My Content Management System (CMS)
Written on Thursday, April 14, 2005
Creating a website is rewarding!
Maintaining a website is painful! If these comments hold any
truth for you, read on. A few months back, I ran headfirst
into the realization that maintaining four unique websites
with dynamic content was more time-consuming than it needed
to be. There had to be a better way. Like most web
developers, I had been using Microsoft FrontPage for
three of the sites and Macromedia Dreamweaver for the
other. I enjoy working with both products, but they are
focused on design and development -- not everyday maintenance -- of websites.
At around the same time, I had read an
article about the latest software craze surrounding personal
content management systems (CMS). It seems that many
corporations were experiencing a similar dilemma. There was
nothing "simple" about making simple changes (or additions)
to a website. Obviously, some software vendors had been
listening, because the article recommended a few
breakthrough CMS products that I soon evaluated. Some of my
criteria, as a small business owner, included the system
being able to handle up to 3 users but cost less than $500.
My research and evaluation yielded these top candidates:
-
CityDesk 2.0 from Fog Creek Software
http://www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/
-
Contribute 3.0 from Macromedia
http://www.macromedia.com/software/contribute/
CityDesk is a desktop database program
that allows you to enter articles and publish static HTML
Web pages to a hosted website. Using a local Access database
to store and manage content, CityDesk is a very compact and
easy to manage software application. Within hours, I had an
entire website generated using the CityDesk model. For
simply adding and editing content directly on a website,
Macromedia's Contribute is the strongest contender. If you
design and maintain websites using Dreamweaver, this
software is the perfect compliment for your staff and other
users. There is no local database to manage using
Contribute, and it is very easy to learn.
For my purposes, I
decided on CityDesk for my article blogging and Contribute
for making everyday enhancements and modifications. Regardless of the program you choose,
I would recommend that you look at separating the design and
development of your websites from their ongoing maintenance.
I am confident that personal content management systems,
like CityDesk and Contribute, will enhance your efficiency
and productivity overnight!
