Members of the CMS discovery group are encouraged to suggest and evaluate CMS services and products based on our scope and evaluation criteria.

Vendors (in alphabetical order) Features Available on or before 1/1/03. *=requires custom development. [restricted to students and staff]Evaluation CriteriaProduct/ Service 1Product/ Service 2
Rank 1= TopValue 10= Top(Yes= 10, Maybe= 5, No= 0)

User/Roles/Workflow

Can roles and users be easily managed? (i.e., vacation back-ups) ?0110Yes10Yes10
Can enough workflows can be defined? (goal: 25 per site)056Yes, infinite10Yes10
Can workflows be assigned at the section *and* page level?056Yes10Yes10
Can enough stages can be included in a workflow? (goal: 5 per workflow definition)056Yes10Yes10
Can enough users can be activated? (goal: 25 per site) At what cost? (per seat cost?)065Yes10Yes10
Can workflow roles be separated from users to facilitate changes in personnel?065Yes10No0

Information Architecture

Can sections and pages be moved easily by novice users?0110Yes10Yes10
Can site structure outline be reordered, as opposed to alphabetical?0110Yes10Yes10
Can access be easily restricted (username/password or Kerberos) to sections?0110Yes, But Kerberos Is Custom5Yes, But Kerberos Is Custom5
Can multiple sites be managed? If so, how many? (goal: unlimited)065Yes for Subsites10Yes, Unlimited10
Can site structure be imported or exported? As XML?101Yes, Full XML Import/Export10With CMS 300 Model (?)10

Templating

Can multiple, nested templates be used? If so, how many? (goal: unlimited)083Yes, Unlimited10Yes10
Can templates be uploaded by designers?083Yes, Also Local WebDAV10Yes10
Can CSS files be uploaded by designers?083Yes10Yes10
Can templates include automated navigation: left-side, bread crumbs, current section?083Yes10Yes10
Can a site map or a-z index be generated automatically?083Yes, From Template10No0
Can a previous/next page footer be generated automatically?083Yes10No0
Can a print version (using a separate template with no navigation) be generated automatically?083Yes10Yes10

Content Entry and Editing

Is WYSIWYG entry available? Cross-platform? Cross-browser?0110Yes, Windows IE 5+ Only10No, Windows Only5
Is light markup required? (No is preferred) What tags are supported? <b>, <I>, <a href>0110No10No10
Is full markup required? (No is preferred)0110No10No10
Can RTF or SYLK documents be automatically transformed to valid HTML? Can Word, Excel, or tab-delimited documents be imported and cleaned up?0110Yes, Via Cut/Paste10Yes10
Can the code be transferred to visual editing tool? Without breaking tags?0110Yes, Standard html10Yes10
Is there a wizard for uploading images?0110Yes, Browse to Upload File10Yes10
Is there a wizard for uploading pdfs?0110Yes, Ditto10Yes10
Is there a wizard for uploading other binary files (flash, audio, video)?0110Yes, Ditto10Yes10
Is there a wizard for creating image galleries?0110No, By Admin0No0
Is there a wizard for creating forms?0110No, by Admin0Yes10
Is template and user-entered code compliant to XHTML 1.0?029Yes10Yes10
Can the markup be validated for standards compliance?029Yes, Errors for Bad Code10Yes10
Can the markup be validated for universal design?029Maybe, Depends on Definition5Yes10
Is there a wizard for <meta> generation?029Yes, Input Form10Yes10
Can there be separate <meta> sets for home and inside pages?029Yes10Yes10
Can internal links be checked?029Yes, With Atomz Search10Yes10
Can external links be checked?029No0No0
Is the Web-browser interface supported on Windows, Macintosh, Linux?038Yes, Win, Mac10Yes10

Staging/Publishing

Can a page be embargoed until a release date and time?056Yes10Yes10
Can a page be deleted and replaced with an appropriate redirect?056Yes, Syndication Supported10Yes10
Is page-level versioning (undo) available? How many steps?056Yes, Infinite10Yes10
Can a full site edition be archived?056No, Site Basis0Yes10
Can stakeholders be notified by e-mail when page is published ?056Yes, Full Workflow With E-mail Notification10Yes10

Infrastructure/Administration

Can additional modules be added by in-house developers?

  • Discussion group?
  • Calendar?
  • Web form to e-mail processing?
  • Bulletins/news updates/syndication/RSS?
3210Yes, Using PHP, ASP, or Cold Fusion10Yes*
Can system be adapted to support various authentication (basic authentication, Kerberos, certificates – PKI) and security (sftp, ssl WebDAV) options?092Web Site: Yes, Application: No5Yes, With ADSI Module (12/02)10
Is application hosted on campus?092No0Yes10
Is Web server hosted on campus?092Yes10Yes10
Can content be exported via XML or XHTML?101Yes10Yes, With CMS 300 (?)10
Can system be integrated with Blackboard 5?101Yes*, Via XML Import/ Export10Yes10
Can legacy databases be integrated into content?101Yes*, Custom Project10Maybe, With Some Extra Code5
Is content storage accessible by super-users?101Yes, by Admin10Yes10
If system is hosted off-campus, can system be installed on local machines?101No0Yes10
 
Total scorePerfect: 31102615- Disqualified86%2685- Disqualified86%

Document history: 10/2/02; 10/8/02; 10/10/02; 11/1/02; 11/5/02; 11/6/02; 11/8/02; 11/20/02; 3/6/03; edited 7/15/08