WCM offers the same general functionality as e-CM 5.x, but the fact that WCM is based on ASP.NET technology and shares underlying components with other iMIS features means that there are fundamental differences between WCM and e-CM 5.x.
Note: You are not required to migrate your e-CM data or change your existing e-CM websites in any way. They are still supported by iMIS and can coexist alongside newer WCM websites and can share the same data with iMIS.
The implementation of WCM is very simple compared to e-CM. WCM is fully installed by the standard iMIS Installer.
Extending WCM websites requires no ColdFusion knowledge, but it does require knowledge of standard ASP.NET development techniques. It is also much easier to create custom "content items", since these are now implemented as standard ASP.NET web parts. The WCM interface makes it very easy for staff or consultants familiar with ASP.NET development to insert ad hoc custom web parts into any content record, or to make custom web parts permanently available to everyone who performs web content authoring. In iMIS, the standard ASP.NET web parts are called iParts.
Note: ColdFusion extensions developed for an e-CM 5.x website cannot import into WCM. After migrating e-CM content, you must re-implement any extensions you still need in the ASP.NET environment.
Terms that differ
■ The term "content producer" or "producer" has been replaced by the term content authoring, to reflect the most current terminology used in the web content management field and to reflect the fact that any Full user can potentially author web content in addition to their normal role in the organization.
■ The term "content item" has been replaced by the term iPart, to reflect that these are standard ASP.NET controls.
■ The term "default section URL" has been replaced by the term shortcut URL, to reflect that the real purpose is to provide a shortcut for people who perform web content authoring.
■ The term "content record" is still used, but whereas it used to specifically mean an HTML-oriented page, it is now a more general container with iPart zones into which many types of content, called iParts, can be placed.
■ The terminology used in e-CM tagged pages is very different:
□ The term "tagged page" has been replaced by a content record that contains a ContentTaggedList iPart.
□ The term "component" has been replaced by tagged list format, to reflect that the formatting of ContentTaggedList iParts is now more versatile, similar in concept to creating an email merge.
□ The term "display block" has been replaced by iPart zone, to reflect that all visual blocks in the rendered output of a content record are zones into which various iParts are placed.
□ The term "page plan" has been replaced by content layout, to reflect that this type of pre-defined arrangement of iPart zones is now a basic feature of every content record.
□ The term "tagged page layout" is no longer used. It's WCM equivalent is essentially the total combination of the preceding four terms.
■ The term "UDF" has been replaced by the term WCM user-defined field (UDF), to reflect the fact that WCM UDFs are created differently, and serve a very different purpose, than UDFs created for use in iMIS contact records.
■ The term "Surf to Edit request" has been replaced by the term content change request, to reflect the fact that what's being requested is a change to existing content.
Terms that are new
The following list is a very brief introduction to the new terms and concepts in WCM. The WCM user guide explains these in more detail.
■ Content Designer - The WCM tool that is used for web content authoring: defining content folders, content records, and content layouts, and managing content authoring workflow.
■ Site Designer - The WCM tool that is used for WCM implementation and website management: defining websites, sitemaps (navigation items), and shortcut URLs.
■ Content type - A set of ASP.NET controls that tells iMIS how to work with a specific type of iPart.
■ iPart zone - A single zone in the content layout used by a content record. You can add multiple iParts to each iPart zone, and you can drag and drop iParts among the various zones to quickly rearrange the content on a rendered web page.
■ Sitemap - A hierarchical set of navigation items. Currently, there is one sitemap per WCM website.
■ Navigation area - a specific area on a master page (outside of the content area where content records are rendered) where navigation items are displayed.
Differences in e-CM 5.x data that has been migrated into WCM
Migrating your e-CM 5.x content into the WCM environment is relatively easy, but does require significant planning and post-migration work. Your ColdFusion extensions cannot be migrated into the WCM environment. Instead, you must manually reproduce these extensions in the ASP.NET environment. Also, there are some significant changes made to the e-CM 5.x data when it is migrated into WCM.
■ General differences
□ e-Series security groups have been converted to iMIS security roles.
□ Member type security is now using virtual roles. In the Access Settings section of every WCM definition object, these are found in the Specific Member Types list.
■ Content
□ Restricted to certain groups (or MembersOnlyFlag) translates to Require Authenticated User checkbox.
□ All links to other pages that are sourced in the e-Series environment (including hand-built ColdFusion pages) are broken and must be manually replaced with links to the new WCM-based equivalent content. The link path that you see in the migrated WCM content can provide clues where to find the original linked files.
□ The e-CM setup value WCM.ExpirationNotice1 is migrated to to the WCM setup value WCM.FinalExpirationNoticeDays (found in System Setup > Set up content management > Workflow configuration).
□ The e-CM setup value WCM.ExpirationNotice2 is not migrated.
□ If the e-CM content comprises a link to a ColdFusion .cfm file, the migrated WCM content record comprises a ContentLink iPart that points to the same .cfm file. All such migrated .cfm files are placed in ~/
■ Navigation
□ Hidden navigation items in the e-CM environment that are named Content Area [number] or Home Content Area [number] are not migrated to the sitemap for the migrated WCM website. The content formerly tied to these particular types of hidden navigation items are migrated as individual content records into a ContentAreas folder. Each of these migrated content records are named based on the name of the original content tied to the e-CM hidden navigation item, instead of having the same name as the e-CM hidden navigation item.
□ The template path is not migrated.
□ Initial, Rollover and Other images are not migrated.
□ Workflow information is only migrated if "number of days until expiration" is specified, because this is required information for workflow in WCM.
□ All links to other pages that are sourced in the e-Series environment (including hand-built ColdFusion pages) are broken and must be manually replaced with links to the new WCM-based equivalent content. The link path that you see in the migrated WCM content can provide clues where to find the original linked files.
■ Websites
□ Templates, master pages, css files, settings, and header/footers are removed during migration.
□ All fields that specify where content should be published have been removed. Where content is published is now handled by the definition for a publishing server, which is specified at the content folder level.
□ There are no longer choices for a "simple" or "advanced" website, "ColdFusion" or "ASP .NET", or the option to specify whether a particular website uses tagging.
□ The default page for a website is set to Default.aspx during migration, but you can change this by specifying any navigation item to be the default page for the website.
□ Graphics are now stored in the App_Themes/[Site name]/images directory by default.
□ Pop-up menus (HierMenu) must now be defined within the master page. All related values have not been carried over to the WCM environment.
□ Fields that specify website search criteria have been moved to the website's associated content folder.
□ The following fields have been removed. There are no analogous fields in the WCM environment:
■ When multiple content records are listed for a single navigational item, what should the heading say?
■ When one or more files are listed, what should the heading say?
■ When one or more hyperlinks are listed, what should the heading say?
■ Should the summary for each piece of listed content be displayed when "Combination" pages are generated?
■ Should the summary for each piece of listed content be displayed when "Content List" pages are generated?
■ If you'd always like to sort the "Content List" pages by something other than the order specified, select the column name.
■ e-CM UDFs
□ "Use in Simple Mode" is removed; there is no analogous feature in WCM.
■ Security permissions
□ e-CM CAGs contain both workflow-oriented permissions as well as object-level access permissions to things that equate to WCM definition objects like content records, navigation items, websites, and so on. After migration to WCM, the workflow-oriented permissions are transferred to a WCM CAG with the same name as the original e-CM CAG. The object-level access permissions, however, are moved to the Access Settings section of all migrated definition objects. An iMIS security group with the same name as the original e-CM CAG is created and that security group is assigned to each definition object that corresponds to the original e-CM CAG-controlled objects. This security group is granted Full Control permissions on these migrated definition objects.
□ Security access rights assigned to the e-CM website properties are converted to Access Settings on a migrated website object as follows:
■ e-Series security groups are converted to iMIS security roles, and those roles are assigned to the migrated websites. The roles are granted Read permissions on the migrated website objects.
■ iMIS member types are assigned to the the migrated websites and granted Read permissions on the migrated website objects.
■ Tags, Tagged Pages, Tagged Page Layouts, Tagged Components
□ Multiple tags with the same name are allowed in e-CM, but they are not allowed in WCM. During the migration process, all such duplicate tags from the e-CM environment are consolidated into one tag. One of the duplicates is randomly chosen to be the consolidated tag in WCM, and all references in content folders and content records to the other duplicate tags are updated to point instead to the consolidated tag.
□ The migration process preserves only the tags that are currently assigned to the first version of each content record that is found using the following list. If the first version in the list is not found, the next version is checked, and so on.
■ The currently Published version
■ The Working, Publish Requested, and Publish Pending versions
■ The Recycled version
■ The most recently Archived version
□ Tags are now implemented as a true hierarchy, with every parent tag having an implicit more broadly defines relationship to its children tags, and every child tag having an implicit further defines relationship to its parent tag. In general, this means that if you use a tag in an AdvancedSearch or ContentTaggedList iPart, all descendants of that tag are automatically included as well.
■ e-CM Tagged Pages that include only tags at higher levels of the tag hierarchy would generate only lists of content records that were tagged with those specific tags. After being migrated into the WCM environment and converted to ContentTaggedList iParts, they will generate lists that include content records that are tagged with any descendant of a tag that is specified in the configuration of the ContentTaggedList iPart. You might therefore need to adjust the migrated tag hierarchy (or the configuration of imported ContentTaggedList iParts) to achieve the desired generated output.
■ The WCM search engine handles keyword searches and tagged searches differently than the Verity™ site search engine in e-CM. The pre-filtered result set of a basic or advanced search includes all content records that are tagged with any descendant of the tag that is matched by either a search keyword or a tag selected from a tag list in an advanced search panel.
□ Tagged components are converted to tagged list formats. Display masks (such as MM/DD/YYYY) are removed during migration and must be manually reapplied.
□ A "master" content record is created for each e-CM tagged page layout. Each of these content records contain one or more ContentTaggedList iParts (and associated tagged list formats) in a specific content layout to mimic the look of the original e-CM tagged page layout. The contents of these "master" content records are also copied into individual content records wherever the tagged page layout was used.
□ A union is performed to the tag list on tagged page layouts and the tag lists on the content records which used them. In the case that an OR operator was used on the original layout, a separate ContentTaggedList iPart is created within the iPart zone for each combination of tags. For example, if in e-CM you had a section with an OR of "ABC", "DEF", "GHI", and on the tagged page using the layout you had a tag list containing "XYZ", then the migrated content record will have 3 sections with the following combinations: "ABC" + "XYZ", "DEF" + "XYZ", and "GHI" + "XYZ".
□ Image file names are not migrated, because WCM ContentTaggedList iParts cannot show images in their rendered lists.
□ "View all image name" is not migrated, so you cannot specifically show a "view all" image in WCM. However, you can now define a "view all" css class which can define an image to use, but this must be manually accomplished in the WCM environment.