HTML, XHTML and CSS All-In-One for Dummies - Andy Harris [341]
♦ There are different levels of access. Most CMSs allow anonymous access (like regular Web pages) but also allow users to log in for increased access.
♦ The content can be modified from within the system. Users with the appropriate access can modify the content of the CMS without knowing anything about PHP or databases. Often, you don’t even need HTML or CSS.
♦ The layout can be modified from within the system, too. Most CMSs allow you to change the layout and design from within the system, although the process is usually more involved.
♦ CMSs can be expanded. Most CMSs are easily modified with hundreds of visual themes, add-in modules, and new capabilities available for free. In most cases, if you need something that isn’t there, you can make it yourself.
♦ Many of the best CMSs are open source. CMSs are a shocking value. When you consider how much they can contribute to your online presence, it’s amazing that most CMS programs are absolutely free.
Previewing Common CMSs
To get a true feel for the power of CMSs, you should test-drive a few. The wonderful resource www.opensourcecms.com allows you to log in to hundreds of different CMSs as a user and as an administrator to see how they work. I show you a few typical CMSs so that you can get a feel for how they work.
Moodle
Often, you have a special purpose in mind. For example, I wanted to teach an online course without purchasing an expensive and complicated course management system. I installed the special-purpose CMS Moodle. Figure 3-1 shows the Moodle screen for one of my courses.
Figure 3-1: Moodle is useful for managing online courses.
Moodle has a lot of features that lends it to the educational setting:
♦ Student and instructor management: The system already understands the roles of student and instructor and makes appropriate parts of the system available.
♦ Online assignment creation and submission: One of the biggest problems with online courseware is getting assignments to and from students. Moodle has a complete system for handling this problem.
♦ Online grade book: When a teacher grades an assignment (online through Moodle), the student’s grades are automatically updated.
♦ Online testing support: Moodle has built-in modules for creating, managing, and scoring online quizzes and exams.
♦ Communication tools: Moodle includes a wiki (a collaborative documentation tool), online chat, and forum tools you can set up for improved communication with your students.
♦ Specialized educational content: Moodle was put together by hundreds of passionate (and geeky) teachers, so it has all kinds of support for various teaching methodologies.
Community-created software can be very good (as Moodle is) because it’s built by people who know exactly what they want, and anybody with an idea (and the skills to carry them out) can add or modify the features. The result is an organic system that can often be better than the commercial offerings.
I find Moodle easier to use and more reliable than the commercial course management system that my university uses. I keep a Moodle backup for my classes because when the “official” system goes down, I can always make something available for my students.
WordPress
WordPress is another specialty CMS, meant primarily for blogging (short for Web logging, or keeping an online public diary). WordPress has become the dominant blogging tool on the Internet. Figure 3-2 shows a typical WordPress page.
Figure 3-2: Woot! I’m blogging!
WordPress takes one simple idea (blogging) and pushes it to the limit. Unregistered users see the blog output, but if you log in, you gain access to a complete set of tools for managing your online musings.
Figure 3-3 illustrates the administrator view of WordPress.
Figure 3-3: You can easily get started with WordPress — just start writing.
Additionally, you can change the layout and colors, add new templates, and do much more, as you can in a more traditional