Understand What a Content Management System is

1. Traditionally, most church and ministry website editors have created web pages in HTML using a tool like Frontpage or Dreamweaver.
2. Web pages, graphics and other files are uploaded to a web server.
3. A person visiting the website enters a web address and the server on the public internet corresponding to that web address sends the files out to the person's web browser. The browser displays the web page.
4. Most of the websites we visit on the internet use a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is additional software that runs on your web server that stores most of the components of a web page in a database. It then dynamically constructs the web pages when they are requested.
5. In the past, CMS software was very expensive and required higher powered computers, but now some of them are available for free.
6. With a CMS, the website editors first select a template that describes the appearance and navigation menus for the website's pages.
7. With a CMS, you can change the template and that will change the look and feel of your website very quickly.
8. The CMS uses the template and content to generate the web pages.
9. With a CMS, the users have special web pages that allow them to provide the CMS with text, graphics, media, and even interactive ministry extensions.
10. The editors specify the page and the region in the template where the content will be displayed. For example, a graphic could be placed in the left column of a certain page.
11. The editor can also choose a start and end date/time when the content will display. They can also set which users will see the content after they login.
12. he Content Management System we use is the open source CMS called TYPO3.