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Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server

Chapter 1. Overview of Microsoft Content Management Server

You probably already have a live website running, or at least, are planning to start one. Take this simple test to find if your website would benefit from a content management tool:

Would you like your website to have a consistent look and feel throughout?
Would you benefit from being able to apply a new look and feel to the website without reloading all of your information?
Do you wish you could share content across pages without duplicating it all over the place?
Do you want to avoid getting feedback from users about incorrect information posted online?
Would you like to be able to pull out all pages that meet certain criteria, such as being newly created in the last 10 days?
Would you like to give your content authors a simple, user-friendly interface to create web content with?
Do you need to find out exactly where in the publishing process a page could be at any point in time?

If you answered 'yes' to any of the above questions, your website could benefit from a content management application. Microsoft Content Management Server is one of the most comprehensive applications on the market providing you with a ready-to-use publishing solution.

Like many packaged solutions, MCMS has been marketed to various organizations in different ways giving you different ideas about how this product could fit into your organization. If you are evaluating the software, you may be required to provide an analysis of what the product can and cannot do. And if you have already purchased it, your boss is likely to ask you to provide solutions to real problems, and fast. Before you begin, it's important that you get a good idea of what MCMS really is.

In this chapter, we provide you with a quick overview of what MCMS is all about. We also explain some core concepts behind the inner workings of the Server. In the coming chapters, we will examine how MCMS works in greater detail.

Why Content Management?

The dot-com boom years saw many companies creating a presence on the Internet. Product brochures, company profiles, quarterly reports, and organizational charts found their way from filing cabinets and wall charts to web pages.

Who did all that work? A team of technical people in every organization was responsible for cranking out web pages as fast as their fingers could type and they gained the name of webmasters. It was a job that was popular when the Internet started. Webmasters were the resident gurus in hacking out scripts and HTML: in fact these skills are often prerequisites for the position.

As websites grew in importance and size, it came to the point where a single webmaster (or even a team of webmasters) was not able to cope with the large volume of information that needed to make its way online.

Content started to become unmanageable. While a single team of webmasters could manage the website in its infant stages, it was clear that either processes had to be changed or super-webmasters would have to be recruited to keep the site going as it grew.

Frustrated with being at the mercy of overworked webmasters, some content providers or authors took up the task of trying to publish their own content online. Without a proper content management system, this usually meant that authors had to take on the role of the webmaster and learn the dark art of web publishing. They went through boot camps that taught them how to use various web editing tools. Most authors did not have programming backgrounds. It was often a hair-tearing, time-consuming and difficult process.

Why Webmasters Could not Sleep at Night

Some of the problems faced by webmasters:

Bottlenecks and Looming Schedules

The webmaster was the only person who knew how to convert documents and other materials to decent web pages. Everyone who needed to get their material published online relied on them.

By the time the material arrived on the webmaster's desk, there was not much time to get the information online. A good part of the day was spent on making the document web-friendly and getting it to look like the thousands of other web pages. As the number of contributors grew, it was not surprising to find that webmasters could not keep up with the volume of change and soon became a bottleneck in the workflow process.

Online Content Became Out-of-Date

The webmaster's in-tray was full of backlogged work. As long as the task remained outstanding, the website continued to display out-dated information. The poor employee was already working overtime, busy cranking as many pages as his or her poor sore fingers could crunch out.

Inconsistent Look and Feel

As the website gained popularity, so did its scope. Gradually, every department in the organization wanted to have a presence on the website. Each department had its own boss. Each boss had a different idea on how the design of the web pages representing their department should appear. Different teams of webmasters were assigned to create each site. Without any way to govern the look and feel, the website started to look more and more like grandmother's patchwork quilt with each sub-web having its own individual identity.

Duplication of Content all over the Website

Content was duplicated all over the place. Updating content often meant scouring the entire website for the duplicates and amending the changes page by page. Say, the opening hours of a shop has been changed. Uh-oh, looks like another late night at the office. Among the thousands of pages on the website, which ones contain the shop's operating hours?

Why Content Management?

Why Webmasters Could not Sleep at Night

Some of the problems faced by webmasters:

Bottlenecks and Looming Schedules

The webmaster was the only person who knew how to convert documents and other materials to decent web pages. Everyone who needed to get their material published online relied on them.

Online Content Became Out-of-Date

Inconsistent Look and Feel

Duplication of Content all over the Website

MCMS is a Content Server

MCMS uses Internet Information Services (IIS) to serve MCMS-driven websites. IIS is the engine that receives and processes HTTP requests from clients: MCMS does not get involved with any of that. It does, however, have a part to play in how content is transformed from data in the backend database to HTML pages—called postings in MCMS—for the browser.

To understand this better, let's follow the path of a single HTTP request and see how IIS and MCMS work together to render content.

How MCMS Renders Content

When visitors to your site request a page, they send its URL to the web server. For example, this could be: http://www.TropicalGreen.net/PlantCatalog/hibiscus.htm. The HTTP request is first received by IIS.

MCMS has two ISAPI filters, which are then applied:

Resolution HTML Packager (REHTMLPackager.dll) is the first filter to intercept requests. It ensures that client-side scripts are handled correctly when a user wishes to compare two different versions of a single posting. It does this by injecting a JavaScript routine on the fly, modifying the output of the page doing the comparison.
MCMS ISAPI Filter (ReAuthFilt.dll) checks the incoming URL against the MCMS repository to see if the request is for an MCMS object. Non-CMS objects are handled by IIS just as they would be without MCMS.

Should the MCMS ISAPI Filter find that the request is for an MCMS object, it proceeds to check to see if the user requesting the object has rights to it. If so, it transforms the incoming URL. The transformed URL contains information that maps to an object in the MCMS database and takes this form (for clarity, this URL has been split onto multiple lines):

http://www.tropicalgreen.net/Templates/Plants.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2fTropicalGreen%2fPlantCatalog&NRNODEGUID=%7bA9261BA7-A58B-4760-850D-512CCF77BAC8%7d&NRCACHEHINT=NoModifyGuest

It's not a pretty URL but it conveys a lot of information. The request is then passed to IIS and ASP.NET to process the web form, which in the above case is Plants.aspx. The MCMS HTTP modules (registered in the web application's web.config file) query the database for an object with a key that matches the value in the NRNODEGUID (the unique identifier or GUID), NRMODE, NRORIGINALURL, and NRCACHEHINT parameters and create a so-called CmsHttpContext giving the code in the web form access to the associated repository items. The form will render the content according to these repository items.

With these instructions, control is passed over to IIS. IIS sends the response back to the browser that made the request. All these processes are carried out transparently. The visitor to the website would not be aware that any URL transformation has taken place.

And that is how MCMS delivers pages.

Naturally, MCMS makes use of caching—an important concept that is used to boost its performance by minimizing database queries. For a more detailed explanation on how MCMS processes requests with caching, read Chapter 22.

How to Locate the MCMS ISAPI Filters

The filter is installed globally on your MCMS server. To see it:

1. Select Start | Administrative Tools | Internet Services Manager (If this does not appear, you may need to turn on this option in your Start Menu options, or you can access the Administrative Tools through the Control Panel.)
2. Right-click on the node representing your server and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
3. In the properties dialog, select the ISAPI Filters tab. You should see a dialog similar to the following screenshot.

Note

I can't find the filter in the ISAPI Filter section

You have to install MCMS first (see Chapter 2). The filters are applied on a global level (on your web server). Check that you are looking at the properties of the server (represented by the icon of a computer: ) and not the individual website.

Security Service

Not everyone should be given access to author the website or view confidential information. MCMS provides security checks through the Security service (see Chapter 10 for a detailed discussion of security).

A service named AESecurityService runs on all servers loaded with MCMS. The AESecurityService ensures that authentication is working correctly. When it is stopped, it is not possible to author your website as the web authoring tool will not be displayed. It is also responsible for maintaining the disk cache. If you stop the service, the disk cache is cleared.

You can see the presence of the AESecurityService by selecting Start | Administrative Tools | Services (or by going to the Control Panel). By default, it is configured to start automatically when Windows loads.

Key benefits

Learn directly from recognized community experts

Rapid developer level tutorials build logically through out the book

Develops a feature rich custom site incrementally

Tips and Tricks from developer newsgroups and online communities

Chapter 17 - Publishing with Authoring Connector

Description

Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 is a dynamic web publishing system with which you can build websites quickly and cost-efficiently. MCMS provides the administration, authoring, and data management functionality, and you provide the website interface, logic, and workflow. Once your website is up and running, your content contributors can add and edit content on their own, without the need to work with developers or the IT department. First time developers of Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 face a relatively steep learning curve. Not only are they expected to be conversant in the Microsoft .NET Framework, they are also required to be familiar with the concepts of MCMS 2002. Many beginners to MCMS start out by looking at the example site that ships with the product; tweaking it, dissecting it and turning it inside out using the obscure code comments as markers. However, when it comes to starting their own website from scratch, many are baffled ? where do they begin? This book exists to answer that question; teaching the essential concepts of MCMS 2002 in a clear, straightforward and practical manner. Containing answers to some of the most asked questions in developer newsgroups, this book is a treasure trove of tricks and tips for solving the problems faced by MCMS developers. This is a unique resource focused exclusively on the needs of developers using MCMS. It doesn?t waste time and pages on user or administrator level information that is well covered in other documentation. It?s a distillation of practical experience that developers need to get results, fast. The authors carefully structured example project complements and extends the knowledge gained from an initial look at the examples that ship with MCMS.

Who is this book for?

This book is written for developers who are part of a dynamic organization that has decided to evaluate or deploy MCMS and require the skills to make it happen.The book presumes a working knowledge of the .NET Framework and familiarity with the C# language, but no prior knowledge of MCMS is required. To use this book, you will need access to Visual Studio. NET 2002 or 2003, SQL Server 2000, and an installation of MCMS 2002. This book is not aimed at the specific information needs of administrators or users of MCMS.

What you will learn

The basic concepts of MCMS

Preparing, installing and configuring MCMS and its supporting technologies

Creating an MCMS website from scratch

Creating and debugging templates files and channel rendering scripts

Working with dynamic navigation

Establishing user roles and rights

Authoring with MCMS and improving the authoring experience

Understanding and customizing workflow

Working with the Publishing API

Site deployment techniques

Enhancing your site s performance with caching

What do you get with Print?

Instant access to your digital copy whilst your Print order is Shipped

Paperback book shipped to your preferred address

Redeem a companion digital copy on all Print orders

Access this title in our online reader with advanced features

DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want

Frequently bought together

Building ERP Solutions with Microsoft Dynamics NAV

$60.99

Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server

$65.99

Advanced Microsoft Content Management Server Development

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Total $114.95$127.97 $13.02 saved

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M. Mahacek Sep 09, 2005

Using code samples from this book, I was able to make our CMS deployment (my first foray into .NET programming) in less than a month. This book includes some great controls that are necessary for good site design and maintenance, and has an excellent breakdown of base control properties. There's plenty in here to get one started with CMS design.I'm very much looking forward to the sequel to this book in Nov 2005.

Amazon Verified review

sftwreeng Nov 17, 2005

This is a great book, which would help you start out with no experience in MCMS. The book has all the examples that you need to perform basic tasks and as well as complicated tasks. This book is straightforward and extremely helpful in tapping into both the Publishing API and as well as Deployment API.Even if your experience is short, this book will help you starting out with installing, creating templates(explains them pretty well),establishing placeholders, creating postings, and everything else that you need to know to start and continue to work in MCMS. So far this is the best starter book that I have found. I also bought the Advanced MCMS book based on the positive experience that I had with this book.

xelaju Nov 01, 2006

This book is THE book to get if you are learning MCMS. It is comprehensive and thorough. Stefan is the guru or all things MCMS. He always knows the answer and his answers are always right. There is no better authority on MCMCs.

Viggen Apr 21, 2005

Book is laid out very well. Plenty of practical examples which you can try as you read the book and implement a demo site. Goes far beyond any other book in explaining the CMS PAPI (Publishing API). Only grouse: It is written in C# which seems to be the norm for most CMS sites but in my implementation I use VB.Net although translating to vb.net is very easy. I've interacted with the Authors (Stefan Gossner and Mei Ying) through the microsoft.public.cmserver.general news group for several of my problems and they are very knowledgable in the CMS product. I dont know them personally though! If you want to learn CMS2002 in detail this book is worth the buy.

Thomas Cole Apr 13, 2006

If you are new to MCMS development, you learn that there are a few key players. Stefan is a key contact at Microsoft on this product. What I found is that this book is an easy-read, and gives the tutorials and comprehensive help to get you going quickly. You can build solutions based solely on the knowledge of this book, and will learn enough to run with MCMS' API.I found this to be the "read" that I hand to all new developers who join up with me at my client. There are other books out there, and maybe this is not the most comprehensive, but its hands-on and serves as a full lifecycle reference, 3-4 months down the road. There are thoughts in this book on most anything you'd tackle using MCMS. My book definitely has some wear-n-tear.

Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server: A fast-paced and practical tutorial guide for C# developers starting out with MCMS 2002

What do you get with Print?

Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server

Chapter 1. Overview of Microsoft Content Management Server

Why Content Management?

Why Content Management?

The Solution—Content Management Servers

The Components of MCMS

MCMS is a Content Server

How MCMS Renders Content

How to Locate the MCMS ISAPI Filters

Note

Security Service

MCMS Is a Content Repository

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