Dynamic Web page generation lets Web technicians create an overall template once, with fields for customer-specific information. Then servers can pour specific data into the template to create individualized pages on demand. The content server automatically pulls information from the database, wrestles it into appropriate formats and stuffs the correct data into templates, generating new and updated pages automatically. Employees with little or no Web training can update content directly without ever touching a Web page. They simply enter information into database forms.
Design changes can propagate rapidly and automatically throughout an entire site.
And most content-management systems include a workflow system that routes data automatically from creator to editor to approver. They can often lock unauthorized users out of the creation and edit cycle and provide an audit trail for error tracking and version control that allows users to return to a previous version of the site. Most content-management systems support tagging structures that allow content reuse without manual reformatting. XML, the best known, uses an HTML-like structure to describe the data on a page. Content-management systems also generally employ scripting languages such as Tool Command Language and JavaScript.