A better kind of site: content management systems

You may be familiar with the traditional style of web site creation: individual pages that must each be created separately and in entirety, even if all pages share much of the same information. Despite software tools to ease the process, creating and maintaining such a site – where one key change in design or content may require hand-tweaking every page – can be a huge undertaking.

A more modern tool to create and maintain sites is a content management system. This is generally a database into which you enter content – stories, product listings, blog entries, contact information, anything – and which you then manipulate to build pages on the fly. Menu items may call upon one item in the database (say, your company's background) to display a simple page, or may dig up any number of specified items (such as all sports-related product descriptions) to create a complex page from multiple pieces of information. It's up to you.

Even better: modern content management systems typically allow web site creation and management directly from a standard web browser, with no special software required. That combination of inherent power and accessibility makes a content management system potentially ideal for many people and organizations wanting an active presence on the web.

Drupal: A website powerhouse

There are dozens and dozens of full-fledged content management systems available; there are even web sites devoted to helping users compare the hundreds of features found in these and pin the choice of systems down to just a couple of dozen.

One fast-rising, open source content management system is Drupal. It's anything but a household word at this time. But it's gaining wide recognition as one of the most technically superior systems, allowing the design of just about any complex site imaginable.

After reviewing many content management systems, Wagaya decided that Drupal looked to offer the most functionality to clients. We're not alone in thinking that. Not long afterward, three senior software engineers at IBM reviewed some of the top collaborative website development engines, and choose Drupal for its combination of features, scalability, and flexibility.

IBM didn't hold back, though, on mentioning the drawbacks of Drupal. It has a more difficult installation process, and longer learning curve, than some of the competing systems. And we won't argue that one: it is tricky to grasp some of the finer points of Drupal, as well as the PHP and CSS hacking that go with the territory.

That's where Wagaya steps in. We're slogging through the hard stuff, so we can offer clients a ready-to-go Drupal-based system with the difficult installation and set-up already taken care of.

Free and open

There's another key advantage behind Drupal technology: it's an open-source content management system, built upon other open-source web and database technologies. That means nothing gets locked into proprietary, expensive software. Every part of the technological infrastructure is open to inspection and modification by the user. If, down the road, you should decide to migrate the entire site to some other infrastructure, all the data you've put into the site is easily extracted from the database, in an open format that makes it easy to carry elsewhere. (Technical note: the database used is MySQL, a powerful, popular, open source database that won't lock in your data.)

Related to the above: You need no special software to manage your site. After logging in to the site, you add and modify content right there from the same web browser. There's nothing to buy or install.

Core services

Wagaya Co. builds powerful, feature-packed websites that clients control. Rather than play the role of a traditional webmaster, extracting a fee for every update and tweak, Wagaya offers the initial setup and instruction, letting clients master their own sites from there.

Wagaya's sites are based on Drupal, a highly-acclaimed open source content management system and web publishing platform.

Other services

Wagaya Co. offers the following in addition to website services, with a special focus on Japanese-language solutions:

• Text: Translation, Technical writing
• Design: Print design
• IT support: Open source solutions, OS X solutions

Partner businesses

Iroha Translations
Specialists in Japanese / English translation

Paccess
Bringing businesses together around the Pacific Rim

Founder

Wagaya Co. founder Timm Tuttle is a Tokyo-based native of the US with 20 years' experience living and working in Japan. He spent 10 years as the senior trade expert for the Japan office of the Washington State economic development agency, assisting hundreds of exporters in building business in Japan.

He began developing interactive, multilingual CMS-based websites as a business-building tool in that position, and from 2006 set up Wagaya to offer those same tools to clients.

What's a "Wagaya"?

Wagaya is a Japanese word for home – my home, our home, or one's home, as context dictates – with the same connotations of comfort and warmth found in the English word. For a business born in Tokyo that builds online homes for clients to move into and make their own, Wagaya is an ideal name.

Wagaya is now using Drupal 5, the new version of the content management system that site publishers are talking about (and adopting!) everywhere.

What does that mean for clients? Some new features you'll appreciate are:

• A new, easy-to-use Administration page, with links to all administration functions
• More log reports, including a list of "page not found" hits
• A status report page, showing tech info – and any potential problems – for your site
• A nifty new theme called Garland, with colors you can change any time
• More flexibility than ever in creating custom content types
• The ability to change block visibility by user role
• Improved cacheing and other improvements for better performance
• Many other improvements

Wagaya's already made the upgrade for your site. New features for Drupal 5 are appearing all the time; look forward to non-stop improvements.

Tons of features

Start with dozens of initial features that Drupal makes possible, and add any of dozens more. Wagaya is working to add new features all the time.

Built-in features

Start with this list right from the get-go:

Optional features

A short list to start with:

The above is a representative sample only. Whatever your special needs, it can probably be incorporated into your site.