience in working with our clients to pin down the search solutions which will best suit their particular users.
User registration
We can also build user registration into your CMS solution.
Users may register to join a mailing list or a forum, or to gain access to "member only" areas.
There are data protection issues involved in the collection of user data. If you do not have data protection procedures in place we can advise you accordingly.
