The initial framework was developed in 2001 and has been steadily enhanced by the user community including significant contributions by the University of North Carolina. Six year ago, UNC conducted a comprehensive analysis of CMS products and discovered no cost-effective solutions capable of meeting the Web content needs of UNC-General Administration. The decision was made to leverage work already completed on the framework to develop a stable, feature-rich solution. The first version of the system was deployed into production in 2002. It has been proven to be a reliable, robust product in the years that followed.
In 2006, the decision was made to transfer all rights and interest in the CMS to the First Summit Group, LLC ("FSG"). The goals were to develop a scalable support model, provide leadership on a product roadmap, and to coordinate efforts among all community members (including those outside of UNC). In November, 2006, the original architect joined FSG and has been leading the effort to migrate support outside of UNC.UNC was the first to acquire a commercial license for the SummitCMS Web Platform. Altogether, more than 300 organization and programs have now licensed the open-source framework. It is available in under two licenses: a Community License and a Commercial License. While both licenses have fees associated with them, the Community License is available at a discount with the understanding that all code and documentation enhancements will be provided to FSG for possible inclusion into the code base. These enhancements may not be directly distributed to others without authorization by FSG. This permits the stewards to certify compatability of the code and compliance with guidelines. The Commercial License differs in that it does not obligate licensees to share their improvements with the user community.
Features include an easy-to-use browser-based Content Management System with WYSIWYG editing, simple installation wizard, a workflow/approval system, page locking, content versioning with rollback capabilities, customizable templates and themes, collaboration support, stylesheet-based presentation layer, and individual/group/role-based access control.
While no programming knowledge is required to productively use the CMS, those with programming skills may customize and enhance the SummitCMSTM platform. By using the application development framework, it is possible to easily extend the functionality of the CMS by adding new modules and integrating with existing third-party applications. The web application framework upon which the system is built leverages PHP, offers an easy API for integrating or extending functionality, and handles security/presentation/navigation functions of the site.
Additional information on the SummitCMS Web Platform may be found at http://www.summitcms.org.