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Content Management Systems

As you work on your web site you will come up against a major problem.  Updates can be difficult.  Imagine you are on your site and notice a typo.  You have to load the file from your computer, fix the typo, connect to your web server via FTP, and upload the new file.  That's 4 steps to fix a typo.  Now, imagine the header that your site uses has a typo.  Most novice web builders would have to go through each file individually and fix that mistake - 4 steps for each page.  Even the use of include files like we did in the tutorial won't make the issue painless.

Enter Content Management
Content management systems (CMS) allow us to build and edit pages online without having to ever edit the file directly.  CMS usually work by storing the page content in a database of some sort and then inserting it into a template when a visitor requests the page.

Of course, like everything on the internet there are many different types of CMS.  We're going to focus on 3 main types here - database driven, blogs, and local systems.

Local Systems
I'm going to describe local systems first because they are what most budding web designers are familiar with.  Front Page, GoLive, and DreamWeaver are the big names in this department. 

With local systems you build the page on your computer and the software takes care of uploading and updating the web server.  The upside to this system is that it is a familar interface.  Front Page and Word are close enough in layout that it's usually pretty easy for new users to go from one to the other.  Generally these are faster for the actual editing as well since the program is running on your computer instead of over the internet.  You also will get word processor type features like spell check.

Of course you'll have to purchase this software, and it can be expensive.  In the case of Front Page your host will also have to install extensions onto the web server to get full functionality.  Fortunately, these extensions are free and mosts hosts install them by default.

Database Driven Systems
I'm using this section to describe all of the systems that allow you to edit your pages directly online.  Generally you log into a management console to edit your pages, and the changes show up immediately.  When you see the term CMS out on the internet, this is generally the type of software described.

The best part of these is that you don't have to wait to see your changes.  Edit the page, save it, and the changes are on your site live.  Of course that can also be a downside if you make a mistake.  Another benefit is many of these packages are free and open-source.  If you are looking for an open-source package, OpenSourceCMS is a great place to start.  They have descriptions of many of the open-source package, screen shots, reviews, and some you can even look through the adminstrative pages.

This type of CMS is my preference.  In fact, this site and my photography site are both run using an open-source CMS package called Etomite.  I've also used PHP-Nuke, but found it too heavy for my needs.  But if you're looking to start a portal type site it may be a good choice. 

Blogs
Blogs are a special type of database driven site, but are unique enough where I thought they deserved their own section.  The basic idea of a blog is to allow the site builder to publish pages easily and to display those pages in chronological order, although not always.  Most blogs, and there are a lot of them, are personal where people post their thoughts of the day.  Some are more serious and post reviews of products and items like that. 

Probably the most common type of blog for a photographer is the photoblog.  The idea of a photoblog is that you post a picture a day to share with the world. 

While it is possible to use a blog for your primary site, there are some difficulties.  First, you have to find a way to publish your pages so that they're not in chronological order.  WordPress, a popular open-source blogging software, allows the use of 'pages' to get around this. 

For most photographers a blog is probably a poor choice for your main web site.  However, a popular photoblog can draw visitors to your main site.

I do run a couple of blogs, HackPhoto.com is the most relevant for this discussion.  HackPhoto runs on WordPress.

Conclusion?
Well, I don't really have one.  The software you use is a personal decision.  I use Etomite for my photography site because I've found it the easiest to do what I want to do for that site.  WordPress fits the bill for my HackPhoto site.  It's really something you'll need to research and decide on your own.  Of course, feel free to post a comment below asking for help.