A few notes on open source and commercial content management systems

Features

There are several different types of CMS, and they vary widely in terms of their fundamental orientation and feature set:

• Articles/News pages - this is the traditional CMS front page. Articles are contributed and passed through a publishing/approvals process - each article becomes a page and typically a short summary is placed at the top of the front page.
• Wiki - A system which supports collaborative editing of articles/pages, relying on version control to allow "backing out" of erroneous entries and defacements
• Forums - allow for discussion with each post appearing underneath its parents, often in a threaded view
• Blogs - Are personal journals, often with links to and commentary on, other blogs
• Searching -
• Ad management - automatic rotation of banner ads, collection of statistics, etc. Hosting and benadwidth has to be paid for, and the Internet is not a user-pays environment
• Categorization - ability to display all content in a categorized tree

Name	Language	Platform	Features	Comments
Conventional CMS's
MySource				FOSS. Popular in Australian Govt. (which is contributing back apps and templates)
Bricolage	Perl	mod_perl, Mason
WebGUI	Perl	mod_Perl	Message boards, Polls, User contributions, news, calendars, articles	FOSS.
PostNuke	PHP	LAMP	News publishing, CMS, banners, forums, reviews, sections, stats	FOSS. Modular CMS
OpenCms
Contentment
Drupal	PHP		blogs, templates, polls	FOSS.
Mambo	PHP			FOSS.
Zope	Python		Really a development platform, see Plone for a full CMS on top of Zope	FOSS
Plone	Python/Zope			FOSS (GPL)
PHPCow	PHP			Commercial
Wikis
TWiki	Perl	No database required	Wiki, various plug-ins and applications	FOSS
MediaWiki	PHP	LAMP	This is the software that powers the Wikipedia	FOSS (GPL)
TikiWik	PHP	LAMP	Articles/news page, Wiki, Blogs, Forums, Ad management	Exceptionally rich "do-it-all" FOSS project
JSPWiki	Java	Does not require a database		FOSS.
Bulletin Boards and Communities
vBulletin	PHP	LAMP	Web forums package	Commercial product
phpBB	PHP	LAMP (can use PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server or even (!) Access)		FOSS. Has had some ongoing security issues
eve				"Community Engine" - forums, chat, etc. Seems to be a hosted service rather than a product.
Online Community Application (OCA)	Java		Specifically designed for alumni and similar communities	Seems to be commercial?
H2O Project				Education-oriented
News-Oriented
Slash	Perl	mod_Perl, MySQL		FOSS. This is the code that runs the infamous Slashdot
Learning Content Management Systems
Moodle	PHP	LAMP	Based on theory of social constructionist pedagogy. Lots of plug-ins, terrific support.	FOSS (GPL)
Claroline	PHP	LAMP	University of Louvain, Belgium	FOSS (GPL)
ATutor	PHP	LAMP	University of Toronto. IMS/SCORM compliant	FOSS (GPL)

Additional Information Sources

Web Content Management System Reports: http://www.cmswatch.com/

Open Source Content Management: http://www.oscom.org/

OpensourceCMS: http://www.opensourcecms.com/

Page last updated: 29/Apr/2005 Back to Home Copyright © 1987-2010 Les Bell and Associates Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. webmaster@lesbell.com.au