Is there a way to find out which CMS was used to build a particular website?

Question

I know a website is built using a CMS, but don't know which one. Any tell-tale signs that will reveal which CMS is being used?

Also, having decided to build a website using a CMS, what skills can I expect to have to learn (HTML, CSS, scripting etc)?

Answer 1

None usually - it's like asking "what language is a server running?".

However, unless they are being deliberately misleading you can typically use various indicators in much the same way as you assume ".php" files were generated by PHP and ".aspx" files were generated by ASP.NET.

Some indicators include the layout of the HTML/CSS, any comments in the HTML/CSS, names of hidden fields present on pages, any javascript file includes etc.

Try posting the link of the website you want to know about and I'll have a crack at guessing its CMS.

Answer 2

One way would be to take a look at the 'generator' meta tag.

For instance, a WordPress blog will often have something like

<meta name="generator" content="WordPress 2.9.2" />

In regards to which skills you will require to use a CMS effectively, this is somewhat dependant on what you are doing with the CMS and what CMS it is. Generally speaking it is a good idea to learn HTML and CSS for when things go wrong, and perhaps a bit of Javascript/jQuery.

Answer 3

I know a website is built using a CMS, but don't know which one. Any tell-tale signs that will reveal which CMS is being used?

Some CMS will leave traces behind in the HTML generated by them. WordPress for example usually adds something like

<meta name="generator" content="WordPress 2.x.y" />

in the head section.

Other systems do similar things (Vignette often adds an HTML comment at the end of the page), but there is no general rule for that.

Also, having decided to build a website using a CMS, what skills can I expect to have to learn (HTML, CSS, scripting etc)?

You will definitely need to become familiar with HTML and CSS. Depending on the amount of customizations you are planning, you may also need to learn a programming language like PHP, Perl, Python or Java.

Answer 4

The CMS's file system usually has a signature.

For instance, if you take a look at the .htaccess file in Drupal you'll see the system and theme folders are all set to access denied. So you can request those URLs and if you get 404 errors then it's not Drupal if you get 403, maybe it is. eg: example.com/modules

You can also check the paths to the images and CSS files for a clue. But you'll find this difficult if the output is cached.

Unfortunately, you'll need inside knowledge of a few CMSs if the code doesn't give you any obvious clues but I found that if you browse github you can get a good idea of the source code. See: http://github.com/benzea/joomla