CMS Review: TYPO3

Posted on October 29th, 2009
A blog post by DN (1 Comment)

Type in “content management system” in a search engine and one will find an overwhelming number of commercial and open source options available.  One such program offered is TYPO3.  As open source content management systems (CMS) go, TYPO3 is an extremely flexible and extendable program that features a large number of interfaces and modules.  It is one of the earliest created CMS on the market and is one of the more popular CMS programs around.

History

Created in 1997 by  Kasper Skårhøj, TYPO3 was coded out of a need to be able to separate design from content.  According to the story on TYPO3′s web site, Kasper came up with the name of the software due to an accidental erasure of a week’s worth of coding.  After resolving to recreate the lost bit of coding, Kasper thought it would be ironic to create even better coding as a result of a typo.  After releasing the third version of the software and having that version become rather successful, TYPO3 stuck and it has been so named ever since.

Setting up and running

TYPO3 is considered a small to midsized enterprise class CMF (content management framework).  It goes to work for users as soon as it’s installed and running.  The program comes set with standard modules and is able to easily accommodate just about any kind of customized solution or extension.  It offers something for each type of CMS user.

Authors benefits

Authors can expect a very user friendly bit of software.  Producing and maintaining web pages is as simple as a single click of the mouse.  If the web site is to have multiple authors, TYPO3 is designed to allow shared authoring and collaboration.

Admin and content manager benefits

Administrators and content managers can look forward to being able to implement an extensive user permissions system.  Having this at their fingertips, administrators can worry a bit less about content creation conflicts and be able to spend more time actually administering the web site.

Web design concerns

For the web developer, TYPO3 offers the separation of design and content.  This means when the web site is in need of an updated design, there need not be any worry about the content of the web site possibly being lost or not being integrated into the new design.

Additional capabilities

Additionally, TYPO3 works very well with multimedia sites.  The software offers seamless integration with several multimedia content types and allows for dynamic server-side image generating and manipulation.  If the web site needs to have some form of internal messaging capability, TYPO3 has got that covered as well.

Conclusion

TYPO3 is a great, extendable and expandable content management system that has clearly considered the issues with content and design.  All aspects of web site control have been considered with respect to authors, administrators and web development and design.  This is truly a fantastic piece of software that is highly recommended to all considering either a switch to a more robust program or for those just stepping into a newly created web site