CMSMS 1.6 – Chapters 5 and 6
April 15th, 2010
In chapters 5 and 6 it starts to become really obvious what makes CMSMS so darn simple. Modules are a familiar part of any CMS but they’re often plagued with problems and difficult to configure, but alas, this is not so with CMSMS. The news module is given quite a bit of attention as it is part of default install and is so flexible it can create anything from a simple “latest headlines” widget to full blown multi-category blog with custom fields. The search module is then examined, which, admittedly, takes a bit more work to configure than searching in WordPress. Following the search module come an explanation of other default modules and their suggested uses – most of which really are astounding in their simplicity and usefulness. The image manager has a built in image editor, the menu manager can easily be used to create a sitemap, and the print module can print pages to PDF. Wow!
Following the exciting discussion on modules is the bit more dreary but incredibly important overview on users and permissions. As the chapter explains, the default user types are editor, design, and admin, and in my experience, these three always seems to be enough. For those who want to know about going beyond the default user types the book certainly provides more than enough information.
One somewhat confusing thing about this chapter is that at the very end of the users section the book discusses the archiver module. This module makes archives of all files and their changes across the site. It is presented in the chapter as a great tool to allow only the site admin to use, but I think it would have been better discussed in the modules chapter, or maybe the whole users and permissions chapter should have preceded modules. Oh well, there’s still been a lot of great info so far.