May 10th, 2007

WCMS Customization. Best Practices.

Prepared by: Irina KrastelevaWCMS Lead Analyst, CGI

INTRODUCTIONIrina Krasteleva

@krasteleva

• Lead Analyst for CGI Information Management Practice

• In WCMS development since 2001• Open source and enterprise

platforms• Various implementations for private,

non-profit and government clients

CUSTOMIZATIONWCMS Customization – development work to implement a functionality that is not provided by CMS out of the box.

Image source: Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/nearnearfuture/2426502934

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Customization Example: Metadata Manager

• Very unique requirements for metadata

• Selected CMS platform offers basic support for page metadata

<PAGE METADATA>

PARENT PAGES

WEB SERVICES

Terms inXML

DATA FEED

English

French

AUTO-GENERATED

8 Mandatory fields25 Optional fields

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Customization Example: Metadata Manager

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Before we start…

Planning Phase• Requirements analysis must - should - could• Proper CMS evaluation process

• What is offered out of the box• What are the limitations• What is require a customization

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Before we start…

• Be ready to do custom work with selected CMS platform• Technology• Development API• Ability for customization• Limitation of CMS

NOT EVERYTHING CAN BE DONE WITH CMS CUSTOMIZATION!

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Types of CMS Customization

User

Interface

Customization

Functional

Customization

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User Interface Customization

• Custom Help Menus• Custom Editorial Navigation• Custom Admin Page• And many more…

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Common Areas for Customization

Workflows• Custom tasks in the workflow process

Templates• Advance templates• Navigation

Integration with third-party tools• Search• Web Analytics tools • Document Management Systems

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Common Areas for Customization

Content Migration• Custom development to optimize content migration process• Execution of content migration procedures

CUSTOM DEVELOPMENT

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Back again to planning…

• Technology • Company standards. Preferences of your technical team.

Windows vs Linux, Java / PHP / .NET and etc…

• Development interface• CMS custom interface for development• Integration with standard development environment:

Eclipse, Visual Studio

• What API is offered for custom development• Language• Areas for customizations

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Development types

• Following development standards • Plugins• Extensions• Areas for custom code, or call custom applications

• Hacks and tricks• UI tweaks, JavaScript / AJAX

• Re-building core functionality (for open source solutions)

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Development Communities

Community

Technology Community

SUMMARY

@krasteleva• Choose your CMS wisely to minimize

the number of customization• Choose the right technology and

development API for your team• Always follow CMS standards for

customization• Offer User Interface Customization

for your editors• Common Customizations are

> Workflow> Templates> Third party integration

• Pay attention to Content Migration