What is a CMS and what Advantages does it has in Web Design and Development? - BOSS SOLUTION

Editing and publishing content has become a fundamental pillar when creating an online strategy aimed at generating traffic and providing visibility. However, when handling large amounts of information, it can become complex and frustrating. To facilitate this task, it is now possible to resort to CMS. But what is meant by CMS? CMS is the most common name in the arena of web development which stands for�Content Management System, or a CMS can be defined as a system that allows users to manage information in a simple and intuitive way, as well as its subsequent publication and monitoring without the need for technical programming knowledge. The alternative to these content managers would be to develop all the content that is included on the web using code. A CMS is a kind of software developed so that any user can administer and manage web content with ease and without web programming knowledge. Previously, a programmer must develop the web page based on the most appropriate CMS for the type of web, leaving subsequent management tasks in the hands of the end-user.

Types of CMS

Currently, you can find a wide variety of content managers, some specifically created for a website or a specific sector, as well as others for forums, wikis, galleries, or education portals. It is also possible to differentiate them based on the type of license they have, thus distinguishing between open source CMS or private CMS. From a more technical point of view regarding CMS operation, it is possible to distinguish between �Headless CMS  and �Decoupled CMS. A �Headless CMS  is a type of content manager designed to edit content regardless of the website where it is to be published. Make this publication possible; an API allows the content to be displayed on the request site. Headless CMS arises because currently, the same content can be consumed from different sources and devices, so having a content manager independent of any platform offers you the possibility and freedom to publish your content anywhere. Some use cases are:

• Publishing non-web-  oriented�content: If a CMS is needed to edit the content that is not going to be published on a web page, such as content directed to a mobile application, using a web-oriented CMS can be excessive to use. and include functionalities that have nothing to do with what one needs.
•  Making publications on various channels:� If your content is published on various channels (web, mobile, print …) This is a typical content publishing case. While most of these multichannel publishing cases are focused on publishing web content, the web page can be one of many sites where the content is published. Using a Headless CMS means not worrying about how the content is published and where, since it works as a mere server for the content that is requested.
• Act as a support for development operations:  A Headless CMS can store elements that will be used in another system. For example, text strings or HTML snippets, encodable elements, but you have a different management model than the real code files included in the source code.
•  “Subordinate” content manager:� In this case, the content is not the main reason for using the application, but is used as part of a broader application that cannot include a CMS directly. An example is found in bank applications that have content for help files or promotions for marketing campaigns.

Some examples of headless CMS that exist on the market are �Strapi, Directus, or Cockpit, which are intuitive, scalable, and have a powerful plugin and security system.�MediaRoomCMS is a content manager that combines the previous functionalities and improves them while adding new ones. � The other type of CMS is called decoupled, and to understand them, it is necessary to understand how traditional CMS, also called coupled works. Traditional CMS combines the front end and the back end. Developers and content managers work together on the back end while users interact on the front end. Decoupled CMS, on the other hand, are characterized by having separate front and back end. The CMS takes care of the backend and a delivery system at the front end. Through an API, both are connected, and the content is published. This type of CMS offers developers and content managers greater flexibility and more extraordinary delivery of content. Likewise, some of the other benefits offered by using this CMS are:

•  Allow your editing system and your publishing system to be on different architectures. In this way, journalists work in a separate system, which gives them greater performance and is not affected by possible problems if the newspaper has an excess of traffic, something very common in digital newspapers when there is news of great impact.
•  You can publish content on multiple servers. A large media company may have hundreds of servers in several countries on different continents. Deploying content is much more complicated than changing the post column in a table in a database.
•  In relation to the previous one, since you do not need to install a CMS on each of these servers, you do not need to license it either. Depending on the size of your content delivery environment, this can save a great deal of money.

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MediaRoomCMS, the news edition for everyone

At a basic level, the most common is to use a CMS coupled to create a simple website or blog, while in the case of digital news media, which have a writing team, the common thing is to resort to a headless or decoupled CMS. Digital media compete for a large audience of readers, which leads to more traffic, greater impact of ads, and ultimately greater monetization. To achieve this, high demands are necessary; this means that the content manager to be used must have been designed with these needs in mind. Starting from this need,�MediaRoomCMS arises, a content manager conceived and designed so that any digital medium can have all the functions and characteristics at its disposal that allow it to compete with the reference newspapers in the sector.

Let’s look at some of these features:

• Dynamic layout system: Having a CMS that provides versatility and allows professional results like MediaRoomCMS is vital for a digital newspaper. The time of layout and publication greatly conditions the number of views. MediaRoomCMS is developed under the premise “WYSIWYG” (“What you see is what you get or What you see is what you get”) so that users will see at all times the final aspect of the content they publish as they edit it. An example of this versatility offered is the frame and subframe system. When publishing a news item, the user can choose from templates that offer all possible combinations between 1 and 6 columns, and once selected; they can drag the news onto it and edit it.
• Tree of sections:  There are newspapers like El País or The Guardian that create multiple sections from the matrix. Each newspaper needs a specific number of sections, and no two newspapers are the same. Therefore it is necessary to have a flexible CMS that allows you to create as many sections as required. To respond to this need, MediaRoomCMS has a section tree function that allows you to create as many sections as you want, without limit in-depth levels; for example, under the Culture section, we create the Exhibitions section, and in turn, we can create sections for each type of exposure.
• Version control:  Every time content is edited in MediaRoomCMS, a copy of the pre-edit version is automatically created so that users can retrieve the content in case the changes made don’t convince them, and they don’t have to edit everything the content again.
• Multiple uploading of images:  Time is a key factor in digital newspapers when publishing news and obtaining traffic. Therefore they need any function that allows them to streamline the process. Those who use MediaRoomCMS have the advantage of, for example, being able to upload and edit multiple images instead of having to upload them individually. Thanks to this, they can publish their news faster than others.
• Implementation of gadgets:  The competition for a newspaper is very aggressive when it comes to obtaining new readers, and elements such as gadgets/plugins that add new functionalities to the front page can make a difference with the competition. MediaRoomCMS allows such an implementation.
• System of roles and permissions:  As in companies, newspaper newsrooms also have a hierarchy of positions, and therefore each worker must have correctly represented permissions according to their position. MediaRoomCMS allows these newsrooms to establish the desired hierarchy by offering each user the corresponding permissions on each type of content, cover, etc.
• Content blocking:  In relation to the above, and in order to avoid bad practices and conflicts in newspaper newsrooms, MediaRoomCMS also offers each user the possibility to block the content on which they are working so that it can only be that same user who edits it.
• SEO optimization:  Each entry published with MediaRoomCMS has all the necessary characteristics at the SEO level to appear positioned in the leading search engines’ first results.
• Integration with social networks:  Each news published with MediaRoomCMS includes a carousel of buttons so that it can be shared on social networks or WhatsApp. In this way, the news can reach a larger audience, boosting social networks, and creating new sources of traffic to the newspaper.
• Comment box:  Readers not only like to read the news, but they also want to participate and give their opinion on it. MediaRoomCMS makes this possible thanks to the inclusion of a Facebook comment box in the news that is published. In this way, readers can share their opinion on social networks, promoting interactivity between users.
• Automation of publications:  The constant flow of news makes it necessary to automate the publication of news. MediaRoomCMS allows publishers to automate the publication of content so that they do not have to be aware of when to publish and can focus on other events.
• Responsive design: All the content of digital newspapers must be adapted to new mobile devices. Any user can view the content regardless of the device they use, thus reducing the website’s bounce rate. The content created from MediaRoomCMS is responsive by default, allowing the news to reach all devices reaching a greater number of potential readers.
• Advertising system:  Digital media using MediaRoomCMS can choose to install an ad server to manage its advertisers’ advertising campaigns. MediaRoomCMS allows you to create and add spaces for advertisements anywhere in the newspaper. These advertisements will be loaded by the ads server, which keeps track of impressions, clicks, and all the information about marketing campaigns. In this way, newspapers can manage the publicity of those who wish to advertise in the newspaper by offering real-time reports of the results of their campaigns, obtaining income through them.
• Access to metrics:  Analyzing the performance of the content is essential to satisfy the audience as it is possible to know, for example, which are the most read and, therefore, which are the topics that most interest readers. In addition, a count of the total news published by category or section can be interesting to know in which sections more time has been invested and which ones need more attention. MediaRoomCMS provides both metrics so that newspapers can adapt to users’ behavior and consequently offer them the information they want.