All about OpenCms
Opencms is a powerful content management system that is especially suited to medium to large enterprise websites. The system is based on Java and XML Technologies and is completely extensible.
If you have experience working with CMS’, or have been grappling with CMS choices, this tour is for you.
Custom design
Layouts can be custom developed for each site. There are no template restrictions.
Explorer View
The Explorer View allows you to add, edit, move and delete files and folders. Changes are invisible to the public until published. The lock / unlock mechanism ensures that multiple editors can populate content without overwriting each other’s changes.
Editing pages
Pages can be accessed from the Explorer View or by clicking the Direct Edit button when previewing pages.
Free text pages
The ‘what you see is what you get’ editor is modeled after MS Word and is very easy to use. Editors can insert content, format text, apply heading styles, insert images, create links and generate tables. Please see our knowledge base for an overview of all editor buttons.
Image editing
The image editor allows you to scale, crop and format images. Pages with structured content can accommodate automated image sizing and cropping.
Preview screen
Changes to content can be tested and previewed in “offline” mode before publishing to the live site. Editors can also set automated release and expiration dates for specific content – this is particularly useful for timed promotions and seasonal announcements.
Structured content
Update forms (called ‘structured content’) can be built for pages with pre-defined formatting. This covers content such as news, events, jobs, projects, staff bios, and so on. Once the form-based input has been populated, the pre-defined look and feel applies.
Search engine friendly
File names are specified by content editors to ensure URLs are clean and search engine friendly. Custom meta data can be embedded for each page, as well as alt tags for images and links.
Link management
The Content Relationship Engine keeps internal links intact even when editors move or rename files. When deleting pages or images, the system will check and report on any broken links.
Search configurations
The integrated full text search engine supports indexing of all content on the site, including PDF, Word, Excel, RTF and plain text files. The search configuration can be customized per site. All new resources are automatically added to the searchable index.
Document versioning
The page history setting allows you to view and compare previous versions of a resource, as well as see changes made by others. When changes need to be reversed, an older file version can be restored.
Multi-lingual sites
OpenCms supports multi-lingual websites with international character sets.
Security
Lastly, your content is protected by sophisticated Java authentication frameworks as well as the elaborate user and access permission management system. Please see our OpenCms knowledge base for more information.