Dealing with Dynamic Content

One of the challenges of the many components that are available to us in SiteCM is choosing when to use which ones and where. The goal is to create a website that is logical and easy for the end client to use. If a designer has a hard time making sense of how it all comes together how can we expect our clients to understand?

It should go without saying that with complex design comes complex content management but SiteCM has the ability to make it easy we just have to be smart about it. The most common example I can think of is sidebar content. A client has a website that has the standard header, footer and left hand navigation. Below their navigation they want to have a content area that they can edit and change as they see fit.

Not only can SiteCM do just that but it can be done in a variety of ways.

Summary Content vs a Content Block

Summary Content is a secondary content area for every page within a SiteCM site. If we choose to use this control for static sidebar content it can potentially get lost in a sea of pages where months down the road no one remembers which page it was that controlled the sidebar content. (We've learned this the hard way) However what it is great for is dynamic sidebar content where each page has something unique to say. When we use the control in this manner instead of something confusing and difficult to manage we get something powerful, flexible and simple. No matter what page you are on if you see sidebar content the client and the designer know that it is the summary content for that page.

But you only want static information in the sidebar you say? Not to worry. SiteCM has an easy to manage answer for that too. Enter the Content Block. An additional component for Micro licenses and standard for all of our other licenses Content Blocks are easily our most frequently used component. What makes them so great is that you can nest a Content Block inside a Content Block or any of our other drop-in applications for that matter. We have clients who are using external code in their Content Blocks to seamlessly pull the information into their websites. Perfect for sidebar content that is consistent throughout the entire site Content Blocks put the power of managing their content right where you want it, in your clients hands.