From Static HTML to Content Management Systems

Incantation Professional for WordPress

incantation-professional Incantation Professional is a clean minimalist concept that is designed for a wide range of uses. With over 120 theme settings, you have the flexibility to customize the overall look and feel that best suits your website needs including the ability to create unlimited colour combinations to help give you something unique.

Free Incantation WordPress Theme

incantation-intro-screenshot Not only is this a Free theme for WordPress users, it's also a quick look at what the Incantation Pro version looks like. But of course, this is about my Incantation, the free version which is ready to use. With a minimalist design concept, it still packs a lot of features, enough for any business website or professional blogger wanting to get a great looking website by using Incantation.

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A Fresh Change with New Features

new-site-changes You might notice some changes with my website here because I've been a little busy for the last while. Of course, the changes I made are actually very good for everyone because of the additional features that have been added will greatly enhance the user experience when visiting Gradient Pixels. So let's get right into what has changed and what is still yet to come!

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From Static HTML to Content Management Systems

Published on Saturday, 16 April 2011

Category: Blog

html-cms When I first started with web site design several years ago, before blogging really took off, things were a lot simpler because for the most part, small sites were being developed with static html coding. The idea of a cms was unheard of for most individuals and even small businesses because they were either custom developed (at exorbant expense) or purchased pre-made which were often expensive. There there other options with open source, but the problem of buggy and inflexibility was plaguing most of them. In a nutshell, they were still in their infantcy stages compared today.

Designing in HTML

I remember first getting into html that I thought "omg" I will never learn this, it's too hard. I stuck to it and actually found myself doing pretty ok with it, enough to actually become a website designer. Over time, it became easier but I still had to tackle the oncoming css which was becoming more than just styling text on a page. While intimidating, I realized I had to tackle this head-on and start using it as a method to create my website layouts while getting used to the idea "Tables" were becoming obsolete in favor of "div" containers. After awhile, even this started to get easier and then thought, ok, this is what I will be doing for the next few years...unfortunately WRONG!

Blogging is a Virus

Well...perhaps not a virus, but the speed of which the blogging environment has picked up is mind boggling to the point it almogst acts like one. It seems to be replicating with so many individuals and businesses because they realized and continue to realize how effective this new medium has become. The concept of simply logging into an admin area and typing out what is on your mind is phenominal and has the potential (if not already) of influencing everything that happens in the world.

In a way, blogging has become a Social Media reality for anyone wanting to get their thoughts expressed in ways we never thought possible. For individuals, this is how one can reach out to everyone while businesses found out it's a great marketing platform for news, products, and services. You will also notice that for both individual bloggers and businesses, information that is blogged spreads like a virus when it's something worth telling others.

I remember blogging platforms like Movable Type, Serendipity, and of course, the now king of blogging, WordPress. There were others in the game but the reality of how the progress of blogging content management systems (or cms for its acronym) have grown really shines on the fall of the once popular Movable Type (which had a lot of potential) for the success of WordPress. WordPress has become the choice of most bloggers because it was developed specifically for blogging.

CMS Popularity is Growing

I believe this is where content management systems began to make more of an appearance, and not just for blogging, but for full websites. HTML seems to be taking more of a background position since new cms options have been growing in popularity and becoming the choice of website owners and website developers. The fact is, you can do a lot more with a cms than you can with a static html website, not to mention having the ability to easily change things without having to manually move, edit, or delete physical page files. With HTML websites, you can only get to a certain size until they become too big to manage...resulting in various stressful problems.

The cms has become a valuable tool since the days of static website design because with each new version, things get easier, cost, time efficient. With bloggers, WordPress has become very easy and fast, not to mention the fact that new versions of this popular blogging cms are arriving faster as they keep improving on features and functions. Joomla is also developing at a phenominal rate and becoming a very popular choice for full websites because of its flexibility and scalability. Drupal is another cms which is probably the rival to Joomla, but definitely has a much higher learning curve, but apparently is getting better over time. I personally use Joomla (which is what Gradient Pixels is using) because it has a lot more advantages than say, WordPress or Drupal (more on this in future articles).

HTML is Still Part of a CMS

It's true that html is still part of any cms because if it wasn't for html, websites would not exist, or at least as we see them. Static html websites exist still but not as much as they once did long ago. The integration of end-user cms solutions with basic html for the likes of WordPress or Joomla are here to stay, but lets not believe that a cms is the only answer to a successful website because static sites still have their place in today's personal and business environment.