Site map and content inventory #

This page is for website creators before the first class or folder is created. A content inventory lists what the site will hold; a site map shows where it lives. Done the way this page describes, both translate one to one into Exponential's content tree, classes and sections.

Contents #

1. How the plan maps to Exponential
2. The content inventory
3. The site map
4. From the site map to the content tree
5. Checks before you build

How the plan maps to Exponential #

The content inventory #

One row per kind of content. For an existing site, count what is there; for a new site, estimate.

Columns that matter most:

• Fields become the attributes of a class (Choosing datatypes for your fields).
• How many tells you whether a folder needs paging, a date-based structure or search.
• Who writes it becomes roles and maybe a section (Roles and policies).
• Languages decides translation work (Building a multilingual site).
• Shown where decides view modes and fetches (The pagelayout).

The site map #

Draw the tree as an indented list. Mark each entry with its kind and with what makes it special:

Home                         (front page; layout)
├── About us                 (folder)
│   ├── Team                 (article)
│   └── Jobs                 (folder; children: job ad)
├── News                     (folder; children: article, newest first, 10 per page)
├── Events                   (folder; children: event)
├── Shop                     (folder; children: product)        -> shop pages
├── Members                  (folder; section "members")        -> login required
└── Contact                  (feedback form)                     -> information collector

From the site map to the content tree #

1. Create the classes the inventory needs, or confirm the shipped ones fit (Content classes for websites).
2. Create the top-level folders under the root folder (/content/view/full/2 in the administration).
3. Set the sort order of each folder (for news: by publication date, newest first) on the folder's sub-items (The content model and editing).
4. Create sections for areas with their own permissions and assign them to the subtree (Sections and object states).
5. Decide which classes appear in the menus (Menus and navigation).
6. Fill in a few real items per class before the design work: templates are designed against real content.

Checks before you build #

• To do: Every kind of content in the inventory has a class (shipped or new).
• To do: No two classes differ only by a field or two: one class with an optional field is easier to keep.
• To do: Every page of the site map has an owner who writes and updates it.
• To do: Areas with special access are marked and have a section.
• To do: Lists that will grow large have paging or a date structure.
• To do: Content that appears in several places has one home and is reused, not copied.
• To do: The site map is not deeper than visitors will follow; addresses grow with the depth (URL aliases and nice URLs).

Related pages #

• Planning your website
• Structuring the content tree
• Designing your content model
• Running content modeling workshops
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.