Our Goals

Learn why content modelling matters

Learn how to do it as painlessly as possible

Profit

• Helps content writers know how to write
• Designs the CMS
• Establishes the data models for back-end development
• Guides front-end developers in how to write semantic, SEO-friendly, modular HTML

The Content

What is content?

• It's information consumed by the end user
• It's the goal of the end user

The Model

What's the model

• Self contained. It isn't dependend on other parts to be understood by the end user.
• Syndicatable. It can be reused in other parts and places, in part or in whole.
• Presentation-agnostic. It doesn't care how it's consumed by the end user.

Content Fields

This is the data that matters to the end user.

Metadata Fields

Data that matters to the CMS or an application that's consuming the content. It's data about data.

How do we define fields

We define fields in two ways

• TypeNo field is more than one type at a time. It is unchangeable.
• AttributesSome aspect of the field that could be unique or shared with other fields. A field has many attributes

Types of fields

Text

A string with or without HTML characters.

Time

An hour, month, day, date, or timestamp

Number

Usually an integer. Sometimes a float.

Multimedia

A binary of some kind. Usually image, video, or document

Link

Internal:A link to a location internally, externally, or within the CMS

Embedded

A small collection of fields that can be reused in other content models

Field Attributes

There's three ish kinds of attributes we have on a field. Roughly.

1. Global. It can apply to any and all fields.
2. Type. It applies to only one kind of field type

Global Attributes

• multivalue
• required / optional

Type Specific attributes

Text

• Rich text
• Plain text
• WYSIWYG controls
• Default Value
• Character limit validation
• Pattern validation

Time

• Kind of time (hour, month, day, date)
• Default Value
• Range Validation

Number

• Default Value
• Min / Max validation

Multimedia

• Mime type / binary type
• mime/file ext validation
• size validation

Link

• Internal
• External
• CMS content
• New window/ same window / anchor

Embedded

usually doesn't have validation. It shares the rules from the fields it contains

Craft a Content Model in Five Steps

1. Determine if it's Information for the User
2. Identify the Fields
3. Determine their types
4. Establish the attributes
5. Name the fields
6. Name the model

What have we learned

• Content modelling is good for the CMS, the back-end, and the front-end
• A Content model is a collection of related pieces of information for a user

Thank You

Give me a buzz sometime!

• Twitter @paceaux
• Github: paceaux
• blog.frankmtaylor.com