This section covers the following topics:
Site Studio is a powerful, flexible web development application suite that offers a comprehensive approach to designing, building, and maintaining enterprise-scale web sites. It goes beyond conventional web site development solutions by offering web site creation and content management all in one. Everything associated with the web site, including all site assets (such as templates, graphics, CSS files, and the like) and all site content, is stored and managed in the content server. Site Studio dramatically improves productivity and enables organizations to maintain accurate, timely, and current web content with consistent branding and presentation across all corporate sites. With Site Studio, you can centralize control of site architecture and presentation, while distributing content development and ongoing maintenance to business units or other teams.
Note:
Site Studio 11gR1 is fully backward compatible to 10gR4. Site Studio Designer 11gR1 can also work with sites created in Site Studio releases 10gR3 and earlier. It is important to note, though, that sites creates with Site Studio versions 10gR3 and earlier continue to work in "legacy" mode; that is, they can not take advantage of the architecture and features of Site Studio 11gR1.Site Studio comprises three applications, which reflect the three distinct users of Site Studio: designers, managers, and contributors.
The Site Studio Designer application provides the development environment in which a single individual (the site designer) can create, design, and distribute the site. The designer is typically a webmaster, a web developer, a site administrator, or someone in a similar position. Typically, one designer works with multiple managers and contributors.
The Site Studio Manager application provides a web-based site management console that can be used by one or more site managers to maintain the structure of the site. The manager is often the head of a division or department. See the Oracle WebCenter Content Administrator and Manager's Guide for Site Studio for more information.
The Site Studio Contributor application enables assigned individuals within an organization (the contributors) to update the content on the web site whenever they want using an inline editing environment that can be called directly from the web site. Contributors are usually non-technical users and might be members of the marketing team or sales team. See the Oracle WebCenter Content User's Guide for Site Studio Contributor for more information.
Designers of the site spend most of their time in the Designer application, using the Manager and Contributor applications mostly to preview or test the site. Managers spend most of their time in Manager and may occasionally use Contributor to make minor edits. Contributors most likely work exclusively in Contributor. Of course, the same individual can design, manage, and contribute to the web site (a more likely scenario in a smaller organization).
Even though these applications are separate, they are tightly integrated. The tasks performed in Designer affect Manager and Contributor, and tasks performed in Manager affect Contributor. For example, setting up a Manager fragment or assigning content to pages in Designer, or modifying the editing menu available to the contributors, directly affect the appearance and behavior of Manager and Contributor.
Oracle Content Server is the main repository for your web site. Oracle Content Server enables everyone in your organization to easily contribute content, efficiently manage the content with rich library services, and securely access content anywhere.
As part of Universal Content Management (UCM), Site Studio employs many of the built-in services that the content server has to offer, such as managed content, Idoc Script, security, and workflow. You can use the Site Studio Administration page on the content server to administer several tasks related to Site Studio (see Section 5.19, "Site Studio Administration Page in Oracle Content Server").
Site Studio also works in tandem with other components, like Dynamic Converter and Check Out and Open, which enable users to seamlessly incorporate native documents (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so forth) on their web site. Dynamic Converter is used to convert native documents into web pages that then appear on the web site. Check Out and Open is used to provide an in-context "check out" option directly from the web page where the document appears. Additionally, this option will launch the native application and open the file for editing.
You may also choose to enable Oracle Content Server's folders functionality or other capabilities to make it easier for contributors to submit content to the site. Experience with Oracle Content Server and its add-ons is helpful in creating and managing web sites with Site Studio. Please see the Oracle Content Server documentation for more information.
Most web sites begin with the creation of a single HTML or scripting-based web page. The look and feel of the site is designed and site navigation is determined. Content, typically a mixture of text and graphics, is added last. As the site grows, this first page can be saved under a new name and essentially serve as a "template" for future web pages, all of which are connected.
This approach works well until you find yourself making a global change to the web site, which could require individual edits to every page on the site. To do this, many large web sites take a modular approach that uses dynamic includes and database-driven web pages. As a result, portions of content are assembled to display as a single web page when the web browser requests it. Thus, site navigation, advertisements, headers and footers, and information that changes frequently can be updated just once and take effect immediately. However, this requires a significant development effort and a lot of coordination.
Site Studio takes a similar approach, but it goes one step further by offering reusable layout and content. Some site assets, such as page templates, region templates, and placeholders, are used to provide background information ("look and feel") for a typical web page, while other assets, such as region definitions and element definitions, can modify and filter the layout and content, leaving much of the content of the page open for contributors to create and edit within the given page. Individual portions of the web page (both content and layout) can be made reusable, allowing those assets to be used and reused multiple times in the same way the page templates themselves are used and reused.
Before you create your web site in Site Studio, you should be aware that HCSP sites are the only site type that can take advantage of the architecture and features in Site Studio 11gR1. Legacy (that is, pre-10gR4) sites continue to work as they did with Site Studio 11gR1, but you are strongly encouraged to convert your old HCSP web sites to take advantage of the 11gR1 architecture and features. ASP and JSP sites are still available for legacy (that is, pre-10gR4) projects, but they do not have the 11gR1 functionality. They will function as they did with previous releases of Site Studio.
Please note the following:
Idoc and JSP are grouped as "hcsp/jsp" because they can both execute in a content server environment (JSP pages use the Java ServerBean to call Idoc services). ASP, however, exists by itself because it cannot execute in such an environment.
While working in Designer, you can hide the fragments in the Toolbox that are not written in the same language as your web site (see Section 6.11, "Setting Miscellaneous Options").
Site Studio 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) has many new features and enhancements compared to previous releases:
Section 1.6.1, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.546)"
Section 1.6.2, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.506)"
Section 1.6.3, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.470)"
Section 1.6.4, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.0.0 - Builds 9.0.0.454 and 9.0.0.410)"
Section 1.6.5, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.0.0 - Build 9.0.0.354)"
Site Studio 11gR1 includes these enhancements over the 10.1.4.5.0 release of Site Studio.
Site Studio now features a method of marking certain sections of a web site as not ready to move, so they would not be included in replication. This allows a section to be marked as not ready for replication while significant changes are being made to the section. When the section is ready to be replicated the property can be reset in Designer, Manager or directly from the page in contribution mode. When this feature is enabled, adding a new section or performing a switch content on a section will automatically set this value to not ready so that the new content will not automatically be replicated to another server. For more information, seeSection 12.1.11, "Viewing and Editing Web Site and Section Properties."
Site Studio 11gR1 includes the enhancements listed in Section 1.6.1, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.546)", as well as the following enhancements.
Enable Contributor Console from Administration Page
In previous versions of Site Studio, you had to manually move a file from one folder to another in order to enable the Contributor console window. Now there is a button in the Administrator pages that moves the file for you when you want to enable the console. For more information, see Section 5.19, "Site Studio Administration Page in Oracle Content Server."
Site Studio now features a method for bundling a collection of related definitions and templates to replicate to other web sites. This allows you to reuse a 'set' of (for example) definitions and templates that make up a specific method of laying out information without having to manually re-create each individual definition and template. The bundle of definitions and templates can be copied in one unit to another web site to use. For more information, see Section 9.12, "Definition Bundles."
Site Studio Contributor now features a new interface, which optimizes many of the editing and workflow tasks in Contributor.
Remove Region Content on Edit Menu
The Contribution Region menu in Site Studio Contributor now opens (when enabled in Site Studio Designer) a Remove Region Content option. This allows the contributor to quickly remove the content rather than going through the Switch Content Wizard.
Site Studio now has an option to reset the component update numbering. This allows you to redeploy the original assets of an installation independent of the base content server installation, if you find it necessary.
The contribution mode in Site Studio Contributor can be opened when you add /contributor/ to the URL. This is used mainly for those creating third-party interfaces for contribution mode. A configuration flag must be set for the URL method to work.
Read-Only Mode for Blocked Assets
Site Studio Designer now alerts you on opening a site asset if it is opened elsewhere for editing, and gives you the option of opening it as read-only. Previously the asset could not be opened if someone else was editing the asset.
Site Studio now works with Digital Asset Management renditions, when the component is installed on the content server.
Site Studio 11gR1 includes the enhancements listed in Section 1.6.2, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.506)", as well as the following enhancements.
Site Studio now has an additional method of working with the web site as a Designer. Design Mode is a method of granting some of the tools available in Site Studio Designer through the Contributor interface. This function is especially useful to those who are using the Site Studio extension for JDeveloper.
Site Studio now features a method of speeding the load time of Contributor when a page has a large number of elements. When on-demand editors are enabled, a preview of the data in each element opens, and you click on the element to edit the information.
Site Studio now has the ability to change the default URL page name from "index.htm".
Site Studio now allows for direct delivery of native documents. Native documents can now be easily delivered to download to a local computer rather than being published through conversion to the Web page.
Site Studio 11gR1 includes the enhancements listed in Section 1.6.2, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.506)," Section 1.6.3, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.470)," as well as the following enhancements.
JavaScript and CSS Compression
Site Studio features a method of compressing and concatenating the CSS and JavaScript used on the web site. This method reduces both the number and the size of the JavaScript and CSS files that must be downloaded by the browser while loading Contributor.
Site Studio now features a method of approving all items in a person's workflow that are on one Web page with one click.
Site Studio 11gR1 includes the enhancements listed in Section 1.6.2, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.506)," Section 1.6.3, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.5.0 - Build 9.0.0.470)," and in Section 1.6.4, "Compared to Site Studio 10gR4 (10.1.4.0.0 - Builds 9.0.0.454 and 9.0.0.410)," as well as the following enhancements.
Site Studio administrators can now mark web sites as served "on demand." The web sites marked as on-demand web sites are not loaded into the content server's memory until a request is received to view the site or edit the site in Designer. Using on-demand web sites prevents tying up content server resources for sites that are rarely accessed, and reduces load times when starting the content server.
The Manage Web Sites page on the content server includes an On-Demand Web Sites button, which opens a page where you can mark sites as "on-demand" sites. There will be a slight delay to serve those sites listed as on-demand when accessed by a user for the first time.
Domain and Folder-Based Addressing Changes
Site Studio can now identify web sites by a combination of folders and domains. Previous versions of Site Studio required that you use either a folder-based or a domain-based address. Administrators can now specify a domain, a folder, or both to map to a web site. For more information, see Section 7.2, "Site Addressing."
In addition to the enhancements listed compared to 10gR4 releases, Site Studio 11g Release 1 (11.1.1) includes the following new features and enhancements, compared to 10gR3 releases.
Improved Reusability of Site Assets and Content
Site Studio has gone through a complete internal redesign to facilitate the reusability of site assets and content. The way that a web site is designed and built in Site Studio now maximizes the reusability of all parts of a web site. This includes the structure of the web site, reusing page templates, region templates, element definitions, and other structural components. It also includes being able to reuse all parts of the content and information displayed on the web site. All assets of the web site are now separately managed objects, and each part can be used and then reused to make the web site much easier to maintain.
Page templates now have more reusable parts, and more separately managed parts. Previous releases used layout pages with inline elements. Now with page templates, placeholders are used on web pages to define where the site content can be edited or replaced.
Each part of a web page can consist of a page template, placeholders, subtemplates, and region templates, each used with a corresponding definition to modify specific implementations of a particular piece.
More Separately Managed Site Assets
To improve reusability, Site Studio now includes a larger number of separately managed site assets. The following assets are new:
Element definitions: Files that define the editing experience for element types. Specifically, they specify what a contributor can do when editing an element.
Region definitions: Files that define the element definitions available in the region. This then determines what constitutes the editing environment when Contributor is opened for the page containing the region. Region definitions also specify the content creation and switching options available to contributors for contribution regions, and set default metadata for content files associated with these regions.
Placeholder definitions: Files that define what region definitions, region templates, and subtemplates are allowed for the associated placeholders. They also specify what contributor actions are allowed for the placeholders.
Page templates: Fully-formed HTML files that define the layout and high-level look-and-feel of web pages, including the placement of contribution regions (that is, editable areas on the page), navigation aids (in the form of fragments) and site-wide images (banners and the like). Page templates are the highest-level site design object.
Region templates: Partial HTML files (that is, without head and body sections) that define the layout and look-and-feel of the data in contribution regions within web pages.
Subtemplates: Partial HTML files (that is, without head and body sections) that can be inserted into placeholders on page templates to divide them into further smaller, reusable areas with their own placeholders and contribution regions.
Custom configuration scripts: JavaScript files that override the default Contributor editor configuration to provide contributors with a customized editing experience.
The new site assets are in addition to the following site assets which existed in previous Site Studio releases:
Contributor data files: Content files in XML format that are generated by Site Studio. Contributor data files are edited using the Site Studio Contributor application.
Native documents: Content files created using familiar third-party applications such as Microsoft Word. Native documents are converted to HTML format using Dynamic Converter, and they are edited using their associated application.
Images: Graphic files (JPG, GIF, PNG) that are included in content files or page templates (for example, corporate banners or product images).
Scripts: JavaScript files that provide a series of executable commands. Scripts are often used to provide additional functionality to web pages.
Cascading style sheets (CSS): Files that provide control over how page content is displayed (more specifically, how different HTML elements, such as headers and links, appear on the page). Links to CSS files are often embedded in page templates, so their formatting rules apply to all web pages based on these templates.
Custom element forms: Custom elements are customizable HTML files that define custom forms for use in elements (for example, selection forms for specific file types). Site Studio comes with several predefined custom element forms (in [CS-Dir]\custom\SiteStudio\support). These allow the creation of a fully customized editing experience, which is then placed in the Contributor form as if it were a normal Site Studio element. Custom element forms are also checked into the content server when the Site Studio component is installed.
Validation scripts: JavaScript files that define the validation rules for element data to determine that the data meets the requirements (for example, it does not exceed a certain maximum length or contain some illegal characters).
Fragment libraries: Collections of chunks of code (fragments) that enhance the functionality of a Site Studio web site (for example, by providing dynamic navigation aids or a standard page footer).
Manager configuration settings: Files that define the functionality that is available in Site Studio Manager. Manager is a web-based tool that enables designated users (site managers) to modify the structure of a web site.
Conversion definitions: Files that specify the conversion rules for native documents on a web site.
Other media: Any other media files that could be used on a web site, such as Flash animations, video files, audio files, and so on.
For more information, see Chapter 3, "Understanding Site Studio Web Sites," Chapter 8, "Working With Templates," Chapter 9, "Working With Definitions," Chapter 10, "Working With Content Files,"and Chapter 11, "Working With Scripts and Forms."
New Default Contributor Editor
Site Studio Contributor now uses FCKeditor as the default editor.
See the Oracle WebCenter Content User's Guide for Site Studio Contributor for more information on the Contributor application.
Static and Dynamic Lists as Elements
Static lists and dynamic lists are now elements, and can be more easily implemented and modified using element definitions. In previous versions of Site Studio, lists were fragments.
This release of Site Studio includes more types of custom elements. Many data-driven web sites can contain values (boolean, integer, and so on) that control the content. With more custom elements, the designer and contributor are able to use more forms of data control. Site Studio Designer comes with several predefined custom element forms (in [CS-Dir]\custom\SiteStudio\support). These forms are also checked into the content server when the Site Studio component is installed.
Site Studio now uses custom configuration scripts to customize the editor. The designer can modify the contributor interface to suit specific business needs.
For more information, see Chapter 11, "Working With Scripts and Forms."
Changing the content is now handled through a wizard. The wizard makes it easier to use and reuse site assets on the site. You can use the wizard to switch to another contributor data file, native document, or a subtemplate.
For more infomation, see Section 12.3, "Assigning Content With The Switch Content Wizard."
The link wizard has been redesigned for ease of use. It is now easier and faster to create links through the wizard, allowing you different choices of link formats and link targets.
For more information, see Section 12.4, "Working With Links."
Dialogs More Tightly Integrated in Design Environment
The site asset definition and configuration dialogs are now more tightly integrated in the site design environment. These dialogs can be viewed as tabs in the design area.
For more infomation, see Section 5.6.1, "Dialogs vs. Tabs."
Site Studio complies with Oracle's accessibility guidelines. Accessibility features are provided in a number of areas:
Site Studio Designer provides context menus to provide options that are relevant to the current context of the application. For example, with a contribution folder selected, it shows options that are applicable to that folder in that particular context. To show a context menu, right-click in a toolbox or workspace in Designer, or press the menu key on your keyboard.
Site Studio supports most standard Windows keyboard shortcuts, for example:
Ctrl + C: copy
Ctrl + X: cut
Ctrl + V: paste
Delete: delete
F2: rename
Tab: move to next item
Space: select or clear a checkbox.
Alt + F: opens the File section of the Menu toolbar.
This is just a short list; the set of keyboard commands used in Windows navigation are used in Site Studio Designer, except where they would not work as expected, as listed in Section 1.7.3, "Site Studio Designer-Specific Keyboard Shortcuts."
The following shortcuts are used to work with the different areas of Site Studio Designer:
Workspace screens:
Ctrl + Tab: moves through the open documents.
Ctrl + PgUp, Ctrl + PgDn: moves through the Source, Design, and Preview tabs on a specific document.
1: When you are in a site asset that has a columned entry in a form (for example, the WYSIWYG Element) pressing 1 selects the first column.
2: When you are in a site asset that has a columned entry in a form (for example, the WYSIWYG Element) pressing 2 selects the second column.
The Tab key will respond differently when you are working with source code than with other entries. When working with source code, Tab will insert a tab, for aligning text. When working with other entry forms, Tab will move to the next selection.
Designer panes:
Ctrl + Tab: moves between sections in a pane (for example, in the Section Properties pane).
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: sorts items either alphabetically or in groups, where available (for example, in the Properties Pane).
Enter: When you are in the Section Properties, press Enter to move focus to the text entry. Press Shift + Enter to exit from text entry and return focus to the property name.
Shift + Enter: When the focus is on a section property, but not for text entry in the specific property, then press Shift + Enter to click the Additional Information button.
Dialogs:
Esc: In dialogs that have form entry, such as the Fragment Editor, press Esc to enter the form to modify the information.
Shift + Esc: In dialogs that have form entry, such as the Fragment Editor, press Shift + Esc to leave the form and move focus outside the text-entry.
Additionally, dialogs that have list controls, the context menu allows you to add, delete, or move within the list.
Link Wizard:
The Link Wizard behaves as a Web page would. The arrow keys will not move in the hierarchy, rather you press Tab to move to the selected item and Enter to select. Additionally, you press Tab to move into a radio button group, and Enter to select the button.
Fragments in Designer have two methods of interaction. There is a Fragment Toolbox, which is a pane in Designer. This toolbox, however, is only accessible through using the mouse.
For complete accessibility, fragments are accessible through a dialog, the Select Fragment dialog (see Section A.81, "Select Fragment Dialog"). This dialog can be opened from the Menu just as any other dialog, and is navigable using the keyboard.
The system requirements for the Site Studio Designer application are as follows:
Windows XP (SP2 or higher), Windows Vista (SP1 or higher), Windows 2003 Server (SP2 or higher), Windows 2003 Server R2, Windows Server 2008 (SP1 or higher), Windows 7 operating systems. Both 32 bit and 64 bit systems are supported.
Access to an Oracle Content Server 11gR1 or 10gR3 instance running the Site Studio component.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or higher. (You can use Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or higher or Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 or higher to view the resulting web pages.)