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CMS implementation issues

Sue.Steele@its.monash.edu.auManager ITS Web Centre

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CMS implementation issues

• Web site implementation issues are the same with or without a Content Management System

• A CMS simply automates some activities and business processes that are more tedious to do manually

– Approvals– Archiving– Previewing– Templating

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Governance

• Who owns the web site?• How tightly is the look controlled? • Who will be editing content?• Will there be audit trails?• Legal compliance requirements?

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Planning

• Find a champion/eager early-adopter• Re-affirm project goals• Resources required

– Simplicity vs complexity– Technical skills?

• New site or site migration?• Communication• Plan for cutover

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Initial setup

• Sizing issues• Platforms• User interfaces• Administration

– Delegation?

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Templates - goals

• Enable simple web page creation• Support the common look and

feel/branding• Reduce web page maintenance effort• Reuse assets

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When to template?

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Templates

• Separate content from presentation• Technical skills to develop presentation

templates• Capturing content

– Ease of creation– Ease of maintenance– Structuring unstructured content?

• Link to Monash CMS screenshots

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Workflows - goals

• Automate business processes• Ensure governance of web content• Manage site currency• Assisting web authors

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A simple approval workflowAuthor CreatesContent

CMS appliesMetadata

Approver checks/correctsWork

Metadata sent to the Search Engine

CMS publishes tothe web servers

ApprovedNot Approved

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Sample Monash workflows

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Content migration

• New site or migration?• Sadly the best result is often the human

touch• Can automate a migration if

– Site is large and you have good tech support

– There is some consistency to existing content/pages

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Can automate a migration

• Needs considerable preparation• Must be tailored for each site migrated• Can be done for inconsistent quality

content• Ideally still requires a human to view and

approve migrated content• New site and old site have same

structure

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Automated conversion

• Clean up content– non-compliant file names– non-standard HTML code– orphaned files– empty directories– charset– XHTML 1.0– abbreviations and acronyms

• Convert to CMS templates• Import converted content into CMS• Review content and publish

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pstagg$ ./html2cms-cleaner /web/test/Back-up the directory (Y/N)? yBacking-up:'/web/test'-->'/web/test-cleaner-bak'.File/folder expunging started...File/folder expunging completed!File/folder name cleaning started...File/folder name cleaning completed!File laundering started..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................File laundering completed!Expunging orphaned files started...Expunging orphaned files completed!Expunging empty directories started...Expunging empty directories completed!Finding local broken links started...Finding local broken links completed!File/folder flagging started...File/folder flagging completed!Finalising reports started...Finalising reports completed!

Done & Dusted!!!pstagg$s

Total Files Before = 13491Total Folders Before = 734Total Html Files Before* = 5166Total Files After = 3865Total Folders After = 416Total Html Files After* = 1583Orphaned Files = 9242Orphaned Exceptions = 24Renamed Files = 7839Flagged Files = 1091Expunged Files** = 9404Expunged Folders** = 318Updated Links = 4814External Links = 2570Broken Links = 617

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Best of both worlds?

• Design new site• Build site architecture in CMS• Convert old content that will be migrated• Import relevant content into the new

architecture

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CMS user experience

• Ease of creating/updating content• Familiar interfaces• Training implications• Integration with existing systems and

processes• One more thing to remember?

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Accessible CMS inputs and outputs

• Policies and standards• Management support?• Contributor education• Templates• Controlled environment eg corporate

browser and SOE standards• Vendor education• System safeguards?

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Metadata

• The more it can be automated the better• Our experience is that content authors

dislike extra steps• Find a good vocabulary• Can link people to relevant content