Where Code and Content Meet: Design Patterns for Web Content Management and Delivery, Personalisation and User Participation

Choosing a Content Management System

The patterns in this book are independent of specific technologies or specific tools. In particular, they don't assume any specific content management system. But at some point you may have to make the decision for a specific tool, either when you set up the software components for a new site or when you consider replacing the content management system used for an existing site.

Content management systems vary greatly. There are plenty of systems on the market, and they differ with regard to scope, usability, technology, licence model and more. Some support a clean and sustainable software architecture better than others. You need to find a content management system that suits your needs.

The following checklist presents a series of questions that can help you evaluate a content management system. This doesn't mean that there's any one single correct answer to any of these questions. There isn't – different kinds of solutions are possible and requirements differ from one project to the next. Still, evaluating a tool against this checklist should give you a feel for how well the tool matches your requirements.

The checklist addresses a wide range of topics. Figure 44 gives a short overview. Throughout the checklist references to individual patterns appear whenever the application of a pattern is directly affected by a feature that a content management system may or may not have. In these cases, it may be worth analysing the extent to which the tool ...