Scenario

One of the most powerful aspects of using a Web site to present information is the ability to publish frequent updates. Unlike more traditional media, such as print, a Web site can be updated on a continuous basis, limited only by the Web site staff's ability to generate the updates. As anyone who has ever participated in Web site management knows, the amount of such work should not be underestimated. The work can be divided into two broad categories:

  • Web site navigation. Web site navigation concerns a user's ability to move from page to page within a site, using the links that are displayed on the current page. As pages are removed from the site, the links to those pages must also be removed or they will break. As pages are moved within the site, the links to those pages must be changed or they will break. As new pages are added to the site, links to those pages must be added or they will never be found.

    Most Web sites employ some sort of standardized navigation scheme that is used on most, if not all, pages in the site. Often, the left and/or top of each page is used to display frequently used links and links that relate to the content of the current page. The effort required to keep the navigation working properly as the site is updated depends on the infrastructure used to create the navigation scheme. This effort often requires specialized technical skills, and must be performed by someone other than the person or people making the decisions about what updates should be made.

  • Page content. At a basic level, the purpose of a page in a Web site is to display content to a user. Creating even relatively simple pages that contain only images and text requires a number of different tasks. Images must be created, text must be written and edited, the layout of images, text, and navigation must be designed and implemented in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the final result must be tested and approved, the lifespan of the content must be determined and managed, and so on. Looking beyond the content of any one page or small set of related pages, the combined content of the entire Web site at any given point in time also requires planning and careful management. These tasks require disparate skills, and are often performed by different people working together to produce the set of pages that constitute the Web site.

A common theme in both categories is that there are different roles, filled by people with different skills, who must work together to make updates to the Web site happen as smoothly as possible. Generally speaking, the following roles contribute to Web site creation and management:

  • Content managers
  • Writers
  • Graphic artists
  • Editors
  • Developers
  • Administrators (of various sorts: Web site, database, and so on)

Creating and managing a Web site in a way that enables the people in these different roles to work well together, and that eliminates or minimizes any bottlenecks that would otherwise occur, is a significant business problem and is the focus of this chapter. The next section discusses how Content Management Server can be used to solve this business problem.

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Microsoft Corporation - Microsoft. Net Server Solutions for the Enterprise
Microsoft .NET Server Solutions for the Enterprise
ISBN: 0735615691
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 483

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