Content Management Overview
From SNCWiki
| Content Management |
|---|
| Related Topics |
 Get the Book |
 | Functionality described here requires the Content Management plugin. |
 | Functionality described here requires the Admin role. |
Contents |
Overview
The Content Management System (CMS) application allows for the creation of a custom interface to the Service-now.com platform. This interface can be themed to match corporate branding guidelines or other web designs. The Content Management application provides complete control over the look and feel of an instance while maintaining funtionality and data access access. This purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the key features and functionality of the CMS application.
New Improvements
 | Release: Functionality described here is available with the Spring 2010 Release build and any subsequent releases release. |
The Content Management System now offers a “copy site” feature, an evolution of the “copy page” feature added earlier this year. The Copy Site feature allows the creation of multiple pages from a single page template. Once a site template is complete and ready for production Copy Site fully duplicates the site and all of its dependent collateral including pages, theme, and blocks.
When to Use Content Management
It is important to note that, depending on the ITIL processes leveraged, Content Management will only be useful and effective once the data within the system is established. For example, before creating a catalog front end, it needs to be confirmed that the Service Catalog is established and populated with information. The same is true in regards to a Knowledge Management front end, particularly when high ratings or view counts will define the article’s placement in the page. Follow the logic that hierarchies, tasks, and workflows need to be defined before user interaction design can be useful. The most successful CMS front ends model the user's common usage.
Content Management Application Framework
Pages
The core of the CMS system is a page. Pages are built from Content Blocks and organized into Sites. Pages display as regular webpages, rendered in HTML. Constructing a content page requires a basic knowledge of HTML.
Sites
The Content Management system allows you to organize groups of pages as sites. A site is a group of pages with a consistent look and feel defined by a common layout and theme. Unless otherwise specified, all pages within a site use the site's theme and layout (although individual pages can specify otherwise). Additionally, all pages within a site can be accessed via the site's url suffix.
Block Types and Use
Blocks are small, manageable snippets of code (similar to Macros) that are intended for reuse within a CMS web site. For the purposes of Content Management, a block is a defined piece of content within the system. There are many different types of content that can be added to a content block. These are broken down into three groups:
- Lists - manage site navigation by generating items from data tables within the system. For example, to create a list of the CMS Pages (content_page) to generate a navigational sitemap, select the content_page as the table and query by site. For a quick catalog list, choose the Catalog Item table (sc_cat_item), and use the query rules to show results for a single category.
- Dynamic HTML - is where the majority of your content is authored. Requires HTML knowledge and basic Jelly knowledge to include macros and authoring dynamic content.
- Static HTML - allows for WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page authorship. It is done using the system HTML Field. Users who are comfortable generating mark-up directly should use Dynamic HTML blocks.
Specialty Content
These modules contain content types that can be dropped into content management pages in the same manner as Content Blocks, but deal with specific types of content that warrant their own sections. Links are not blocks but are key to the navigation of the system, organized and arranged within "List" blocks. For example, when you create a link with a category, a list can be generated which calls the content_link table and filters on the category. For more on navigation, see Linking to a Content Page.
- Flash Movies - provides the ability to embed an .swf file and render it as a content block. This is a block that is custom-made to handle the flash file (.swf), should design requirements dictate the need for Flash content. If streaming video or flash video (.flv) need to be added, to a knowledge article, for example, please see the Adding Media to HTML Fields page.
- iFrames - another method of placing a Service-now.com form (or form from another source) on a page is to create an IFrame. It is common to define an iframe with forms created in the system and link to the page in which the iFrame resides.
- Content Links - generate lists from this table, content_links, in the list section of the application. Most of the site navigation within the CMS will be created here because it allows designation of any form or list in the system. The navigation menu can be fine tuned by organizing the links with categories and tags.
Design
Design themes are the convergence of structure and styling, making them a critical tool for creating a powerful user interface. Understanding corporate design guidelines and maintaining communication with the art team responsible for the corporate website are important to the success of the project. If the organization has an art or design department that maintains the organization's visual presence, they should be included in this process.
The design tools within the Content Management System will be familiar to anyone who has created a theme for a blog site or a PHP-based content management system. Coordinating with these players ensures that the resulting CMS front-end will match seamlessly into the rest of the organization's publications and web content.
- Themes - are a collection of one or more CSS files that define a consistent look for a set of pages. In most environments, a large number of pages share a very small number of themes, usually one. Feel free to use themes to fit the organization's needs. Multiple themes can be used in chorus within a site to create stylistic differentiators between site areas, or a single theme can create one unified look-and-feel for the front-end.
- Style Sheets - are standard Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which define the look and feel of all of the elements within the interface. CSS can either be internal (stored in the db) or external (hosted on the server), based on organizational needs. Using external CSS allows the CMS to use exactly the same CSS as a corporate website or other online resource.
- Layouts - are the underlying (table based) structure of the site. Corporate design guidelines typically have these defined down to the pixel. Layouts are macros with the category "Layout".
- Frames - provide a method to manage decorative containers for content blocks and any other elements within the site. For example, one Frame might contain a container (made of div or span tags) styled with rounded corners. Frames are macros with the category "Frame".
- Images - provides a place to manage all of the images used in the Content Management System, as well as a place to overwrite existing system imagery with CMS-specific images.
Content Management Application Configuration
The Configuration Page is used with the Page Detail section to define all to the default pages that will be used in the system. For example, if to create custom pages for search results, catalog item detail, or knowledge articles, it is important that the values are set here. If they are not set then the results will return to the out of box theme (Austere).
Content Configuration Page
Set all of the global Content Management System defaults in this section of the application. Setting the defaults, the layout and theme auto populate future pages, where setting the login page and search results page actually redirect the system login and the landing page of all search results in the system based on your login rules.
Page Detail Settings
Page details are configurable content blocks that can be very useful when trying to render multiple forms within the system that have a defined content type. The page detail table is tied to defined content types within the system (currently catalog items (sc_cat_item) and knowledge base articles (kb_article) details are defined out of box). If the form does not have a content type, and one is not created for it, then consider loading the form via an iframe.
Content Types
The content management system deals with various different types of content. One page might display a list of knowledge base articles, while a second might display catalog items, or incidents, or a combination of the two. Different types of content may have different themes, and will function differently when interacted with.
Every type of document that the content management system needs to display has a content type associated with it. Although changing the content type requires a knowledge of Jelly script, the common content types (such as Service Catalog or Knowledge Base) come out-of-box.
A content type defines three things about documents associated with it:
- What does a link to one of these documents look like? For example, if list of these documents is displayed on a page, what does each entry in the list look like?
- What does a detailed view of one of these documents look like?
- What detail page should be used to display the document?
That last point is especially important, because it is often an area of confusion for new users of the content management system.
The page that a list of documents "points to" is determined by the documents content type not by the list itself. The content from a link is displayed in a detail content block, on a page, but the content type determines which page's detail block the document content will be displayed in.
List Definitions
List definitions are very similar Content Management Frames, in that they are decorative containers that allow you to control the look and feel of the lists that you have created above. It's a common need in site design to have multiple list styles within your layout. Lists are typically the primary form of navigation within your site so it is important to have control over their formatting as the number of list bullets change as well as the placement within the layout.
Login Rules
Login rules allow you to apply rules that dictate what the user sees after login. Typically these are used to automatically present the user with an entry page based on their roles or permissions within the system.
