An Open Book

Neil Cumins delivers a potted history of Umbraco…

In the ten years since Danish programmer Niels Hartvig unveiled Umbraco, his open-source CMS system has already become a global phenomenon. Today, it’s estimated that 250,000 sites around the world utilise this flexible C# package. These include household-name clients such as Peugeot, Microsoft, Costa and Heinz.

For those readers who are more familiar with C&A than CMS, content management systems enable companies to quickly and easily edit the information that appears on their website. This article was uploaded onto the VPS.net website using a CMS, and so are most things displayed online that weren’t part of the original site design or content. Any added information is stored in a database where it can be quickly accessed and adjusted whenever required.

Because Umbraco is open source software, users are free to create their own modifications and plug-ins for it. A trawl through the projects that are currently available reveals everything from a bit.ly URL abbreviator to a plug-in allowing HTML5 videos to be displayed,in tandem with a Flash Player fall-back for older systems. Plug-ins allow users to customise their Umbraco package to meet specific requirements – online retailers will want ecommerce and payment functionalities, for example.

The our.umbraco.org website acts as a central hub where an estimated 70,000 programmers, users and enthusiasts can troubleshoot problems and develop new uses and applications. There are even conferences in Copenhagen each year, when hundreds of Umbraco devotees gather to hear keynote speeches and discuss the software in eye-watering detail. Tickets are already on sale for the 2015 event at just €300 per person, so book early to avoid disappointment.

Formal support is provided by two hundred partner organisations and certified Umbraco developers around the world, from Sweden to South America. These companies offer the technical backup that is often lacking from open-source software providers – you could count Umbraco’s total workforce on your fingers. However, there are paid support packages available directly from Umbraco, providing help with everything from architectural advice to online tutorial videos.

Following its launch in 2004, Umbraco has gone through numerous revisions. Some of these have been point releases, to fix bugs, others have been major version releases, to change features. The system is currently on version seven. Because open-source software generally relies on beta testing by volunteers and human guinea pigs, it can be quite glitchy on first release. Then again, anyone who struggled to use early versions of Windows Vista will be acutely aware that even the industry giants have released software that needed months of beta testing before it was fit for public consumption.

Although you might not even be aware of it, the chances are that more and more websites will be powered by Umbraco’s open-source content management software in the future.
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