iwmw 2003: b8 implementation of a commercial content management system

Collage at Cass Business School

12th June 2003 - IWMW - UKC

Cass Business School• Major UK Business School• Requirements

MarketingProgrammes, research, students, involvement

Internal Communications“Intranet”, Teaching & learning

External communicationsAlumni, Press, Events

AccessibilityMulti-browser support


Website History• Version 1

Hand rolled, limited• Version 2

Out-sourced - unmanageable• Version 3

Early CMS - Control but loss of flexibility• Version 4

Collage! - Control & Flexibility


Resources

• Team of three• Branding toolkit• Some consultancy on implementation• Systems support• Lotus Domino for DB Apps• But - no developer resources


Process• Technology Immersion• Site Architecture• Template and CSS Development• Clean up old content• Migration of content• Tidying up• Switch on - to new domain at same time


Why CMS?• Standards• Control• Support• Brand• Versioning• Templates• Self managing links• The future


Why (Commercial) - Collage? - Standards• J2EE• HTML 4.0• JavaScript• CSS• XML (The future?)• Collage does not get in the way• LDAP


Why Collage? - Control

• One definitive version• Not editing live site• Fine grained security model• Approval cycle• Versioning• Compliance - SENDA (Section 508)


Why Collage? - Web team’s friend• Remote support - WYSIWIS• Collage paradigm easy to assimilate• Self generating navigation elements• Real time link management• Integration with Dreamweaver (itself customisable)• Audit log - who did what and when?• Versioning & rollback• Web interface, ftp, WebDAV• Components - re-usable chunks


Why Collage? - Brand

• In 2002 City ->Cass rebrand• Need to implement brand right through site• But need for flexibility & differentiation• Intelligent Templates with asset metadata• Style sheets & Image assets


Why Collage? - Users friend• Versioning - A huge reassurance for all users• Staging server• Content contribution - simple interface• Scheduled deploy• Easy to get support - WYSIWIS• Link management• Only simple formatting needed for attractive end product


Why Collage? - Templates

• Nested templates• Intelligence• Majority of site implemented in one template• Integration with asset metadata


Why Collage? - Self managing links• Drag and drop assets and links are

remembered• Components - self describing information


Why Collage? - The future• Integration with Lotus Domino through J2EE• Extensible

Store information as XMLPut it in front of Oracle 9iRun it on Linux

Multiple Collage Servers/Database Servers

• Office -> PDF Conversion (GhostScript)

iwmw 2003: b8 implementation of a commercial content management system

Education