asp:review

Kentico CMS 2.1

Create Web Sites Rapidly

By Anand Narayanaswamy

Developing a Web site with rich features is easy thesedays because of the availability of various Content Management Systems (CMS). Althoughmany of them are built using PHP, some of the applications are developed using othertechnologies ? such as ASP.NET. Many vendors have started to employ ASP.NET 2.0by taking advantage of its rich functionalities for the development of CMSapplications. Completely built using ASP.NET 2.0, Kentico CMS is one suchpowerful application. Developed by Kentico Software (based in Czech Republic) and used by severalleading companies worldwide, the product contains many intuitive and advancedfeatures that enable Web developers to quickly create and deploy dynamic Web sites.

A trial version of the product is available at http://www.kentico.com/download.aspx.The trial version works for 30 days without any restrictions. Double-click thedownloaded file to access a step-by-step installation wizard. It prompts you tocreate either a new database or select an existing database, one of which is requiredfor installing the product. The installer then executes the required databasescripts, creates a Web site with sample data, and establishes the product foryou to explore and customize. The whole installation process took around fiveminutes, and I was able to browse the Web site soon after its completion.

The installation wizard guides you through the process,without any need for intervention on the part of the administrator, sobeginners can easily install the product by simply following the instructionsdisplayed on the screen. After the successful installation, you can log in tothe page meant for administrators by using the username and password you gaveat the time of configuration to manage your site and content.

Figure 1: The default home page.

If you want to use the product on a live Web site youshould manually upload all the required project files to a remote Web servercompatible with ASP.NET 2.0. After you finish the set up process on the serveryou can easily import the Web site created on your local machine. The productcan be deployed under a shared hosting environment, so you should contact yourprovider if the default trust level for ASP.NET on the server is set to Medium (asthe product only will function under Full trust). This is unfortunate, as certainadvanced functionalities may not work under Medium trust, which will prohibitsome beginners from using the product.

One of the notable features of the product is that itincludes a flexible system for managing the content. While content editors candirectly work with the product using the WYSIWYG browser-based administrationtool, Web developers can manage the site design, structure, and page templatesusing Kentico?s built-in portal engine. Moreover, they can modify and recompilethe whole solution, including server controls, data layer libraries, and the businesslayer Application Programming Interface (API) ? if you purchased the sourcecode along with the product. With the help of the product, you can customizeworkflow, document fields, and metadata. An interesting feature of the productis that you can create content by scheduling it to be published on a specificdate.

Figure 2: Editing the default homepage.

A unique feature of the product is that you can createcontent using multiple languages in a single Web site. Kentico has built theportal engine based on Web parts. Hence, if you decide to use your own templatefor the site, you can create the appropriate page templates using built-in orcustom Web parts. I found the product seamlessly integrates with Visual Studio2005. You can also add custom modules, Web parts, and third-party controls anduse them along with the portal engine to build powerful Web sites. I also foundthe product is search-engine-friendly and supports friendly Uniform ResourceLocators (URLs). This will enable your site and the corresponding pages to beindexed by search engines such as Google and Yahoo without any difficulty. Alist of all features included with the product can be viewed at http://www.kentico.com/cms-asp-net-features.aspx.

The product contains several modules, such as imagegallery, newsletter, online forms, e-commerce, forums, and content staging, aswell as standard modules for news and articles. The e-commerce module is new toversion 2.1 and supports multiple currencies. It supports PayPal and othergateways, provided you specify the correct information while configuring themodule. You can also develop your own modules and integrate them with theproduct.

Figure 3: Create and delivernewsletters on a fly.

I found it very easy to convert an HTML page template intoan ASP.NET page using the built-in portal engine by following the step-by-stepinstructions included on the user manual supplied with the product. I wasamazed to note that you can virtually perform all kinds of manipulationswithout any need to write complicated code. The product supports Forms andWindows authentication and the vendor has implemented several security measuresinto the product, including the integration of the ASP.NET 2.0 Membership classin the registration module. Another notable feature is that you can export the entireWeb site into a single file and restore it in another installation of theproduct. This will help those users who regularly shift hosting providers.

You can easily customize roles and set document levelpermissions using the product. Moreover, you can also grant users permissionsfor particular modules, documents, or sections inside the site. You can easilycreate secured site areas that can be accessed only by the registered membersof the site. The members can be displayed with personalized navigation andcontent based on their permissions. For instance, you can display differentmenu items and content to silver and gold partners in the partners section ofyour Web site.

With the help of the product, you can decorate your sitewith dropdown menus, tree menus, CSS list menus, and tab menus to provide a user-friendlyinterface. Moreover, the product also supports full-text search and iscompatible with several Web standards, such as XHTML, table, or CSS layout andW3C?s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Another notable feature of theproduct is that you can manage multiple sites in a single installation. I?msure it will help a lot ? especially if you deploy the product in a sharedhosting environment (as you only need to set up the product once for managingseveral Web sites).

Kentico provides a comprehensive manual with step-by-stepexplanations, accompanied by relevant screenshots. The content was easy tofollow and enabled me to get started with the product quickly. I was alsoimpressed by the simple and elegant manner in which the content was presented. Kenticoalso provides complete Application Programming Interface (API) and databasereference documentation, which can be located from the Start menu.

I?d like to see the vendor integrate the documentationwith Visual Studio 2005 so developers can access it while working with theproduct. The vendor provides excellent support through e-mail and a discussionforum (located at http://www.kentico.com/forums/).After reading this brief overview, I recommend you test drive the product toget a complete appreciation of all its powerful features and capabilities.

Anand Narayanaswamy, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional(MVP), works as an independent consultant and runs NetAns Technologies (http://www.netans.com), which provides Webhosting services based in Trivandrum, India.Anand also works as a technical editor lead for http://ASPAlliance.com. He runs http://www.Learnxpress.com, http://Dotnetalbum.com, and http://Csharpfaq.com. Anand is the author of CommunityServer Quickly (Packt Publishing). You can explore more information about thebook at http://www.communityserverbook.com.Find out more about him at http://www.visualanand.netor e-mail him at mailto:netans@gmail.com.

Rating: ?????

Web Site: http://www.kentico.com

Price: StandardEdition, US$299; Professional Edition, US$599; Professional Edition, US$999