How does Content Management work?

Normal Sites are formed from a series of HTML (the language they are written in) files where each represents one web page. When a surfer wants to view a page, the web server opens the page's HTML file and sends it to the viewer's browser for the browser to translate the HTML into what you see; the process also includes sending all the images files etc. used within the page.

Content Management on the other hand takes a different route. When a page is requested by a surfer, the manager software creates the HTML sent by the server dynamically, normally from a database. The main advantage of doing things this way is two-fold;

The page can be based of a template into which the content is added. One template can therefore style 1000 pages.
The page can include dynamically created items such as lists of files as other pages are added to the site. This is especially useful for ecommerce sites and portal sites where information can change on a regular basis; you wouldn't want to update every list on every page by hand for every new News story.

The Editing Process

A normal site would be created either by hand or by using a WYSIWYG HTML editor; one produces 'optimised' code and needs an HTML geek, the other allows you to see what you are going to get. Each link will need to be created by hand and often the site design will be part of the page you are working on. When you have finished the page is finally sent via FTP up to your Internet server ready to be displayed to you audience.

A content managed site on the other hand will require you to use your browser to open the manager online so that you can then browse, edit and manage your site. Because the manager uses templates to present your page, editing is done only on the page content and this using a word processor styled editor. No need to worry about the design as it is handled by the template.

A typical manager will present you your page with areas in which you can add content using the editor. All within average IT skills.

Want a new page? Click New Page, select your template and away you go.