Don't Forget to Change the Oil

November 1, 2009 | by Krystee Dryer | Posted in CMS, Web Development

There is a lot of buzz going around the web around Open source content management cystems (CMS) with the White House launching their new Drupal site and several other government agencies (NASA’s APPEL,  Federal Labor Relations Authority) using open source CMS’s. Open source solutions can be a great tool for developing an amazing website. Best of all it is all free to download and use. But just like any other tool or machine, you have to keep it well oiled to run smoothly for years to come.

Items like security patches, browser compatibility and feature updates, general fixes and core updates will need to be performed on a regular schedule. A well thought out maintenance plan can keep the a website secure, running well and ready for new features to be added. Here is the Balance Interactive way of building an easy-to-maintain website and the recommended necessary maintenance tasks.

Develop for Maintenance

The first step is to develop the site for easy future maintenance. Balance Interactive has outlined some of our best practices we use when developing our websites with an open source CMS (always keeping future ease of maintenance in mind).

1. The most important rule is “Don’t Hack the Core!” When a CMS is chosen, do not customize the core files in the CMS. In the future, when it is updated, all of the customizations will be overwritten and will have to be re-added. When major updates are made (from one version of the CMS to another), these customizations may not be compatible.
2. Use a CMS from an active and growing community. Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress and DotNetNuke (DNN) all have very active open source communities which regularly release patches and security updates. These CMS’s are used extensively and constantly tested.
3. Use a CMS that provides an API layer and allows you to “hook” into the system for your customizations. These hooks will allow a developer to enact the required customizations of the system without hacking into the core and will be preserved during core and module updates.
4. Use modules and plugins that have been tested and have active maintainers within the open source community. A lot of tools for CMS’s may sound great, but have not been maintained in a long time, which means that issues found will not be fixed and new features will not be added in the future.
5. Don’t hack into core files of module and plug-ins either. These files should be able to be updated without worrying about losing customizations. Use the APIs to do all customizations or find another module or method to accomplish the goals.

Plan and Implement a Maintenance Plan

Now that the website has developed to be easy to maintain, it is important that a maintenance plan should be enacted and performed. Here are some basic recommendations:

1. View the status update report of the website regularly (if a report is available). Many CMS’s will provide a report that can be viewed for the current status of the website. Security updates and other recommended updates can be assessed monthly for possible maintenance.
2. Update the modules/plug-ins/widgets quarterly (or at least twice a year). These should be updated to the newest recommended version for the CMS.
3. The CMS core should be updated quarterly (or at least twice a year) or when a major security patch is released.
4. If the server environment (Windows, IIS, .NET, Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) is not automatically being updated by the host company, it should be checked at least twice a year for security updates and other fixes.

If your website is getting its “oil changed” on a regular schedule, it will continue to run smoothly and be ready for the next great feature addition or new exciting tools.