Demo scripts #

This page is for sales and marketing people who show Exponential to prospects, and for editors who are asked to help with a demonstration. It gives three scripts, of 5, 15 and 45 minutes, that walk through the administration, the layouts editor, the help and languages including right to left. Each script has a setup checklist, a talk track built only from documented facts, the exact clicks, and a table of what can go wrong and how to recover. Every script runs on a demo installation you control: your own laptop, a test server of your team, or a copy made for the customer. Never demonstrate on a customer's live site or on a shared installation whose settings belong to someone else.

Contents #

1. Before any demo: the setup checklist
2. The 5-minute demo
3. The 15-minute demo
4. The 45-minute demo
5. What can go wrong, and how to recover
6. After the demo
7. Tailoring a demo to the customer

Before any demo: the setup checklist #

Build the demo installation #

One command installs a complete site on SQLite, with no database server, in eng-US, with the siteaccesses site and admin (Installing Exponential in one command):

./console exp:install --dry-run    # checks the configuration and installs nothing
./console exp:install --apply              # installs the multisite package on SQLite

• The administrator is admin with a generated password, printed in the summary and written to var/log/initial-admin-password. Change it after the first sign-in and delete that file (The default administrator password).
• exp:install refuses to run over an existing installation unless you add --force. Never point it at a database you want to keep: an installer creates a new database (Upgrading, 11.1).
• Other ways to install, and what each writes, are in chapter 4, Choosing an install method.

The checklist, one day before #

[ ] The demo installation opens in the browser: site and administration
[ ] Administrator password changed; var/log/initial-admin-password deleted
[ ] A demo editor account exists, with the Editor role (the help is readable to Editor on a new installation)
[ ] The Layouts tab shows at least one layout (if not: Layouts > New layout, any type, give it a name)
[ ] A second content language is added (Setup > Languages), so items show a dashed badge to translate
[ ] One folder with a few items exists to edit, and nothing on screen contains real personal data
[ ] The Interface box in the right column lists German, Hebrew and Arabic
[ ] Optional, only if you will show it: Exponential Intelligence has a provider key on this installation
[ ] Optional, 45-minute demo: a terminal on the demo machine, for exp:velocity and exp:audit
[ ] The browser: zoom readable for the room, other tabs closed, notifications off, a private window
[ ] This page and the pages you will send afterwards are open in a second window

The checklist, ten minutes before #

[ ] Signed in as the demo account you will use (the editor for the 5- and 15-minute demos)
[ ] Interface language set back to English; color mode set to light (or to what the room's projector shows best)
[ ] No drafts left from the last demo (Dashboard > My drafts)
[ ] The first screen of the script is open

The 5-minute demo #

Goal: the prospect sees that editors work alone, safely, in a clear interface, and that help is built in. Audience: a decision maker, an editor lead, a first meeting.

Do not in five minutes: install, configure, open settings, or show more than one layout.

The 15-minute demo #

Goal: editing, versions, layouts, languages and right to left, help, and one proof of security. Audience: an editorial team, a project manager, a second meeting.

Part 1: editing and versions (4 minutes) #

Follow the folder walk-through of the tour:

1. Open a folder, choose the language in the list, press Edit.
2. Show the field bar: one button per field jumps to its card; a red * marks a required field.
3. Type in Description; point at the rich text toolbar and the Editor switch below the field.
4. Press Store draft and exit. Say: "The draft waits under My drafts; only you see it. The form also saves by itself every few minutes."
5. Open Manage versions on the item, press Edit on the draft, then Send for publishing.
6. In Manage versions, press Compare between the two versions.

Talk track: "If your site uses an approval, the version waits under My pending items until someone approves it." (Workflows)

Part 2: the layouts editor (4 minutes) #

Follow the layouts walk-through of the tour:

1. Layouts tab, Layouts, Open a layout. Point at the zones and their names.
2. Press Add a block, drag a Title block into a zone, type a title in its Content tab.
3. Drag the block by its header bar to another zone.
4. Point at a linked zone (red dashed border, hatched blocks): "Header and footer live in one shared layout; other layouts link to them instead of copying them."
5. Open the menu with three dots, show Save draft and close; then press Discard and confirm.

Talk track: "Which pages use a layout is decided by its mappings: a location, a subtree, a content type or a siteaccess." (Which pages use a layout)

Part 3: languages and right to left (3 minutes) #

1. Open an item. Point at the language badges: a filled one exists, a dashed one does not yet.
2. Click the dashed badge, choose Translate based on the existing translation, translate the name, publish. Say: "Each translation is published on its own." (Languages)
3. In the right column, Interface, choose German and press Apply. Say: "The editor's own administration language; the content does not change."
4. Choose Hebrew or Arabic and press Apply. Say: "In a right-to-left language the administration turns around: the side columns change places and text starts at the right." (Right to left)
5. Switch back to English.

Talk track: "368 locale files can be used as content languages; administration translations exist (the current totals are at the top of the languages page)." (Languages in Exponential)

Part 4: help and proof (4 minutes) #

1. Press Help. Press /, type publish, open a result.
2. Press Download as PDF. Say: "Every help page prints cleanly or downloads as a PDF, drawn on the server, no outside service." (Help system, Print and PDF)
3. If you are signed in as an administrator: open the Audit tab (/audit/dashboard), then Console. Say: "Your sign-in is already recorded. Every record carries the hash of the one before, so a change to the record shows." (The audit trail)

The 45-minute demo #

Goal: a complete picture for a team that will decide: editors, an administrator, a developer and a project manager in the room. Plan 35 minutes of demonstration and 10 of questions. Use the administrator account for parts 5 to 8.

Part 1: who and what (3 minutes) #

Say, and show the sources on screen:

• "Exponential is a professional PHP application framework with advanced CMS functionality; its most notable feature is its fully customizable and extendable content model." (README.md)
• "It is free software under the GNU GPL version 2 or later, and its documentation is free under the GNU FDL."
• "Exponential continues the code base of eZ Publish, a product its creator discontinued after almost 18 years. 7x has led it since 2023, and the Exponential Foundation, a nonprofit, operates the project." (Who is 7x?)

Part 2: the administration (6 minutes) #

Walk the header from left to right (logo, tabs, search with /, the globe button to open the site, the sun button for color mode, the user menu), then all eight steps of editing a folder, ending with Discard draft on a second draft.

Part 3: the content model (4 minutes) #

Open Setup > Classes, open the class Folder and point at its attributes; return to the folder's edit form and show that each attribute is a card. Say: "Your content types are defined here, not in code. An article, a product, an event: each gets exactly the fields it needs." Do not change a class during a demo.

Part 4: layouts, end to end (6 minutes) #

1. The Layouts Dashboard: the numbers of layouts, zones, blocks and mappings.
2. Open a layout; add, configure, move and duplicate a block; show the block groups (Basic, Components, Listing, Gallery, Containers, Placeholders).
3. The zone linking mode: Link zone with shared layout zone, then Back.
4. Discard.
5. Rules: point at one mapping's Targets and Conditions. Say: "The first enabled mapping by priority whose targets and conditions match a page wins."

Part 5: languages, right to left and the keyboard (4 minutes) #

1. Translate an item (15-minute script, part 3), then switch the interface to Arabic and back.
2. Reload a page and press Tab once: Skip to main content appears.
3. Press /: the focus jumps to search. Press Esc.
4. Focus the content tree; use the arrow keys to open and close a folder; press Enter to open an item.

Say: "The admin4 design follows WCAG rules that tests check: color contrast in light and dark mode and targets of at least 24 by 24 pixels." (Who is the Exponential Foundation?, Languages and accessibility)

Part 6: Exponential Intelligence (4 minutes, optional) #

Only if the demo installation has a provider key and you have tried the prompt beforehand.

1. Open a folder, choose the Intelligence tab, ask for one short article below it.
2. Show the step list and the draft it wrote; open the draft; Discard it.
3. Say: "It writes drafts only, as the signed-in editor and with that editor's permissions. It never publishes on its own. Each provider has a region, US, EU or local, and every request records where it went."

Without a key: show the Exponential Intelligence page instead and say that it sends nothing anywhere until a provider key is added (README.md).

Part 7: security (4 minutes) #

1. Audit tab, Console: show the newest access.session.login.
2. /user2fa/setup on the demo account: show the choice of authenticator app or e-mail code; do not finish the setup on a shared screen (Two-step sign-in).
3. Open Content Security Policy in the help: "By default it is report-only on the administration and off on the sites; the page explains how to enforce it."
4. Open the Checklist of Security hardening.

Part 8: operations and speed (4 minutes) #

1. Setup > Log files: the navigator, a search, the masking of personal data ("Privacy first").

2. Setup > Upgrade check: "Before an upgrade, this compares every file with the release."

3. In the terminal on the demo machine:

   ./console exp:velocity status
   ./console exp:audit verify --allow-root-user

4. Speed: say only what is documented. "The README documents 0.36 ms per cached page and 8,941 requests per second on a 12-core machine, reproducible with shipped scripts. We can run exp:benchmark on your own hardware." (Benchmarking)

What can go wrong, and how to recover #

After the demo #

1. Discard every draft you made (Dashboard > My drafts) and remove test translations, so the next demo starts clean.
2. Set the interface language back to English.
3. Within one day, send a follow-up that links the pages behind what you showed:

Subject: Exponential: the pages behind today's demonstration

Thank you for your time today. Every point we showed is documented here:

- Editing, drafts and versions: <link to "A tour of the administration">
- The layouts editor: <link to "The layouts editor">
- Languages and right to left: <link to "Languages in Exponential">
- Security and audit: <link to "Security hardening"> and <link to "The audit trail">
- Licensing: <link to "Licensing explained for buyers">

Open questions we will answer with a source: <list>
Proposed next step: <a workshop / a test installation for your team / a measurement on your hardware>

Tailoring a demo to the customer #

Use the feature map to find the place to show any other need.

On a public demo. The Demo mode banner at the top of the administration is expected: it tells viewers the administrator password is published and cannot be changed. Mention it if asked; skip Change password in the script, since it is refused there. Demo mode FAQ.

Related pages #

• Feature highlights mapped to customer needs
• Handling objections: security, longevity and support
• Sales and marketing: start here
• A tour of the administration
• The layouts editor
• Working together
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.