what basic features should a cms have?

[rezzy]

I have been working on a small cms project. For some people using Wordpress or other CMS is a bit daunting.

I have been working a cms, that is easy to migrate and would be easy to get the hang of. I am looknig for features people would want/need out of the box.

I want to aim this for small business websites. I think a contact page system is important. There should be a system to let site visitors to contact the business people.

Are there any other important features you would use as a small business owner?

[vangogh]

Tough question. This is obvious, but at a minimum your CMS has to manage content. So the question becomes what kind of content. Text? Images? Other media files?

For the typical small business owner the issue is going to be how easy it is for them to create and edit pages, upload images and maybe audio/video. Next would probably be ease in making changes to the template/theme. If you can make the system easy to extend so developers like myself could add on functionality that would also be a good thing.

[SteveC]

The most important thing a CMS should do is allow people to edit the content on a page without breaking the design... and that is easier said than done. We have hundreds of websites out there with CMS and most are used simply to edit text... not add in pages, or anything much... so to start with the basics make it so that people can make changes but not screw up the design and layout.

[rezzy]

True, how can you have cms without allowing for content management? If the site doesnt allow the most basic functionality, the software has not done its job.

[orion_joel]

I would imagine that these would be the most important things.

- As mentioned the content management, make it easy to add a page (content, menu item and images). That is one thing that i dislike in some is that it does not automatically add menu items.
- Maybe have some default pages which have a predefined layout, for example the contact page, with a contact form and predefined fields for address, phone number, etc.
- Possibly a straght forward way to choose colours, for different elements and the ability to change a number of default elements. eg the style of menu bar, and the colour, both grouped together.

I think it will depend how simplistic it is will depend on what level you want to go to in the development. But also what extent you feel should be left to someone inexperienced to play with and what they should still really be getting someone with a little knowledge to do.

[vangogh]

Joel makes a good point. Who do you see using the CMS during development. Are you looking to build something that web developers will work with for their clients or are you looking to build something that business owners will customize on their own?

[rezzy]

At least at this moment, I am considering it being a content mangement system.At this point the system will only mange the websites content. Features like changing colors and layouts will be best left to people who understand what they are doing... at least at the moment.

Alot of the details are still being worked out, but I dont intend to enable business owners to manipulate their websites. This will more simply be a tool to allow them to change content on their site.

I am working on a module/plugin ability to allow programmers/ developers to add functionality to the site.

I think by focusing on allowing business owners to update the template, it would restrict what could be done. For instance, to allow changing of the colors, I would have build my template and allow options based on the template. (I know there are other ways to enable this, but they are outside the scope of the current project) Basically every site would become a carbon copy with a few colors changed. Which isnt what I want.

I wanted a tool that would allow rapid development of sites that arent fluid, like blogs. Where is a owner wanted to update their pricing or make a new page, they had that option without having to contact their original developer.

[vangogh]

I am working on a module/plugin ability to allow programmers/ developers to add functionality to the site.

That's what I was trying to get at with my question. You seem to have a good grasp on it. Make it easy for developers to do what they will likely do and make it easy for site owners to do what they will likely do.

[billbenson]

Maybe target a few particular industries that don't need complicated sites but would like to manage it themselves? Accountants or attorneys? Attorneys write a lot and would probably like the ability to put up new content about the firm, cases they won, marketing stuff etc. You could probably make a group of templates, say 20 and 20 css sheets that work for each template. That gives you 400 different looks. Target them at some group that wants the ability to update, but also extreme simplicity?

Dunno, just a thought.

[Business Attorney]

Maybe target a few particular industries that don't need complicated sites but would like to manage it themselves? Accountants or attorneys? Attorneys write a lot and would probably like the ability to put up new content about the firm, cases they won, marketing stuff etc. You could probably make a group of templates, say 20 and 20 css sheets that work for each template. That gives you 400 different looks. Target them at some group that wants the ability to update, but also extreme simplicity?

Dunno, just a thought.

What you say is definitely true. Attorneys do want the ability to update content regularly but within a fairly standard framework.

My previous firm's first site was a mini-CMS (though they didn't call it that at the time) written with ColdFusion by a website development firm we hired. It was not very flexible but you could change or add bios of attorneys and limited other things. The firm subsequently hired another firm to redesign the site using a CMS platform called FirmWise. I left that firm to start my new firm and do not know anything more about the CMS than its name.