CMS Jam Content Management Systems: News and Resources

I just came across SkyBlueCanvas Lightweight CMS and it looks promising for a number of reasons. First of all, no database is required. That’s nice for those who are intimidated by the thought of dealing with database management. In addition, installation is simple, and the actual content management is fairly simple as [...]

Coming soon is version 1.0 of a CMS that holds a lot of potential for ease of use. Right now, Ripe Website Manager is in beta, but there’s plenty of opportunity to test it out right now. I just finished playing with the demo, and I liked it a lot.
I’ll first show some [...]

I just discovered an incredibly easy CMS called Zimplit. Despite the fact that it’s really easy to use, the instructions are not the easiest to understand (and not everything you need to know to get started is documented where it should be). So I’m going to fill in a few gaps for you.
First [...]

Image via Wikipedia Acquia just announced that they will be offering Drupal, the extremely popular free open source CMS, as a subscription-based service. In other words, for a price. What??? Now wait, this isn’t a scam, and it’s a respected way of doing things. RedHat has been offering its version of Linux [...]

I’ve been playing around with CompactCMS lately. Personally, I like it…mostly. Most geeks would probably like it as well, but it’s lacking a few features that would make it perfect for geeks and non-geeks alike. However, if you are the developer type, and you often design sites for your friends and family, [...]

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Majestic CMS for a while, and now that it has moved to a free, open source model, and changed its name, it seems like a great time to blog about it.
Injader seems to be a nice cross between simple and feature-rich. Its goal is to be powerful, [...]

It’s not often you see those words together…free, open source, and ColdFusion. ColdFusion is a web programming scripting language similar to PHP, but it not as widely used because it isn’t free (although it is generally easier to learn). Hosting usually costs more as well. And on top of all of that, applications that run on ColdFusion usually aren’t free either. However, ColdFusion developers love it and are passionate about it, so this post is for them.

ColdBricks is a free, open source ColdFusion-based CMS. That alone is enough to make any ColdFusion developer want to run out and download it. I’ll be honest. I haven’t used it yet, so I can’t comment on how well it works. But it’s free, so…

If you want to do more than dip your toes into the CMS water, and would like to do a little extra customization of your CMS, you might want to consider purchasing CMS Builder. This tool makes the process of creating your new site fairly easy (although I’m not sure I would believe the less-than-5-minute claims they make). If you already have a design in mind (or an existing web site), you simply use their generator to create code for you to manage each section of your site (news, about us, contact us, etc.), adding, editing, and deleting fields to store the data as needed. Then, you copy/paste that generated code into your site’s design template. You can further customize that code by tweaking the…

This is just a really quick tip for those of you considering several different content management systems. If the CMS you are considering doesn’t have an easy way to back up the database and files (preferably automated), take it off of your short list and choose one that does. Backups are critical, and because CMS’s generally use a database to store all of your content (rather than you hard-coding the text into each page), you’ll need an easy way to backup that database. (Databases are generally not easy to backup for the non-techie). So no matter what features you need in the CMS you choose, make sure backup of the database and files is included in that list.

That’s the CMS Jam top o’ the day…

A few days ago, I mentioned two “ultra-light” CMS editors that allow you to edit pre-defined portions of your existing web pages. Since then, I’ve been told about another one that has been around for a while, but is pretty sweet.

SnippetMaster is described as “a free content editing tool for website owners or designers who want a very easy, quick, and visual way to edit pre-defined areas on any web page, through any browser, without messing up the rest of the web page.” Like the other two, you essentially define portions of a web page, using special tags, that can be edited via the CMS admin area. Like the other two, it’s super simple to do. Just do this to a page…

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