4. Ask it for the moon
… and more: Umbraco bends but does not break. A graphics display with no constraints? Yes it can. A website coupled to a mobile app? Yes it can. Its only limit is your own.
4.1 And what will it be for you?
The CMS must adapt to its users. Not the other way round. Umbraco implements this principle on all levels, better than any other solution can:
- Contents: the designers define their own fields necessary to the contributors. So the editing page will contain nothing superfluous that could make the input process more complex.
- Rendering: the developers rely 100% on ASP.NET and can generate specific renderings in JSON, HTML, XML, SOAP etc. Umbraco imposes no page structure, no coding requirements, extra mark-ups or other stage norms as can be the case with other CMS.
- Graphics: web designers enjoy significant creative freedom and a total respect of their concept.
4.2 Websites, mobiles applications, multimedia…
A Content Management System that adapts to many types of projects.
Umbraco is a versatile solution that adapts to all your needs, including managing the contents of a site, a mobile application, or any software programme.
Why? Because the use of templates makes it possible to separate the background from the layout and to work independently on one or the other. HTML rendering? Web service? It’s all the same to Umbraco.
The extent of its native features makes it the ideal CMS for tailored websites, with rich contents, such as institutional sites. Indeed, it is simple to create highly flexible websites: at any time it is possible to add new content or functionalities to a template, no need to reintegrate everything. Moreover, Umbraco lets you manage very easily some issues that concern many sites – if not all – toady, such a natural referencing (SEO) and multi-lingual contents.
Important! Umbraco does not include by default the features necessary to create blogs, intranets, or e-commerce sites. For this you will need to install plug-in (packages): uCommerce, blog4umbraco…
4.3 On site, or from afar?
The ideal solution to provide contents to mobile applications.
Once the contents have been input and structured, they must be exploited. Focusing on what it does best, i.e. content management, Umbraco gives you free reign in terms of the type of final use and method used to query the database.
Are the contents intended for Flash, Silverlight or Android applications? Desktop software? A distributed application? A website? All of these? No problem, the contents are centralised and developers can choose to use:
- Umbraco’s API: only available with .NET Framework but very powerful and easy to use.
- XML file: Umbraco maintains an XML file where all contents are stored. All programming languages can work with XML files.
- Integrated Web service: natively implemented in the CMS and based on SOAP, it enables distant access to contents via HTTP.
- SQL queries: for direct access to the database.
Semmeo ranking: Versatility
Umbraco proposes a core of rich native functionalities but plug-ins are required in order to implement a blog or e-commerce functions, that is, if you want to save time.
- Drupal adapts to nearly all types of uses.
- Jahia combines portal and CMS in a single product, and offers an exhaustive core of features.
- eZ Publish, requires plug-ins in order to implement an intranet portal for example.
- WordPress is highly blog oriented.
Key benefits
For developers
Freedom, freedom, and more freedom. You define the architecture of your site with no constraints, and you choose the technology you want to use to exploit the contents.
For users
Interfaces perfectly suited to your tasks, contents organised according to a clear tree structure that mirrors the architecture of your site perfectly.