1. What are the major uses of the Content Management Systems?
The CMS helps in organizing and managing the data that is stored and is useful in the following ways:
● CMS makes storing and retrieval easier from the user & administrator perspective.
● Redundancy of data is avoided.
● When there are many users, the control of access to the data stored is made possible through CMS.
● Interaction between the various users is made simpler.
● The generation of report regarding the content and overall analytical picture is easier with statistics obtained from the CMS.
2. How are the different categories of CMS? How do I decide on one?
Depending on the domain in which CMS is deployed and used, it can be classified as:
1. Document Management System.
2. Web Content Management System.
3. Enterprise Content Management System.
4. Mobile CMS.
5. Media CMS.
6. Course Management System.
Decision on type and specific implementation of CMS has to come from serious analysis of requirements and usability aspects from the user side. More often a combination of two different categories can come up, wherein a system capable of performing functionally as both should be selected.
3. “Wordpress” – Can this be of any use for a Corporate website?
Sure, it can be. The WordPress is just not blogging system as it is seen to be. It has lot of features that can make getting data out periodically with updates easier. Consider the Corporate’s intent to send out press releases on a regular basis. With features like customizable templates and RSS technologies, WordPress can well be the perfect tool for such a situation.
4. How can the Joomla modules be used?
Joomla modules are assigned into the specific pages and position as Administrator. They can be displaying any kind of data depending on your requirement and capabilities of module. The Joomla community is developing out the different modules every now and then. It is sure that you can find what you require among the various modules available. They can include everything from menus, polls, content feeds to just periodic updates of information.
5. How to change the images in my Joomla template?
Open the administrative interface and you can manage the site templates. Just click on the HTML icon to get into the HTML code of the specific page. Here you can see the image references. You have to know which image you are going to change. Image name can be found from the normal site page right-clicking the image and selecting “view image” from the browser. This image is what you have to be changing with your own custom image. Images are found in the Template folders under the name of the template, inside sub-folder called “Imgaes”. Just put in your image or graphic in there and in HTML file that you see as admin, just change link with name of previous image to the name you have given to your new image.
6. How has the “newsflash” concept grown over time with Joomla updates?
It is true that newsflash was just a scrolling text initially. But with very much advanced extensions that are putely AJAX and CSS based like “Ultimate Content Display” extension, once can easily see that the news flashes are now more of a attraction to the entire page. They can have the images and scrolling/fading effects through the top stories and much more. The extensions are getting more and more customizable to make it easier to suit to our need. All we have to do as Webmasters are to select the right news feed relevant to our field, from the right sources.
7. How can I include/link some good content from other websites over my webpage, in my own layer?
This is very much necessary for keeping up with the theme and feel of our websites. We cannot link the content externally or directly. This is where the concept of wrapper comes in handy. The wrappers are more like the tools that can be accessed on the click of a button from the web page of yours. This can pop out a different page while still retaining your page as the backdrop. This will help you achieve the goal of including content form the different sources under the same feel of your website.
8. How to get rid of Pathways in specific pages and in all pages?
Just remove the pathway code line from the html files in your template to get rid of them entirely from your website. Thee pathway related lines are under the div id = “Pathway” section in the index.html file. You can remove it appearing in certain pages alone by having the optional check with if() condition before the pathway lines of code. Something like
if ($option != “” && $option != “nameofpage”)
added inside the pathway content, as a check before the mosPathway() call from PHP will do the trick for you.
9. How to switch on or off the page “Title” display from home page?
In the admin panel, there is the option to show/hide the page title under the home category of parameters within main menu settings. Committing with a save after the changes will get it into effect immediately.
10. Are the modules really important, can’t we just do it with the add-on extensions?
Modules are important for the entire organization of the website. having just pages filled with individual entities may destroy the purpose of easing the Content management mechanisms. Modules give the comfort of having to deal with general stuffs in all the pages in a common manner. This is not possible with extensions, they are just add-ons and can not be effective management tools.
11. Joomla is open source software. What advantages does it provide that way?
Joomla comes under the General Public License (GPL). This enables us to get involved in changing the source of the Joomla as developers. Customizations to any extent is thus possible. This may not be possible with other commercial CMS. But it requires good technical knowledge about the Joomla to do customizations. We can get our own extensions if we really need it.
12. How are mambots/plug-ins useful?
In many cases, we are requiring a change in some aspects of the data before it is being displayed into the web. These generic changes that have to applied like “adding the html tags to display source code format”, can be made with just the proper mambot installed. Some third party extensions also require and use some previously installed plug-ins.
13. In Joomla, is it possible for same content item to be assigned to multiple categories? If no, what are the alternatives?
No, the content items or articles cannot be assigned to multiple categoies in Joomla.
1. The best possible solution though is to have keywords based listing of the content.
2. There are also many third party extensions that can come handy in doing effective categorization.
3. Do not go for dynamic categories, instead use menu based styles.
14. What are the main things to consider while choosing a Content Management System? Why would you prefer Joomla over others?
The main things to consider are ;
1. Good Administration interface for managing the entire system.
2. Installation and upgrading procedures should be simple.
3. There should be active development going on with the CMS software, so we are able get hold of upgrades to support technologies through time.
4. If it is for the web, there has to be sufficient security measured and data access permissions incorporated.
15. How important is the technical knowledge and online support that is needed for maintaining a CMS?
When you are webmaster it is really essential to know the specific technical details regarding the CMS. If not, you have to have the reliable technical people to do the upgrades and installations for you. The maintenance usually requires the help of the online support because the various scenarios that your CMS may face are unique for every system. Some tweaks and tips that you need to apply to the CMS will be easily available from the support staff. If you are choosing the Open Source software, then it is better to choose the popular system frameworks which have active user community to aid you in any future problems.
16. What makes a content from website popular? Managing a good CMS would do the trick?
That is the false notion that many have in mind, but this will not be the solution that they are looking for. It is not the CMS that makes successful content. Every content published by the company or orgnization has to be clearly edited and should cater to the reader’s needs correctly. Managing CMS is technical and any good programmer would be able to do it. But still the functionality aspects of the entire content and the importance to the quality of content are aspects that have to be taken care by the editors or some good procedural approval process.