Content Driven Web Applications

As well as having access to highly capable content management systems, Future Medium have the benefit of years of experience in developing, enhancing and supporting content-driven applications.  Long before development begins, we can assist with determining the types of content that will be managed, and define the processes by which this occurs.  This is an iterative process which revolves around:

• Identifying the users of the system;
• Identifying their content needs;
• Identifying the sources of content, for example, is content entered internally, or aggregated from an external source;
• Identifying the roles each user or group of users takes i.e. whether they are editing, reading or approving content; and
• Defining the interaction between the roles by identifying and formalising the workflow process.

During this process we can identify how the content will be accessed within the application, for example whether it is a public website or an intranet.  There are often situations where certain content may be internal to an organisation, or may be shared with outsiders, or the general public. This affects the granularity of content - how can we structure the content so certain portions can be flagged with different levels of access.

It is usually at this point where certain areas are identified which may require:

• Customisation of the Content Management system to provide extended functionality; and
• Reuse and integration of common components.

In the first case, certain features may be required which are not currently supported by the system.  In most cases we endeavour to add this functionality to the system at little or no cost on the premise that other clients may benefit from it.  In other cases, the functionality may be too specific to a single client, and would be costed accordingly.  In either case, we are in the best position to make the required changes due to our familiarity with the CMS product. 

In the second case, there are many components which are often used in client developments such as forums, staff directories, bulletin boards, photo galleries etc.  These elements can be reused from one development to another, and thus can be integrated at little cost, and prove to be exceptionally stable and well-tested.  We have a large library of such components to draw upon.

By focusing on content management systems, we design every application with the expectation that it will not be static, and endeavour to ensure that any content can be manipulated and displayed in various ways, increasing re-use and applicability to different situations.

Thus, functions like personalisation are able to be supported from the beginning.