A web-content-management system (WCMS or Web CMS) is content management system (CMS) software, usually implemented as a Web application, for creating and managing HTML content. It is use to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A WCMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential Web maintenance functions.Usually the software provides authoring (and other) tools designed to allow users with little or no knowledge of programming languages or markup languages to generate and handle content with relative ease of use.

Most systems use a database to store content, metadata, and/or artifacts that might be needed by the system. Content is frequently, but not universally, stored as XML, to facilitate reuse and facilitate flexible presentation options

A presentation layer displays the content to regular Web-site visitors based on a set of templates. The templates are sometimes XSLT files.

Capabilities

A WCMS is a software system used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents, images and extra forms of media). A CMS facilitates document control, auditing, editing, and timeline management. A WCMS provides the following key features:

Automated templates

Create standard output templates (usually HTML and XML) that can be automatically applied to new and existing content, allowing the appearance of all content to be tainted from one central place.

Easily editable content

Once content is separated from the visual presentation of a site, it usually becomes much easier and quicker to edit and manipulate. Most WCMS software includes WYSIWYG editing tools allowing non-technical individuals to create and edit content.

Scalable feature sets

Most WCMS software includes plug-ins or modules that can be easily installed to expand an existing site’s functionality.

Web standards upgrades

Active WCMS software usually receives regular updates that include new feature sets and keep the system up to current web standards.

Workflow management

Workflow is the process of creating cycles of sequential and parallel tasks that must be accomplished in the CMS. For example, a content creator can submit a story, but it is not published pending the copy editor cleans it up and the editor-in-chief approves it.

Delegation

Some CMS software allows for various user groups to have limited privileges over specific content on the website, spreading out the responsibility of content management.

Document management

CMS software may provide a means of managing the life cycle of a document from initial creation time, during revisions, publication, archive, and document destruction.

Content virtualization

CMS software may provide a means of allowing each user to work within a virtual copy of the entire Web site, document set, and/or code base. This enables changes to multiple interdependent resources to be viewed and/or executed in-context prior to submission.