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A Content Management System (CMS) is a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based. The procedures are designed to:

* Allow for large number of people to contribute to and share stored data
* Control access to data, based on user roles. User roles are used to define each use as to what information they can view or edit
* Aid in easy storage and retrieval of data
* Reduce repetitive duplicate input
* Improve the ease of report writing
* Improve communication between users

In a CMS, data can be defined as almost anything – documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, scientific data, etc. CMSs are frequently used for storing, controlling, revising, and publishing documentation. Content that is controlled is industry-specific. (Entertainment content differs from the design of a fighter jet). There are various terms for systems (related processes) that do this. Examples include: Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management, Digital Records Management, Electronic Content Management (and others). Synchronization of intermediate steps, and collation into a final product are common goals of each.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Types of CMS
* 2 Enterprise content management systems
* 3 Web content management systems
* 4 See also
* 5 References

[edit] Types of CMS

There are six main categories of CMS, with their respective domains of use:

* Enterprise CMS (ECMS)
* Web CMS (WCMS)
* Document Management System (DMS)
* Mobile Content Management System
* Component content management system
* Media Content Management System

[edit] Enterprise content management systems
Main article: Enterprise content management

An Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system is concerned with content, documents, details, and records related to the organizational processes of an enterprise. The purpose is to manage the organization’s unstructured information content, with all its diversity of format and location.
[edit] Web content management systems
Main article: Web content management system

A ‘Web Content Management’ (WCM) system is a CMS designed to simplify the publication of Web content to Web sites, in particular, allowing content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files.

This is the first article in the four-part series, “Powerful guide to master Your WordPress”. Throughout this article, we’ll be focus on many WordPress Theme hacks, ideas, tips and useful tutorials you need to have ready in hand when developing WordPress websites.

We’ll keep this post updated during this month. As we’ll check your suggestions and feedback,
select the best, add them to this list and provide a direct link to the person who submitted
the suggestion.

So let’s get started and don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-Feed to keep track on our next post in this series.

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This is the Loop

1)The Loop is perhaps the most important thing one needs to understand when customizing WordPress theme. Any HTML or PHP code placed between where The Loop starts and where The Loop ends will be used for each post. When WordPress documentation states “This tag must be within The Loop”, such as for specific Template Tag or plugins, this is The Loop.

// the code inside the loop

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Further Readings On The Loop

Wp9 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques
1)Modifying Individual Posts In The Loop- Sometimes Clients request things like Google ads being displayed after post #2, the top post having a differently colored background, only displaying the title for a few posts. You can’t do any of this inside a single Loop, so here’s how to use multiple loops to display lists of posts differently.How to use multiple loops to display lists of posts differently.

2)Embed Google Ad in First WordPress Post- One of the more effective places to implement Google Adsense is after the first post, so you want to prevent your ad code from appearing after every single post, as WordPress would just loop and keep showing it. All you need to do is add this code inside the loop.

// Insert your Google AdSense code here

You can also publish the advertisement after the second post or the third etc. Just change:

“count == 1? to “count == 2?
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Category Related Techniques

The first step in modifying what happens when someone visits a Category page is to figure out which of your theme’s files is going to be used to display the posts. This is known as the Template Hierarchy.

This diagram, tells us most of what we need to know about organization of WordPress themes.

Change the number of posts displayed in Category Page.

You will need to open index.php file and find the line below,

then add this line right below it:

Where number “4″ is the number of posts you want to be displayed on every category page.

Have a different template for specific Category

So, if you want to make the Category whose ID number is 7 look different from what it is currently (and different from other Category pages), just create a category-7.php template file (or whatever your category ID is) in your current theme folder and customize it as you please. WordPress automatically checks for this, and will use the file if it exists. Please notice how we added the “-” and after it the id number of the category.

Displaying single post pages differently in specific category

For example, if you have a category called “News” and a category called “Tutorials” and you want the Stylesheet of the “News” category to be style1.css, and the stylesheet of the “Tutorials” category to be style2.css. Lorelle provides a simple solution by following the directions below:

Open single.php file and delete all the content and add the following code

$post = $wp_query->post;
if ( in_category(‘9′) ) {
include(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/single2.php’);
} else {
include(TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/single1.php’);
}
?>

In the most simple terms, the PHP code issues a query that says: Check the post. If the post is in category ID number 9, display single2.php. If not in category ID number 9, display single1.php.
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Further Reading on Categories

1)What Every Blogger Needs to Know About Categories- You can help your users, improve your SEO, and gain absolute control over your content by implementing your own WordPress category solution!
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Conditional Tags

Conditional Tags can be used in your Template files to change what content is displayed and how that content is displayed on a particular page depending on what conditions that page matches.

Styling different categories: If you want to use certain stylesheet for specific category, all you have to do is add the code below to the tag in your index.php file.

>Gallery >About >Submit

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Further Reading on Navigation Menu

Wp5 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques
1)Creating Two-Tiered Conditional Navigation in Wordpress- Here is a common navigational scheme, with parent pages on top and child pages (if they exist) on bottom.

2) Smarter Navigation Menu Mike Cherim has explained how to get a smarter navigation menu using Conditional tags by offering post titles, archive dates, and category names instead of generic terminology.

• 404 Error




• Search Results




• Selected Article

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Query Posts

Query_posts can be used to control which posts show up in The Loop. All you have to do is place a call to query_posts() in one of your Template files before The Loop begins.

Show posts from only one category If you want to display a certain number of posts in specific category

Here we want to display the latest “10″ post in category whose ID is “15″.

Exclude Categories From Your Home Page

if (is_home()) {
query_posts("cat=-3");
}
?>

Retrieve a Particular Post

// retrieve one post with an ID of 5
query_posts('p=5');
?>

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Further Readings On Query Posts

1) Query_posts redux- A helpful tutorial to list some of the arguments that you can pass to the query_posts() function.

query_posts('page_id=7'); //retrieves page 7 only
query_posts('pagename=about'); //retrieves the about page only
?>

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Get Posts

get_postsis a simple tag for creating multiple loops to allow you list links of posts in different ways. For example if you want to display the last 5 entries, you use this code:

$previous_posts = get_posts('numberposts=5');
foreach($previous_posts as $post) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>
“>

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Further Readings On Custom Fields

Wp9 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques
1)Using WordPress Custom Fields: Introduction- An ongoing tutorial series for practical uses of WordPress custom fields
o 2)WordPress Custom Fields; laying text over your lead graphic- Adding a photo or image behind a posts title can help to lure a reader into viewing the main excerpt / permalink of your post.
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Writing Code in Your Posts

Sometime you might need to add pieces of code like HTML, CSS, PHP, or javascripts in your post and make this code “looks” like code, but “doesn’t behave” like code. WordPress.com changes codes such as <, >, &, “, and ‘ into characters. For example, if you type:

It will erased from your post when you save it. Or it will try to turn the codes into character entity codes, which can really mess some things up. So

To make this WordPress template tag code appear, the code must be converted into character entities:
* <? php query_posts('p=5'); ?>
* To Write Code in Your Posts so that it looks like a box of code which may be copied and pasted within other code or template file, you can use the

 HTML tag with  tag.

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            Further Readings On Writing Code in your Posts

            1)Signatures and Writing Code- Lorelle writes an amazing article on posting code in your WordPress.com blogs, listing the most common character codes (character entities) used in HTML/XHTML, PHP, and other programming languages. Also you need to check her other post “WordPress Plugins That Help You Write Code” sharing some of the WordPress Plugins that help you write code and equations in your blogs.

          o 2)Online Code Converters- There are several online converters that transform the text you type into the standard HTML code that every browser can recognize without altering the character encoding to help you change code into something that WordPress blog can display properly.

                + Postable- An ajax online code converter created by “Elliot Swan”

                + HTMLizer Data

                + HTML Code converter

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      Organized and Structured Archives page
      There are many techniques to customize your Archive Index page. Some involve incorporation of plugins or PHP code to create customized lists of archived posts, and others provide more interesting ways of displaying your archives. You can display Archives By Year, month, categories, day, Weighted Categories, etc…
      The example below illustrats how to create an archives page listed by categories and months.
      



      
      Where wp_list_cats displays a list of WordPress categories as links and wp_get_archives displays a date-based archives list.
      If you want to retrieve every single page (perhaps for a custom archive page or a full article listing), you can set this to -1.
      
       query_posts('posts_per_page=-1'); //to return all the posts without pagination

      ?>
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            Further Readings On WordPress Archives page
            Wp11 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques

            1)How to Create An Archives Page- Here’s how to create an archives page for archive links listing by categories and months.
            2) Creating an Archive Index
            3)Wicked WordPress Archives in One Easy Step!- How to Create Archives with Real Sex Appeal

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      Permalinks
      Setting your desired Permalinks structure is the first thing you should do after installing your WordPress blog because search engines index your blog based on post URLs and if you change from one to another then you will loose your rankings. You can change the Permalinks setting through Admin > Options > Permalinks.
      WordPress has to option to use pretty links, turning the numbered links into sentences.
      So instead of the default ugly permalink
http://example.com/?p=N
      Use the Pretty Link structure
http://example.com/category_name/post-name
      or
http://example.com/year/month/day/post-name
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            Further Readings On Permalinks Structure
            1) Configuring WP Permalinks- Weblog Tools Collection has a useful guide on setting up permalinks on your WordPress blog and how to set up a .htaccess file if you don’t have one.
            2) Understanding WordPress Permalinks- Which Permalink Structure Is the Best?

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      Identifying author(s) & guest comments and styling them
      Through intelligent use of CSS, you can exercise absolute control over author and guest comment layout, presenting the reader with comments so rich with style.
      1)How to highlight author comments in WordPress- By default, most themes have comments look the same. Matt Cutts show us a simple: instead of checking the author’s email address, check their user id to see if it’s the user id of the blog owner.
      Wp2 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques

      2)How-to style WordPress author comments- Here you will be able to identify author(s) & guest comments under WordPress without the need for extraneous plugins, giving you some extra flexibility by adding code to check if the commenter’s email is the same as the email address of the blog’s author. 3) Styling Your WordPress Comments- Here are three examples to design the guest comments which complements the rest of the site using: Gravatars, Speech Bubble and Alternating Arrows.
      Wp4 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques

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      Separating Trackbacks from Comments
      Trackbacks are the messages displayed in the comments list whenever another blog links back to one of your posts. It is best if they are not mixed with the comments.
      Wp3 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques

      1) Separating Trackbacks from Comments- The method described here will lift out all of the trackbacks, and then display them as a numbered list after the list of comments is finished.
      2) Managing Trackbacks and Pingbacks- This topic covers separating trackbacks/pingbacks from regular comments, and also how to remove trackbacks and pingbacks from a WordPress theme completely.

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      Custom 404 Page
      Reconsider the value of your 404 page by thinking of it as your home page. Think of it as a gateway to your site, you will find good ideas here:
      1)Customizing Your 404 Page- You can often retain the traffic that comes to your 404 page by either offering something funny to grab the readers attention or by offering a variety of methods for them to find the post they are looking for.
      2)Customize Your 404 Page- Here are some tips for improving your 404 page on your personal (or even professional) website.

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      Gravatars
      After you sign up for Gravatars service, every time you leave a comment at a blog with your valid email address, your image will appear next to your name, providing the owner has added a few simple lines of code.
      How to Setup Gravatars for your Blog – Plug-in Free!- This is a guide custom tailored for WordPress users to setup gravatars on their blog without using a plug-in

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      Worth Checking Techniques
      1) When Your WordPress Theme Keeps Reverting To Default- Have you ever been working on your WordPress blog’s design, when you refresh the page only to find that it’s decided to revert to the default theme?

      Wp7 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques 2) How to place a login form in the sidebar- Want to get your users log in through the front page, Small Potato’s tutorial will show you how.
      3) When Your WordPress Theme Keeps Reverting To Default- Have you ever been working on your WordPress blog’s design, when you refresh the page only to find that it’s decided to revert to the default theme?

      Wp12 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques 4) Adding Recent Comments To Your WordPress Theme- Displays recent comments in the sidebar without the need for a plug-in: 5) Creating your home.php quite easily on WordPress- Two easy ways to use if you just want a static front page on your blog. 6) Even Simpler WordPress Contact Form- A simple solution for all your contact form needs. All comments left with this form are displayed in your WordPress administration panel. 7)WP Date Image Hack- Using dynamic images to replace the date entries of your blog post. 8 ) Category Page Hacks- These 2 hacks will increase the usability of WordPress category pages by giving an index of posts instead of a paged overview, and by sorting posts by title instead of post date. 9)Creating a “dynamic sticky”- When we need to have certain articles ’stay at the top’ longer than others. 10)Show Category Images- How to add some simple PHP code to your WordPress template and make linked images appear instead of text for your categories in posts. 11) Displaying WordPress Entries on static pages- A simple solution to include the date, headline, and excerpt of the latest entry from your Blog into your website static pages.
      Wp1 in Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques

      12) Ajax Commenting- How to make your commenting system submit comment without reloading the whole page.
      13) Opening Links in New Windows- This hack is for those who want to open links in a new browser window and don’t want to type out target=”_blank” every single time.

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      Developing a WordPress Theme
      1)So you want to create WordPress themes huh?- A step by step guide to create a WordPress theme from scratch.

      2) Developing a WordPress Theme- Dezinerfolio wrote a tutorial on how to develop a WordPress theme, you will learn to convert your xHTML CSS site into a Compact WordPress Theme. 3)How to create WordPress theme?- DevBox Wireframe WordPress theme, which is available for download on their site. This is basically a barebones theme that you can use to easily take a XHTML/CSS layout and convert it into a WordPress theme.
      4)Widgetizing Themes- Technical instructions on updating a theme for use with widgets.