Some of our customers have more than one website related to their business. When we provide a web development package to our customers, we also include the Content Management System (CMS) so they can make changes to website content themselves. This reduces their dependence on our availability.

Although we developed Multi-site CMS for internal use by LightSpeed staff to manage our clients’ websites (we hired a part-time person), our clients also reap its benefits for their businesses. The user-interface is simple and requires minimal training.

Many small and medium-sized businesses have websites. However, we often find that these businesses do not have the resources or knowledge to keep their websites up-to-date. As a result, their websites do not attract visitors and lose ranking placement. This gives our clients the impression that their websites or e-commerce stores are not helping their business.

Figure 1: Example of content driven website.

Figure 2: Content and layout are automatically updated by CMS.

To address this problem, we started offering our customers a service to completely manage their website, not merely develop and host. To efficiently manage multiple websites with the least amount of resources, we developed the Multi-site Content Management System (Multi-site CMS). This application allows us to make changes to multiple websites from one web application.

When authorized users log into the application, they are presented with a list of websites they may wish to change. Users may select one or more websites by clicking a checkbox and then proceed to sections (News, Testimonials, Specials etc.) they wish to modify. They are then presented with a screen to enter new or edit existing content in the selected section.

Depending on type of section the users select to change, a different web UI is presented. This is achieved by creating user controls and placing them on the webpage dynamically.

Once users finish their updates, they can preview the changes and the list of websites affected by the changes. All the changes to website are logged into the database and can be audited.

Multi-site CMS was a brand new application. However, we had the challenge of integrating it with an open source content management system.

The largest database table is the SectionContent table, which has around 2000 records. Although this is not a huge number, the complexity arises from the fact that most content is rich (HTML, images) and each change needs to update multiple databases.

The web application contains 20 web pages. Rather than create a multiple pages for each table, we created many user controls (.ascx). Then we were able create each user control in multiple pages and achieve code reuse. Iron Speed Designer’s ability to create multiple user controls really helped us.

Figure 3: Creating user controls(.ascx) allowed us to reuse them on multiple pages.

Only two users will be utilizing this application. However, these two users can accomplish the work of approximately 18 to 20 individuals by using the application.

We estimate that between 180 and 200 transactions cycle through the application per month.

	Upload file attachment to database
	Filter content in dropdown list
	Customize table sort order
	Audit fields on insert/update
	Update record data

We did use third-party components, including Microsoft Ajax Toolkit controls and FCKEditor to customize user interface (UI).

We used a standard design theme in Iron Speed Designer. While we did create an application-specific design theme, we modified CSS style-sheets to improve the look and feel of the application.

As more clients use our services to manage their websites, we will need to hire more personnel to accommodate this growth.

Nilesh worked as a software consultant with several Fortune 500 companies as well as with start-up companies. This gave him broad range of experience in various industries, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial and banking, software product development and management consulting. Nilesh excels in assessing his clients' needs in order to provide comprehensive solutions.

Nilesh provides quick and innovative business solutions and not just software programs through his firm Lightspeed Solutions.