Ultimately, you must choose the CMS platform that will meet the needs and requirements of your association. Regardless of what CMS platform you choose, the controls and web settings will display the same. Please note that not ALL CMS connectors are compatible with ALL versions of Personify360. Refer to Content Management System (CMS) Connector Support for more information. Currently, our .NET web controls are compatible with the following CMS platforms and the following sections provide a brief overview of the CMS:
· Ektron
· Sitecore
Currently, DNN is one of the leading open-source CMS and application development platforms designed for .NET controls. It has a strong business focus and it is one of the most widely used frameworks for Microsoft Windows Server, which gives it advantages for Windows-based environments. DNN used to be a completely open-source product where the community provided support, but DNN has been moving to a more commercial product support model in order to meet the needs of those organizations choosing to implement it. Some benefits of using DNN as your CMS include the following:
· Has a low cost entry point for a CMS
· Has a low cost for upgradable features
· Provides very dynamic features, functionality, and security
· Provides simple content editing and creation
· Has portal based architecture, which allows you to run many sites on one DNN installation
· Allows you to create websites without programming knowledge
· Provides scalability and extensibility
· Provides full access to source code, so it can be customized to fit the needs of your organization
· Provides multi-language ability
· Has an user-friendly interface
· Allows you to manage site hosting, content, security, and web design
If you decide to use DNN, see Adding a .NET Control Using DNN section in the online help for more information on how to create a page and a .NET web control to your site.
The majority of Personify's customers use either Ektron or Sitecore. Both have comparable price points for basic licensing and both have a customer support model in place for their product. Some benefits of using Ektron as your CMS include the following:
· Supports table base graphic view of controls
· Supports complex roles, responsibilities, and permissions
· Provides out-of-the-box capabilities for your online marketing and brand identity
· Enhances your search engine marketing (SEM) without having to touch any HTML
· Provides a social networking framework
· Provides wiki authoring, blogs, forums, threaded discussions, and message boards
· Provides subscriptions, web alerts, and RSS feeds
If you decide to use Ektron, see the Adding a .NET Control Using Ektron section in the online help for more information on how to create a page and a .NET web control to your site.
The majority of Personify's customers use either Ektron or Sitecore. Both have comparable price points for basic licensing and both have a customer support model in place for their product. Some benefits of using Sitecore as your CMS include the following:
· Provides scalability and accessibility to the widest range of businesses functions
· Provides ability to host the content development environment externally and host the content management environment internally
· Allows you to manage content at the component/element levels
· Allows you to create a sophisticated permission management system that allows you to grant permissions to users, groups, and roles
· Supports external authentication and authorization system
· Allows you to create reusable site components in a single repository that can be used across multiple sites
· Uses the Microsoft Office "ribbon" interface to edit the site's content
· Built on Microsoft .NET 2.0 technologies, so sites built with Sitecore will run in any browser (i.e., Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari)
· Allows you to connect to any database, web service, or other external systems and access that content as if it were Sitecore based content
· Provides versioning, controlled approvals, incremental publishing, notifications/reminders, and archiving capabilities; for Outlook users, notifications appear conveniently within their inbox.
· Provides a search engine optimization (SEO) module that allows you to view your site from the search engine perspective
· Delivers URLs that are "Google-Friendly", which improves the ranking of the site
· Allows you to manage and deploy an unlimited number of sites and share content
· Provides built-in tools, such as online news letters, customized forms, blogs, bulletin boards, and forums, which allows you to engage your web users customers using online
· Allows you to save content into a different format (e.g., PDF or RSS feeds)
If you decide to use Sitecore, see the Adding a .NET Control Using Sitecore section in the online help for more information on how to create a page and a .NET web control to your site.
See Also:
· Overview: Using Your CMS Platform