Content Management Systems (CMS)

WebFirst is experienced in developing full-featured content management system (CMS) solutions. We specialize in building websites in four content management frameworks - Drupal, Wordpress, Dot Net Nuke and Sharepoint. Moreover, WebFirst understands social media and how these new technologies can help you broaden your audience.

Drupal

Drupal is an open-source Content Management System used for many different types of websites, ranging from association websites to large corporate and political sites. In addition to recovery.gov, Drupal is used by over 3000 organizations including Yahoo Research, Amnesty International, Fox Searchlight, and Fast Company Magazine. The standard release of Drupal, known as "Drupal core", contains basic features common to most Content Management Systems, including the ability to register and maintain individual user accounts, RSS-feeds, customizable layouts, flexible account privileges, logging, blogs, forums, administration menus, and “out of the box” options to create a classic "brochureware" website or an interactive community website.

The architecture of Drupal allows new features and custom behavior to be added by third parties. Although Drupal offers a sophisticated programming interface for developers, no programming skills are required for basic website installation and administration. Drupal can run on any computing platform that supports PHP (version 4.3.5+), Apache or IIS, and a database, such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, to store content and settings.

Pros and Cons of using Drupal

Since Drupal is open source software, your organization can get a lot of bang for the buck (for zero bucks, that is). With Drupal you get all of the basic features that are common to other OSS and COTS Content Management Systems. Many organizations will only require a small subset of all of the features that any Content Management System offers. Thus, for these organizations, Drupal makes a lot of sense.

And, for organizations with complex site requirements or workflows, Drupal is also very cost effective. With thousands of community-contributed modules extending the core features of Drupal, chances are that it already supports whatever feature you can imagine. Using this vast library of enhancements allows WebFirst to develop customized complex sites in a fraction of the time it would take using other technologies, even when we have to customize an existing module for a client’s specific requirements..

One of the challenges of using Drupal is in the area of usability for the administrator. Some aspects of Drupal's administration interface and terminology can be confusing for new system administrators. Fortunately, WebFirst’s experienced Drupal administrators can guide you through your transition to a new CMS. We also have experience customizing the Drupal workflow and administrative interface to meet an organization’s specific needs and taxonomy. In essence, we know how to hide the complexity and focus the power of Drupal on your specific requirements. Moreover, the Drupal developers are working to resolve the usability issue with the future release of version 7.0.

Drupal has a large community of users and developers. More than 350,000 user accounts have been created on Drupal.org, and over 2000 people have signed up for developer accounts. This vibrant community means that support is easily available and that new features are constantly being developed.

DOT NET NUKE

WebFirst is also experienced in Dot Net Nuke (DNN) content management solutions. DNN is a robust, open source system that is rapidly becoming the de facto windows-based standard for quality CMS solutions.

DNN offers the following features:

User-Friendly

DNN is very user-friendly and is designed to make it easy for administrators, content editors, developers, and designers to manage all aspects of the website.

Powerful

DNN can support multiple websites from a single application installation. Administrative options can be divided between host level and individual site level. Moreover, DNN allows administrators to manage an unlimited number of websites – each with its own unique appearance and content.

Feature-Rich

DNN comes loaded with a set of built-in features that provide exceptional functionality. Some examples include blogs, forums, e-commerce, and more! Site hosting, web design, content management, security, and membership options are all easily managed and customized through simple, browser-based tools.

Supported

WebFirst is experienced with various implementations of DNN and can support your organization. Moreover, DNN is managed and supported by the DNN Corporation.

Localized

DNN includes a multi-language localization feature which allows administrators to easily translate their projects and portals into any language. With an international group of host and developers working with DNN, native support is always close at hand.

Open Source

DNN is provided for free, with full source code, licensed under a standard BSD open source license agreement. It allows individuals to do whatever they wish with the application framework, both commercially and non-commercially, with the simple requirement of giving credit back to the DNN community.

Cutting-Edge

DNN provides developers with an opportunity to leverage best-practice software development concepts by utilizing cutting-edge technologies like ASP.NET 2.0, Visual Studio, SQL Server, Windows Server, and IIS.

Extensible

DNN has a pluggable architecture that allows additional functionality and presentation elements to be dynamically added to the application at run-time. By leveraging the base functionality exposed through the built-in content management system, developers and site administrators can be immediately productive and more focused on delivering optimal solutions to their own unique business requirements.