Specifications

In this chapter, we’ll look at a content management system for storing, indexing, and searching

text and multimedia content.

Content management systems are extremely useful on Web sites where the site content is main-

tained by more than one author, where maintenance is performed by non technical staff, or

where the content and graphic design are developed by different people or departments.

We will build an application that helps authorized users to manage an organization’s digital

assets.

We will cover:

• Presenting Web pages using a series of templates

• Building a search engine that indexes documents according to metadata

The Problem

Let’s imagine that the busy Web development team for SuperFastOnlineNews consists of an

excellent graphic designer and some award-winning writers. The site contains regularly

updated news, sports, and weather pages. The main page shows the latest headline from each

of the three category pages.

At SuperFastOnlineNews, most designers ensure that the Web site content looks great. This is

what they do best. Writers, on the other hand, write excellent articles, but can’t draw well or

build Web sites.

We need to allow everyone to concentrate on what they are best at and bring their output

together to provide the super fast news service that the name implies.

Solution Requirements

We need to produce a system that

• Increases productivity by having the writers concentrate on writing and the designers on

designing

• Allows the editor to review stories and decide which ones should be published

• Presents a consistent look and feel throughout the site using page templates

• Allows writers access only to their designated areas of the site

• Enables the look and feel to be easily changed for a section or throughout the site

• Prevents live content from being changed

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