Content Management System

The growth in web technologies and the need for improved and more secured role based web management has spurred the growth for content management systems. A content management system, as the name implies, is managing web content and, look and feel via role based access for viewing content, editing content and administering the portal dynamically. This role based security permits organizations to create a hierarchical multi-tier architecture model for securely managing individual pages or even individual modules on a page. The basic idea behind a portal is to provide an easy interface to users while maintaining the flexibility for developers to plug-in new features. It is a tool that allows people to communicate interactively and effectively by sharing documents, images and latest developments almost instantly. It provides a framework that works on top of role-based security. This can be adapted to develop any site that requires content management. Hence, it caters to the needs of a wide range of audience. While portals look like any other static web site with tabs to navigate between pages and page content organized in a neat readable format, they provide a dynamic way to modify, maintain and monitor usage. The basic architecture of the portal consists of tabs and modules. A collection of modules on a page constitutes the contents of the tab and a collection of tabs make the entire portal. We will look individually into each element that constitutes the portal. Tabs in the portal constitute the basic navigation bar. From a user's point of view this is the basic container of all data and hence its accessibility is of at most importance. Controlling the visibility of the tabs via a role-based mechanism allows managing users belonging to a wide spectrum. Users with different roles only see the tabs that they are authorized to view. Thus, the portal can be set up in such a way that two users with different roles see completely different web contents. Portal administrators manage tabs and they can dynamically create new tabs and add new modules onto the tab. Modules act as the container of all data and content. Modules in a tab can be either in the right pane or left pane depending on where the content is to be displayed. This way we use the entire space on the computer screen. Like view permissions on tabs, role based security can also be used to …