Introduction to Content Management Systems

Question-and-Answer flashcards that review the fundamental concepts, life-cycle stages, features, selection criteria, and architectural models of Content Management Systems (CMS) presented in the lecture.

What are structured data within an organization most commonly related to?

Internal transactional processes such as employee, client, or sales information.

Give two examples of internal unstructured information.

Invoices and emails that support transactional operations.

What kinds of activities constitute external unstructured information?

Marketing activities, the institutional website, and social-media interactions.

According to the lecture, what simple phrase defines content?

“All information is content.”

What is content management in one sentence?

The set of tasks involved in collecting, archiving, and using information throughout its life cycle.

List the six stages of the content life cycle in order.

Plan, Develop, Manage, Deploy, Preserve, Evaluate.

What is the goal of the Plan stage of the content life cycle?

To align content strategy with business strategy and derive the content model and information architecture.

During which life-cycle stage are metadata associated with content?

Develop.

What is the primary activity of the Manage stage?

Classifying, storing, and securing content to enable fast access and search.

In the Deploy stage, name two actions performed on content.

Assemble and publish (also acceptable: localize, personalize, syndicate).

What happens to content during the Preserve stage?

It is archived, versioned, backed up, migrated, or destroyed when its useful life ends.

Why is the Evaluate stage important?

It audits and measures information use to decide whether it is still useful or needs to be repurposed.

Provide a concise definition of a Content Management System (CMS).

A set of procedures used to manage the information life cycle in a collaborative environment.

Name three key capabilities that a CMS should provide.

Role-based access control, a central repository with versioning, and mechanisms to avoid information duplication.

Distinguish between specialized and general-purpose CMSs with one example each.

Specialized: blogs, forums, or e-learning (e.g., Moodle). General-purpose: Drupal, which is highly configurable and extendable.

How are CMS platforms frequently classified in the lecture slides?

By size/complexity, from large enterprise solutions (IBM, Oracle) down to lightweight systems (WordPress, Prestashop).

What CMS characteristic ensures automatic storage and organization of content?

Content organization mechanisms.

Which CMS feature supports teams in creating, editing, and publishing content?

Workflow management.

What security mechanisms are typically offered by a CMS?

Session and account management, role-based permissions, and access control.

Why are templates valuable in a CMS?

They separate presentation code from functional code, enable quick style changes, and simplify customization.

Explain modularity in a CMS.

The system is built from interchangeable modules or plug-ins, allowing administrators to add or extend functionality selectively.

When selecting a CMS, what is the first major activity recommended?

Conducting a requirements analysis to identify functional and non-functional needs.

What online tool mentioned in the lecture helps discover which CMS a website uses?

BuiltWith Trends.

Name the two architectural models most CMSs follow.

Model-View-Controller (MVC) and event-driven architecture.

State two benefits of the MVC pattern for CMS development.

Code reuse and separation of concerns between model, view, and controller.

In MVC, how does the controller interact with the model and the view?

It sends commands to update the model’s state and instructs the view to change its presentation.

Which popular CMS is given as an example of an MVC architecture?

Drupal.

How does an event-driven CMS respond to user actions like clicking a button?

By executing functions associated with that event; new features can be added by linking functions to new events.

Which well-known CMS exemplifies an event-driven architecture?

WordPress.

List the acronyms ERP, CMS, ECM, and WCM in full.

Enterprise Resource Planning, Content Management System, Enterprise Content Management, and Web Content Management.