Java Based Content Management System – A Complete Overview

Java based content management systems are open source content management systems written in Java and based on open standards such as XML and XSLT. The XML centric architecture of the Java based content management system allows for content delivery targeted to the capabilities of various devices and avoids data lock-in. The Java based content management system provides most of the basic features of standard content management systems available in the market. The features include revision control, scheduling, a built-in search engine, separate staging areas, and workflow. In addition, the Java based content management system provides features such as robust caching, multi-channel output, etc.

The Java based content management system provides browser-based WYSIWYG editors that validate input against an in-built schema. This prevents invalid markup as produced by other WYSIWYG editors, and allows enforcing web site style guidelines. The Java based content management system provides enhanced asset management and link management. A forms editor of the Java based content management system can be used for situations where a full-blown WYSIWYG editor is overkill or where legacy browsers need to be supported. Pages that are being edited are automatically locked for other users, preventing conflicting changes to the same page. Each edit of a page creates a new revision. The Java based content management system enables you to revert to any previous revision of a page.

A customizable workflow engine of the Java based content management system that uses an easy XML format is used to define workflows. The Java based content management system come with standard one and two stage workflows. Users can be notified about the pending approvals by email. You can schedule the workflow events such as publishing or deactivation of a page. The Java based content management system supports separate authoring, staging and live areas. For convenience, the staging area is disabled by default. All workflow steps are logged, providing an audit trail. In addition, the Java based content management system provides efficient internationalization. You can create pages in multiple languages with no impact on your site structure. The Java based content management system automatically displays your page in the default language if it is not available in a specific language.

The Java based content management system allows reuse of the information architecture of a site and brings modularity to the content level. Different publications can share content and business logic, and new publications can be created with a cloning process. The Java based content management system supports a combination of XHTML and CSS templating which eliminates the need to learn yet another templating language. The CSS is used for styling wherever possible, which as a result enforces the separation of content and layout. The Java based content management system enables a sitemap to be easily created, as the navigation framework automatically creates navigation items such as menus, breadcrumb paths, and tabs. As the Java based content management system has clean URLs, it is optimally accessible for search engines. In addition, the Java based content management system imposes no restrictions on the nesting of templates. As a result, you can use any template you have defined at any level of your site structure.

The Java based content management system enables efficient site management by allowing you to move, copy, rename, archive, or delete individual pages or whole parts of your site within an easy to use site view that shows you the pages of your site in an explorer-like view. Each page has tabs for easy access to meta data, assets, workflow status, revisions, access control and scheduling. You can deactivate the pages and store them in an archive using the archive function of the Java based content management system. Deleted pages can be retrieved from the trash. The Java based content management system enables to easily assign metadata standards to each page.

The asset management feature of the Java based content management system allows you to keep track of the images and documents that belong to a page. The link management feature of the Java based content management system ensures that internal links are not shown if the target page doesn't exist or the user has no access to it. In addition, link management warns users about broken links when they publish a page. The Java based content management system check whether the parent pages of a page to be published are already live to avoid inconsistent sites. In addition, the Java based content management system enables flexible deployment of the sites. The sites can be served dynamically by the authoring server or a servlet container. When used in combination with a reverse proxy, the Java based content management system can be configured to rewrite URLs based on the site structure of the live site.

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