Content Management System

… is a powerful tool that helps build a website without the need to code everything from sratch. The CMS does most of the “heavy lifting” on the infrastructure side to focus more on the design and presentation aspects of the website instead of the backend structure. Most CMS’ provide a rich What You See Is What You Get editor where users can edit content as if they were working in a word processing tool such as Microsoft Word. Users can upload media directly from a media library interace instead of interacting with the webserver either from a management portal or via FTP or SFTP.

A CMS is made up of two key components:

• Content Management Application
  • the interface used to add and manage content
• Content Delivery Application
  • the backend that takes the input entered into the CMA and assembles the code into a working, visually appealing website

A good CMS will provide extensibility, allowing you to add functionality and design elements to the site without needing to work with the website code, rich user management to provide fine-grained control over access permissions and roles, media management to allow the user to easily upload and embed photos and videos, and proper version control. When looking for a CMS, you should also confirm that it is well-maintained, receives periodic updates and upgrades, and has sufficient built-in security settings to harden the website from attackers.