Core Technology
The underlying technology is built using MySQL and PHP and will run on any hosting service that supports those applications. Designs are created using DIV and CSS technology to create W3C and DDA compliant pages. The administration system can be accessed through any supported web browser including; Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox, Safari and Chrome. No special software is required to use the system although imaging editing software is recommended for preparing graphics.

Page Design
Any workable page design can be used and integrated into the Content Management System (CMS). Multiple templates can be integrated to allow for different page types; normal, newsletters, product descriptions, videos, download areas, etc. These pages types can either be made user selectable or automatically applied based on content.

More than one design can be integrated into a CMS to support multiple sites each with a different look on a single CMS. This is used to accommodate for example, different divisions in an organisation or a tennis club and a rugby club or a series of groups within a larger society.

User Permissions
Users are set up and can be assigned permissions to view, edit or publish pages. Categories of users can be created that have group permissions. For example, teachers might be able to edit pages in their class room area or club members are able to edit their user profile.

Protected areas
By using permissions, secure password protect areas can be created. These can be for example for members only or client or staff access allowing you to create an Extranet.

Basic CMS Functionality
When an authorised user has logged into the system, they can manage content through the browser based user administration pages.

Upload files
Authorised users can upload files of approved types. The types of files that are allowed are generally;

• Document files – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, TXT, ZIP etc.
• Image files – JPEG, GIF, PNG etc.
• Media files – WMV, WMA, MP3, SWF, FLA, MOV etc.

Executable files and script files are generally disallowed for security reasons.

Create a page
Authorised users can create pages. The user identifies the level and parent of the page within the site map and names the page. Pages can be created from a blank template; pages can be created as a copy of an existing page that is used as a starting point and can then be edited or pages can be created as a clone of an existing page. Clone is used when the same content needs to exist in more than one place – updating the master updates all clones.

Page types
The user decides the page type. In addition to the normal page, there can be special pages that have additional functionality for example; gallery pages that contain a photo-gallery, listings pages that contain list that can be ordered by a range of fields, listing items that are managed by the listings page etc.

Add content
Editable areas of the page are assigned a WYSIWYG editor into which you can type, paste copied text, insert images and media and add links.

The addition of content can be used to automatically apply a page temple: for example if your page can have potentially two columns, the content spans a single column if nothing is entered into the editable area of column 2 – as soon as anything is entered into the editable are of column 2, the content is split into two columns.

Status
Once created, a page can either be made live or kept hidden. The hidden option is usually employed when content needs to be prepared by more than one editor or when a page is to be made available at a later date.

Save options
A page can be previewed, save for later editing or published. In some circumstances, the person creating a page can be disallowed from publishing the page. This is used commonly in schools where the head teacher wants to be able to approve any content before it goes live – in this case the editor can ‘request the page to be published’. Once published, the page appears in the site navigation in the appropriate place.

Edit a page
To edit a page, the page can be found either by navigation through the site map or by entering the name or partial name of the page. Once found, the same tools are available as for creating a page.

Move a page
A page can be moved from its location within the site to another location. This is achieved by identifying the page and then defining its new parent. The page and any child pages are moved to the new location.

Standalone pages
Pages can be created that do not appear in the main navigation of the site. These can be for example, landing pages for a marketing campaign or terms and conditions, privacy policies etc.

Change navigation order
The order in which items appear in a navigation list can be changed.