What's New

Site Studio 10g Release 4 (10.1.4) includes the following new features and enhancements (compared to 10g Release 3 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 type of content that elements of a particular type consist of. They 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 commands that can be executed without user interaction. 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: 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\elementforms). These 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.

See Understanding Site Studio Web Sites, Defining Site Assets, and Building A Site From Assets for more information.

New Default Contributor Editor

Site Studio Contributor now uses FCKeditor as the default editor. You can also choose to set up the contribution environment to use Ephox as the editor. See the Site Studio Installation Guide for details on how to do that.

See the Site Studio Contributor Guide 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. As elements, the editor interface in Contributor is now more easily modified to match the editors for the other elements.

More Custom Elements

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\elementforms). These forms are also checked into the content server when the Site Studio component is installed.

Custom Configuration Scripts

Site Studio now uses custom configuration scripts to customize the editor. The designer can modify the contributor interface to suit specific business needs.

See Working With Custom Forms and Scripts for more information.

Switch Content Wizard

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. The wizard itself is also designed for ease of use.

See Assigning Content for more information.

Link 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.

See Working With Links for more information.

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.

See Dialogs vs. Tabs for more information.