We launched another great site for ITW Texwipe at http://www.texwipe.com! This site seamlessly blends the functionality of Hannon Hill’s CMS (the Products, Industries and Technical Data menus) with a full-featured ecommerce store (the Buy Texwipe menu), with shared navigation and design. This is the first project that integrated both products at the same time and, thanks to hard work by pretty much everyone on the software dev team at one point or another. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Other interesting features of the site:

• Ability to “hide” pages from different geographical regions, based on the “region” selection of the visitor in the footer.

• Transition of transactional applications from old system to new
• Email verification required to place order

Here’s a very nice article about website navigation from our partners over at Hannon Hill, the developers of our preferred content management system Cascade Server:  Designing Your Navigation – Hannon Hill Corp.

I’ll also add a content matrix template that I use to record a site’s current and redesigned structure during the analysis phase of the project, before development begins.  There are two tabs in the spreadsheet– one for “current site” and one for “redesigned site.”  The redesigned site is pretty self-explanatory, but the current site information is often neglected in anticipation of starting the new project.  While it may seem superfluous to annotate a site that will be redesigned, documenting the current site ensures that no sections are “lost” during the transition (note that unless the current site map is maintained dynamically, these are rarely kept up to date).

I have seen time and time again that the success of a redesign can often be determined in the first few weeks of a project by how carefully the site is cataloged in advance.  As Kat notes so well in her article:

I cannot stress enough how crucial it is to map out the structure of your website prior to designing the navigation, especially if you are implementing one of the most powerful capabilities of a content management system, namely content reuse in the form of dynamic navigation.

Happy mapping!

On a recent project, one of our clients requested we port over a calendar and event script built in PHP as part of their new CascadeServer site under development. The diagram below describes the flow of input (shown in yellow) and output (shown in blue) necessary for making the integration possible.

Cascade Server CMS has built in tools, called Connectors. These connectors allow Cascade Server to connect directly to 3rd-party applications. Currently, there are two Connectors available to choose from, WordPress and Twitter. Once a Connector is setup correctly, any page you publish using Cascade can automatically be posted to your twitter or blog. This can reduce the hassle if you manage your Twitter, WordPress blog, and website content separately. Both of the Connectors are easy to setup.

To setup a new WordPress Connector:

1. Navigate to Connectors in the Site Administration area
2. Click “Create Connector“
3. Choose “WordPress” as the Connector type
4. Click “Submit“
5. Fill in the WordPress Connector’s name, parent folder, and URL (pointing to the WordPress instance to be used)
6. Fill in the Username and Password for your WordPress account.
7. Fill in the Content Type (under “Content Types” tab). Note: Each Content Type determines which Page Configuration is published to the WordPress post.  The Content Type also maps Metadata fields to Categories and Tags for the post
8. Click “Submit” to save your WordPress Connector.
9. You need to verify that the connection with WordPress is successful. Click on the “View” tab, and click the “Verify” link.

To setup a new Twitter Connector:

1. Navigate to Connectors in the Site Administration area
2. Click “Create Connector”
3. Choose “Twitter” as the Connector type
4. Click “Submit”
5. Fill in the Twitter Connector’s name, parent container, destination (The Destination to which a Page must be published in order for a tweet to be generated)
6. Fill in the Content Type (under “Content Types” tab).
7. Under “Parameters” tab, fill in the Hashtags (eg. #BeaconBlog) or Prefix that will be published with each tweet.
8. Click “Submit” and save your Twitter Connector
9. Click on “Click here to allow and Verify again.”
10. A new window will open up, type your Username and Password and click “Allow”.
11. Close that window, and go back to your Cascade Server Connector window. Click “Verify” again and it will be all set.
12. You need to verify that the connection with Twitter is successful. Click on the “View” tab, and click the “Verify” link.

If you need further help, check out Hannon Hill’s Knowledge Base at: http://www.hannonhill.com/kb/Connectors/ OR leave a comment below.

Recently we ran across formatting an RSS feed pubDate in Cascade Server. We quickly realized are normal date format would not work in this situation given the date is formatted as ‘Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:00:04 +0000′. The following is the XSL we used to convert the date to January 6, 2011.

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
 <xsl:output indent="yes" method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="/">
  <xsl:variable name="date">Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:00:04 +0000</xsl:variable>
  <xsl:call-template name="format-date">
   <xsl:with-param name="date" select="substring-before($date, ' +')"/>
  </xsl:call-template>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template name="format-date">
  <xsl:param name="date"/>
  <xsl:variable name="day" select="substring-before(substring-after($date, ' '), ' ')"/>
  <xsl:variable name="day2" select="concat(translate(substring($day,1,1), '0', ''), substring($day,2,1))"/>
  <xsl:variable name="monthName" select="substring-before(substring-after(substring-after($date, ' '), ' '), ' ')"/>
  <xsl:variable name="year" select="substring-before(substring-after(substring-after(substring-after($date, ' '), ' '), ' '), ' ')"/>
  <xsl:variable name="month">
   <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Jan'">January</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Feb'">February</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Mar'">March</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Apr'">April</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'May'">May</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Jun'">June</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Jul'">July</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Aug'">August</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Sep'">September</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Oct'">October</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Nov'">November</xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="$monthName = 'Dec'">December</xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise/>
   </xsl:choose>
  </xsl:variable>
  <xsl:value-of select="concat($month, ' ', $day2, ', ', $year)"/>
 </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

We have a lot of projects going on right now, but I always like to stop and highlight projects that we have completed for our customers.  Recently, we completed two projects that our development team produced using ASP.NET and Cascade Server.

News Application: Cascade Server

This project was the first for this new higher education client that was referred to us by Hannon Hill.  The entire university’s site is in Cascade Server, and they contracted with us to enhance the News Releases function to include the following:

• Ability to add images with captions to the news detail pages;
• Addition of article categories and authors;
• Redesign the main news listing page to list stories by year and month using a collapsible function.  A new search feature was also installed, integrated with their Google Mini search appliance;
• New category listing pages that allows users to create a page that only displays stories tagged with certain categories;
• Modification to the display of the news stories on the homepage;
• Addition of RSS feeds, including a full listing and an RSS listing for each category;

This was a very complicated implementation that one of my CMS developers handled like a pro.  Many thanks to her for patience during development!

Dealer Locator:  ASP.NET and Cascade Server

Beacon teamed up with G-Force Marketing (here in Greensboro) and a client of theirs (a well-known retailer) to build a product promotion site, where potential customers can go use a dealer locator that we created using ASP.NET and AJAX.  The user can search by zip code or city to find a dealer nearest them, and thanks to AJAX, can easily sort the search results.  The client can log into an Administration section to maintain the list of dealers.  They can also use Cascade Server to maintain other content across the site.

Credit for the front-end development goes to our summer intern, who churned out a great-looking site.  One of our transactional developers did all of the ASP.NET and AJAX development to make the whole thing work, and our Graphic Artist helped out with some of the graphics.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work on both projects!  Being able to tell success stories like these is what we’re all about.

I promised I’d let you know how the 2008 Cascade Server User’s Conference went, and I’m a man true to my word.  Maybe late, but true.

John Scaramuzzo (Senior VP), Louisa Nicholson (Web Designer) and I traveled to Atlanta, GA to attend the conference, which was held at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center, September 22-23.  Despite a scavenger hunt for gasoline in the Atlanta area before our tank ran dry (there was a shortage due to Hurricane Ike), the trip went really well.

The conference consisted of two tracks of sessions:  Technical and Business tracks.  The Technical Track was geared towards developers, whereas the Business Track focused more on what Cascade Server can do for your organization and where Hannon Hill is taking Cascade Server in the future.  Louisa stayed in the Technical Track to learn as many Cascade coding tricks as she could, John stayed in the Business Track to keep up with Cascade from a business owner standpoint, and I jumped from track to track to try and get a flavor for everything.

Both tracks offered a lot of great information.  Presenters included employees of Hannon Hill, as well as Cascade Server customers.  I did a presentation in the Business Track entitled “Tips & Tricks for End Users”, where I presented several different ways to use Cascade Server effectively for your organization, including:

• Smart implementations for large sites
• Content re-use
• Using structured content (Data Definitions)
• Integrate Cascade Server with eCommerce and other database applications (scripting languages)
• Manage Search Engine Marketing efforts
• Control full Flash websites and Flash applications
• Integration of advanced JavaScript applications
• Tips on training end users and providing documentation

Against every fiber in my being, I’m going to provide a link to the video of my presentation.  I know plenty of my colleagues have been waiting for this moment.  So you can view the video here.  Just reserve judgment, please!

I’m not going to grade myself on my own presentation, but I’ll say that it went well, and I had several people tell me afterward that it was very helpful.  I’ll consider that “mission accomplished”.  My goal was to let other Cascade Server users know how Beacon Technologies creatively uses Cascade Server to give all types of organizations the ability to manage their own Web site using content management.

So why did I do a presentation?  Simply put, Hannon Hill’s call for speakers really got me thinking.  They asked a simple question:  “Are you proud of your Cascade Server implementation?  As I wrote in my last post, I immediately thought, “YES”.  We’re always looking for ways to tailor Cascade to meet the needs of any type of organization, from a “mom & pop shop” to large corporations and universities.

All three of us met a lot of great people at the conference:  Hannon Hill employees and other Cascade Server owners and users.  As partners of Hannon Hill, we spent a good amount of time talking with employees, and networked with several Cascade Server users, several of whom we’re still in touch with today.

Already, Hannon Hill has sent out a notice about the 2009 conference, and I can assure you that we’ll be back!  Many thanks to all of the Hannon Hill employees for putting on a great conference.

In the background, John Scaramuzzo (left) and I (with the glowing eyes) talk with a Cascade Server user.  If you look closely, behind the head of Bradley Wagner (foreground, right, Director of Engineering at Hannon Hill), you can see Louisa’s nose as she networks with another user.  :)

As I’ve written in the past, a Content Management System (CMS) is a valuable tool to your business’ online presence.  They enable anyone to maintain their Web site, with no Web development skills required.  As I tell potential and current customers when demonstrating our CMS of choice, “With Cascade Server, if you know Microsoft Word®, you can maintain your Web site”.  This powerful statement is the difference between hiring an expensive Web development staff and having your accountant maintain your Web site (instead of writing big salary checks).  Your Web site “contributor” (a user whose job it is to maintain the content of your site) now has the ability to keep the site up-to-date.

Of course, the “anyone” part does introduce a big problem:  how do you keep control over what your contributors are putting out there?  Chances are they’re not publishing inappropriate content:  anti-government, anti-(insert-your-favorite-sports-team-here), etc.  But what about spelling errors, inaccurate content, general formatting issues, and anything that you just don’t approve of?

Enter CMS workflows.  What is a CMS workflow?  Hannon Hill, the manufacturer of Cascade Server, states that a workflow “ensures that content entered into the system is quality checked by mandating that the entered content go through a series of approval steps.”  In short, it’s a way for a Web site manager to control what’s added to their Web site.

How does a workflow work?  Let’s take a look at a simple workflow.

The first step is to set permission levels for your users.  A contributor in your system should only have the ability to edit content, and not be able to publish that content to your live Web site.  Furthermore, a user can be locked down to a specific section, folder, or even page of your site.  Here, they can make any edits to an existing page, create pages, or if given permission, delete pages.

Once their edits are done, they submit the page into the workflow.  The manager is notified via email that the contributor has submitted content for approval.  The manager then logs into the CMS and reviews the content.  From here, the manager can either reject the content back to the contributor with personalized comments (which notifies the contributor via email as well), or the manager can “approve” the changes, which then publishes the page and associated files to their live site.

Pretty simple, yet effective, right?  By implementing this easy workflow, you maintain control over your Web site, while your contributor does all of the work!  Of course, workflows can be much more robust than our example, and can be tailored to fit your organization’s specific quality assurance practices.  You can have the contributor submit to a manager, that manager can submit to Legal, Legal can submit to Marketing, Marketing can reject back to the manger or submit to IT for publishing, and…well, you get the idea:  it’s completely flexible!

Below is an example of a workflow that we have implemented for a large Cascade Server implementation.

What kind of quality assurance program do you have for your Web site right now, whether it’s in a CMS or not?  Is it robust with several review checkpoints and processes?  Or do you not have one at all?  Whatever the case may be, my team and I can bring your entire Web site into Cascade Server, and apply a custom workflow that fits your needs.  Contact us to find out more.