Microsoft Content Management Server 2002: A Complete Guide

by Bill English, Todd Bleeker, Olga Londer

Content management is an increasing problem for enterprise Web sites > Microsoft is heavily promoting Content Management Server (CMS), yet there is very little information available on how to use it >... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321194446
• ISBN13: 9780321194442
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
• Length: 1092 Pages
• Weight: 3.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 7.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Authoritative Reference for Content Mgmt. Server

What drew me to this book was Bill English's name. I've known Bill for a few years (I'm a Windows Server MVP, Bill is an MVP on the Exchange side), and am usually quite impressed with his writing, his teaching, and his work. Yet, there were a number of other names that are associated with this book. I don't know who was responsible for which parts, but this is truly an all-star cast of technical experts on Microsoft Content Management Server.Content Management Server can be a tantalizingly ominous program. On the surface, it appears so simple, however - under the covers is a very complex and detailed series of modules for managing content on web servers. Essentially, it covers birth to retirement of the content of web publishing. And, diferent from many other programs of this type - it is aimed at all levels of content creators. It's aimed at the Pro Web Master, but also provides the capacity to allow the typical Business or Marketing type to create and submit content - and to allow it to be reviewed before it is published out to the web site by defining 'roles', and assigning responsibilities and rights to these roles. This flexibility and control is what makes Content Server special.*This* is what makes this book special. English (Microsoft MVP), Londer (of QA - a training firm in the UK), Bleeker (CTO/ Consulting firm to Fortune 100), Shell (Dell Pro Services), Cawood (MCMS Product Team - Microsoft) are some of the brightest folks working with this product, and they know it well. The thickness of the book is because of depth. Specific sections of the book deal with any portion of CMS that you might encounter, from deployment, to management, to security, and to optimization. It also educates you on how you can use code (your choices are open to any .Net language) to modify some behaviors, enhance and further control the functions of the server.My experience with CMS is that it can either be the very worst of nightmares, or the best thing for managing your web servers / farms. This book can definitely put you on the track of productive suite rather than uncontrollable mess of code and tags. In conjunction with Application Center Server, Content Management Server provides a complete toolset for staging, deploying, proofing, controlling and validating your web servers.Your chances of success with this software are greatly enhanced with the written knowledge of these technologists.

Keep a copy handy to every employee who uses MCMS

Microsoft Content Management Server 2002: A Complete Guide is a good enough title for this book, but given the thorough coverage, accessible writing style and excellent organization, it could just as easily been have been called the Content Management Server 2002 Encyclopedia.The value in this book is it's breadth of coverage and succinctness of the explanation of the topic. The general approach of the book is to give a general explanation of a topic and then to provide specific instructions with examples. It is possible to reference a particular topic and use the information in it without having to read a large part of the book. The level of technical expertise required of the reader varies depending on the topic being covered. Hence it's possible for users at varying technical levels to make use of the same book, depending on what information they need. It's a remarkable accomplishment and I'd recommend having copies available to all employees who work on your MCMS 2002 site in any capacity.

A must have resource but...

There is a lot of excellent information in this book. I was just disappointed that there wasn't more depth in the areas of interest to me. I wanted more details, like when it comes to an upgrade path from CMS2001 - what are the limitations(for example: is there a maximum database size or channel count that the upgrade tool can handle?) or gotchas? What things have changed? However, there were only three pages on upgrading from CMS2001 in this 1000 page book.As another example, there was some interesting sample code in the Tips & techniques section, but they didn't give a complete usage scenario of the bit that interested me, so I wasn't sure how to implement the sample that interested me.I must say that I was impressed that this book was so thick yet not padded with the usual repetitive and excess verbiage. It is all good content.This book is the most comprehensive resource I've found. I've been going back and forth between MSDN articles and the documentation that comes with CMS and this book covers everything, especially planning, much better. However, it still could have had more!

A must have for all MS CMS Developers

This book gives you a very thourough step by step guide on how to prepare and develop your Microsoft CMS solution. The samples and scenarios include the most common but important features and how best to apply these in real world situations.The book has some must read information on Security and planning configurations plus information on the Application Programming capability of MS CMS.