Ametys

Ametys is an open source Java based content management system (CMS) that has an easy to use interface and rich content features. The web CMS inserts some of the most innovative and best technologies assuring of reliability, scalability and sustainability to create powerful and content rich websites. It is modelled and built to handle from large enterprises, events, portals, extranets, intranets, public institutions and blogs to a single page website.

Ametys has been developed by Anyware Services, a Toulouse intergrator. It has been designed using several open source components, indigenously imbibed web ergonomics skills and years of experience in web solutions. Ametys’ components are based completely on a J2EE platform that, being an open source license, is free to use.

As per the official website, Ametys now powers more than 30,000 sites, resolving admin-related issues of predominantly large-scale websites. The CMS is presently used by more than 30 French higher education establishments and also by some public administrations for their websites (ministries and federal governments) and large industrial groups. Its ergonomics is very close to a standard office automation tool. This makes it extremely easy to master.

The Ametys CMS has designed in line with the extremely popular ribbon toolbar MS Office GUI by which the developers can compress and bundle many controls within a small space. Some of the features of Ametys CMS include: multi-site and multilingual platforms that shares content between sites, enhanced security and debug tools, front end editing, RSS feed support, easy customizable and improvable content type, compatibility and integration capability to several document types like Alfresco, document library manager etc. It offers tools like blogs, Wikis, front-end editing, comments feed, Twitter feed integration, share buttons and Open Social gadgets. The CMS supports web accessibility (WAI) standards like design, editorial, ergonomics, Maps, newsletter management, online survey management and web form management. Ametys CMS users do not require any specific skills or training to manage and create web design templates.

Content Repository API for Java (JCR), which has been leveraged to create Ametys is a Java specification for application programming interface (API) to access content repositories in a rather uniform way. The repositories brought to use in the content management systems to keep the content data rolling. Further, the metadata is also an essential part of the CMS, used primarily as versioning metadata. This specification was developed under the Java Community Process as JSR-170 (Version 1). The main java package worth mentioning is javax.jcr.

Ametys was first deployed in 2003 by a few Java and Web professionals and was soon developed and designed as an open source CMS in the year 2009 by Anyware Services that has its headquarters in France. Ametys latest version is the 3.73 and offers several improvements and security functionalities. The CMS requires compatibility with Java 6 or higher and Tomcat 6 or higher versions.

Chronological Development

Ametys is an open source professional CMS (content management system) based on Java.

Ametys was first created in 2003 by a group of passionate Java and Web experts. Since 2005 Ametys has been deployed in higher education, for which specific components for Jasig and uPortal were developed.

Later, in 2009, it was ported to a professional open source Content Management System by a company called Anyware Services (headquartered France).
Ametys has since then evolved through the collaboration from its community of developers, users and integrators.

The downloadable version of Ametys available today includes user authentication via CAS, LDAP and an editor administration called WYSIWYG.

Ametys 3.4 was released back in August 2012. This release saw some major improvements and newer functionalities, including some new plugins as glossary, UGC, FAQ, and blog management. It also came packed with new Social web practices.

Modules

At present, Ametys modules come packed with many features, some of which are:

  1.) Multi-Site and Multilingual Platform

  2.) Front-end Eiting

  3.) RSS Feed Support

  4.) Document Library Manager, Alfresco and other Document Library Integration

  5.) LDAP Integration

  6.) Website Tools: comments feed, Share buttons, Twitter feed integration, OpenSocial gadgets

  7.) Blogs and Wikis

  8.) Newsletter Management

  9.) Web Form Management

  10.) Online Survey Management

  11.) Maps

Alternatives to Ametys CMS

Popular alternatives to the Ametys CMS include the following:

Magnolia: This is an open-source Java-based CMS that uses a JCR to store and retrieve data. Magnolia has a modular architecture wherein the system core and features such as cache and page editor are packed into separate modules.

Enonic XP: Enonic XP is an open-source content management system developed by a Norwegian company Enonic. It can be used for building websites, PWAs (progressive web apps) and APIs. Its functionalities include a drag and drop editor, advanced image editing, responsive user interface, support for multiple languages, and bulk publishing.

dotCMS: This is an open-source Java-based CMS for managing content driven websites and applications. The product comes with a community edition of their software that’s free to download and use.