Learning Umbraco in a week - Day I

This is my first post of the "Learning Umbraco in a week" series. The main agenda of this post is listed below.

• What is a Content Management System?
• What is a Web Content Management System?
• A look at some famous Content Management Systems
• Introduction to Umbraco
• History of Umbraco
• Why Umbraco?
• A look at some famous Umbraco based web sites
• How to install Umbraco?
• A look at Umbraco root directory
• A look at Umbraco Content Management System
  

What is a Content Management System?

A content management system (CMS) is the collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment.

Below are some benefits of a typical content management system.

• Low cost
• Easy customization
• Easy to use
• Workflow management 

Below are some of the overheads, one has to bear by having a content management system.

• Cost of implementation
• Cost of maintenance
• Storage volume
• Latency issues
• Tool Mixing

What is a Web Content Management System 
A web content management system (WCMS) is a software system that provides website authoring, collaboration, and administration tools designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming languages or markup languages to create and manage website content with relative ease. 

A look at some famous Content Management Systems. 
This is a list of famous content management systems that are used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation. Many of them are built on top of separate content management frameworks. 

Below is a list of few proprietary content management systems available.

• SharePoint Server (MOSS)
• DotNetNuke Professional Edition
• Oracle ECM Suite
• IBM Enterprise Content Management 
• Sitecore Professional Edition
• OpenText Web Experience Management
• Day Communiqué WCM
• EMC Documentum ECM
• Contegro

Below is a list of few open source content management systems available.

• Liferay 
• Composite C1
• DotNetNuke Community Edition
• mojoPortal 
• Umbraco
• Joomla!
• Drupal
• SilverStripe
• eZ Publish
• Geeklog

Introduction to Umbraco 
Umbraco is an open source content management system for publishing content on the web and intranets. It is written in the Microsoft .Net (C#) and off course deployed on a Microsoft based infrastructure (i.e. MS Windows, MS IIS etc). 

History of Umbraco 
Umbraco was developed by Niels Hartvig in 2000 and released as open source software in 2004. In 2009, CMS Wire described it as one of the leading .NET-based open source CMS systems. This proved to be the turning point in Umbraco CMS history, and In 2010, with thousand downloads a day, Umbraco was in the Top five most popular downloads via the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. 

Why Umbraco? 
Umbraco is the choice of many organizations because of the following benefits.

• Free
• Open source
• Easy to learn and use for content writers
• Built on .Net
• Supports XML & XSLT for Web Developers
• Supports ASP .Net development standards
• Easy to extend
• Easy to integrate with other systems
• Strong support community

A look at some famous Umbraco based web sites. 
Below is a list of some famous Umbraco based content management systems deployments.

• http://www.warnerbros.com.au/
• http://www.asp.net/
• http://computerfriend.dk/
• http://www.vogue.co.uk/
• http://www.heinz.com/
• http://www.sandisk.com/
• http://www.redroof.com/

How to install Umbraco? 
The easiest and recommended for installing Umbraco on IIS 7, is by using the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. The Web Platform Installer can be found at the following location:

http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/Umbraco.aspx

A look at Umbraco root directory 
Unlike other content management systems, the Umbraco root directory looks like a typical ASP.NET application root directory. And most of the content created in Umbraco, actually appear as physical files, rather than records in the database. For example, templates or master pages will appear in the masterpage folder, and stylesheets will appear in the css folder.

Below is a list of most commonly used folders in the Umbraco root directory.

• Umbraco - This folder contains all the Umbraco CMS files.
• Master Pages - This folder contains the Templates or Master Pages created in Umbraco.
• CSS - This folder contains the Stylesheets created and used in Umbraco.
• Scripts - This folder contains the JavaScript files created in Umbraco.
• XSLT - This folder contains the XSLT Macro files created in Umbraco.
• User Controls - This folder contains the User Control Macro files created in Umbraco.
• Config - This folder contains the Umbraco specific Configuration Files.
• Application Data - This folder contains the Umbraco specific Data Files.
• Application Code - This folder may contain the Code Behind Files referred in User Control Macros or Templates. 

A look at Umbraco Content Management System

Once Umbraco is installed, you will probably be redirected at the Umbraco default page.

However, if you are not on the Umbraco Default Page, please point your browser to http://<YourSite>/umbraco/umbraco.aspx. If you are not logged in, you will first be redirected to the Umbraco login page.

The Umbraco default page has three main panes, which are listed below.

• Content Listing (Top Left)
• Sections Listing (Bottom Left)
• Main Panel (Large Panel on the Right)

The Content panel on a default empty install will show a only Content folder with the Recycle Bin folder under it.

Below is a list of Umbraco Sections.

• Content - This section is shown by default, and is used for creating and managing the content in Umbraco.
• Media - This section is used for managing media files / items in Umbraco.
• Users - This section is used for managing Umbraco users, user types, user permissions related to content creation and management.
• Settings - This section is used for controlling the Umbraco settings related to content management.
• Developer - This section provides useful features for techies, as it is related to development of portal in Umbraco.
• Members - This section is used for creating and managing portal members, member groups and member types in Umbraco. 

That's all for this post, in the next post (Learning Umbraco in a week - Day II) we will go through the Umbraco CMS.