Requested features
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 Criteria | Product/ Service 1 | Product/ Service 2 | |||
Rank 1= Top | Value 10= Top | (Yes= 10, Maybe= 5, No= 0) | ||||
User/Roles/Workflow | ||||||
Can roles and users be easily managed? (i.e., vacation back-ups) ? | 01 | 10 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can enough workflows can be defined? (goal: 25 per site) | 05 | 6 | Yes, infinite | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can workflows be assigned at the section *and* page level? | 05 | 6 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can enough stages can be included in a workflow? (goal: 5 per workflow definition) | 05 | 6 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can enough users can be activated? (goal: 25 per site) At what cost? (per seat cost?) | 06 | 5 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can workflow roles be separated from users to facilitate changes in personnel? | 06 | 5 | Yes | 10 | No | 0 |
Information Architecture | ||||||
Can sections and pages be moved easily by novice users? | 01 | 10 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can site structure outline be reordered, as opposed to alphabetical? | 01 | 10 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can access be easily restricted (username/password or Kerberos) to sections? | 01 | 10 | Yes, But Kerberos Is Custom | 5 | Yes, But Kerberos Is Custom | 5 |
Can multiple sites be managed? If so, how many? (goal: unlimited) | 06 | 5 | Yes for Subsites | 10 | Yes, Unlimited | 10 |
Can site structure be imported or exported? As XML? | 10 | 1 | Yes, Full XML Import/Export | 10 | With CMS 300 Model (?) | 10 |
Templating | ||||||
Can multiple, nested templates be used? If so, how many? (goal: unlimited) | 08 | 3 | Yes, Unlimited | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can templates be uploaded by designers? | 08 | 3 | Yes, Also Local WebDAV | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can CSS files be uploaded by designers? | 08 | 3 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can templates include automated navigation: left-side, bread crumbs, current section? | 08 | 3 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can a site map or a-z index be generated automatically? | 08 | 3 | Yes, From Template | 10 | No | 0 |
Can a previous/next page footer be generated automatically? | 08 | 3 | Yes | 10 | No | 0 |
Can a print version (using a separate template with no navigation) be generated automatically? | 08 | 3 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Content Entry and Editing | ||||||
Is WYSIWYG entry available? Cross-platform? Cross-browser? | 01 | 10 | Yes, Windows IE 5+ Only | 10 | No, Windows Only | 5 |
Is light markup required? (No is preferred) What tags are supported? <b>, <I>, <a href> | 01 | 10 | No | 10 | No | 10 |
Is full markup required? (No is preferred) | 01 | 10 | No | 10 | No | 10 |
Can RTF or SYLK documents be automatically transformed to valid HTML? Can Word, Excel, or tab-delimited documents be imported and cleaned up? | 01 | 10 | Yes, Via Cut/Paste | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can the code be transferred to visual editing tool? Without breaking tags? | 01 | 10 | Yes, Standard html | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Is there a wizard for uploading images? | 01 | 10 | Yes, Browse to Upload File | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Is there a wizard for uploading pdfs? | 01 | 10 | Yes, Ditto | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Is there a wizard for uploading other binary files (flash, audio, video)? | 01 | 10 | Yes, Ditto | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Is there a wizard for creating image galleries? | 01 | 10 | No, By Admin | 0 | No | 0 |
Is there a wizard for creating forms? | 01 | 10 | No, by Admin | 0 | Yes | 10 |
Is template and user-entered code compliant to XHTML 1.0? | 02 | 9 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can the markup be validated for standards compliance? | 02 | 9 | Yes, Errors for Bad Code | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can the markup be validated for universal design? | 02 | 9 | Maybe, Depends on Definition | 5 | Yes | 10 |
Is there a wizard for <meta> generation? | 02 | 9 | Yes, Input Form | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can there be separate <meta> sets for home and inside pages? | 02 | 9 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can internal links be checked? | 02 | 9 | Yes, With Atomz Search | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can external links be checked? | 02 | 9 | No | 0 | No | 0 |
Is the Web-browser interface supported on Windows, Macintosh, Linux? | 03 | 8 | Yes, Win, Mac | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Staging/Publishing | ||||||
Can a page be embargoed until a release date and time? | 05 | 6 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can a page be deleted and replaced with an appropriate redirect? | 05 | 6 | Yes, Syndication Supported | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Is page-level versioning (undo) available? How many steps? | 05 | 6 | Yes, Infinite | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can a full site edition be archived? | 05 | 6 | No, Site Basis | 0 | Yes | 10 |
Can stakeholders be notified by e-mail when page is published ? | 05 | 6 | Yes, Full Workflow With E-mail Notification | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Infrastructure/Administration | ||||||
Can additional modules be added by in-house developers?
| 3 | 2 | 10 | Yes, Using PHP, ASP, or Cold Fusion | 10 | Yes* |
Can system be adapted to support various authentication (basic authentication, Kerberos, certificates – PKI) and security (sftp, ssl WebDAV) options? | 09 | 2 | Web Site: Yes, Application: No | 5 | Yes, With ADSI Module (12/02) | 10 |
Is application hosted on campus? | 09 | 2 | No | 0 | Yes | 10 |
Is Web server hosted on campus? | 09 | 2 | Yes | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can content be exported via XML or XHTML? | 10 | 1 | Yes | 10 | Yes, With CMS 300 (?) | 10 |
Can system be integrated with Blackboard 5? | 10 | 1 | Yes*, Via XML Import/ Export | 10 | Yes | 10 |
Can legacy databases be integrated into content? | 10 | 1 | Yes*, Custom Project | 10 | Maybe, With Some Extra Code | 5 |
Is content storage accessible by super-users? | 10 | 1 | Yes, by Admin | 10 | Yes | 10 |
If system is hosted off-campus, can system be installed on local machines? | 10 | 1 | No | 0 | Yes | 10 |
Total score | Perfect: 3110 | 2615- Disqualified | 86% | 2685- Disqualified | 86% |
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