CMS is an instrumental environment for creating and administering a site without knowledge of programming languages (Content Management System). The site management system, or CMS engine, contains ready-made structure templates, a set of functions for design and data filling. The site's CMS allows you to conveniently maintain the resource - manage access to content, change data on pages, send mail.
The modern site building market offers users various types of CMS, aimed at creating sites of any complexity - from a simple company business card to highly loaded portals. Popular free platforms include WordPress, Joomla, and Opencart. Commercial ones include 1C-Bitrix, UMI.CMS, NetCat, DLE. Let's review the information to understand what CMS is, the basic principles of such systems, selection criteria, advantages and disadvantages of creating a site using the developed tools.
Basic principles of working with CMS
Created by teams of professional developers , the site's CMS software modules provide processing of system user actions using a visual editor whose action is based on graphic blocks. The toolkit allows:
- According to the provided possibilities , configure the desired configuration using graphic elements. Changing the location and appearance of the blocks of the selected template (logo, header, menu, main content, footer) is carried out with the help of built-in functions for the user.
- Administer the site - manage user access depending on the role, create newsletters, messages, fill the ready structure of the page with content. According to the resource specification, company data or information about - texts, images, archival documents are loaded.
Information about site settings and data are stored in the database on the MySQL server, when creating a page from the client, requests to the database are generated.
How to choose a CMS for a website?
The same design and functionality can be implemented on a CMS for a site with a different set of tools. The appropriateness of using a particular engine depends on the data being processed. The key parameters when choosing a CMS include the amount of content, the volume of databases, the type of information (graphics, text, video or audio), and the intensity of content updates.
To design personal sites and blogs, WordPress is used with provided control of access to features. Easy-to-learn versions of this platform are easy to download and update, even for beginners. When creating online stores with the need to connect payment systems, the Opencart system is the leader. Joomla is used for corporate sites, but updating versions of this system requires time, uploading a Joomla project to hosting requires professional skills.
The main advantages and disadvantages of using a CMS
Different types of CMS for sites allow you to develop a resource without studying tags, scripts and specialized frameworks.
Strong arguments in favor of using site management systems:
- configuration settings in a visual editor with an intuitive interface, taking into account the needs of the project;
- availability of wide functionality of developed themes, extensions;
- the ability to get a result in a short time;
- documentation is provided for mastering the software product.
However, using an engine for a site has disadvantages:
- site builders with a limited set of functions are not suitable for unique sites;
- updating versions or transferring the project to another engine may be accompanied by distortions of the structure;
- connecting plugins requires additional resources on the server.
- Individual systems developed according to project specifications are optimally suitable for solving the tasks. Such software is stable and less vulnerable compared to mass CMS.
Regardless of the CMS engine, it is impossible to ensure high site traffic without reliable and high-quality hosting. The provider's technical support involves placing the site on the server, protection against malicious code, and the transmission of information in the browser upon request by visitors to the resource. Hosting of WordPress sites and other systems is selected individually, depending on technical requirements.
If you have already chosen a suitable site management system for yourself, but do not want to delve into all the intricacies of its manual installation - buy hosting for your site at CiryHost and use the automatic installation system. In 5 minutes you will get one of the popular CMS without too much trouble.