A Web Content Management System is a type of Content management system (CMS) software used for managing websites.

The software manages content (text, graphics, links, etc.) for distribution on a web server. Usually the software provides tools where users with little or no knowledge of programming languages and markup languages (such as HTML) can create and manage content with relative ease of use. Most systems use a database to hold content, and a presentation layer displays the content to regular website visitors based on a set of templates. Management of the software is typically done through a web browser, but some systems may be modified in other ways.

Ok, sounds simple right? Not always the case… or so it seems with OpenSource tools for providing these features to clients. Our company, Evolving Solutions has been building CMS systems for some time now and we’ve been looking for an OpenSource CMS solution that might help us and speed up development time… which in turn lets us get more work done and also charge our clients less! a win-win situation.

So, after many attempts at searching, I’ve found that most CMS systems are just way to confusing for everyday users… the users that are going to be updating their sites, everyday ;)

I decided to look around again a couple weeks ago and I found MeshCMS I read about the OpenSource project on another site and decided to check it out. I wasn’t really excited when I saw the project homepage… I honestly think that they could update it maybe and make it a little catchier since they say that the site is running off MeshCMS. Just my humble opinion.

Anyway, I didn’t judge a book by it’s cover and I decided to give it a shot. Here are a few key points to what I’ve found out so far:

  • I was pleasantly surprised at first how easy it was to setup… real easy… you just deploy it as a webapp if you are using Tomcat or any other Servlet Container and it’s ready to rock! Refreshing start.


  • No database required for MeshCMS. It’s all file driven (templates and JSP’s), could be good, good be bad I guess, all depends on what you prefer. But eliminates one step of the setup (creating a DB)


  • All theme/template based. So basically you can set up a theme really easy, here’s a quick glimpse if you are curious on simple it really is: http://www.meshcms.org/userguide/index.html#create_theme. Anyone familiar with JSP’s and Tag Libraries will appreciate how easy it is to setup a Theme.


  • Extremely user friendly for the end user (which is most important!).

Now, someone looking for a more robust, permission based, blah blah type of Document/CMS system will not be interested in MeshCMS. It’s definitely more for someone or some company looking to get a CMS system up and running smoothly and quickly. They even state it on their website:

MeshCMS has been thought as a quick tool to edit pages online, manage files and create some common components like menus, breadcrumbs, mail forms, image galleries and so on.

So, in conclusion, I haven’t had a chance to dive in and really use MeshCMS for a production website yet (just being honest, hopefully will soon), but if you are in the market for an easy to use and easy to setup CMS System, I would recommend looking at the features and trying it out for yourself. It’ll only take a few minutes and it’ll be well worth it!

If anyone has used it or tried it out and has any suggestions or comments, please feel free to share!

Good luck, happy CMS’n!
Adrian