Content modeling first steps for adopters
Exponential's "most notable feature is its fully customizable and extendable content model" (README.md). Adopters
benefit most when they design that model for their content instead of copying the old system.
Contents
Inventory
List what you publish today: pages, articles, products, events, people, documents. For each, count the items and note who writes them, how often, and in which languages.
From inventory to content types
In Exponential, content types are "user defined content classes" with fields (README.md). For each kind of item:
- give it one content type with a clear name;
- list its fields: title, summary, body, image, date, price, relation ...;
- mark which fields are required and which are translated;
- decide which existing content types of a site package you can reuse.
Workshops to do this with stakeholders: Content modeling workshops.
Relations, tree and languages
| Decision | Questions |
|---|---|
| Relations | Which items point to others (an article to its author, a product to its category)? |
| The content tree | Where does each kind of item live? Which sections need different permissions? |
| Languages | Which content is translated, and which exists only in one language? (Languages) |
| Sites | Is content shared between sites? (Multisite and multilingual planning) |
Mistakes to avoid
- One generic "page" type with a large rich text field for everything: you lose structure that lists, search and apps could use.
- Fields named after the old system's technical quirks.
- Modeling for the design of today instead of for the content.
- Skipping the editors: they will fill these fields every day.
A worksheet
Content type: <name>
Purpose: <what it is for>
Fields: <name - type - required? - translated?>
Relations: <to which types>
Lives in the tree: <where>
Who creates it: <role>
Volume: <items today, per month>Related pages
- Planning the adoption
- Content modeling workshops
- A proof of concept
- Content migration checklist
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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