Ruby on Rails (also known as ‘Ror’ or ‘Rails’) is a web application development framework based on the programming language Ruby. Rails was released in 2004 and is now widely used. Ruby on rails is reputed to be easy to use, output clean and elegant code, reduce time needed to develop a web application.

Among other data base driven web applications, Ruby on Rails can be used to develop content management systems. Ror is not a CMS but is full of goodness for anyone who wants to come up with a fully functional and highly customised CMS. Though this ‘anyone’ has to be a developer if he/she wants to take full advantage of the framework, of course. There is not official extensive list of CMS built with Ruby on Rails, there are some of them out there including Radiant or Slate. Lot of them are even not publicly released, developed for internal content management purpose only.

So, next time someone pops in your office asking if the new CMS will be Ruby on Rails, just say no. And then add that the new CMS could be developed with Ror if ’someone’ finds money to hire a good developer.

Any more questions?

• Where could I find 12 nice Ruby on Rails tutorials?
• Who is David Heinemeier Hansson?

It is well known that ‘CMS’ stands for Content Management System. But few people know that CMS aren’t actually enough to manage content. There litterally are hundreds of CMSs out there, each of them suitable for specific purposes. There are also in house built CMSs, developed to fit a particlular organisation needs. But none of them can magically make content management easier and more efficient.

A CMS is a system that helps to manage content by storing content in a database. Such tools have facilities to create, edit and publish content. They make website manager life easier thanks to template managed pages and quality control (eg links check). CMSs are also useful to content contributors, they can organise their work with workflows and amend content in WYSIWYG editor. These systems help to give consistency to a website content and layout, and allow to manage in one place content published to several websites.

From the previous list of features, it transpires that CMSs are not magic though. Here is a non extensive list of what they can’t do:

• define content categories and categorise it,
• decide who is liable for each part of content,
• know which are strategic pieces of content,
• find out when to review a particular sub section of the site…

Here is the bottom line: CMSs are tools, one kind of tool which is only part of the full tool kit of any accomplished Content Manager.