Web Content Management

SharePoint Server 2007 makes business users more independent in their content publishing activities and offers them better collaboration tools. Although Content Management Server (CMS) 2002 addressed the requirements necessary to build a content managed website, you often needed to extend the platform using the Publishing API, known as PAPI. SharePoint Server 2007 has both improved most of the Content Management Server 2002’s features and reduced the need for development using the API. The following table covers the most common CMS features and their SharePoint 2007 equivalents.

Open table as spreadsheet

CMS	SharePoint 2007 Equivalent
Content publishing included template galleries, resource galleries, template.	This is now publishing pages, webs, page layouts, image and document libraries.
CMS is no longer supported.	SharePoint is integrated with Windows Workflow Foundation.
CMS supported authoring connector.	SharePoint can convert Microsoft Office System documents to HTML.
Offered template-based rendering feature.	Offers template-based rendering features as well as master pages and page layouts. .ASPX pages are similar to CMS template files.
Channel functionality and postings.	Channel functionality is now in sites or SPWeb properties (that developers can access). Postings are publishing page objects.

So, how can WCM work in your situation? If your company headquarters is in one part of the world, with support teams in other locations, your employees can still collaborate by accessing a company website regardless of location. Website content owners create lists and libraries and supply employees with the materials they need to perform their day-to-day duties. Managers can create and update a tasks list that outlines what the team needs to do and who is responsible. Teams everywhere can log in to the por-tal and instantly access important information or even create it for someone in another country. Employees can create email alerts on the important lists and libraries so colleagues are instantly notified of new or changed content. Specifically, SharePoint 2007 has the following features for managing and publishing content:

• Page layouts and master pages:   Enforces consistency across your websites and ensures that all new pages that are created follow your corporate brand.

• Creating web pages from the browser:   Allows users without knowledge of HTML code to create web pages that inherit the site’s common look and feel.

• Workflows:   Automates the process of publishing or approving content. For example, you might create content for a website and then send it through a workflow system where it is approved and finally published to your website.

• Content versioning:   Ensures that you are always using the most up-to-date versions of your documents and allows you to restore to a previous version by keeping an electronic paper trail as the document evolves.

• Reporting Services:   This is a great way to get a high-level overview of your content.

• Check In/Check Out:   Ensures that multiple people are working on the same up-to-date content so that you can check out and in your documents during editing.