What is a Content Management system?

A content Management System, or CMS, is a software package which runs on the web site server, stores the data and text, and provides a browser based interface for the user to add and update the content of the site.

Conventional websites store pages as single HTML documents, complete with content and formatting, in a similar manner to your word processing program.

A CMS does not save documents in this conventional manner - instead the content and the formatting are split.  The page content (text and images) is stored in a database, and the formatting is applied using standard templates. When you view a web page delivered by a CMS, the HTML to create the page is generated "on the fly" as the necessary text and graphics are merged into the template by a series of scripts (usually either PHP or .asp/.aspx).

This process has many benefits in that by organising the data in a database it becomes much easier to add and edit content, organise content into a logical structure, and move it around and re-organise it as necessary without having to rebuild individual HTML pages. It also provides a lot more control over the content: when, how, and to whom it is delivered.

Splitting the layout and formatting from the content in this way means that it is relatively easy to update the complete look of a site without the task of changing individual pages: change the template and the new styling is automatically applied across the entire site.

A CMS system also normally provides the platform to support and integrate more advanced functionality for additional plug-in components like e-commerce facilities, forums, etc. into the site

If all this sounds complicated, it need not be - a good CMS should provide a straightforward interface that is simple for the less experienced user to understand and use without any need to understand about how the data is being processed in the background.

Some are better than others in this respect, and one of our main criteria in selecting the Joomla system is its very simple and easy-to-use administration interface.