CMS Watch: Future Web CMS Trends

It's that time of year: when CMS Watch cancels all home leave, cages the writers and hides its booze; then whips them mercilessly until they've compiled the authoritative yearly statement of where Web CMS has been for the past year, where it stands, and where it is going.

The result is the 12th edition of its renowned Web CMS Report, which comes in Standard, Enterprise, and European editions.

Aimed at those seeking a Web CMS solution, this document reviews major and minor players in depth with ample visual aids like charts and screenshots.

This also gives CMS Watch an opportunity to dust off its crystal ball and look ahead to what developments we can expect in Web CMS over the next twelve months.

And that's exactly what it (or specifically Kas Thomas, formerly of Novell) has done, isolating seven industry trends to give developers and other IT pros some food for thought.

Trend #1: A Return to Coupled Production and Delivery

“Customers are more willing to consider Web content management systems that couple content production and delivery — or put another way, systems that couple content management with website management. Vendors are responding accordingly. “

AJAX has been a primary driver of this trend, raising the bar of customer expectation for what web-based applications are capable of.

Trend #2: WS Apathy [REST usurping SOAP]

A fundamental shift in web service architecture is underway.

There are two main contenders here: SOAP, a more traditional delivery mechanism for XML-based services which (contentiously) utilizes an Internet application layer protocol as a transport protocol, and REST, a newfangled pretender to the SOAP throne, utilized by web services like del.icio.us and Flickr.

The REST architecture has earned huge support in a very short space of time, and is poised to challenge SOAP's status as the dominant delivery method for web 2.0 services in the near future.

As Thomas whimsically points out, “…we may be nearing the point where 'SOAP' is a dirty word.”

Trend #3: Support for XML, but not Content Reuse

XML is currently not being utilized most efficiently in relation to document management, but this is changing.

A large document stored in a XML format is typically prime for repurposing amongst various channels: online, offline, documentation, mobile, etc. But often, using just part of the content of one XML document to aid in the composition of a completely different document is not supported.

XML-stored documentation is currently usually stored as “coarse chunks,” whereas storing them as a series of “fine chunks” would be more advantageous to many users.

CMS Watch foresees “ever greater demand for […] DITA-like compositioning, and an even greater demand for ongoing management of XML fragments, including usable dependency reports.”

CMS Watch: Future Web CMS Trends

\n\nIt's that time of year: when CMS Watch cancels all home leave, cages the writers and hides its booze; then whips them mercilessly until they've compiled the authoritative yearly statement of where Web CMS has been for the past year, where it stands, and where it is going.\n\nThe result is the 12th edition of its renowned Web CMS Report, which comes in Standard, Enterprise, and European editions.\n\nAimed at those seeking a Web CMS solution, this document reviews major and minor players in depth with ample visual aids like charts and screenshots.

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