CMS News Site Planning Guide

This document defines some basic user roles and explains the basic steps in developing a typical news site using the Arsdigita Content Management System.

User Roles

Information Architect		Designs and develops the data model for generating dynamic content.
Site Administrator		Has administrative permissions on the entire CMS. Can create new roles and assign permissions to different CMS users.
Author		Writes new content to be uploaded into CMS.
Photographer		A specialized Author, responsible for generating image and multimedia content.
Editor		Edits and approves the work of the Author (and Photographer) roles.
Publisher		Places a request for new content by assigning the Author and Editor to create and edit content. Chooses a template to display dynamic content on the public site. Approves content before publishing it to the live site.
Template Developer		Designs and develops the templates for generating and displaying dynamic content. Responsibilities include page layout, web graphics, and overall site flow.

Designing a News Site

• Determine the types of content that the site will contain. A news site usually incorporates Articles, Images, and Multimedia Files into its repository.
• Determine the roles necessary to generate content (a news article page) from scratch, that is, designate Authors, Editors, Publishers, Template Developers, etc.
• Design the overall site flow.
• Design templates for displaying the content on the public site.
• Design custom forms (templates) for generating the content.
• Create data model for the content types. The data model should include how the different content types are related and how the content will be inserted into the database.

Writing the Public Pages

• Write the custom forms (templates) for generating content.
• Write the templates to display dynamic content on the public pages.

Content Management

• Publisher chooses a template to display the dynamic content on the public site.
• Publisher creates empty content item(s) (articles, images, multimedia files) that eventually will be revised by the Author and Editor.
• Publisher places a request for new content by assigning the Author to create content via the workflow engine.
• The Author writes and uploads articles. The Photographer uploads images and multimedia files.
• The Editor approves or rejects the articles and images that the Author and Photographer have uploaded.
• The Publisher approves or rejects the final work before publishing the content to the file system and to the live site.