What Is a CMS and How It Works

What is a CMS? This acronym stands for Content Management System: software that lets you build and run a blog or a website. With a CMS, site owners can write, edit and control their online content without touching raw code for every change.

Drupal, WordPress and Joomla are among the most widely used platforms for this purpose, but the landscape is broad and there are many options to choose from. A Content Management System can be defined, then, as a system for managing content: each one has a back-end, a reserved area you access with a username and password.

What is a CMS for

The meaning and purpose of a CMS are fairly clear-cut, especially with WordPress, one of the easiest platforms to use. You don't need advanced programming skills to run a system like this in your day-to-day work.

Through the back-end you can organise the site, write content, create new pages and publish the different elements. The front-end, on the other hand, is the part of the site visible to visitors.

The workflow

The task-definition feature of a web CMS, also known as workflow, corresponds to a specific working flow or path that leads to a finished piece of content. Much like an assembly line, the writer drafts the text, the designer selects and inserts the images, a supervisor reviews the page, and the administrator gives the final go-ahead for publishing.

When to use a CMS

You should reach for a CMS whenever you need to build a website: this way you are not forced to program every piece of server-side logic from scratch. In most cases you get an admin interface through which administrators can manage every aspect of the site.

As for CMS examples, WordPress and Joomla are general-purpose systems; but there are also specialised ones, built specifically for a particular type of content, such as a news outlet, an e-commerce store or a forum.

Proprietary vs open-source CMS

An open-source CMS is not always the better choice over a proprietary one, or vice versa: it all depends on what you need to achieve. A proprietary CMS generally guarantees a tailor-made product, but it also requires specific expertise, and switching web agencies later on can be costly.

Open-source CMS platforms, on the other hand, are the result of the work of a very large developer community, which keeps the code constantly updated: that means modules and themes are continuously improved. However, they can also be more exposed to attacks, simply because the code is visible to everyone.

Why choose a CMS

What is certain is that a CMS lets you build a dynamic website and update it whenever needed, without being forced to write raw HTML.

With a CSS stylesheet developed specifically for a given system, you can customise the look of your pages; on the other hand, it is not advisable to tamper with a CMS's core files unless you follow the procedures it provides for.

If you need support for your CMS or any kind of IT consulting, do not hesitate to get in touch!

The advantages of Drupal

How does Drupal work, and what are its main advantages? It is a powerful, highly flexible open-source CMS particularly suited to complex, large-scale sites with demanding security and multi-language requirements — a topic we cover in more detail in our dedicated technical content.