AJAX CMS

Content Management System

AJAX stands for Advanced Javascript and XML. So what does it do? In a nutshell AJAX brings desktop like speed and usability to websites, without any plug-ins or downloads.

CMS stands for Content Management System. This is software that allows non-technical people to update a website.

What is an Ajax CMS Content Management System?

An Ajax Content Management System is a CMS that makes entensive use of Ajax to allow people to edit the content of a website in a 'desk top' like environment, using only a browser.

So, what does AJAX do for CMS? Most CMS vendors have been slow to catch on to the advantages or AJAX, favouring the older heavy-weight server-side technologies rather than trust a browser to do anything clever.

A notable exception is the 123Live Content Management System (CMS). This innovative British company has been supplying websites with an advanced AJAX CMS since May 2002, that's a long time before Google came up with the idea of using AJAX for it's webmail and maps service. 123Live puts the whole website editing process into the browser, so it's 100% WYSIWYG and very, very quick and responsive. The Ajax CMS is delivered over the web but it "feels" like a desktop application.

Another innovative feature of 123Live's Ajax CMS is the publishing mechanism. A content management system will normally deliver pages dynamically, i.e. the content is pulled out of  a database and the page is built on the server before being delivering to the browser. Understandably, this often causes a bottleneck during periods of heavy traffic. 123Live's approach is to publish the website in one operation and all the pages are published as "flat HTML" pages. This reduces server load to a trickle and the sites load very quickly. A side benefit is that search engines love flat HTML, but they can be picky when it comes to database driven pages. 

At the end of the day, if a CMS is slow and cumbersome it puts a big barrier between your content contributors and your website. Good usability minimises training and rollout time, and, more importantly, a good Ajax CMS is enjoyable to use, so people want to use the CMS rather than you having to push them.

An AJAX CMS takes usability a big step forward, and it uses technology we have in our browsers today.