Re: Quick Terminology Poll

Bob Doyle <[email protected]> Wed, 01 Feb 2006 11:39:28 -0500
Newsgroups	gmane.comp.cms.cms-forum.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Hi Julian,

This CMS industry list is a great place to discuss terminology, but I 
believe the discussion should not be quick and limited to this brief 
email exchange. Valuable insights should be preserved. Terminological 
practices should be shared widely.

That's why we are developing a CMS Glossary of terms on the CMS Wiki 
(http://www.cmswiki.com).

The Glossary is syndicated to a number of other web sites and is being 
adapted for use in related disciplines like Knowledge Management, 
Information Architecture, Taxonomy/Classification, and other fields

The Glossary page at CM Pros also provides links to a couple dozen other 
glossaries of CM terms on the Web. See 
http://www.cmprofessionals.org/resources/glossary.html.

As to your specific terms below, the distinction between template 
(structure) and layout (presentation) is subtle. Generally, this can be 
seen most clearly in XML architectures, where the XML Schema Document 
(XSD) establishes the possible structure. The XML document itself 
contains the content in its structured form, and XSLT Transforms produce 
many possible layouts (or presentations) with the necessary style (CSS) 
information to support print, PDF, Web, PDA, cell phones, voice, etc.

As Hilary noted, the term template also describes the fielded forms 
input templates of structured content management systems.

Here is a copy of the term Template from our Glossary. The links may 
work in many mail readers. If not, try the drop-down menu on the CMS 
Review home page (http://www.cmsreview.com):


				
		

*Glossary Term:*

      /Template <http://www.cmswiki.com/tiki-editpage.php?page=Template>/ 

*Definition:*

      A Template carries the Presentation
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=Presentation>
      information, including Style and Positioning.

      In addition to the Presentation or Publication (Output) Template,
      there is also an InputTemplate?
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/tiki-editpage.php?page=InputTemplate>,
      used by Authors
      <http://www.cmswiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Authoring> and other
      Contributors
      <http://www.cmswiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Contributor> to enter
      content.

      Input templates are web-based forms, with fields for title,
      author, subhead, body, etc. This is called a fielded
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=fielded>
      editor.

      The Template Editor lets you create layouts - usually an
      arrangement of blocks on the page.

      Many CMS have no Template Editor. Their templates are coded by
      hand, starting with a design prototype of the final presentation.
      Dummy placeholder text in the design is replaced with tags
      <http://www.cmswiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Tag> that identify the
      Content Block
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=ContentBlock>.

      Into a Content Block
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=ContentBlock>
      goes the Content Element
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=ContentElement>
      or ContentObject?
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/tiki-editpage.php?page=ContentObject>,
      which could be HTML?
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/tiki-editpage.php?page=HTML> or XML
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=XML>
      fragments, RSS
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=RSS> news
      feeds and other remote server-driven applications (servlets), or
      client-side application programs (applets).

      Each block (or just a span) is indicated by delimiting tags,
      usually in the style of their application framework.

      ASP <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=ASP>
      tags look like <NaV>, Blogger tags like <NaV>, etc.

      The new trend is to use XML-style tags defined in a namespace,
      like <title>, <author>, <description>, <body>, etc.

      Programming languages can conditionally include a Content Element
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=ContentElement>
      based on programming variables. In this way, Personalization
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=Personalization>
      of the page can be achieved.

      The Template is sometimes described as a Portal in which case a
      ContentObject?
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/tiki-editpage.php?page=ContentObject>
      is sometimes called a Portlet
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=Portlet>.

      Related Terms
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=RelatedTerm>:
      Content Block
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=ContentBlock>,
      Content Element
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=ContentElement>,
      ContentObject?
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/tiki-editpage.php?page=ContentObject>,
      Presentation
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=Presentation>

       CMS Glossary Index
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=CMSGlossary>
      | Back
      <http://www.cmscalendar.com/cmspros-glossary.html?term=Template>


P.S., I will post a link to this discussion on the CM Pros home page.

Julian Voelcker wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Not sure  if this is the best place to ask, but here goes...
>
> I develop and maintain an in house CMS and am just going through the 
> process of a complete re-write of the core code on a new platform and 
> see this as a good opportunity to try to tidy up some areas.
>
> One of the areas that I'm lacking consistancy is the terminology for 
> various elements.  Below is the standard that I am thinking about 
> following and would be interested to know your views and also how it 
> compares to commercial products you have come across.
>
> Most of it is common sense, however I have come across alternative 
> names so want to try to go down the most common/logical route.
>
>
> Visitors - people that visit the website
>
> Users - people that use the CMS admin system, regardless of their level 
> (admin, editor, contributor)
>
> Sites - actual websites
>
> Domain - domain names that point to either a complete site or part of a 
> site
>
> Section - a group of pages/part of a site (I guess I could also use 
> Folder - undecided on this)
>
> Page - what is rendered in the browser
>
> Content - the main textual content of a page
>
> Assets - images, media files, downloadable files associated with a site 
> - I know some refer to this as a site's Media, but this implies more 
> visual media as opposed to downloadable files - I prefer to group the 
> whole lot together.
>
> Template - design template as applied to a page or group of pages
>
> Layout - a predefined template for site content (e.g. 2 col format)
>
> History - page history - copies of previous version of page content.
>
>
> Can you think of any other key entities?
>   


-- 
Bob Doyle
Editor In Chief, CMS Review - http://www.cmsreview.com
Technology Adviser, CM Pros - http://www.cmprofessionals.org
Contributing Editor, EContent Magazine - 
http://www.econtentmag.com/About/AboutAuthor.aspx?AuthorID=155
President and CEO, skyBuilders - http://www.skybuilders.com
77 Huron Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
617-876-5676