"myCMS" A Content Management System With Microsoft Access

Abstract

This document presents the analysis, design, and development of a web based content management system (CMS), that is being carried out to fulfill the individual project requirement of MSC (IT) of UCSC.

Although CMS are gaining popularity among many, they do not address all user expectations; instead most of them address needs of enterprise level users, requiring shared/dedicated private servers, or non-private servers. Thus those who cannot afford this financially or technologically are at a disadvantage. The solution documented in this report attempts to bring CMS into this category of users. Specifically, the solution is a CMS with a Microsoft Access backend with most required set of features. This enables above discussed users to use CMS with the ease of plug-n-play, in a shared/dedicated non-private web-hosting environment.

The solution CMS is named “myCMS” and its default installation will provide users with a sample web portal. Using the administration interface of the application, pages can be added (deleted or modified), and modules can be added (deleted or modified) to pages. Logging with either administrator or editor login credentials enables module contents to be added (deleted or modified) too. Administration interface provides for creation of user accounts and roles as well. These functionalities directly address the development objectives of the solution.

The OOAD methodology was adopted for this project. The requirements were captured in use cases and analyzed in sequence diagrams along with the analysis class diagram. They are presented in the report. Database and class designing are also presented in the report, before presenting implementation and deployment aspects of the solution.

The solution CMS does not require a server based DBMS; it uses a PC-DBMS. This set up requires only a web space where ASP.NET is supported. Thus the final solution, aptly named “myCMS” successfully meets all documented objectives.

Key words: web-based systems; web-based technologies; content management; web sites; content management systems; CMS.