Prime Advertising is one of the SMC’s most successful partners and has recently set-up a new blog.  I’ve subscribed to the blog myself and have found the information provided there to be quite informative.  The folks over at Prime have a very high level of knowledge in the web services industry.

In this edition of the “How To” articles, we are going to discuss the process on How To:  Move a Page.

One of the greatest advantages of using the SMC to set-up your web site is the fact that you really never have to worry about the technical details of linking to and from pages.  When you set-up a new page, the navigation link is taken care of for you.  This is no different when you decide it’s time to move a page. When you move the page, the navigation is automatically updated with the new location.

Ok, now to the task at hand.  To move a page, you first need to navigate to the current location of the page you are going to move.  Once there, you’ll need to click on the properties icon for that page, which can be found on the page toolbar above the preview window.  The properties of a page contain meta information about that page such as name, title, location, secuirty, and other important information the SMC needs to know about the page.

About half way down the page properties there is a field named “Move Page Under”, and if you click on the “Show Pages” link next to it you will be shown a drop down list of all the pages in your navigation.  This list will allow us to tell the SMC exactly where we want to move the page to.

Upon selecting a page from the list where we would like our page moved under, we’ll need to specify whether the page should be “Under as a Child” or “Under as a Sibling”.  A sibling will put the page at the same level, whereas a child will put the page one level below.

We have now provided the SMC with all the information it needs in order to move the page.  Click on the Save icon in the upper left corner of the page and the new properties will be saved.  Your page will now be moved to the location in the navigation that you selected.

Congratulations!  You have just successfully moved an SMC page.

To begin our series of “How To” posts, we will begin with the most basic of functions in the Site Management Console.  How to:  Add Navigation

A web site in it’s simplest form is made up of pages and links to other pages.  When we refer to “Navigation” in the SMC, we are essentially talking about a “Link” or a “Page”.  A “Link” will simply bring the user the the URL (web site address) that we provide.  A “Page” will automatically create 2 items to ensure everything functions as needed:

1. A Link to the Page - For a user to access a new page, there has to be a link to it (except the home page of course).  A majority of the links are found in the web site’s navigation, and new navigation items will be placed here by default unless you specify otherwise on the page properties.
2. The Page Itself - The obvious member of the group is the page itself.  This is where content is added.  Based on the template you select, different content types are predefined on your new page.

Now that we have the web site philosophy out of the way, let’s get into the details of how to add a new page.  Upon logging into your SMC, you will see the Content Management tree in the top left (see image below).  The first step in the process is to click on the green “Add Navigation” link at the top of the Content Management tree.

Upon clicking on the “Add Navigation” link, you will be brought to a three step wizard.  The image below will give you an idea of what the wizard looks like, and how easy it is to add a new page or link to the navigation.

For the SMC to successfully add your new navigation item, it is going to require three bits of information.  The page or link name, what type of page or link, and where to place the item in the content management tree or navigation heirarchy.

Step 1:  Enter name of page or link you would like to create.  Simply type the name of your new page or link in the textbox and we are done with this step.

Step 2: Choose one.  What you are being asked here sounds pretty generic, but if you take a look at your options you will understand.  We need to tell the SMC what type of page we will be creating, or if the Navigation is a link we need to specify the type of link and where it will link to.  There are three options:

• Create new page using the following template:  Choosing option 1 is where we create an actual page on the site.  We need to choose the type of page by selecting one of the page templates in the selection box.  The template we choose will determine the type of content on the page and how that content is organized.
• Create external link to URL:  Option 2 is used for navigation items that will be links to external URLs, or other web sites.  I would use this option if I wanted to link to http://www.SMCing.com and would type “www.SMCing.com” after the “http://” that is provided by default in the textbox.
• Create internal link to page:  Option 3 allows us to easily link to existing pages within our web site.  You do not need to know the URL as above, but simply need to select the page from the selection box that you would like the navigation item to link to.

Step 3: Place page under.  Now that we know the name and type, we need to tell the SMC where to place the new navigation item in the content management tree.  When you choose an item from the list, the SMC will place your new navigation item directly under that item.  We need to know one more bit of information.  Is the new item to be placed under the selected as a child, or as a sibling.

• As Child:  Assuming the navigation item we selected is the parent, our new item will be placed under the parent as a child.  If we look at the tree above as a reference, “About” is under “Home Page” As a Child.
• As Sibling: Assuming the navigation item we selected is a sibling, our new item will be placed at the same level as the sibling.  If we look at the tree above as a reference, “Solutions” is under “About” As a Sibling.

Step 4: Save.  The SMC now has all the information it needs to create a new navigation item.  Click the save button in the upper left corner of the Add Navigation wizard and we are done.

Congratulations!  You have just successfully added a new navigation item (page or link) to your SMC web site!

“With the open source community seemingly hot, why should I pay for the Site Management Console (SMC) when there are open source systems out there for free?”.  This question is consistently addressed when people researching content management are introduced to the SMC.

A topic that has surely been debated as long as open source projects have been around, there are positives and negatives to both sides.  The truth is the SMC would not be here today if it didn’t provide a solution that filled a need and was above and beyond the capabilities of the open source alternative.  I’ve provided a few points below that I think the SMC has to offer that the open source CMS cannot.

“Nothing in life is truly free!”

Service and Support:  SMC providers don’t just sit behind a wall throwing out new versions of the software, we become your partner in technology.  The fact is you are most likely looking for a CMS because you either do not have the personnel OR do not have the time to build and support one yourself.  There’s no reason to think this is ever going to change.  To take advantage of the open source CMS, you’ll need to have the right personnel in place to support and maintain the entire system.  Maintaining a piece of software is not a trivial task and requires substantial resources to do so.  We won’t even get into the headaches you encounter when these resources move on!  We create the environment that allows you to focus on servicing your clients with what you do best, while we focus on servicing you.  This will always be the #1 reason to choose closed source, but I will continue anyway!

Security:  If you are working with a client that is required or will be required to conduct security audits, open source systems are not an option.  Having access to the code makes the process of finding security holes to exploit an easy task for hackers.  Finding the vulnerability is half the battle.  A great example of this is what happened to some of the open source discussion boards.

Features and Flexibility:  The feature set, ease of use, and flexibility of the SMC currently far exceeds the open source solutions.  I  bet you didn’t expect to see that one on my list, since this is often thought to be one of the major advantages of open source?  Truth is, most features available with open source were not built for you, nor were they built to be flexible or scale.  We realize this gap may or may not narrow, but I can confidently say there was a gap two years ago and there still is today.  The product team has dedicated resources to ensure the SMC solution always stays one step ahead of the competition.

Define Free:  Yes, it is free to distribute, but it is far from free to design, set-up, maintain, and support an open source CMS web site. Are Drupal and Joomla! web solutions really free when they require you to staff an $80K person to administer and maintain them?  Whether you are paying for a proprietary CMS or supporting an open source CMS, there are costs that will be passed onto your customers.  Since time is money, how much savings is really there?  We try to create an environment that results in a win-win for both parties.

More Providers means More Competition:  Standardizing your client base on a system that thousands of web service providers offer makes it far easier for your client to go elsewhere.  While you are not trying to trap your customers on the SMC platform (you keep them by providing good service), at the same time you don’t want to make it as easy as a phone call to switch to a provider down the street.  Remember that thousands of businesses come and go, and they will do everything they can to steal your clients.  Don’t let price be the only variable in your solution.  The SMC solution will differentiate you from your competition, give you a distinct advantage, and thus a better chance of getting the business.

Customizations - This is probably one of the biggest advantages of open source CMS, but!  If you want to customize an open source CMS, you’ll need a programmer on staff that knows the system and has the skills to complete the task.  Sure, you can try your luck with the community, but finding the piece that fits the exact needs of your client is most often not there.  The SMC team builds every feature with flexibility in mind, knowing that each implementation will most likely be slightly different.

High End Solution:  For companies seeking a new web site provider, the open source solution is more often than not going to be the cheapest proposal on the table.  Do you want to be the cheapest solution?  Or, do you want to be the best solution that your customers are willing to pay a little more for?  I’ve always found that customers looking for “cheap” are always the most difficult to deal with.  In the end we all want the project to be successful, and those that make an investment in something tend to go the extra mile to ensure success.  Some of you may be shaking your head at this one, but others of you know exactly what I mean!

We could go on and on with this but you most likely have already done some research and are probably up to speed on the Open versus Proprietary debate.  There are many ways of breaking it down, but you’ll need to decide what is most important to you.  While everything mentioned above has varying importance and needs to be evaluated, the biggest difference between open and closed source CMS is always the service and support you receive.  If you need it, then you should go with a closed/proprietary solution, but if you don’t the open source route might be the direction you’re headed.