Designer, Manager, and Contributor

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 Site Studio Administrator and Manager Guide 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 Site Studio Contributor Guide 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.