CMS - Editorial System

Basis
Expansion
Prozesse
Vertrieb
Marketing
Customer Journey

The most successful way to get visitors excited about your website again and again is to continuously revise and update the content of the platform. While at that time Google mainly read out keywords, the search engine now checks content for meaningfulness based on context and - rightly - classifies it in the ranking on this basis. This is why good content for winning new customers is now more sustainable than expensive SEM measures.

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.

 

Always Connected

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.

But what exactly does that mean and what are the benefits for you?You want to place editorial content such as documents and articles anywhere you want, for example on product group, product and process pages such as in the check-out process, etc., in order to enrich visitors and customers with more content. If you do not do this in this way, you will only have the catalog and product data for your texts. In large companies, however, this procedure is difficult to implement or is not planned.As a result, it is not possible to cache editorial pages completely as independent pages or to deliver them via Content Delivery Network (CDN), because the system then displays different content, such as editorial content, product data, and not to forget customer-specific prices.In theory, this means that every content must be retrieved dynamically from the database during page generation. This would burden the database too much with reading processes and significantly slow down the speed of your platform with every click.This is why we have developed and implemented extensive, multi-level and highly complex cache strategies.Here is an exampleAssuming there are 300 accessible pages and as personalization five web presences (= multi-store), two languages, two SessionStates (= visitor, known customer), four Areas (= where the content is placed on the page), 16 product areas (= e.g. product groups).Then there are 300 x 5 x 2 x 2 x 4 x 16 = 384,000 theoretically possible cache objects for all combinations of personalization. 
If all result sets are empty (= 2KB), this results in a memory capacity of 750 MB. If half of the result set is filled (= 20KB), the result is 3.75 GB of memory. Our methodology reduces the number of cache objects to a fraction and avoids many cache invalidations. After each invalidation, the data has to be requested from the database again at a high price.In the example above, we need a maximum of 600 cache objects. If all result sets are empty (= 2KB), this results in a memory size of 1.2 MB. If all result sets are filled (20+30 = 50KB), this results in a memory capacity of 30 MB. In practice, our methodology results in a speed advantage in the order of 1,000!

This makes us extremely fast in the delivery of content. Your visitors are happy about this and Google rewards you with a better ranking. A further advantage is: As soon as you activate a change, it is immediately visible to everyone - without delay and internationally.

 

Technical specifications

SEO features

  • Configuration and validation per document from
    • Talking URL
    • Title
    • Header
    • META description
    • META keywords

Performance characteristics

  • Fully browser-based content editor

  • Fast, fluid editing of editorial content. Add, edit, sort, delete items using the keyboard or a context menu using the right mouse button.

  • No reload of the page, only of change data

  • Clear, practical editor interface (convenient operation, quick familiarization)

  • Personal folder for the organization of self-created content

  • Preview of the FRONTEND before activation for customers

  • Code separation of content and design

  • Support for multiple designs despite identical content

  • Ensure link consistency. If a document is deleted in BACKEND, the system informs you that a navigation entry, for example, must first be deleted because it points to the document. This means that there are no data corpses (404 pages) that Google would rate negatively.

  • Document templates including template editor

  • Post templates including template editor

  • Layout templates including template editor

  • Linking content and products

  • Integration of content and business processes

  • Time-controlled contribution placement

  • Additional dynamics through automatically rotating content and sliders

  • Automatic generation of sitemaps and menu systems

  • Fully dynamic page creation

  • Multidomain capabl

  • Easy integration of external databases

  • Automatic archiving of editorial content

  • Support for any file format, such as images, text files, PDFs, videos, sound files and much more.

  • Picture gallery function

  • Multiple uploads of multiple images

  • Sites are always created in real time and therefore do not need to be generated.

  • Caching ensures high performance


Workflow

  • Definable process steps for the creation of editorial content

  • Role-based release process

  • Several editors can work independently on one website

  • Direct sending of documents and contributions (ad hoc workflow)

  • Status management of editorial content

Technical details

FRONTEND

Variations of the page contents depending on ...

  • from the visitor
  • ... the state of the visitor's session, unknown visitor (guest), Identified user - recognized via a cookie, authenticated user - with password verified and logged in
  • ... of the customer group
  • ... the virtual page. If, for example, you operate several Web sites in different CIs, but with structurally identical content, these are displayed in different design configurations (separation of logic and content).

 

BACKEND

Role

  • Chief editor
  • Editor

Reports

  • Activity
  • Page views
  • Events

Searches

  • Editorial contents
  • Navigation elements

Dialogue Assistants

  • Documents
  • Contributions
  • Navigation
  • SEO
  • Events

Care via the BACKEND

or via the FRONTEND Cockpit

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.

Always Connected

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.

Our CMS is seamlessly integrated into all modules.

Our CMS Caching Strategies

But what exactly does that mean and what are the benefits for you?

You want to place editorial content such as documents and articles anywhere you want, for example on product group, product and process pages such as in the check-out process, etc., in order to enrich visitors and customers with more content. If you do not do this in this way, you will only have the catalog and product data for your texts. In large companies, however, this procedure is difficult to implement or is not planned.

As a result, it is not possible to cache editorial pages completely as independent pages or to deliver them via Content Delivery Network (CDN), because the system then displays different content, such as editorial content, product data, and not to forget customer-specific prices.

In theory, this means that every content must be retrieved dynamically from the database during page generation. This would burden the database too much with reading processes and significantly slow down the speed of your platform with every click.

This is why we have developed and implemented extensive, multi-level and highly complex cache strategies.

Here is an example

Assuming there are 300 accessible pages and as personalization five web presences (= multi-store), two languages, two SessionStates (= visitor, known customer), four Areas (= where the content is placed on the page), 16 product areas (= e.g. product groups).

Then there are 300 x 5 x 2 x 2 x 4 x 16 = 384,000 theoretically possible cache objects for all combinations of personalization. 
If all result sets are empty (= 2KB), this results in a memory capacity of 750 MB. If half of the result set is filled (= 20KB), the result is 3.75 GB of memory. 

Our methodology reduces the number of cache objects to a fraction and avoids many cache invalidations. After each invalidation, the data has to be requested from the database again at a high price.

In the example above, we need a maximum of 600 cache objects. If all result sets are empty (= 2KB), this results in a memory size of 1.2 MB. If all result sets are filled (20+30 = 50KB), this results in a memory capacity of 30 MB. 

 

In practice, our methodology results in a speed advantage in the order of 1,000!

This makes us extremely fast in the delivery of content. Your visitors are happy about this and Google rewards you with a better ranking. A further advantage is: As soon as you activate a change, it is immediately visible to everyone - without delay and internationally.

Technical specifications

SEO features

  • Configuration and validation per document from
    • Talking URL
    • Title
    • Header
    • META description
    • META keywords

Performance characteristics

  • Fully browser-based content editor

  • Fast, fluid editing of editorial content. Add, edit, sort, delete items using the keyboard or a context menu using the right mouse button.

  • No reload of the page, only of change data

  • Clear, practical editor interface (convenient operation, quick familiarization)

  • Personal folder for the organization of self-created content

  • Preview of the FRONTEND before activation for customers

  • Code separation of content and design

  • Support for multiple designs despite identical content

  • Ensure link consistency. If a document is deleted in BACKEND, the system informs you that a navigation entry, for example, must first be deleted because it points to the document. This means that there are no data corpses (404 pages) that Google would rate negatively.

  • Document templates including template editor

  • Post templates including template editor

  • Layout templates including template editor

  • Linking content and products

  • Integration of content and business processes

  • Time-controlled contribution placement

  • Additional dynamics through automatically rotating content and sliders

  • Automatic generation of sitemaps and menu systems

  • Fully dynamic page creation

  • Multidomain capabl

  • Easy integration of external databases

  • Automatic archiving of editorial content

  • Support for any file format, such as images, text files, PDFs, videos, sound files and much more.

  • Picture gallery function

  • Multiple uploads of multiple images

  • Sites are always created in real time and therefore do not need to be generated.

  • Caching ensures high performance


Workflow

  • Definable process steps for the creation of editorial content

  • Role-based release process

  • Several editors can work independently on one website

  • Direct sending of documents and contributions (ad hoc workflow)

  • Status management of editorial content

To the module overview