CMS Tutorial
Workflow in a Content Management System (CMS)
Workflow is the operational aspect of a work procedure through which we can define the following aspects
· How tasks are structured
· Who performs them
· What their relative order is
· How they are synchronized
· How information flows to support the tasks
· How tasks are being tracked.
Fig. 1 Various components of a workflow
The CMS includes default workflows that you can use or modify. In certain Content management systems you can design an unlimited number of workflows. If you create a new content item based on a content type that does not have an assigned workflow, you must select one before you can continue. In a normal CMS, there are 3 type of workflows:
· Workflow for initial setup of a CMS: The work flow for the setup and initializing the CMS for the first time can be defined in the following manner:
o Users of the system should be assigned proper roles and responsibilities
o The production workflow should be created according to the environment and requirement
o Different life cycles should be added to the production workflow.
o The predefined templates should be customized and verified before using.
o Permission to use this workflow should be defined for various users.
o As a system travels through the workflow process, email notifications should be sent to inform people that their attention is required.
· Workflow for CMS customization: Once the core information in CMS is setup then we can customize various pieces to match our working processes:
o Different types of content category trees are generated which are based on the idea that the type of content will vary from one user to another.
o If required, create the content for the site.
o Design the forms through which content will be added to the web management system
· Workflow for using CMS: After CMS is set up for administrators and users, the next step would be to create a workflow for using the CMS.
o New content items will be created by specifying the content type
o New attributes and content are added to content items
o Store the content item in a particular directory
o All the content items are verified and approved by the administrator
o Finally, the content items will be published
In some of the systems, the workflows are completely configurable workflows in which the system supports multiple serial and parallel jobs performed at the same time. In this environment, workflow can be assigned to any asset like templates, folders and content documents. The CMS with easy browser based workflow management are always preferred which can manage all system settings throughout the document life cycle. Different stages, which should be present in a workflow, are:
· Drafting
· Pending/Approving
· Staging
· Scheduling
· Presenting
· Retired/Archived (Rejected, Suspended, Hold)
Digital Rights Management (DRM) in CMS
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is defined as the rules, concepts and functions according to which content owners can
· Distribute various forms of content
· Maintain visibility to its creators
· Determine the means in which that content can be used, reused, purchased, copied, and distributed by its users.
The two central issues to digital rights management are identifying content and protecting that content from unauthorized use. The ability for publishers to integrate digital asset and rights management functionality will play a major role in determining their place in the world of future publishing and content distribution. One of the solutions is to provide a standard, universal content ID that publishers can use internally to manage content and externally to enable e-commerce services among various vendors. This powerful feature is the basis for verifying content authenticity and enabling authorized access. Content Directions offers a full range of consulting and implementation services to help your clients put their content in a form that facilitates your business, reduces your costs, increases speed to market and enhances profitability.
In the Digital Rights Management system, various persistent protection solutions are used to perform different operations. These methods consist of the following primary technology components:
· Packagers, which assemble content and metadata into, secure files that are called packages, containers or envelopes.
· Controllers, which are small programs and reside on client devices. They authenticate the identities of the devices and/or users that request access to content, verify the nature of the access requested, decrypt the content, and provide the access.
· License servers, which create and distribute encrypted licenses, which are also called as tickets, permits, or vouchers. These permits describe rights to content, the identities of the users or devices to which the rights are granted.
Future Of Content Management System (CMS)
CMS is an important innovation that will be used more and more often in the years to come. According to the surveys, content management market is huge and it is growing day by day. This market will further grow from $3.5 billion in 2001 to $7 billion by 2006, says Ovum, a U.K.-based consultancy. Along with the content management, the upcoming system in this field has also started including applications for back-office information management, collaboration management, records management, and the management of digital assets. The applications are adding new functionalities continuously and are adopting the web services and XML, which make handling content more efficient. By using XML, the content can be stored in an application-neutral form, so the content that can only be used on the Web earlier can now be re-used, re-formatted and recycled.According to the research experts, in the near future the prices of content management systems will fall but the features will be standardized. In this process most of the projects implementing CMS will fail due to the poor standard of implementation, lack of understanding of usability, information architecture, knowledge management and various other content issues. The ranks of content management vendors will go down to two or three leaders worth $2 billion to $3 billion each. The field of "content management" will mature over the next few years to achieve a higher level of consistency, repeatability and professionalism. Some analysts of the IT industry have pointed out that CMS market is overcrowded at present with different CMS available launched by very big companies as well as small companies. Documentum's acquisition of Bulldog (digital asset management), and FileNET's acquisition of eGrail (WCM) has made this obvious that large vendors will continue to expand and will keep on acquiring small vendors that handles special content types. Moreover, the future research work related to content management will include hypermedia, document management, software engineering, marketing and business process design.
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