Content Management System Information
What's a Content Management System?
A Content Management System (CMS) is sofware used for the creation, modification, classification and archiving of content on a website. The CMS of choice for Hulaweb is Drupal (www.drupal.org). Drupal (pronounced: Droo-puhl) is the back end software we install for our clients to help them freely manage the content of their websites. It's a robust and powerful tool that saves our customers time and money.
How do I know if I need a Content Mangement System?
If you need to be able to manage your own website content (adding, editing or deleting), then you need a CMS. If you have frequent updates to your website, a CMS is also a must. Using a CMS gives you the freedom to update the content of your website whenever you need to without the help of a web developer. Sometimes, our clients are unsure of whether they can successfully add or manage content on their website and we always tell them, "If you can send an e-mail or create a Word document, then you can add content to your website."
What types of standard features does Drupal offer?
Listed below are the built-in, core functionalities of Drupal's Content Management System. Note: You do not need to use them all as most are easily deactivated.
- Multiple Content Types: General Content, Images, User Blogs, Forum Posts, Polls
- Publishing Control (Unpublished, published, front page, scheduled time publishing)
- Version Control
- File Attachments
- Taxonomy (Content categorization)
- Search
- Forums
- Comments
- Built-in Contact Form
- RSS Feeds
- RSS Reader/News Aggregator
- Permalinks
- User Support: Logon, Profiles, Blogs
- Role-based Authentication
- Ability to add, change and reposition sidebar "blocks" (Blocks are snippets of content or links that normally appear on the sidebars of a website)
- Menuing/Site Administrator controlled menu bars
- Custom Design/Theming
- Multi-Language Support
- Search Engine Friendly URLs
What types of additional features is Drupal capable of handling?
In addition to Drupal's core modules, there are many add-on modules that can be integrated with Drupal. Here are just a few examples:
- eCommerce
- Custom Content Types ("Create Your Own" forms and content types)
- Content Filtering (through "views")
- Rich Text Editing
- Image Galleries
- Single Sign On
- Captcha
- Buddy Lists
Are there monthly fees or a licensing fee to use Drupal?
Nope!
Why did Hulaweb vote Drupal as its CMS of choice?
Drupal is hands down the best Content Management System we've worked with. It's flexible, strong and it's well supported by a community of developers. New modules for Drupal are created all the time and we have consistently found modules to fit the needs of our customers. Additionally, if we ever get stumped, there is a vast array of information published online to help us find a solution to any issue we may encounter. On top of it all, it's open source. Using an open source software package means that it's fully customizable. It works out of the box and saves you the time and money of having to have a system built from scratch. For all these reasons, we choose to create Drupal sites for our customers.
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