blogZero

The third PHP sub-category I selected was Content Management Systems, abbreviated CMS. There is a bit of a gray area between software that is considered a CMS, a Wiki or Blogware. The whole genre is often referred to as Web publishing software, which makes sense. The one thing they all have in common is the ability to quickly and easily add content to a Web site without needing to understand every gory detail of a markup language like HTML. It certainly helps, but it isn't a requirement.

CMSs are generally more sophisticated than Wiki or Blogware packages. They typically target the newspaper industry or some other publishing organization with multiple employees that serve various roles. For instance writers, copy editors and on up the ladder.

Content

In all cases, the user normally adds content through a Web browser form in what is known affectionately as a sandbox. I'm actually doing so right now as I create this blog post. Most offer a lightweight markup language making it easy to create links, headings, text formatting, and so on. Other features include content metadata and automatic indexing of content making the entire site searchable by its readers. High-end, commercial CMS packages also allow the same content to go to print as well as the organization's Web site.

With that said, I'm only going to list open-source packages—the best-known of which is probably Drupal.

Specific Navigation

• Part I: Frameworks
• Part II: Wikis
• Part III: Content Management Systems
• Part IV: Debugging
• Part V: Blogware
• Part VI: Performance