Web Content Management

Computerworld - Imagine a library without the Dewey decimal system, and you'll have a pretty good idea of the chaos that is a large Web site. Content-management systems can tame that chaos by cataloging Web page data for quick and efficient tracking, editing and reformatting.

HTML, the basic language of the Web, simply describes how text, graphics and other data should be presented on a Web screen. It doesn't describe the data itself and offers little help when a webmaster needs to locate and modify particular documents. HTML by itself is static; once the page is posted to the Web, it must be modified off-line and reposted in order for any changes to take place.

Power to the People

But the real power of the Web is its ability to move new information to the customer in near-real time and to customize that information to suit individuals. That customization, known in the Web world as individualization or personalization, is virtually impossible with static HTML pages, especially with the ongoing shortage of trained Web technicians. It's hard enough to create every Web page once, let alone regenerate that same page every time a change is needed. You'd need an army of Web page producers to create the custom pages of, say, Amazon.com Inc., which presents data based on customer preferences and past buying.

Dynamically generated Web pages, however, give Web site managers the ability to create a Web page once and then pour information into the page many times. Dynamic Web page generation lets Web technicians create an overall template once, with fields for customer-specific information. Then servers can pour specific data into the template to create individualized pages on demand.

Content management marshals information into labeled buckets of data that can be used again ("repurposed") or quickly updated to reflect information without needing human attention. At its simplest, Web content management resembles a word processor's mail-merge function that can mass-mail thousands of form letters, each containing customer-specific data.

The theory behind most content-management applications is simple: You build a set of Web page templates, hook them up to a content server, add a back-end database of information and attach the whole thing to a Web Server. The content server automatically pulls information from the database, wrestles it into appropriate formats and stuffs the correct data into templates, generating new and updated pages automatically. Employees with little or no Web training can update content directly without ever touching a Web page. They simply enter information into database forms.

Dynamically generated Web sites are more likely to be up-to-date and consistent in presentation. Design changes can propagate rapidly and automatically throughout an entire site. And most content-management systems include a workflow system that routes data automatically from creator to editor to approver. They can often lock unauthorized users out of the creation and edit cycle and provide an audit trail for error tracking and version control that allows users to return to a previous version of the site.