Chapter 1. Red Hat Content Management System Overview

Content management systems enable an organization to scale their creation and maintenance processes. By allowing every individual to create and maintain content, a large website can have up-to-date content in every area. The individuals closest to the content are responsible for updating and modifying it.

In addition, centralized content management can improve an organization's capability for knowledge sharing and communication. By making content readily available to the right people in the right format, content management systems improve users' efficiency when finding information while simultaneously reducing barriers to communicating relevant information.

Content management systems typically include version control, archiving, workflow, security, stylesheets, page templates, and more. Refer to Section 1.3 Features for a list of features supported by the CMS.

1.1. What is the Red Hat Content Management System?

The Red Hat Content Management System (CMS) is an open source application that manages the content creation and delivery processes of a website. Built on top of Red Hat Web Application Framework and J2EE© technology, the CMS has a robust domain layer that enables developers to extend and configure the system to meet their exact business needs, providing maximum flexibility and control.

The Web Application Framework handles functions such as:

The CMS lets content creators:

The CMS combines powerful Web content management functionality with the flexibility to tailor deployments to the specific product environments and processes of your organization. As the needs of your organization grow, additional functionality can be integrated through other Red Hat Applications packages, including Red Hat Portal Server and collaborative applications.

With the CMS, you can have your company running a fully-functional content management system in as little as two months. Use the CMS straight out of the box, adding the necessary pieces for your company by choosing the optimal system configuration. Or you can take advantage of the flexibility and control, customizing the CMS as desired.