1. Commerce
  2. Site Management Tools
  3. Site Management Tools Overview

Site Management Tools Overview

The Commerce web stores Site Management Tools (SMT) feature lets you perform several important website management tasks, including:

Website management is facilitated by the SMT user interface on the website. You can manage content by dragging and dropping new content, editing or removing existing content, and rearranging content by dragging it from one location to another.

You manage content directly on the pages of your website. This lets you preview content changes in real-time. SMT uses NetSuite roles and permissions so that only an authorized user assigned a role with website management permissions can manage content.

Support for Multi-Language Websites customer managed translations lets you enter foreign language translations for your commerce web store. Each website associated with your account can support multiple domains. This lets you set up language-specific domains for your website. You can add translations for commerce categories, pages, and content. After you enable and set up the feature, you can add, edit, or delete your translations for any language supported by NetSuite. This feature also lets you export and import bulk translations using SMT. For details, see Multi-Language Sites.

Note:

To update the My Account area of your Commerce website using SMT, a single secure domain is required.

Types of Content

Content is a general term used to identify data elements you can add. When you install the SMT Core Content Types bundles, the following core content types are available:

  • SMT Image Content Type — Home page banners or main images, promotional notifications or content such as, Free Shipping, and images that link to product categories are all examples of image content. Each image can have a link that leads to another URL, such as a facet listing of products or a product detail page. Image content also lets you set the alternate text attribute to use when an image does not load or for page readers.

  • SMT Text Content — Headers for images or merchandising zones, blocks or paragraphs of text, text in header or footer areas, and hypertext links are examples of what you can achieve with text content.

  • Merchandising Zone Content — Merchandising rules are product listings defined in NetSuite. The rule determines the products included in the list, the order of the products, and the number of products to display. A merchandising zone defines the area where that product listing is displayed on a web page. There are two merchandising zones you can choose from, the legacy merchandising zone and the enhanced merchandising zone. The enhanced merchandising zone includes a configurable display, support for multiple languages, and it is compatible with SuiteCommerce Themes. The enhanced merchandising zone lets you present your products in a consistent way, but also gives you the choice to display products differently throughout your web site to match your brand quality. For more information about merchandising zone content, see Product Merchandising.

  • HTML Content — Videos, social widgets, and forms are examples of the type of content you can use with the HTML content type.

Custom Content Type

An additional content type, the Custom Content Type (CCT), is a user-created Commerce web stores extension which can be implemented and integrated with SMT for adding custom content. See Custom Content Type.

Content Publication

When you add content or landing pages, they remain in an unpublished state, and invisible to site visitors, until they are published to the site. After publication, the content or landing page is displayed based on the visibility options you specified for that piece of content. See Visibility Dates.

The SMT Review and Publish Changes screen lets you select one or more pieces of content to publish or to discard. Discarding content deletes it from the site. You can also discard unpublished content. See Review and Publish Your Site

Visibility Options

When you add content, you set the visibility attribute for that content. There are three different visibility attributes:

  • Always visible.

  • Displayed as of a specific date and time and never expires.

  • Displayed as of a specific date and time and expires at a specific date and time.

For details, see Visibility Dates.

SMT Areas

SMT areas are <div> tags that are defined in a template file. The <div> defines the location on the page where you can add content. Commerce web stores include page template files that have pre-configured areas. You can use these areas as they are defined, edit the areas, or add new areas to the templates. For details, see Site Management Tools Templates and Areas.

Area Scope

Each area has an assigned scope, and the scope of the area determines when the content placed in that area is displayed. For example, if the scope of an area on the product detail page is this page, then any content added to that area displays only for that product. Area scopes include all pages, page type, and this page. For more information about area scope, see Area and Scope.

Note:

Category pages support content in areas with page type and all pages scope. Areas with this page scope are not supported on category pages.

Landing and Enhanced Pages

In addition to adding content, SMT also lets you create new pages and enhance existing pages.

  • Landing pages are new pages you can add to provide additional content. About Us, Contact Us, and Return Policy are all examples of landing pages. As with content, when you create a landing page, you set the visibility options for that page. Like content, the landing pages are published using the same workflow. It is displayed according to the visibility options you specify. For details, see Visibility Dates.

  • Enhanced pages are existing pages for which you set additional attributes such as the page title, meta description, or meta keywords. For example, you might enhance the home page to set the title and meta description for SEO. You cannot set visibility dates for enhanced pages. Page enhancements go into effect immediately when you save them.

For more information, see Landing Pages and Enhanced Pages.

Note:

SMT landing and enhanced pages replace the landing and enhanced pages available in the content delivery system.

Theme Skin Manager

This information refers to SuiteCommerce and the 2019.2 release of SuiteCommerce Advanced or later. If you are implementing the Aconcagua, 2018.2, or 2019.1 release of SuiteCommerce Advanced, see Theme Customizer.

The Theme Skin Manager gives you access to each of the skins that are included with a theme. A skin is a group of elements designed to compliment each other. A theme can contain multiple skins. You can quickly change the appearance of your domain by applying a different skin. For more information, see Theme Skin Manager.

Theme Customizer

If your account is using the Aconcagua, 2018.2, or 2019.1 release of SuiteCommerce Advanced, you manage themes and skins using the Theme Customizer. If you are using the 2019.2 release of SuiteCommerce and SuiteCommerce Advanced or later, see Theme Skin Manager.

The Theme Customizer lets you make changes to the appearance of your website. The change can be something as subtle as applying a new font color, or it can be more drastic such as switching to a dark background color. There are several different types of controls for customizing website attributes. The customizable elements and possible values can vary from theme to theme and even for different skins within a theme. These customizable elements are listed in the side panel when you select the Theme Customizer from the SMT Settings menu. For more information, see Theme Customizer (Aconcagua or Earlier).

Commerce Categories

SMT enables you to create commerce categories and subcategories, and assign items to those categories. Categories are presented to visitors on category and subcategory pages. You set important properties, including SEO related properties of the category or subcategory page when you create the category. For details, see Commerce Categories in SMT.

For information about creating categories, subcategories, and item assignments by CSV import, see Commerce Category Import.

Preview on Different Screen Sizes

The preview on different screen sizes feature lets you preview how your site displays to visitors on different devices and various screen sizes. See Preview Screen Sizes.

Related Topics

Site Management Tools Versions
Installation and Implementation
Users and Roles in SMT
User Interface
Published and Unpublished Content
Visibility Dates
Review and Publish Your Site
Published Content
Theme Skin Manager
Commerce Categories in SMT
Preview Screen Sizes
Content and SEO
SMT NetSuite Records

General Notices