cms integration

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CMS Integration Checklist

Contents

CMS FUNCTIONAL FLOW 3

CONSUME 4

PROCESS 6

DELIVER 10

RETAIN 15

CMS INTEROPERABILITY 17

CMS INTEGRATION PROCESS 19



CMS Functional Flow

Modern CMS systems are all essentially designed to facilitate the same functional flow. A platform needs to be able to Consume, Process, Deliver and Retain content. Each of these steps, however, can entail and require a variety of features. Understanding the intended use and expectations for a new CMS at each of these functional points will clarify the platform’s prospective role and, subsequently facilitate the integration process.



Consume

Content Migration

• What is the current content inventory (id, name, type, source, keywords, and owner)?

• What are the sources for the content import?

• One time or ongoing for each of the content source? What are the frequencies of updates and specific rules for each of the ongoing migration?

• Content discrimination - is there redundant, outdated or trivial content?

• Any content refactoring on migration?

• Are there any requirements for special or sensitive content migration?

• Is there any need to encrypt, re-encrypt the migrated content?

• Will there be a “freeze” to avoid changing of migrated content?

• What are the mechanisms (Scrape/API/Push/Pull/Batch)?

• What are the formats (XML/JSON/Flat Files/Database)?

• How is content import verified?



Content Entry

• How is the content going to be entered into the systems (Direct into CMS / Uploaded from Microsoft Office documents?

• What is the content break-down?

• What are the different groups of producers that are intended to enter the content?

• What are the volumes and frequency of the content entry and update?

• Is in-context (as opposed to form-based) content entry important?

• Does the content need to be previewed after entry?

• Are there external sources for importing content? What are the mechanisms (API/Push Pull), access (HTTP/FTP/File system/Database) and formats (XML/JSON/CSV)?

Digital Asset Import • What kind of assets are going to be imported? Images, documents, video?

• What are file formats?

• How many and how often?

• What are approximate file sizes? What is approximate total size?

• Bulk, or individual import, or both?

• Manual, or automated, or both?

• Any trans-coding or transformation needs?

• What is the asset organization system (taxonomies, tags, etc.)?

• Is there metadata to be ingested or captured?

• Who is expected to do the light editing (cropping, rotation etc.)? Is it to be done pre or post-ingestion?



Process

Content Migration

• What are the sources for the content import?

• One time or ongoing for each of the content source? What are the frequencies of updates and specific rules for each of the ongoing migration?

• Content discrimination - is there redundant, outdated or trivial content?

• Any content refactoring on migration?

• Are there any requirements for special or sensitive content migration?

• Is there any need to encrypt, re-encrypt the migrated content?

• Will there be a “freeze” to avoid changing of migrated content?

• What are the mechanisms (Scrape/API/Push/Pull/Batch)?

• What are the formats (XML/JSON/Flat Files/Database)?

• How is content import verified?



Site Structuring

• Is there a need for inheritance?

• Is there a need to break inheritance?

• Single site or multi-site?

• Single or multiple target markets?

• What is domain strategy?

• How do markets relate to countries/languages and how does this affect the structure?

• What are the differences between content and structure of multi-sites?

• How do design, structure, and content propagate between site section/sites?

• Is there any synchronization between site section/sites?

• Are there needs for content inheritance between sites? Is there need to break the inheritance?

• Are there Microsites?

• Will the CMS structure map to the URL structure?

• Are there non-browsable/non-searchable pages?

• Domain strategy?

Search Indexing

• Is there a full-text search?

• Are there custom boosting/relevancy requirements?

• Is there taxonomy to index content to?

• Does the site need faceted search?

• Are there search suggestions? What are criteria for suggestions?

• How is multi-lingual search handled?

• Is there a parameterized search based on date, properties, etc.?

• What are the internal querying needs?

• Are there external search systems or providers?

Translation

• What content gets translated?

• Is there a concept of “origin” language?



• What are target languages for each content group?

• When is translation intended to start/finish?

• How is the content update handled/synchronized?

• Does the company use a vendor? Internal staff?

• Does the translation get approved before being considered done?

• What is a vendor interaction mechanism? Open API? Project-based system?

• Does the company pay per word or per FTE?

• What is the translation turnaround per project?

• What is the translation turnaround for minor updates?

• Is there translation memory?

• How do changes in completed translation propagate back into the memory?

• How are language dependent digital assets and documents handled?

Content Analysis

• Is there off-line content analysis?

• What is the scope (vertical and horizontal)?

• What is the frequency?

• Where are the results stored and for how long?

• Is there a content update trigger?

Client Targeting

• Are there user accounts and profiles?

• What is the master repository of client data?

• Is there one or multiple CRM instances?

• Is CRM access read-only?

• Is there client-specific content?

• What is user segmentation (sex/geography/age)?

• Is there A/B or multivariate testing intended?

• Are there recommendations, customer intelligence etc.?



Workflows

• What are the intended roles?

• What are the organizational groups?

• What are the business processes?

• What are the steps for each workflow?

• What are the notification requirements?

• Are there delegation/escalation needs?

• What is the approval process? Sequential? Parallel? Multi-stage?

• How are workflows annotated/commented on?

• What is the visibility of workflow comments?

• Are there external users?

• What do external users have access to?



Deliver

Publishing

• What is the frequency of publishing?

• How often are single pages published/updated?

• How often full branches are published/updated?

• What needs to be re-published (one page affecting others)?

• Do some of the digital assets need to be published independently of the pages?

• Is content entered at-the-time or is it programmed ahead via content scheduling?

• Is there a published content replication between multiple hosts?

• Do producers need to time-travel the web-site?

• Are there multi-stage publishing needs?

• Is there content publishing scheduling? Are there multiple schedulers for one page?

• What are the preview requirements?

• Is there a need for all-or-nothing batch publishing?

• Are there requirements around on-line vs. downtime publishing?



Syndication

• Are there RSS/atom feeds, or other formats resulting from publishing?

• What type of content is available (pages/video/images/)?

• Are there other content consumers?

• Are the consumers internal or external?

• What are the means of syndicating content (push/pull/batch)?

• What are the technologies (REST/WS/FTP)?

• Are there additional requirements (authentication, authorization, consumer user man agement, etc.)?

• Scraping/abuse detection/prevention?

Multiple Platform Targeting

• Is it a mobile web site? Is the same site supposed to support phones and tablets or will there be separate solutions?

• Is it a single mobile site or a part of series of mobile sites (existing or planned)?

• Are there additional mobile apps planned?

• What are the other non-standard browser platforms for the content distribution?

• What are the specifics of each platform (form factor, touch navigation etc.)?

• What are the layout, content and image adjustments needed for other platforms?

• Is there a different page structure needed?

• What is the process of updating the content for each platform?

• How do the specifics of the video, flash and other digital assets need to change for each platform?

• Is there a downward scalability of the visual assets based on the platforms’ varied connection speed?

• Device detection strategy?

Localization

• What are the alternative content branches for each language?

• Is there a geolocation mechanism requirement?

• Is there a need for alternative images, text in the same language to be displayed, de pending on location?

• Right-to-left screens?



• Is it unit or currency conversion?

• Are there any geographic restrictions?

Local Caching

• What is the caching mechanism?

• Which assets are locally cached?

• How often is the cache invalidated?

• What are the different triggers for invalidation (TTL, Re-Publishing, etc.)?

• Is there a caching for search query results and other more dynamic content?

CDN Caching

• What CDN is going to be used? Are there one or multiple CDNs?

• What is cached on the CDN?

• How often the content is invalidated?

• Is content actively or passively invalidated?

• How does content end up on CDN (upload/cache)?

• Less mutable content (long TTL) vs. more mutable content (short TTL)?

• Are there additional CDN requirements (in-code link replacements, specific header data, device-detection, etc.)?

• Need for ESI (edge-side-includes)?

• Any geographical targeting/limiting?

Performance

• What is the shape of traffic? Time-specific peak loads?

• Can sessions be avoided?

• How effective is CDN?

• Number of authors? Usage during the day?

• How much personalized content is there?

• What is the desire load time for home page and/or other pages?



Session Management

• Are there user logins?

• Are there user transactions?

• Where are the client accounts managed?

• Where are the client profiles managed?

• Is there a forced logout after an inactivity period?

• Is there any caching possible for any of the session content?

• Is there any abuse detection/prevention?

SEO

• What are the requirements for URL generation?

• Do URL’s need to be localized?

• Are there any specific requirements for META tags handling?

• Is automatic generation of site-map required?

• Any specific Robots.txt requirements?

• Does site-map or new pages have to be submitted to search engines after publishing?

• What areas of the site should be prevented from crawling?

Customer Experience Management

• Is there E-Commerce requirement?

• Is there user-targeted content to be displayed?

• Is there Marketing, E-Mail, SMS, etc. integration?

• Are there Social features?

• Are there Community features?

• Are there legal, or certification requirements (PCI, child-safety, confidentiality, etc.)?

UGC

• Is there User-Generated content?

• What is the extent of the UGC? Blog(s), message board(s), etc.?

• Who can contribute? How often?



• Is there a verification process before allowing to post/comment (account history, user name check for offensive content, etc.)?

• Is the verification automated or manual?

• Is there any UGC administration and/or moderation?

• Is the administration/moderation automated or manual?

• Who is responsible for UGC administration/moderation (internal/external/site)?



Retain

Content Archiving

• Are there regulatory requirements with regards to data retention?

• Is there archival policy in the organization?

• Which content is archived?

• Is there content versioning?

• What is the projected growth of the archive?

• Is there expiration for any of the content or digital assets?

• Is periodic purge needed?

• Is archived content available externally?



Content Backup

• How often does the backup occur?

• Where are the backups stored?

• Snapshot, full, or incremental backup? Content and digital assets backup?

• On-line or downtime backup?

• How long are the backups retained?

• What are the possible restoration/recovery options?

Audit Trail

• What are the audit needs, and what audit data needs to be collected?

• Is the OOTB audit functionality enough?

• Is the audit data backed-up and retained?

• How often is the audit data harvested, and how long is it retained?

Statistics and Reports

• What statistics are collected (component usability, page views, browse patterns etc.)?

• What reports are needed and how often?

• What are the main goals and funnels?

• What is the goal of reporting (marketing, e-commerce, performance, usability)?

• Is there an external integration with analytics platforms? Several?

• Does analytic data have impact on content delivery?

• Does the system need to be integrated with BI or ERP for traceability of reports?



CMS Interoperability

Modern CMS systems are all essentially designed to facilitate the same functional flow. A platform needs to be able to Consume, Process, Deliver and Retain content. Each of these steps, however, can entail and require a variety of features. Understanding the intended use and expectations for a new CMS at each of these functional points will clarify the platform’s prospective role and, subsequently facilitate the integration process.

Internal Systems

CMS User management

• Is there an existing LDAP, AD or any other centralized user management system?

• Does it need to be used to manage CMS users?

• Does there need to be any integration with an existing HR system(s)?

Business

• Is there a need to integrate with an existing CRM, accounting or ERP system(s)?

• Is there a need for an E-Commerce system integration?



• Are there online transactions?

• What are the business specifics (subscriptions, flash sales, etc.)?

• Which part of e-commerce is responsibility of CMS? Shopping cart? Checkout?

• Is there an existing user management system for the web clients?

• Is there an external product management system used that needs to be integrated?

• Is there an existing BI platform that needs to be integrated with the CMS?

External Systems

Client Verification

• Is there a credit card verification system used?

• Is there an address verification system used?

Ads

• Is there external or internal ad engine integration?

• Is the targeting locale, platform, and content-specific?

• Is there any tracking required for the ad displays, clicks etc.?

• Is there a reporting integration with the engine?

Social Media

• Is there social profiles integration?

• Should there be any widget-based social integration (Twitter feeds, Facebook apps etc.)

• Are there any web component embedded with social networks?

Videos Delivery

• Should the videos be managed by an external service?

• What are the players and formats?

• What are the target platforms?

• What’s the organization structure (tags, metadata, etc.)?

• Is there a graceful downgrade for the slower speed/low resolution devices?

• How many versions are needed per asset?

• Are there any restrictions for video access?

• What is the process of outdated videos cleanup?

• Are there any integration between video service and CDN?



CMS Integration ProcessIntegration projects for CMS platforms consist of a multitude of overlapping and interdependent work streams. The dependencies can be purely technical, organizational, or a complex combina-tion of both. The overall complexity also increases as the number of parties and vendors involved into the project goes up.

Planning

• What is the intended feature scope?

• What’s the project plan?

• What are the goals, dates, deliverables, intended project style (waterfall, agile, etc.)?

• Is the intent to go “all or nothing,” or is there vision of multiple phases and iterations?

• What is the expertise of the in-house IT group(s)?

• What are the technology preferences? Languages, DBs, platforms etc.

• What is the involvement of the vendor?

• What is the support agreement? Professional services involvement?

• What design artifacts are being provided? Are there PSDs, UI elements, HTML, JS, CSS etc.?

• Is there an agency taking care of the design?



• Are they available throughout the project?

• How detailed are the specs?

• What are the functional specs, UI specs, performance spec etc.?

• How dynamic/alive are the specs?

• After the specs are finalized, what are the change control procedures for introducing, or changing features and functionality

Development

• What is the selected platform?

• What’s the repository storage type (DB, XML, JCR etc.)?

• What’s the existing functionality?

• What languages are supported, preferred?

• What’s the documentation available?

• What are the best/recommended practices?

• Is the CMS intended to be a master source for any data (MDM)?

• What are the other master sources and data synchronization considerations?

Environments

• What is the intended topology of the hosts and environments?

• What is the frequency of the system updates and how are they distributed?

• What are the product licenses?

• Is there an available monitoring system?

• If not, what would fit better into the infrastructure?

• What needs to be monitored? When are the alerts distributed?

• Should the system attempt “self-healing” if an issue occurs?

• What are the prospective needs? What are the hardware resources available?

• Planning for vertical vs. horizontal approach, and what is best supported by the platform.

• Where is the system intended to be hosted? In-house, cloud, SaaS, or a combination of the above



Migration

• How much of the existing content needs to be migrated?

• What are the migration timelines?

• What are the formats and available mechanisms for migration?

• Can the migration occur incrementally?

• Are there images, documents and other digital assets that need to be migrated?

• Can all of the migration be automated, or manual input will be required?

• Does the old URL structure need to be supported?

• Do both, old and new systems need to be running together? Is there a concurrent running, or phased and incremental migration strategy?

Content Entry • Who provides the new copy for the content entry?

• Who will be entering the content?

• What is the timeline for the copy delivery?

• Can the content be inputted automatically, or all of it needs to be entered manually?

• What is the degree of content authoring/formatting that needs to be accomplished?

Localization • What are the intended languages for translation?

• Is any localization intended for the CMS UI itself?

• What is the translation timeline?

• Can the translation start before the content is entered into the CMS?

• What is the pre and post-integration exchange format?

• What is the pricing scheme? Turnaround time?

• Who can verify and approve the translations? Are there resources available in-house

Integration • What are the other systems?

• What is the integration work that needs to be done on both sides?

• What are the technologies, protocols and locations (internal/external) for each system?

• What is the ability and availability of the resources to work on the other (non-CMS) side of integration?



• What is the integration timeline? When each point needs to be connected?

• Is there integration with the existing system? What is the extent? What are the goals? How permanent is it expected to be?

Testing • What is the testing schedule?

• Is there a test-plan, use-cases, anything that can serve as a testing roadmap?

• Are there resources to perform in-house testing?

• Is there a UAT plan?

• Is there a need for separate “back-end” testing? What framework/approach (JUnit, Mock Objects etc.)

• Is there a need for automated Web UI testing? What framework, scripts (Selenium, Silk, etc.)?

• Is there a separate effort to test CMS UI?

• Is there a need for memory profiling? What tools should be used

Support • Should there be training organized for the users?

• Should there be training organized for the in-house developers?

• Is there a separate, post-launch support agreement? What is the scope (bug-fixing, new features, etc.)?

• Is there a plan for the post-launch features?

• Is there a plan for the next phase?

• Is there a process for requesting and delivering new features post-launch?



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cms integration

Technology

content import

migrated content

content inheritance

content source

content break

trivial content

content discrimination

content refactoring