Content Management
We use our own .Net based administration Web portal for content management. Using our own administration Web portal template, rather than other commercial content management systems allows us to easily adapt our existing code base to a specific front‐end website.
The template includes built‐in security, allowing System Administrators to set up different security user groups with collections of individual access rights throughout the administration portal. System Administrators then assign individual portal users to the security group containing the appropriate access for completion of their duties.
The administration portal allows Admin Users to select predefined page layout templates to apply to the front‐end website. The Admin User can also make further style changes based on the selected template, such as Web content font, size, color, and other attributes. For periodically updated Web content, including special offers, announcements, and promotional banners, the Admin User can define the content with styled text and images as well as the starting and ending date for the content to display on the front end website.
Multiple schedules can co‐exist and be set up in advance. Content changes require supervisor level Admin Users’ review and approval before they are published to the front end website. The testing and production websites have their own content management administration portals. This allows any newly published Web content to be reviewed and tested in a testing environment first.
The administration portal has import and export functions for the Admin User to easily export approved and tested new Web content from the testing environment and import it into the production environment.
Old Web content is not deleted from the database when it is replaced by new content; instead, the system archives historical content in data tables for auditing purposes.
Taking advantage of the multi‐tier website structure, the System Administrators can easily change the Web content without touching the source code. Most of the Web content is database/XML driven instead of hardcoded in the source code.
Usually, our Web development includes a language layer on top of the user interface layer. The language layer allows us to easily apply a new language to the front end website without changing source code. The language to be used on the website is driven by the individual user’s preference and is loaded by the user interface layer from the language layer onto the Web page at run‐time. Only language translation remains to be done when introducing a new language into the website following this process.
Team Structure and Communication Methodology