Telerik Sitefinity 4.0 – Content Management revisited

Who am I?• Tervel Peykov – with Telerik since 2002, until Feb 2010 – Headed the team responsible for 13 of the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX suite – Last months focused on working with

Who am I?

• Tervel Peykov

– with Telerik since 2002, until Feb

2010

– Headed the team responsible for

13 of the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX suite

– Last months focused on working

with Sitefinity team

About Telerik

• Leading vendor of MS Web technology

About Telerik (cont’d)

• as well as a state-of-the-art Content

Management system – http://www.siteifinity.com

RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX

• CMS – Sitefinity –

– Use RadControls? Like it?

– Need CMS? Sitefinity is for you!

• Why now? What is special about this 4.0, and

about this time (summer 2010)

– CMS similar to controls, but dev cycle is much

longer – 2-3 years

– SF 3.x – built on 2004 technology

– SF 4.x – still in dev, started in 2008, built on

2010 technology How come? (Asp.NET 4.0

etc) Will be as main platform till 2015 or so (at least)

– Lack of functionality, does not use

RadControls and their super cool features enough!

– Some things can CLEARLY be made better for the developer, and/or the end user SF 4.0 steps in!

Sitefinity 4.0

• SF 4.0

– Built from scratch, however

• by the same team with years of experience

• Using RadControls extensively – reliable set of tools, focus on architecture itself!

• Use MS provided packages to replace developed ones.

custom-– Goal: deliver a platform that is UP TO IT (todo:clarify)

– To “deliver more than expected”.

SharePoint vs Sitefinity - SP2010

Free CMS-es vs Sitefinity

• Somewhat chaotic development

add-Page Builder - DEMO

• TODO: Screenshot

Built-in modules in Sitefinity 4.0

• All use the Content concept.

• Currently: News, Images, Blogs

• Soon – Forum and more…

• All based on concept of Content – essential concept for understanding Sitefinity

• Form builder – missing from CTP, coming for official release

– Exposed UI to visualize CONTENT

– Similar to the page builder - allow you to visually

define presentation of Content items.

• Which leads us to Content What is it?

– A collection of named fields

• Simple idea, complex implementation

– Good for developer – all complexity handled

by Telerik

– Taxonomies allow for flexible structuring

and organizing of large quantities of data

– Allow multiple ways of structuring the

same data (can simulate Views)

– Allow for access, sorting and searching

combining multiple criteria.

– TODO: EXAMPLE with Categories & News

Sitefinity Taxonomies at Work

• UI for managing Categories

• UI for managing Tags

• Any Content supports Tags and Categories

• All modules in Sitefinity build using Content

Taxonomies - Demo

• Content – News – Create New…

– Categories

Web Services

• Communication between client and server based on Windows Communication Foundation

• RESTFul web services (run directly on HTTP, no SOAP)

• WCF –first introduced in NET 3.0 framework

• How is it different from SF 3.x?

– In 3.x permissions apply to Page or Module

• Basically, define whether a user has the right to access it or not

– IN 4.x Permissions are on the Content and Control level Allow total control

– Demo – Permissions 1-3 – On the control level Example – if you are authenticated, and if not – you might see different home page.

Permissions – Content Level

• Demo using News module

Permissions – Widget (control) Level

• In 3.x – custom implementation

– If turned on (through Web.config) – always go

through 5 steps to publish a page, no shortcut!

• Save(page), Send for approval, Approve – Decline or Publish

– TODO: Quick Demo + SCRNSHOT–

demo.sitefinity.com

• In Sitefinity 4.0 Based on Microsoft Workflow

Foundation

– MWF in ASP.NET 4.0

– MS first introduced workflow in ASP.NET 3.5 and

then it was totally rewritten and redesigned New API, different from orignal version in 3.5.

Workflow in SiteFinity 4.0 (cont’d)

• New workflow module written in Silverlight

– Not in the CTP – currently under

development

– Dragdrop from toolbox

– Zoom and thumbnail view

– Conditions

– Clickable nodes with properties

• Etc, etc

• In 3.x – all configuration in Web.config

– Not flexible enough

• In 4.0 – Configuration UI

– As well as (multiple) configuration policies support

– TODO: Screenshot

User Management

• Using Providers! (Same as 3.x)

• Providers for

• Active Directory

• Default provider (using Telerik OpenAccess)

• TODO: Using latest build – show the support for

MS provider with CreateUserWizard.

More important features

• Stuff that is important but won’t go deep

– Localization

– Caching

– CEO (friendly human-readable urls, meta keywords, titles), etc.

Leverage existing dev

knowledge

• Leverage existing knowledge

– As said – Providers, Services, RadControls, OpenAccess – allows you to plug with little

or no modification existing projects.

– But also!

- Specific!!! Maximum attention to leveraging the ASP.NET model – web user controls, custom user controls,

Problems with CMS - recapitulation

• 1 Какви са най-честите проблеми които хората ползватели на Сайтфинити и/или на други -CMS-и са се сблъсквали и са ви питали? Трябва ми конкретен списък, 4-5-6 неща - за Пауърпойнт слайд

2 И още по-важното - понеже след тоя слайд и кратка дискусия с публиката така ли стоят и при тях нещата - искам да кажа - ето СФ 4.0 ги решава елегантно всички тия проблеми - и за всеки проблем казвам с две-тир думи как го решава Например:

- Локализация (е.г в дриги CMS-i няма, или трудна В СФ 4.0 - с ресурсни фаилове и през админа и през АПИ-то, пей сърце, скиите колко е лесно)

2.4 Проблем при 3.х беше, че веднъж направеният темплейт не може да се промени Например, имам 5 страници които

ползват темплейт A, искам обаче на една страница да имам допълнителен placeholder, ако променя темплейта ще променя всички 5 страници Сега това се решава с Layout контролите, на това нещо страшно много се кефят

2.6 Може да им покажем с таксономиите как освен че могат да имат субсайтове, как могат да категоризират целият content, изображения, т.н

2.7 Вече да, чрез новият Configuration editor

My message

• My message - Try SF now!

management, be it porting/plugging a module

you have Hit a problem Take a couple

screenshots, put down your scenario and the

steps in writing – send it over to Sitefinity devs & support Quick answer is guaranteed.

• Who has contacted Telerik support before?

the industry - that made our brand Same

attitude you got for RadControls and other

product suites – same will get with Sitefinity We are looking forward for you to help us tune &

adjust Sitefinity to developer scenarios while it is still in its final phase of development OK?