Managing eZ Publish Web Content Management Projects

Table of Contents

Managing eZ Publish Web Content Management Projects

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Preface

What This Book Covers

Who is This Book For?

Conventions

Reader Feedback

Customer Support

Errata

Questions

1. Understanding Web Content Management

Why Use a Content Management System?

Content Management versus Development

Test Cricket

20–20 Cricket

Key Differences

Methodologies

Stakeholders

Experience Levels

Project Scales

Project Experience and Understanding

Interfaces

Myths

Myth no. 1

Myth no. 2

Myth no. 3

Myth no. 4

Types of Websites and Web Applications

Static Websites

Objectives

Content Requirements

Information Architecture

Information and Navigation Design

Visual Design

Web Applications

Objectives

Functional Specification

Interaction Design

Information and Interface Design

Visual Design

Static Websites versus Web Applications

Web Solution Categories

Interactive

Transactional

Workflow-Based

Collaborative

Knowledge-Based

What does All This Mean for eZ Publish Projects?

Summary

2. Information Architecture and Design

Information Architecture

Task Oriented

Content Oriented

Five Facets of Design

Content Modeling

Content Class

Information and Navigation Design

Information Design

Navigation Design

Interaction Design

Technical Design

Wish

Visual Design

Contrast

Uniformity

A Common Mistake

Visual Design Issues

Design by Default

Design by Fiat

Design by Committee

The Average User

The Right Questions

If All Else Fails

Summary

3. eZ Publish Overview

What is eZ Publish?

Separation of Layers

Managing Content

What is eZ Publish Good For?

Internal Structure and Configuration

Directory Structure

Configuration Files

The Lego Approach

Content Blocks

Display Blocks

Functional Blocks

Data Types, Content Classes, and Objects

Datatype

Content Class

Object

Versions

Structuring Content

Nodes and Locations

Locations

Visibility

Sections

Assigning Sections

Managing Sections

Templates

Template Code

View Templates

Node Templates

Custom Node Templates

$node

System Templates

Custom System Templates

pagelayout.tpl

Cascading Style Sheets

Module Result

Template Override System

Designs

Default Design

Design Structure

/fonts

/images

/overrides

/stylesheets

/templates

siteaccess

Access Control

Users

User Account Datatype

User Details

User Groups

Policies

Functions

Roles

Workflow

Events

A Workflow

Standard Triggers

Standard Events

Extensions

Summary

4. Defining an eZ Publish Project

Requirements

Capturing the Vision

Why Are We Doing This?

Theory versus Reality

Formats

The Author

Interpretation

Knowing How Much Detail to Capture

The Last Word

Project Brief

Organizational Purpose

Project Purpose

Project Objectives

Target Market

Project Brief—The White Angel Foundation

The Organizational Purpose

The Project Purpose

The Project Objectives

The Target Market

Planning Workshop

Success

Success Factors

Stakeholder Satisfaction

Meeting Project Objectives

Meeting an Agreed Budget

Delivering On Time

Adding Value

Meeting Quality Requirements

Team Satisfaction

Success Sliders

Project Scope and Objectives

Project Scope

Objectives, Outputs, and Outcomes

Quality

Quality Factors

Measuring Quality

Estimation

Reality Check

Estimation Errors

Usual Situation

The Developer's Estimate

The Project Manager's Estimate

Low Bid

The Sales Manager's Estimate

Management/Client Directive

Common Language

Guess

Estimate

Fixed Price Quote

The Ideal Situation

Summary

5. How to Write a Specification

Content Model

The Studies in Australia Model

Users and Groups

General Public (Anonymous)

Registration

Members

Member Class

Member Functions

Login

Forgot Password

Change Password

Manage Details

Editors

Administrators

Features

Good Company Feature Overview

Community Group Registration and Administration

Community Group Registration Wireframe

Community Group Administration Wireframes

Community Group Listing

Community Acceptance Wireframe

Functions

Wish Searching

Wish Search Results

Wish Search Details

Site Map

Content Classes and Rules

Content Analysis

Content Modeling

Relation to Site Structure

Views

Products Main Page

Product Category View

Product Details

Custom Templates

Deans Art Homepage

Queen Victoria Women's Centre Homepage

Screen and Performance Standards

Browser Compatibility

Screen Resolution

Accessibility

Performance

Specification Process

High-Level Specification Workshop

Domain Walkthrough

Users and Roles of the System

Object Model

Key Relationships between Objects

Object Role Diagram

Features

Site Map

Detailed Specification

Creative Brief

The Product or Communication Task

What is the product that this client is selling?

What information is the client communicating or receiving?

The Type of Product

What type of product does our client produce?

Target Market & Audience

Who is the client's market?

Who buys their product?

Who are they interacting/communicating with?

Which segment of the Target Market is this execution aimed at?

Which segment of the Target Market is going to be using this site the most?

Is there a Primary Audience and a Secondary Audience?

Demographic Profile

What is their age?

Where do they live?

How much money do they earn?

What is their level of schooling?

Would they access the site from home or from work?

What is their bandwidth?

Are they "net-savvy'?

Psychographic Profile

How do they feel towards our client's brand?

What is their perception of our client's brand?

Do they spend money on a whim?

Who makes the decision when it comes to online purchases of our client's product category?

Marketing Objective

What is our client's main business/communication objective in going online?

Creative Strategy

What are we going to try to achieve creatively, with our client's product or service?

Competition

Who else is selling/doing the same thing our client is?

Competitor sites

What are they doing?

Other Points

Existing Branding

Do you have an existing Logo?

Is there an existing branding style guide?

If no, then do you require branding and logo creation?

Is there a company slogan or tagline?

Summary

6. Content Modeling

The Purpose of a Content Model

What Makes a Good Model?

Defining a Content Model

Step 1: Domain Walkthrough

Step 2: Identify Users of the System

Step 3: Identify the Key Classes

Step 4: Identify Relationships between the Classes

Step 5: Create a Relationship Diagram

Step 6: Create a Glossary

Summary

7. Planning and Pricing

Project Planning

Standard Approach

Staged Approach

Pricing Your Project

Time-Based Pricing

Value Pricing

Summary

8. Risk Management

Key Steps in Risk Management

Case Note

Risk Assessment

Risk Evaluation

Risk Reduction

Risk Monitoring

Risk Reporting

Types of Risks

Project Risk

System Complexity

Target Environment

Team Environment

Business Project Risk

Business Risk

Production System Risk

Benefits Realization Risk

Personal Risk

Risk Management in Practice

Risk Assessment Overview

Risk Memos

Risk Memo

Shooting the Messenger

Who is Responsible?

Risk Reporting

Risk Report

Key Risks in eZ publish Projects

Experience

Content

Summary

9. Open Project Management

Manifesto for Agile Software Development

Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools

Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation

Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation

Responding to Change over Following a Plan

Open Management Practices

Team Dynamics

Who's on the Team?

Project Sponsor/Client

Project Manager

Designer

Developer

System Administrator

Avoiding the Us and Them Syndrome

Daily Meetings

Communication

Forms of Communication

Progress Reports

Achievements

Dependencies

Assumptions

Issues and Risks

Resolutions

Sample Progress Report

Achievements 

Assumptions

Dependencies

Issues and Risks

Resolutions

Project Extranet

Meeting Notes

Progress Reports

Documentation

Tasks

Summary

10. Implementation

Infrastructure

Development

Staging

Production

Version Control

Setup

Configuration and Development

Content Classes

Site Structure

Sample Content

Custom Templates

Users and Groups

Extensions and Workflow

Styling

core.css

style.css

homestyle.css

section_name.css

print.css

Moving Code between Environments

Content Gathering

Content Population

Manual Content Population

Automated Content Population

Summary

11. Testing

Load Testing

Page Views

Sessions

Web Server Connections

Database Connections

Running Load Tests

Testing, Monitoring, and Reporting Tools

eZ Debug

Debug Output

Template Debug

Inline Template Debug

List of Used Templates

SQL Debug Output

Nagios

Cacti

Mytop

Sample Test Plan

1.0. Executive Summary

1.1. Background

1.2. Scope

2.0. Test Design

2.1. Test Strategy

2.2. Assumptions

2.3. Test Steps

2.3.1. Setup

2.3.2. Recording and Scripting

2.3.3. Data Population

2.3.4. Test Run

2.3.5. Reporting

2.3.6 Schedule

3.0 Special Test for TransNET Update

3.1. General Requirements for Performing the TransNET Update and Enquiry Tasks

Sample Test Report

Test Case No. 4

Analysis

Browser and User Acceptance Testing

User Acceptance Testing

Automated Testing with Selenium

Accessibility Testing

Summary

12. Training

Standard User Training

Custom Training

User Manual

Standard Manual

Sorting Content (designIT User Manual)

Custom Manual

Managing Maps Custom Feature

Network Maps

How to Add a Network Map

Attributes

Route Maps

How to Add a Network Map

Attributes

Technical Training

Summary

13. Maintenance and Support

Patches

Upgrades

Planning an Upgrade

Backup

Setup

Upgrade

Testing

Enhancements

Support

Content Management

Bug Fixes

Summary

A. Appendix A

The White Angel Foundation Functional Specification

Table of Contents

Revision Control

1 Introduction

2 Site Map

3 Standard Features

3.1 Section

3.1.1 Section Attributes

3.1.2 Rules

3.1.3 Views

3.2 Info page

3.2.1 Attributes

3.3.1 Rules

3.3.2 Views

3.3 Article

3.2.1 Attributes

3.2.2 Rules

3.3.3 Sub-page Attributes

3.3.4 Views

3.4 News

3.4.1 News Archive Attributes

3.4.2 News Items Attributes

3.4.3 Rules

3.4.4 Views

3.5 Gallery

3.5.1 Attributes

3.5.2 Rules

3.5.3 Image Attributes

3.5.4 Views

3.6 FAQ

3.6.1 Views

3.7 Flash

3.7.1 Attributes

3.7.2 Rules

3.7.3 Views

3.8 Video

3.8.1 Attributes

3.8.2 Rules

3.8.3 Views

3.9 Portal

3.9.1 Attributes

3.9.2 Rules

3.9.3 Views

3.10 Node List

3.10.1 Attributes

3.10.2 Rules

3.10.3 Views

3.11 Links List

3.11.1 Links List Attributes

3.11.2 Link Attributes

3.11.3 Rules

3.11.4 Views

4 Page Structure

4.1 Footer

4.2 Site Search

4.3 Navigation

4.4 Ordering of Content

4.5 Breadcrumbs

4.6 Right-Hand Column

5 Media Library

6 Users & Roles

6.1 Default Users

7 Custom Features

7.1 Newsletter

7.1.1 Attributes

7.1.2 Rules

7.1.3 Views

7.2 Online Shop

7.2.1 Product Group Attributes

7.2.2 Product Attributes

7.2.3 Event Attributes

7.2.4 Special Attributes

7.2.5 Rules

7.2.6 Shopping Cart

7.2.7 Views

7.2.8 Checkout Procedure

7.2.9 Delivery Costs

7.2.10 Invoices

7.2.11 Payment

7.2.12 Orders

7.2.13 Reports

7.3 Donations

7.4 Form Builder

7.5 Dynamic Sitemap

8 Browser Compatibility

Index

Managing eZ Publish Web Content Management Projects

Martin Bauer

Managing eZ Publish Web Content Management Projects

Strategies, best practices, and techniques for implementing eZ publish open-source CMS projects to delight your clients

Copyright © 2007 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: October 2007

Production Reference: 1231007

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

32 Lincoln Road

Olton

Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.

ISBN 978-1-847191-72-4

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

Martin Bauer

Reviewers

Jennifer Zickerman

Łukasz Serwatka

Senior Acquisition Editor

Douglas Paterson

Development Editor

Mithil Kulkarni

Technical Editor

Ajay.S

Editorial Manager

Dipali Chittar

Project Manager

Patricia Weir

Project Coordinator

Abhijeet Deobhakta

Indexer

Monica Ajmera

Proofreader

Chris Smith

Production Coordinator

Shantanu Zagade

Cover Designer

Shantanu Zagade

About the Author

Martin Bauer is the Managing Director of designIT, an Australian-based content management specialist practice. Martin has ten years experience in web development and web-based content management. He is the world's first certified Feature-Driven Development Project Manager. Prior to his role as Managing Director, Martin held a variety of roles across a range of industries. This experience includes careers in law, advertising, and IT. Martin's breadth of expertise has culminated in a focus upon the delivery of effective content management solutions.

There are two people who have played a significant role in this book.

The first is Jeff Deluca who has taught me most of what I know about project management and has been a guide and inspiration in many areas.

The second is Bruce Morrison who taught me everything I know about eZ Publish and was instrumental in the delivery of every eZ Publish project I've worked on as well as many of the practices in this book, in particular, the structure of an eZ publish specification.

Both Jeff and Bruce are far more knowledgeable than me in project management and eZ publish respectively, and I hope that I've been able to distill what I've learnt from both of them into this book.

There are two other people who I have to thank for their help: Karl Latiss who provided the backing, support, and belief in taking the direction to focus on effective content management solutions with eZ Publish; and Antony Svasek who was invaluable in helping me to run designIT while I worked on delivering projects and writing this book.

About the Reviewers

Jennifer Zickerman is a writer, editor, and publisher who has worked extensively in the field of open-source software development. She is currently Manager of Knowledge Products at eZ Systems.

eZ Systems is the creator of the eZ Publish Open Source Enterprise Content Management System.

As head of the eZ Press, Jennifer Zickerman is the publisher responsible for the books eZ Publish Basics (a developer and administrator's introduction to eZ Publish, written by Balasz Halasy) and eZ Publish Content Management Basics (an introduction to publishing content using eZ Publish, written by Bergfrid Marie Skaara).

Łukasz Serwatka holds a computer science, engineering degree and currently works as a Software Engineer at eZ Systems. His main focus is the development of eZ Publish-based solutions.

He has written many extensions and applications to build on top of the eZ Publish framework, and is an active member of the eZ Publish Community. Łukasz is also co-creator and eZ Publish administrator of the biggest PHP website in Poland—php.pl. His personal website and blog about eZ Publish development is at http://serwatka.net.

Preface

Why write yet another book on project management? The simple reason is that we still need to improve when it comes to web development and especially content management. The majority of the issues that I've experienced when it comes to delivering solutions with eZ publish, or any other web technology for that matter, have been issue of management. Rarely, has the technology been the issue. With eZ publish, the technology aspect is well covered; this puts an even greater emphasis on the importance of management and knowing how to successfully deliver projects on time, on budget with agreed function.

This book doesn't attempt to state the best way to manage projects; for each project, there are different challenges to be overcome and there's no one perfect way. What this book contains is a series of practices that have over time proved to be effective in delivering eZ publish-based projects on time and on budget. Not every part of the book is relevant to every project, and it is not always necessary to do things in exactly the order and in exactly the way described here. It is a series of techniques and practices that you can use to help you manage your projects.

The main reason I wrote the book was to share the lessons learned from the numerous projects that I was involved in and found what worked and what didn't when it came to eZ publish-based projects, and by doing so, to help others to improve their ability to successful deliver projects.

What This Book Covers

Chapter 1 examines the differences between traditional software development and content management and how that affects the way we approach content management as a discipline. We cover some of the myths that exist when it comes to web development and content management as well as the types of solutions implemented using content management systems. Finally, we look at the different types of websites and web applications to gain an understanding of the common types of websites and applications that have emerged over the past ten years.

Chapter 2 provides an overview of information architecture and design in relation to content management systems.

Chapter 3 gives you an overview of how eZ publish is structured and the key elements that are used in most projects.

Chapter 4 first helps you understand the requirements of an eZ project and then shows you how to plan your project through a project brief and planning workshop. It also covers how to deal with estimations and the issues that arise at this point of the project.

Chapter 5 covers how to specify the functionality of a website that is to be implemented in eZ Publish. The chapter covers the overall content model that identifies the key classes and their relationships to each other.

Chapter 6 explains the importance and purpose of a content model in eZ publish projects.

Chapter 7 helps you with planning a project (standard and staged approach) and teaches you the approach for pricing your project.

Chapter 8 covers in detail what's involved in risk management and how to apply it to eZ publish projects.

Chapter 9 provides a series of management techniques that are straightforward to apply and will go a long way to keeping your eZ project on track.

Chapter 10 helps you set up and configure your environments for eZ projects. It provides you with information on content population (automated and manual).

Chapter 11 helps you understand the different types of testing that are required for eZ publish projects.

Chapter 12 provides guidance on how to train users of the end solution including how to draft training manuals and run training sessions.

Chapter 13 outlines the most common areas of maintenance and support for an eZ project.

Appendix A provides a full sample specification of a project that brings together the elements outlined in Chapter 5.

Who is This Book For?

This book is for people responsible for the implementation and management of eZ publish projects, and is ideal for people building sites for medium to large clients. If you're a project manager running an eZ publish web content management project and you want to learn how to run your projects more efficiently, or you want a better understanding of all the elements involved in eZ publish web content management projects this book is for you.

This is not an implementation guide or a book to learn eZ publish from—you will not be able to build a site by following this book. It is for people who have experienced eZ publish projects, or are considering them. Web developers new to eZ publish should read Learning eZ publish 3: Building Content Management Solutions first.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

New terms and important words are introduced in a bold-type font. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen.

Note

Important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.

Errata

Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our contents, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in text or code—we would be grateful if you would report this to us. By doing this you can save other readers from frustration, and help to improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/support, selecting your book, clicking on the Submit Errata link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata added to the list of existing errata. The existing errata can be viewed by selecting your title from http://www.packtpub.com/support.

Questions

You can contact us at <[email protected]> if you are having a problem with some aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.

Chapter 1. Understanding Web Content Management

In order to manage something, it's important to understand it. Without understanding, there is no context for decision making. Rather than launching into using eZ Publish, it's important to understand why we use content management systems and how they differ from other types of projects. Content management is unique; I've heard some Content Management professionals go so far as to say content management is not an IT project. That debate doesn't really matter, what matters is understanding what makes content management different from other development projects, in order to be able to manage them effectively.

This book is primarily aimed at managers and business analysts who are given the task of implementing a content management system using eZ Publish, although it is also useful for developers and designers who will be involved in the project. It aims to provide an overall framework for defining and implementing an eZ publish-based project.

This chapter examines the differences between traditional software development and content management, and how that affects the way we approach content management as a discipline. To begin with, we look at content management projects as opposed to software development projects and identify the key differences between them. Then, we look at some of the myths that exist when it comes to web development and content management as well as the types of solutions implemented using content management systems. Finally, we look at the different types of websites and web applications, to gain an understanding of the common types of websites and applications that have emerged over the past 10 years.

Why Use a Content Management System?

There are a number of reasons why content management systems have become a specific type of solution, and have business advantages to be gained from their use. Initially, websites were simply static HTML pages that linked to each other. Maintaining these sites required an understanding of HTML and the ability to create web graphics. This meant that anyone wanting to keep their website up-to-date would either have to learn HTML or pay someone who understood HTML to make the changes for them. Given that keeping a website current is an important factor in its success, the ability to manage the content on the website becomes increasingly important. Over time, custom-built applications emerged that allowed people to update content without needing technical skills; also, clients wanted to save costs by having content managed in-house rather than having to outsource it to web professionals.

The end result is that a market emerged for web-based applications that allowed clients to control the content on their websites without having to be technically proficient in HTML: i.e., content management systems. There were other advantages as well: the separation of presentation from content, the ability for the client to enter the content and be sure that it would be