It has been proposed for quite some time now that we redesign the plug-in builder to allow the SMC developer more flexibility with SMC plug-ins, while also offering the option to easily integrate any application into a SMC site.  The guts of the project will be to create database tables and fields rather than store the structure of the plug-in within a table itself, as is being done now.

The following are a few benefits that the SMC developer and user will realize upon completion:

1. Easy to copy plug-ins.  Make a copy of a plug-in as a starting point for another.
2. Option to share plug-ins.  One version of plug-in shared across many SMCs.
3. Ability to optimize plug-in performance through indexes, views, keys, etc.  This will drastically improve performance on plug-ins that have many fields and/or many plug-in items.
4. Ability to create relationships between tables (PK, FK, etc.).  This is a must-have for any custom built plug-in, and is utilizing a few creative but shaky techniques to pull off now
5. No limitations on field types as will create a table for each plug-in object and a entity for each field.  Have access to create, search, order by, group by, etc., on date, currency, bit, number, text, etc. data types.
6. Option to create plug-in objects that are join tables.  Join table can link two plug-ins created using the plug-in builder (i.e. members to classifieds), but also can be used to link a table within a custom application to a SMC table (i.e. smc user to TMC task), otherwise known as a “hook”.  Easily create a “hook” with any plug-in built for an open source CMS?  Wow!
7. Ability to create views required to improve performance on large queries
8. Great base for complex applications.  Since actual tables and fields are being created, can serve as an excellent starting point for an application that takes on complexity.  Rather than starting over when the application has needs outside scope of plug-in builder, you can reuse the tables and code base generated by the SMC plug-in builder (i.e Stat Nurse Intl CRM).
9. Easy to integrate with mission critical applications or “Back Office” systems that are important to your business (i.e. accounting software, reservations software, property management system, project management, CRM, sales management, MLS for real estate, etc.)
10. Keep all “special” field formats such as Image Set, List Box, Multiple Choice, etc. and add a few more such as Look-up (Select existing table), Join Table (Select two tables), File, etc.
11. Create triggers on specific actions (i.e. On table update, send email notification)
12. Maintain ease and speed of the set-up and management of plug-in (i.e. content forms are automatically created)
13. Maintain existing benefits of SMC plug-ins such as: meta data for plug-ins and fields, can associate items to SMC pages, easy to manage plug-in items with rest of web site, etc.
14. Plug-in versions.  Can keep versions and site users have option to update to latest version as they become available (can do this since everything is standardized or defined…. i.e. update tables, and all templates to latest version)
15. Flexibility and increased function on display templates.  I.e. display plug-in data from multiple plug-ins or objects.  Would like to standardize on smarty for all coding found on plug-in templates.
16. Integration of WYSIWYG editor.  When you create a new field you have the option to specify whether field will require the editor or not.
17. Drag and drop template creation.  Drag a field label, output value, or form field to a table cell in a plug-in template

While this is not a complete list, it is a long one and will require Intrcomm to dedicate ample time and resources to the project.  Any help you can offer for this project will be greatly appreciated.  We are currently looking for projects that can help to fund this project.  If there are no projects to help fund this expense, we will most likely have to charge clients and partners extra to use this functionality.

A soon to be released feature in the Site Management Console (SMC) will allow web site admins to control the text contained in the page URL, which is essentially the page name and path.  This feature is a result of tremendous pressure from our partners and many SMC clients who depend on Search Engine (Google, MSN, Yahoo!) traffic to succeed.  If SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is not a critical piece in your web strategy, you should think about addressing it soon.

I’ve recently been testing this new function on SMCing.com, and it has gotten me thinking about how friendly the SMC is for SEO related tasks.  The Site Management Console (SMC) is one of the few Content Management Systems I have seen that is truly a helping hand for the SEO professional.

1. Site Maps - Site maps provide a means for users to see an entire overview of a web site, and all the pages included.  You can think of a site map the same way you think of a table of contents in a book.  Site maps also provide an excellent path for search engine spiders to crawl your site.  Particularly with sites that use flash, javascript, or AJAX in their navigation, a site map allows the search engine to index pages that it otherwise wouldn’t be able to.  Your site map is automatically generated as you add, update, and remove pages from your SMC web site.
2. Meta Data - On the Page Properties for each SMC page there are fields to provide critical meta data for page title, description, and keywords.  This meta data is automatically placed in the header of the published page and essentially provides the search engine spider with a taste of what can be expected on that page.  The page title and description are of particular importance in that they are included in the search algorithm and can also be displayed on the Search Results Pages, describing to the user what the page is about.  The page title and description meta tags are often times the difference between a person clicking to your site over another!
3. Static versus Dynamic Content - Static content can be described as non-changing content whereas dynamic content would be considered content that changes or is provided on demand.  Both have advantages in SEO, and the SMC allows you to capitalize on each of them.  A dynamic web site generally stores page content in a database.  Search engine spiders can have trouble indexing page content stored in a database, particularly if several parameters are involved.  While SMC page content is stored in a database, the Release function will pull all the content out and create a nice static page that the search engine can read.
4. Keywords in Page URLs - Keyword density is one of the most important factors determining where your page ranks in the search engine results.  If you are able to organize the keywords you are targeting in what the search engines consider to be “important” places, you will receive a higher ranking for that keyword.  Important places include domain names, directory names, page names, link text, image alt tags, and header tags, just to name a few.  It just so happens the first 3 items in that list make up the page URL (www.domain.com/directory/page_name.html), and if placed properly can be very influential in your page rank.
5. Template Management - The Site Management Console (SMC) uses templates primarily to separate designers from content providers.  Page templates also allow the designer to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control the layout and design of a page.  By using CSS in your design templates, you are able to move relevant content to the top of the page and sometimes even make note of its importance (h1, h2, etc.).
6. Broken Links - Because all navigation links are generated by the SMC engine, your chances of being penalized by the search engines for broken links are minimal with the SMC.  Anytime you can automate a process, you are minimizing the chance for error by taking the human element out of the equation.
7. Fresh Content - Although an obvious attribute of a content management system, not many people realize that fresh content is an important element of the search engine algorithm.  If you can keep your content fresh, not only will users continue to come back to your site, the new content will score points with the search engines. 

As you can see, the SMC simplifies several of the important steps needed to optimize your web site for the search engines.  The more Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tasks the SMC can handle, the less time you will need to achieve the results you are expecting with your web site.

Stay tuned for more on this subject as we continue to provide tools in this area.