Content Management Systems and Their Potential for Use at Miramar College

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Content Management Systems and Their Potential
for Use at Miramar College

• Presented by
• Bill Smith

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The Issue

• Miramars website needs constant updating
• Most departments must now depend on Web staff
• Some departments still not in template
• PLACe
• TRIO

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What does a college website need?
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1. Consistency

• 1995 Anarchy
• Large websites collection of small sites
• Little design cohesion
• Navigation difficult
• Confusing to Web users
• CSU Fullerton, 1996

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1. Consistency

• Now
• Many non-techies are online
• One website, one design
• Consistent navigation
• Information delivered more efficiently
• Users less likely to leave site
• Website promotion is easier
• Less confusion
• No more What site am I on?

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2. Scalability

• College websites tend to expand
• Ex New sites for graduation, athletics
• Often seasonal, must be changed/removed
• Web staff must plan for expansion
• Rapid addition of in-template materials
• Easy changes to navigation

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3. Rapid Change

• College information changes constantly
• Academic requirements
• Department hours
• News
• What if?
• Departments could update their own area
• No HTML or programming needed

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4. Technical Concerns

• 508 compliance
• Total compliance required
• Multiple designers multiple 508 issues
• Security
• Control non-Web staff server access
• Code injectiona common attack

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Content Management Systems

• Help large entities manage their information
• 1960sDocument-focused
• Manage, share, restrict documents
• 1996Web-based
• Central management for large websites

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Content Management Systems

• Characteristics
• Skinnable using style sheets or third-party
  themes
• Authorized users can update pages
• Images, some formatting
• Little technical training required
• All depend on server-side code, database
• Many now free, open source

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Drawbacks

• Migrating existing content
• This is the 1 issue (Information Architecture
  Institute, 2003 )
• NOT an out-of-box solution
• Every organization has different needs
• Themes are often cookie-cutter, recognizable
• Learning curve can be steep

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Content Management Systems

• Requirements for Miramar College

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Requirements

• Fully customizable appearance
• Stylesheets
• Logical, understandable navigation
• 508
• Allow custom code
• Database access
• Document display

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Requirements

• Department updatable
• Users can upload, manage their area
• Thin-client (browser based)
• Area-specific user permissions
• Images, formatting
• No HTML or scripting
• Brief training sessions
• Document management

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Requirements

• No cost
• Must also be well documented
• Scalable
• Handle large number of documents
• Secure

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Three Candidate Systems

• All are free, downloadable
• All are skinnable to some extent
• All feature structured navigation

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DotNetNuke

• One of the few free CMSs using Microsoft
  technology
• .NET framework
• Code is written in Visual Basic
• SQL Server
• Runs on a Windows server

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DotNetNuke

• Installation Configuration
• Required several hours
• Many permissions issues
• Had to grant total rights to Everyone
• This may be a quirk of using Localhost

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DotNetNuke

• Appearance
• Many free themes
• Difficult to modify
• CSS and code must be edited
• Many separate sections (modules) when a few
  will do

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DotNetNuke

• Navigation
• Third-party menu is required
• Items must be added individually
• Shows entire site by default
• Dropdown/pop-out requires additional coding
• Data access
• .NET data controls

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DotNetNuke

• Usability
• Form interface
• Not intuitive
• Much technical language
• Many areas to update
• Issues with admin hierarchy
• Two classes of admin
• Admin and Host
• Only Host can change appearances
• Only Admin can change global settings and menu

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DotNetNuke

• Advantages
• Known quantity (Windows, .NET)
• Large user community
• Many themes
• Disadvantages
• High maintenance
• Mediocre navigation
• May be difficult for non-techies to use

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Drupal

• In top three for popularity
• Linux-based but can run on Windows
• Written in PHP
• Very learnable similar to C/Java/Perl
• MySQL database
• Also free
• Many downloadable code modules

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Drupal

• Installation Configuration
• Easier than DNN
• About 1 hour on localhost
• Database permissions were only issue

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Drupal

• Appearance
• Highly skinnable
• Many themes
• Mostly CSS-based
• This one
• Four Seasons
• Many modifications

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Drupal

• Navigation
• Native menu system
• Dropdown module can be downloaded
• Items can be placed in menu when created
• Submenus must be assigned manually
• Data access
• Can be scripted using PHP

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Drupal

• Usability
• Users can be assigned page-level rights
• Form interface
• More intuitive than DNN
• Rich text module for formatting
• Can include images
• Limited placement
• One Admin to rule them all
• Can be tweaked for 508

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Drupal

• Miramars Big Issue Documents
• Web File Manager
• Free Drupal module
• Files can be uploaded
• Allows drag/drop
• Developer then links to files as usual

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Drupal

• Advantages
• Flexibility
• Many educational sites in use
• Ex http//www.augie.edu
• Easier to train non-techies
• Disadvantages
• Best operation requires Linux MySQL
• Readable URLs may be an issue

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TikiWiki

• Newer entry
• Wiki-specific
• Mostly user-generated documentation
• PHP MySQL

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TikiWiki

• Installation Configuration
• Easiest to install
• Ran out of the box
• One level of admin

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TikiWiki

• Appearance
• Available themes are very plain
• Less layout flexibility
• Use of logos, etc., requires a good deal of
  modification

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TikiWiki

• Navigation
• Menu is logical easy to read
• Items must be added manually
• No dropdown option for sidebar
• Formatting difficult to change
• Data access
• TW is not designed for this
• No real way to use custom PHP code

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TikiWiki

• Usability
• Form interface
• Easy to understand minimum tech
• Formatting requires knowledge of Wiki markup
• Limited images
• Access is Wiki style
• Registered users can edit all editable pages
• Can also create page (as with DNN)
• Probably too much access

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TikiWiki

• Advantages
• Easy install upkeep
• Highly readable updatable
• Disadvantages
• Inflexible compared to other two
• 508 is a real problem
• Difficulty with dynamic pages
• Might prove useful for Intranet

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Conclusions

• Some sort of CMS will eventually be needed at
  Miramar
• There is no perfect CMS solution
• Miramar has unique needs
• An in-house CMS would be redundant

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Conclusions

• Three popular CMSs
• DotNetNuke
• Extra power not worth the complexity
• Problematic for non-techies
• TikiWiki
• Very easy to maintain
• Not flexible enough for a full website
• Might be useful for a College intranet

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Recommendations

• DrupalA good compromise
• Free to install and use
• Appearance can be modified
• Very accessible to non-techies
• Multiple content areas
• Provide compromise between information and PR
• Code can be written for Miramars needs