With the ICONPARC CMS module there are theoretically no limits. In practice, however, it is indispensable to design structures and the Look&Feel or operating systems in a consistent way: This challenge is even greater the more editors work on the content simultaneously, nationally or internationally distributed. It is important that individual editors do not express their own design ideas. Rather, design and all design aspects in general should be implemented as they are structurally and visually prescribed by your company's brand management, taking into account the corporate identity. Otherwise you run the risk that your customers will find a colourful patchwork carpet in your external presentation - here in the e-business front-end - which will by no means do justice to your brand.

The ICONPARC CMS system automatically and conceptually ensures the uniform visualisation of all FRONTEND contents. Permissible degrees of freedom can be defined in fine granularity.
    
In the following we will introduce some elements of the CMS module.
  
Snippets
All editorial content is composed of individual content snippets. Simple snippets can represent a headline, an image, a video or a text block. More complex snippets allow for example a "text-image-link" block. In addition to the numerous snippet types included in the standard scope of delivery, any number of other snippet types can be defined within the scope of customization.

Templates
The combination of desired snippet types is configured to create templates for the actual editorial content, which can be easily managed in the backend of the solution with the CMS template assistant. For example, it can be specified that certain snippet types must always be present in content derived from a certain template. The order of the applicable snippet types can also be specified, as well as the permissibility of multiple occurrences of individual snippet types within the template.

Contributions
Editorial contributions can be entered and updated in the CMS Content Dialogue Assistant: These page components can be placed - personalized if required - at any number of locations within a web presence. If a contribution is modified, this automatically affects all places where this contribution appears. As part of the personalization process, visibility can be limited, for example, by time or by assigning it to certain visitor or customer groups.

Documents
The CMS Content Dialogue Assistant can also be used to create complete editorial pages: These documents can be used in particular as link targets, for example, for elements of a navigation menu as well as for landing pages or newsletters. Editorial contributions can be placed on suitable page areas.

Example: Definition and design of a simple article template
The following example should give an impression of how a coherent template definition - which can be combined with other elements - is created from many degrees of freedom.
First, the order of the assigned (and thus allowed) snippet types has been set. Each selected snippet can be a mandatory field and may not be left empty.
Headings must be written in capitals, in the color petrol and with bold formatted 32 point font in the house font, left-aligned.
For pictures, only the size ratios 2:1 or 1:3 are permitted. To ensure that the resolution is sufficient for all end devices, images must have a width of at least 2,000 pixels. After saving, images are automatically calculated in all required sizes and optimized for display on desktop PCs, tablets and smartphones.
Buttons always have a caption in the house font in capitals and with a 20 point size. The frame is 1 pixel thick in black. With MouseOver the button is coloured in dark blue with white lettering.

The clou: No editor can get past the template definition, i.e. it is not possible to change or overwrite the design. Your brand manager will take this with a sigh of relief, because in this way the promising combination of diverse content with uniform presentation is guaranteed.

We know from several decades of practical experience: It is perfectly normal for your company's CI to change over the years. Whenever this happens, it is not necessary to revise every single document or article: Rather, it is often sufficient to adapt the design definitions created for the FRONTEND. Afterwards, all content appears in the new Look&Feel! This is an invaluable advantage, not least for platforms with several 10,000 content pages, because: A completely new design can go live with just one click.

Seamless integration
We follow the principle of seamless integration for the modules from the ICONPARC E-Business Suite. But what exactly does this mean and what are the advantages for you? We have already presented how editorial content is basically managed in the form of articles and documents. Through seamless integration with other modules, you can also add content from the CMS module to pages from other modules. This includes, in particular, hit lists, product group pages and product detail views, as well as all process pages, for example the full shopping cart display and the pages of the checkout or registration process. The more you enrich your pages with successful editorial content, the more acceptance you gain from visitors and customers - and Google rewards your efforts with a better ranking.

At the same time, editorial content can be personalized to display appropriate content to different visitors. Personalization results in pages with slightly to highly individualized content. Conventional caching methods on page level fail at this point. In order to deliver pages with personalised content with best performance, ICONPARC has developed complex, multi-level caching systems on the page component level. The invalidation of partial contents is carried out on the same level, so that changes are also only read from the database once and are then available in an optimised cached form.

With the ICONPARC CMS module there are theoretically no limits. In practice, however, it is indispensable to design structures and the Look&Feel or operating systems in a consistent way: This challenge is even greater the more editors work on the content simultaneously, nationally or internationally distributed. It is important that individual editors do not express their own design ideas. Rather, design and all design aspects in general should be implemented as they are structurally and visually prescribed by your company's brand management, taking into account the corporate identity. Otherwise you run the risk that your customers will find a colourful patchwork carpet in your external presentation - here in the e-business front-end - which will by no means do justice to your brand.

The ICONPARC CMS system automatically and conceptually ensures the uniform visualisation of all FRONTEND contents. Permissible degrees of freedom can be defined in fine granularity.
    
In the following we will introduce some elements of the CMS module.
  
Snippets
All editorial content is composed of individual content snippets. Simple snippets can represent a headline, an image, a video or a text block. More complex snippets allow for example a "text-image-link" block. In addition to the numerous snippet types included in the standard scope of delivery, any number of other snippet types can be defined within the scope of customization.

Templates
The combination of desired snippet types is configured to create templates for the actual editorial content, which can be easily managed in the backend of the solution with the CMS template assistant. For example, it can be specified that certain snippet types must always be present in content derived from a certain template. The order of the applicable snippet types can also be specified, as well as the permissibility of multiple occurrences of individual snippet types within the template.

Contributions
Editorial contributions can be entered and updated in the CMS Content Assistant: These page components can be placed - personalized if required - at any number of locations within a web presence. If a contribution is modified, this automatically affects all places where this contribution appears. As part of the personalization process, visibility can be limited, for example, by time or by assigning it to certain visitor or customer groups.

Documents
The CMS Content Assistant can also be used to create complete editorial pages: These documents can be used in particular as link targets, for example, for elements of a navigation menu as well as for landing pages or newsletters. Editorial contributions can be placed on suitable page areas.

Example: Definition and design of a simple article template
The following example should give an impression of how a coherent template definition - which can be combined with other elements - is created from many degrees of freedom.
First, the order of the assigned (and thus allowed) snippet types has been set. Each selected snippet can be a mandatory field and may not be left empty.
Headings must be written in capitals, in the color petrol and with bold formatted 32 point font in the house font, left-aligned.
For pictures, only the size ratios 2:1 or 1:3 are permitted. To ensure that the resolution is sufficient for all end devices, images must have a width of at least 2,000 pixels. After saving, images are automatically calculated in all required sizes and optimized for display on desktop PCs, tablets and smartphones.
Buttons always have a caption in the house font in capitals and with a 20 point size. The frame is 1 pixel thick in black. With MouseOver the button is coloured in dark blue with white lettering.

The clou: No editor can get past the template definition, i.e. it is not possible to change or overwrite the design. Your brand manager will take this with a sigh of relief, because in this way the promising combination of diverse content with uniform presentation is guaranteed.

We know from several decades of practical experience: It is perfectly normal for your company's CI to change over the years. Whenever this happens, it is not necessary to revise every single document or article: Rather, it is often sufficient to adapt the design definitions created for the FRONTEND. Afterwards, all content appears in the new Look&Feel! This is an invaluable advantage, not least for platforms with several 10,000 content pages, because: A completely new design can go live with just one click.

We follow the principle of seamless integration for the modules from the ICONPARC E-Business Suite. But what exactly does this mean and what are the advantages for you? We have already presented how editorial content is basically managed in the form of articles and documents. Through seamless integration with other modules, you can also add content from the CMS module to pages from other modules. This includes, in particular, hit lists, product group pages and product detail views, as well as all process pages, for example the full shopping cart display and the pages of the checkout or registration process. The more you enrich your pages with successful editorial content, the more acceptance you gain from visitors and customers - and Google rewards your efforts with a better ranking.

At the same time, editorial content can be personalized to display appropriate content to different visitors. Personalization results in pages with slightly to highly individualized content. Conventional caching methods on page level fail at this point. In order to deliver pages with personalised content with best performance, ICONPARC has developed complex, multi-level caching systems on the page component level. The invalidation of partial contents is carried out on the same level, so that changes are also only read from the database once and are then available in an optimised cached form.