People who think they know everything can find it hard to publish documents on the World Wide Web. Let's face it: HTML, XML, CSS, and JavaScript are just a few of the technologies you would need to know to make a website for yourself or your business that looks really professional. The good news is that there is a way to fix the problem. It's called a "content management system," and it makes it easier for anyone who wants to learn to publish on the Internet.
Some of these content management systems came about because people needed to put information on the web. CNet, for example, made one of their own content management systems, which they later turned into a separate company called Vignette. Since 1995, when publishing on the web really took off, these systems have really started to improve. But I will only pay attention to open source web content management systems.
The first open-source system I want to talk about is DotNetNuke, which is an AsP.Net-based system (http://www.dotnetnuke.com). DotNetNuke is by far one of the most popular open-source projects out there today. It has tens of thousands of users who love it. If you use this system, you'll get frequent updates to the platform and a lot of help from the people who use it. When thinking about an open-source system, the number of updates and the help you will get from the platform's creators or other users are two very important things to think about. Also, the new ideas that are built into this system make it a very powerful application. For example, the skinning mechanism is one of the easiest to change and customize, and the scheduling processor makes it easier to do some of the more boring tasks that come with keeping a website running.
But there are some problems with DotNetNuke. Since this system was built with ASP.Net, you will need Visual Studio 2003 Professional or higher to really change the source code and make the system work the way you want. This can be a big problem because this development platform can cost several hundred dollars.
The second open-source system I've used is called AXCMS.Net (http://www.axcms.net), which is also built on the the.Net platform. This system has as many features as DotNetNuke and other open-source systems. But there are some clear problems with this system. First, it can be hard to set up and deploy, which can seriously slow down any project. Also, it doesn't look like there are as many active users as with DotNetNuke. But the system is as "solid" as they come, and your hard work will definitely pay off once everything is set up and ready to use. Also, since this system is a great way to meet the development team, any updates or changes you want to make will cost you money from the people who made it. This makes it hard for the community to support the system and makes it harder for people to use it.
There are a lot of other open-source systems out there, and even as I write this article, more are being made. When choosing an open-source content management system, the most important things to think about are how well it is supported by the community and how often its core development team updates it. Even an open-source system can have hidden costs that a business or enterprise needs to think about before using it.
