What is CMS?

What is content mangement system? I still can't fully grasp what it is. Is it just like an easy good to script for you to have a information site with some extra features like intergrated with blogs and so on?

I want to make a site to have collection of videos organized in catergoties. And another site that just just basically a purely information site. Just with a simple naviagation bar, text and maybe links to other sites, stuff like that.

What do you guys recommend?

 

A CMS is just how it sounds. It is basically a backbone for your site to run on that handles all your content. Some are easier to use than others, but there are definitely a few that are hands down the best out of the bunch. Most of the time you will need to have a PHP and MySQL server available as much of the content is created dynamically by PHP and MySQL will store all of the data.

I have in the past year found that Drupal is a very easy to use, but advanced CMS that can do just about anything. I started out just using it as a site for my WoW guild, but have started to get my hands dirty in it and have created a few dynamic galleries that I can easily add pictures or videos to one of my sites. The community is very helpful and you can get many ideas from the Drupal website for advanced features. Out of the box, Drupal can be a blog, forum, and aggregate news.

Everything you need to get a solid site started and all you need to do is upload the server files to your server, create your MySQL database, and all there is left to do is add the info to your site. Once the info is added, you hit submit and your server has been installed. That's it! The last step is to create your admin account and you are off and ready to start adding content to your site.

There are many other Content Management Systems out there, but I think Drupal has cornered the market for the true CMS at the moment. Wordpress is more of just a blog CMS more than a true CMS, but it is a close second for ease of use.

I hope that helps you out

 

Thanks for the info. I was thinking of using Joomla but I'm just kinda debating whether I should use a CMS like Joomla or just make the site out of html and css.

 

Joomla is good for any sized site small, medium and even large sites. With html if you need to change a particular section you need to edit and make sure the structure or layout doesn't change this headache can be overcome by using a cms like joomla or druplal.