The US Genfiles Project is built upon an open source database framework, using a content management system (CMS). Rather than having the content of a site contained within static HTML files, all of the content is housed in the site's database and displayed on demand. This allows editing of the content to be done on the fly by the site's adminstrator using any standard browser.

Like most CMS designs, our system makes use of modules that can be enabled to add functionality to the site. Many of these ar turned on by default when we set up a new site, but others can be added in as needed.