s1 2gx 2011 - content management with a custom cms

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Content Management with aCustom CMS

10/28/2011

IntroductionJim Shingler• Lead Technical Architect for Big Lots• Beginning Groovy and Grails – Co-Author• Griffon In Action – Co-Author• Co-Creator of FallME (IOC Container for JavaME)• Grails and Griffon plugin contributor• Speaker

Agenda

• Background• Motivation• Options• Approach



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BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND – WWW.BIGLOTS .COM

Biglots is the nation's largest broadline closeout retailer, Big Lots has the power to negotiate the best deals in the business. We sell a broad range of high-quality, brand-name products, including consumables, seasonal items, furniture, housewares, toys, electronics, home decor, tools and gifts.


Lots of Items, over 325KNot all items in all 1400 storesWebsite has to handle this

VERY Dynamic, High frequency of content change.(5-15 Content pushes per week)


Business Partner – Marketing

Marketing owns website, sets functional direction, sets functional priorities, responsible for content creation and management.


Business Functional Requirements / Objectives

Bring Website development in-houseFaster content creation and

deploymentDo More with Less – previous solutions

was10 people across multiple disciplinesGive Business Partner more controlNo Style, Layout Changes


IT Non-Functional Reqs / ObjsMinimize IT Support requiredSupportable by ITMust run on Windows ServersMust use SqlServer DBGive Business Partner tools they

need Java based


Dynamic Blurb

Dynamic Menus Based on Depart. and Category

Footer Content Managed

Slide Show Content Managed

Featured Items Content Managed

Widgets / Ads Content Managed

HEADER

Advertisement Slide Show

Advertisements

Featured Items

Footer

Static Menu

Menu

Dept / Categ

ory

Blurb


Dynamic Blurb







Department Overview

Dynamic Menus Based on Depart. & Categories

Categories

Adverts.Dynamic by Page


Category Items


Item Details

Related Items



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MOTIVATIONS

MOTIVATION

Make it easy for Business Partner to create and maintain content

MANAGED CONTENT REQUIREMENTS

DepartmentsCategories ItemsAdsBlurbsFootersMediaPrices


5-15 Content releases / pushes per weekMust support development of multiple

content release at same time Date Driven

Dept, Cat, Item, Ads, Price, Media, . . . Approval WorkflowTime Machine - view site “AsOf”Maintain the product / item hierarchy


Store based Restrictions – Ads, Items, Depts (Not all items in all stores)

Membership Level RestrictionsAds restricted by Rewards Club Membership Level

Multiple Media Types Pics, Videos, . . .


Support SEO (Search Engine Optimization)<a href="/browse/halloween/candy-party-

supplies"><title>BigLots.com - Hot Deals …<meta name="keywords" …<meta name="description“ …<img alt="Tell Me More“<img … title="Oct 12-18 online ad"/>



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OPTIONS

OPTIONS

Drupal – PHP Joomla - JavaAlfresco - JavaWeeceem – Grails / GroovyBuild Own – Grails / Groovy

OPTIONS

Consistent PatternHigh Learning CurveDifficult to integrateDidn’t meet major functional

requirementsStill have to build major components

OPTIONS

Build OwnNeed to maintain product hierarchy and

additional data.CMS just requires a couple of additional

fields, view templates and processes.



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APPROACH

APPROACH – ENTITY MODEL

Core Product

Structure


Dynamic Blurb






HEADER

Advertisement Slide Show

Advertisements

Featured Items

Footer

Static Menu

Menu

Dept / Categ

ory

Blurb


Dynamic Blurb






APPROACH – ENTITY MODELAd, Dept, &

Item are restricted by

Store


Ad, Dept, Cat, Item have media associated with them


Ad, Dept, Cat, Item have work flow statuses. Is the change approved?

APPROACH – ENTITY MODELDifferent Ads depending on club membership


General Content, Footer, Aisle by Aisle, . . .

APPROACH

Create Admin function for Mkt – ThorProtect access to ThorApprove content changesPromote Content Changes



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APPROACHC R E ATE AD MIN FU NC TIO N FO R

MKT – TH O R



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APPROACHPRO TE C T AC C E S S TO TH O R



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APPROACHAPPRO VE C O NTE N T C H ANG E S



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APPROACHPRO MO TE C O NTE N T

C H AN G E S

Staging

Prod

Business Partner Promotes Content to

Production

Promote based upon workflow status and last

change date

Streamed as JSON to Controller in production

APPROACH

Object / Entity ModelTemplatesTag Libs



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LET’S LOOK AT A PROTOTYPE(CODE )

Q & A DIS CUS S ION

Question and Answer

Discussion

@JShinglerhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/jimshingler

http://jshingler.blogspot.com/ShinglerJim at gmail.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimshingler

http://jshingler.blogspot.com/



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Thank You

s1 2gx 2011 - content management with a custom cms

Technology