Overview of AssetNow NX

AssetNow NX is a Web Content Management System (CMS) used to publish, manage, and measure information on web sites, intranets, and extranets.

AssetNow NX is a software package that is installed on a web server running Adobe ColdFusion MX. The software can be installed on dedicated or shared (hosted) servers. Multiple installations can reside on the same server or under the same domain name or IP address.

To use AssetNow NX you require a web browser and a network/Internet connection to the web server. You do not have to install any other software on your computer.

AssetNow NX is available for servers running Microsoft Windows or popular Linux distributions as supported by ColdFusion MX, and supports popular databases including Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL.

W3C Standard Support

AssetNow NX is compliant with W3C standards. Standards-based sites are easier to develop and maintain, cost less, and work better. The main reason for these benefits is that standard-based sites can be displayed consistently in new generation standards-compliant web browsers and browsing devices. Standards-based sites remove the need to develop and maintain browser specific versions of the same content. Most major web browsers provide significantly improved standards-support in recent versions when compared to earlier web browsers, it makes sense to use this ability when developing web sites and applications.

Site Features

AssetNow NX delivers corporate level site functionality to visitors by providing a built-in functions:

• Navigation - primary, secondary and utility navigation.
• Site search.
• Site map.
• Content feeds (RSS, ATOM, RDF formats).
• Multi-language support using Unicode (UTF-8) character encoding.
• Public, member and private content access permissions.
• Scheduled categories and content access.
• Print formatting with automatically expanded link information with no need to have a separate print formatted page.
• Compact numeric URLs that are readily indexed by search engines and easy to copy/paste and share via e-mail.
• Reverse-lookup technology ensures pages bookmarked by visitors are always found even if you move them to a different part of the site.
• Caching ensures fast performance and lower server loading. Caching updates automatically when site content changes due to editing/approval, scheduling and user permissions. Specific items can be excluded from caching. For example a page displaying stock prices can be cached with the section displaying the stock prices excluded from the cache and updated each time the page is loaded.
• Comments on pages allowing visitors to post feedback on content or weblogs (blogs).
• Mailing lists (newsletters) with integrated subscriber management.
• Support for forms and rich media such as Flash movies directly in pages using AssetNow NX widgets.

AssetNow NX uses XHTML templates to display content. Developers can create as many templates as required by their site design. AssetNow NX does not restrict how a site page looks and what the templates used to generate them contain.

AssetNow NX Tools

AssetNow NX provides web browser based tools for all content management functions. The tools include:

• Content - used to manage the site category structure and content pages.
• Comments - administration of comments.
• Lists - mailing list (newsletter) publishing and subscriber management.
• Library - image and file library. Content can use images and files that a re unique to the category or page and images and files from the library.
• Reports - real time content usage and performance metrics, site traffic and browser technical data.
• Permissions - administration of Users, Groups, and Roles.
• System - administrative tools for site setup, logs, server disk usage, site search etc.

Content Publishing

AssetNow NX uses site tree structure comprised of folders called categories. Categories contain content pages. A content page can include text, images, downloadable files, rich media (Flash, video, mp3 audio etc.), dynamic content (database query results, webservices data) and data, and even entire custom applications.

Group and user permissions can be applied to categories and individual content pages.

A key component of AssetNow NX is a XHTML Strict/1.1 compliant editor. The editor is automatically downloaded and installed in the publishers web browser upon first accessing content tool. The editor ensures that non-technical publishers create valid XHTML content directly from a familiar WYSIWYG editor interface.

The simple editor interface and uncluttered toolbar makes authoring quick and enjoyable. Drag/drop or copy/paste images and files directly from your desktop into the editor and they are automatically uploaded to the site. Copy/paste text and images from Microsoft Word documents into the editor and it retains key formatting elements such as titles and tables, uploads the images, and removes all proprietary styles.

In addition to editor-based image and file uploading, AssetNow NX also provides conventional web browser form-based uploading and a java upload applet. The upload applet can resize and compress digital camera images (jpg) to one of 5 preset sizes before uploading. Images can also be resized to presets once uploaded. The applet is essential when uploading very large files, up to 2GB, which cannot be handled reliably by conventional form based browser uploading.

Revisions and Workflow

AssetNow NX provides revision control and multi-step workflow. Each revision is completely independent of other revisions, this includes all images and files (assets) specific to the revision.

E-mail notification and authenticated RSS notification and notes feeds provides a simple yet powerful information exchange and approval mechanism.

When a content page passes the final workflow review/approval step it automatically replaces the active revision on the site, this means content does not have to be removed from the site during approval.

AssetNow NX does not tie a content page to a specific publisher (creator). If required a publisher can lock an item to ensure exclusive access. AssetNow NX performs automatic locking whenever an item is edited ensuring that items cannot be changed by publishers at the same time resulting in them overwriting each others changes.

Templates and Widgets

AssetNow NX sites are displayed using templates. Templates are easy to create and modify making AssetNow NX an ideal solution for web designers, developers and web agencies.

Designers can create as many templates as required by their site design. Templates are use standard X/HTML markup, combined with AssetNow NX widgets and CSS to render site categories and page content.

Widgets are reusable elements such as navigation menus, search, site map etc. Widgets are used by designers just like familiar X/HTML tags. Developers can create new widgets for custom functions. You can also create widgets directly from the Systems tool.

Widgets can be used directly in the XHTML editor. This means developers can encapsulate complex code in a simple widget which non-technical publishers can add to content pages. For example a developer can create a widget that generates a table of stock levels. A publisher simply adds the widget to a page to display the stock levels together with the other page content.

Comments

Comments can be enabled for specific pages allowing visitors to post comments about the page content. Comment moderation (approval) options are available. AssetNow NX also applied technical measures to restrict comment spam.

Lists (Newsletters)

Publish and manage mailing lists (newsletters) and subscribers. Includes support for X/HTML and plain text versions of newsletters. Plan text versions are generated automatically from the X/HTML version. Tracking codes are automatically added to newsletter links allow you to monitor click-throughs. Subscribe/unsubscribe and subscriber account management are all provided.

Library

The library is a shared image and file repository. Images and files can be organized in a hierarchical tree and permissions granted to specific publisher groups. Library images and files can be added to any page in addition to page specific images and files.

Reports

The reports tool provides Flash charts and tabular data of site traffic and key content performance metrics such as stickiness, entry/exit views and contribution and allocation values. Search engine activity and web browser technical reports are also available.

Permissions

AssetNow NX has a flexible permission system comprising Users, Groups and Roles. A number of predefined roles are provided and can be configured to suit specific requirements.

• Site Administrators have global permissions.
• Group Administrators manage users within the user groups they themselves are assigned to.
• Approvers review and approve content before it appears on the site.
• Publishers create and edit content.

Content access can be limited to specific user groups and users. A username and password is required to sign-in and access content with permissions.

Member content displays a summary of the page (title and teaser) on the public site. The complete page can only be access after sign-in.

Private content is not displayed at all until a user has signed-in.

Administrators, Approvers, and Publishers have access to the AssetNow NX tools after sign-in. Each role has access to a different tools and tool settings.

System

The System tool provides the following functions:

• Module registration and instance management - used to add functionality to AssetNow NX.
• Codepad - allows ad-hoc processing of ColdFusion code. Great for debugging and implementing once-off changes.
• Dump - dumps all AssetNow persistent scopes, structures and variables.
• Disk - charts and reports server disk space usage. You can drill down to identify disk space hungry items.
• Bundles - edit internationalization language bundles.
• Widgets - create/manage widgets. These widgets are stored in an XML file and are not separate widgets such as those created by developers. Their primary use if for widgets that need updated periodically.
• Search - integrated site search administration.
• Logs - AssetNow NX creates numerous logs and archives them each month.
• Setup - global system settings and parameters.
• Reset - reset various parts of AssetNow NX including the entire site.

Notes

Tool users can attach notes to any item such as a category or content page. Notes provide an effective collaboration system without cluttering e-mail systems and user in-boxes. Users can also create private notes for personal reminders, to-do lists, and information snippets.

Site Staging and Deployment

AssetNow NX is supplied with a basic site structure and example content pages. The easiest and fastest way to get started is to revise the provided site structure by renaming the existing categories and pages. Then add your categories and content pages.

Designers can apply their own style sheets and immediately change the site visual design.

AssetNow NX sites can be moved to staging and deployment servers independent of the install path/location used to develop the site. You do not have to worry about any assets (links, images, and files) managed by AssetNow NX, not being correctly referenced/located after changing the install location.