The Web Content Management Glossary

“A method of marketing optimization which randomly displays different versions of content and tracks which version converts better over time. A/B Testing is narrowly limited to variables down a single…”

“A collection of Access Control Entries applied to a content object. Commonly referred to by its acronym, ACL. See Also”

“The language tools available for developers to communicate with and control software from code. For example, the API of a CMS usually allows a developer to connect to the CMS from their own code, and…”

“A content object which has no URL addressability, but which is intended for embedding in other content objects, or to be used to compose more complicated content. In many systems, these are referred…”

“Content stored as a file, rather than as a structured content object. This is usually meant to refer to images, PDFs, and other files which are uploaded to the CMS by editors. These files are often…”

“A period of time during the late stages of a content migration when editors are asked to not make content changes. During this time, a final content import has occurred, but the new implementation has…”

“The over-arching or core aggregation method of a given CMS. This is the aggregation structure and method with which editors will traverse and work with the content. Many systems employ a content tree…”

“The stages o. a content object progresses through from its creation to its deletion. These stages depend on the role of the observer . For an editor, these stages might look like this:”

“A wide-ranging term that generally refers to the practice of defining, creating, organizing, securing, reviewing, approving, publishing, and delivering content. Content management is not specific to…”

“A software system which automates the tasks around the management of content. A CMS assists editors in creating, organizing, controlling, securing, and ultimately delivering content. Commonly…”

“The movement of content from an old CMS implementation to a new CMS implementation. Content migrations occur after a new CMS is implemented, and all the content has to been moved from one system to…”

“A conceptual term for the collection of content types, attributes, relationships and datatypes in place to accurate describe a logical domain of content. Content types are modeled in two ways:…”

“A single piece of managed content. Often referred to as simply ‘content’. The suffix of ‘object’ is often used specifically to differentiate an object from its defining content type. For example: The…”

“The aggregation of content in a hierarchical tree. Each content object in the tree has a parent , zero or more siblings, and zero or more children. The tree can be used to represent relationships…”

“The specification of a logical type of content – for example, a News Article or a Blog Post. A content type defines the nature of a particular content object – the attributes it contains, how it…”

“The degree to which the management functionality of the CMS is bound to the delivery functionality of the CMS. A coupled CMS has management and delivery bound into the same software. editors will…”

“A CMS intended to manage media assets, such as images, audio, or video. DAM systems specialize in automated processing and renditioning of media into different formats and artifacts. Many DAM systems…”

“The interface of a CMS which editors use to perform their work.”

“The process by which content is created. The editorial process is iterative and highly subjective. Editorial process is what separates content from simple data or information. Editorial process often…”

“A loose term that refers to large-scale systems designed to manage content for an entire organization . An ECM is not usually designed or used to manage a website, but instead manages large volumes of…”

“The collection of processes, services, tools, and apis that can be used to extend a CMS.”

“The functionality of a CMS which allows the creation of web forms to accept data from visitors.”

“A document which describes the legal parameters around a vendor relationship. The GSA is normally global to the life of the relationship, while each project is governed by a separate statement of…”

“A collection of two or three-digit ISO-639 codes to identify languages. For example, English is ‘en’, German is ‘de’, etc. Languages can also have language variants, which are separated from the root…”

“The process of determining what language to serve for a request for a language in which the requested content object has not been localized.”

“A method of formatting text by inserting text annotations. HTML is the most common markup language in current use. Markdown is another popular markup language . Markup languages are not programming…”

“The content object which is being rendered in response to a direct URL request. The operative content object normally determines template selection, and might further determine selection of the…”

“Value-add services provided by a CMS vendor or integrator. Most vendors offer integration services for their own CMS, and each vendor invariably has an ecosystem of companies offering services around…”

“Text which allows inline formatting, such as bold or italics. Note that this does not necessarily mean WYSIWYG. WYSIWYG is an editorial interface , while rich text is a format. markup languages such…”

“Developer software designed to manage different versions of programming code. Common SCM systems are Git, Subversion, and Team Foundation Server. An SCM system allows developers to check code in and…”

“A document describing a unit of work, usually in terms of scope, payment, and schedule. An SOW is normally provided by integration firms prior to beginning an implementation.”

“The model of offering services by subscription. Two common subscription models are platform-as-a-service and software-as-a-service . Both PaaS and SaaS are normally multi-tenant services. This is the…”

“An organization which provides services to install, configure, extend, and template a CMS. While some vendors provide integration services for their own software, an SI is an organization external to…”

“The functionality and logic constructs available to templates to form a presentation from a content object. Templating code is generally designed as a less functional version of the native language a…”

“Content which lacks internal structure in relation to its intended purpose. All content is structured to some degree, since every CMS has some internal content model. However, to be called…”

“The ability of a content object to be the direct target of an inbound URL request. Content objects that represent pages will necessarily be URL addressable and will usually form the operative content…”

“Literally ‘a case for usage’; a description of a usage scenario. Narrowly, a use case can be used as a requirement, which is a specific, defined feature that needs to be present in a piece of…”

“Content generated by non-editors, usually from the public side of the website. UGC includes comments, reviews, ratings, etc. UGC may or may not be stored in the CMS as core content. Some UGC is stored…”

“A group of user accounts, organized to allow aggregate assignment of permissions. Individual permissions are often assigned to user groups, rather than individual users to ease management. Some…”

“The process by which more than one editor is able to work on the same content at the same time without disrupting other editors. Version control might incorporate any or all of the following: Version…”

“A URL to which data can be sent or retrieved to remotely communicate or control server-based software. Web services are apis than work over HTTP, so they can be invoked by remote systems. Commonly…”