Online CMS System Weekly Magazine

The requirement involved the porting of an existing CMS system [developed in VB.net 2.0 & SQL 2000] into Ektron CMS400.Net. The data for the existing CMS system residing in SQL 2000 was migrated to the CMS content database [SQL 2005]. A parser was developed in VB.net to read data from SQL 2000 and push data to the Content Database.

Smart Forms were used in the process to push data to the content database. The new CMS site was developed from scratch based on the new templates designed and involved the usage of all the latest features available with the Ektron CMS400.Net. All the WebPages were organized in a well customized manner so that the admin can directly open each and every page without moving into CMS work area and edit any content on that page itself. Every content populated on the WebPages were associated with document [word / html] that was residing in the content database of Ektron. While uploading the document/ data inside the Ektron CMS environment, the admin can add Metadata, Teaser text, descriptions, associated image etc. to the related content. All these related data gets populated with the content when the respective item is being browsed for in the front end by end users.

List summary and Content List server control was exclusively used for managing and editing the contents including images and data.

Flexible Menu Server control was used to implement the dynamic menu control on the website.Using the Ektron CMS400.Net Metadata features Menu control was dynamically populated. The search / advance search functionality was implemented efficiently to populate results based on keywords being searched for. Taxonomy logic was maintained inside Ektron CMS work area for improving the search functionality.

For site navigation we have implemented Breadcrumb features using Breadcrumb and Folder Breadcrumb Server controls. Content rating feature for each and every document which were published on the website were accomplished using Content Rating and Content Review Server Control provided in Ektron CMS400.Net. XSLT was also used for displaying the rating star image.

Also there was a module which involved the development of Discussion / Community Board. The Discussion Board Server control was exclusively used for this purpose and was customized as per the requirements to have the custom look and feel. Content Block server control was also used to manage and upload documents.

There was a member module developed which allowed registration of new members and Log-in facility of existing members. This was completely implemented using the Ektron CMS400.Net API’s.