Steve Drucker

Currently there are more than 200 commercially available content management systems (CMSs). Each has strengths and weaknesses relative to the others...belying their underlying middleware platform and customer history. While not all are ColdFusion based, I believe that the CommonSpot Content Server 3.0 (the 2001 CFDJ Readers' Choice winner) from PaperThin, Inc., sets a new standard for flexibility and performance across all middle-tier systems. Comparing Apples to Apples Believe it or not, there's quite a bit of controversy within the CMS industry about what functionality a "Web content management" system should bring to the table. After evaluating many CMS applications, however, I've found that most vendors offer the following core set of features: Nontechnical content contributors may modify the contents of their Web sites anytime, anywhere, through their Web browse... (more)

CMS 200 from Ektron, Inc.

I have always considered Ektron's eWebEditPro to be the best, easiest to integrate, and most innovative Web-based WYSIWYG component available. Many software vendors apparently concur with this assessment, for you can find the product embedded in a number of CMS systems ranging from Allaire Spectra to Microsoft Content Management Server 2002. It should come as no surprise then that Ektron, seeking to capitalize on the success of their award-winning editor, launched a series of content-management products that interoperate with ColdFusion 4.x, 5.x, Microsoft Active Server Pages, M... (more)

Enter the Scalability Zone

Over the past three years as an Allaire partner, I have been involved in countless marketing presentations where I touted ColdFusion as the best solution for producing Web-based applications. During this time other product vendors, instead of selling against CF based on feature comparisons, have instead focused on peripheral issues. Throughout the CF 2.0 product cycle, I would routinely be questioned about Allaire's staying power in the market, financial performance and capital inflows. Allaire's rapidly expanding market share and IPO silenced those critics. During the CF 3.x pro... (more)

Blueprint 1.5 from Ivis Technologies, Inc.

Over the last nine years, I must have coded at least 100 ColdFusion applications. Many of these contained similar features - calendaring, e-commerce, content management, and dynamic survey forms. Several were "one-offs" - based on work done for previous customers with some modified behavior and rebranding. Others were architected to work in either a dedicated or "Application Service Provider" mode. All of them required an administrative interface with an accompanying security model that required a significant amount of time to reimplement. Blueprint, from Ivis Technologies, Inc.... (more)

LayerIT Content Management System from LayerIT AS

After evaluating and deploying a number of content management systems over the past five years, I guess I've become a bit jaded. Frankly, they all just started to look the same. To be sure, each one has core strengths and weaknesses. Each is usually geared to fit a certain vertical market (education, for example), and many have similar levels of functionality. All of them have significant usability issues - particularly when authoring content that requires HTML tables. So when I was asked to write a review of LayerIT CMS (priced at $2,695 for the enterprise edition), I expected ... (more)