THEORY AND PRACTICE

Content Meets Code

by Lowell Rapaport

Content management isn't just for content anymore. Content management systems can also be pressed into service for maintaining and developing software code. Eventually, some contend, ordinary mortals as well as programmers will be able to develop applications.

"The idea of using content management systems to manage and maintain code started with the need by Web developers to manage source code for Web site programming," says Jack Jia, chief technical officer of Sunnyvale, CA-based Interwoven. Managing a dynamic Web site entails bringing together a lot of different types of programming tools from browser-side programming with Javascript to server programming via CGI scripts.

"From the content management side, there are two reasons to add code alongside content," says Andrew Warzecha, senior vice president of Meta Group in Stamford, CT. "Applying content management to code simplifies Web development, and it also aids in archiving Web sites." When code is managed alongside content, developers can see how Web pages will look with the programming in place.

By managing code with the content management system, Web site owners can also record how their site's behavior changes over time. "Content management gives Web site owners a way to keep a record of Web site operation," Warzecha says. With content management's versioning and archiving functions, Web site owners can document how their sites both looked and behaved at a given point in the past.

Content management can also be an easy-to-use application development tool. Experienced programmers can develop object-oriented code and store the objects in a content management system. Then, says Jia, "Users can access the objects and put them together to make complete business applications." Jia says users might even utilize browser-based content management interfaces in a process akin to how nontechnical users create workflows.

The idea of nonprogrammers developing applications may be a bit speculative, however. "Developing applications requires a combination of coding, compiling, testing and debugging," says Warzecha. "The process is probably beyond the skill set of nonprogrammers. The software companies in this space are source change management (SCM) vendors such as Merant, Rational and Starbase. Before content management vendors like Interwoven can break into it, they have to gain credibility in SCM."

Similarly, SCM vendors are embracing the Web content management market with new modules and content management-like architectures, and these suppliers must prove their software's ease of use for ordinary content contributors.

Ask Lowell

Do you have a question about current technology or the next wave? Ask Lowell and he'll explain; write asklowell@transformmag.com.