tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74112546511752356192026-01-17T04:00:14.878-08:00A blog on content management and digital experiencesNivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.comBlogger3051998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-3364000457368932882023-08-01T16:06:00.005-07:002023-08-02T16:23:19.886-07:00

The Tridion Sites Public Content API has been on my mind lately. I've blogged about product names before, but this one may be a bit ranty. Hopefully I can help remind people about the difference between a product feature and how its implemented. And luckily there hasn't been a big name change lately.Let's start with a question. What is the name of the Tridion Sites public content delivery API?

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-69554449609198827682022-06-29T10:31:00.001-07:002022-06-29T10:31:10.590-07:00

Translation memory reduce the cost of translation, especially for previously-translated content.This point was my first recollection and introduction to the concept of translation memory about a decade ago, which was in the context of an enterprise content management system sending source content to be translated.This post is a primer of sorts for those of you who may come from a content

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-53040479544332961032022-01-22T00:17:00.002-08:002022-01-22T00:17:41.178-08:00

It's been over a decade since I joined SDL, now RWS, and after all this time I'm still learning and helping others learn about our technology and services.Here's a quick post recapping three things I've learned or had the chance to revisit in the past several months: language pairs (again), the extent of software knowledge, and multiple vendors.Pairs, people!There's always a language pair, a

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-10678318626536913472021-09-08T10:45:00.004-07:002021-09-08T10:45:47.174-07:00

Convergence!That was the feeling I had when preparing and delivering my lightning talk for the Tridion Expert Summit 2021 for the Americas earlier this year.Mainly, in preparation for the TXS event, we practiced in our streaming backend system, which is distinct from the digital asset management used to deliver pre-recorded videos, which is also distinct from the event front-end.It took a moment

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-76176449315159512602021-05-21T08:50:00.002-07:002021-06-04T08:14:49.707-07:00

We've finally found and purchased our "forever home" back in San Diego. We're now in Alpine, though we've considered places such as Fallbrook or Temecula. Some of the places prompt people to say, "that's far!"We joke, "far... from where?"Distance is a measurement of at least two locations. There's always an origin and destination, otherwise, you can't tell if something is near or far. This week

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-15662399397181919152021-01-15T15:55:00.001-08:002021-01-15T15:55:15.689-08:00

“You don’t have to blog (articles). You could share... code.” Those are the words that encouraged a colleague and friend to start yet another Tridion blog. He literally called it “Yet Another Tridion Blog” and has shared mostly, well... code.After blogging hundreds of posts about Tridion, content management, and business analysis (over 300 last I counted), I’ve developed the rewarding habit of

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-86563456395962722122020-12-31T14:34:00.002-08:002020-12-31T14:34:26.506-08:00

After a crazy 2020 and my family's move back from the Netherlands to the US, I'm ready to start a new role as a business architect within SDL Professional Services in our NASA division (that's North America / South America and not, well, NASA) .I've had a part-time project with SDL to kick off new advisory services in North America since September. Luckily we were able to transition this to

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1San Diego, CA, USA32.715738 -117.16108384.4055041638211563 -152.3173338 61.025971836178847 -82.0048338tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-63464048122009155702020-08-28T10:30:00.003-07:002020-08-30T19:07:52.809-07:00

SDL Tridion Sites 9.5 is released! Read the announcement on SDL Community.Having moved back from the Netherlands to the US, this will be a long post as I reminisce my earliest moments with Tridion Sites, thank my team in a GDPR-friendly way, and ask you one more time to keep working with the product and development team to continue improving my favorite product.Memory laneI still remember asking

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-25515847384372422392020-04-01T07:17:00.003-07:002020-04-01T07:17:58.587-07:00

I'm intentionally not following what everyone else might be doing for April Fool's day, though I suspect many are focusing on a bit of levity amid the current global situation. If you're finding this post out of context, look up "news in 2020." I will instead write a few thoughts on what has helped me sell a plausible practical joke while keeping it in good fun. First of all, make the topic

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-73034106202350532832020-02-23T07:44:00.000-08:002020-02-23T07:44:39.465-08:00

You may have heard there are many paths to product ownership or product management. I'd like to help encourage people interested in product roles by sharing some of my own observations in my own journey into product management. This post ponders titles and roles, the overlap between responsibilities across various jobs, a nod to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and a reminder that evolution is not a

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-69992296893670278782020-01-21T00:53:00.002-08:002020-01-21T00:53:11.983-08:00

I've heard confusion over pages, (modular) content, and "dynamic" content for as long as I've worked with content management. To revisit the topic, I want to be clear that "headless" does not mean page-less. There is a legitimate and quite familiar use case for "dynamic content" without pages, but we shouldn't ignore some critical points about content management, human perception, and the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-80452463857589091572020-01-17T13:04:00.000-08:002020-01-17T13:04:12.444-08:00

Nearing four years into product roles for "enterprise product management," I've learned a few practical lessons that the product, UX, or leadership books, websites, and podcasts seem to gloss over or assume. Specifically, remembering your audience creates a strong pressure on your communication skills. Roadmaps expire and you'll recreate them over and over again. And you have to be willing

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-77418721821659952262019-11-24T03:09:00.003-08:002020-05-17T22:30:07.456-07:00

Hi my extended family, friends, and colleagues. If you're one of the dozen or so fans of my blog or had the chance to work with me, you might know that I've had the fortune of accomplishing more than I ever dreamed of when I started this blog. #humblebrag This is a personal post reflecting on how I ended up with the dream job and an ask for your help in shaping my next Big Thing. I

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-19665568981690475342019-09-27T13:39:00.001-07:002019-09-27T13:39:14.298-07:00

Sometimes a change makes sense, until you remember the details and revisit the use cases. We were recently working on a tree navigation element in the next release of our UI. If you're unfamiliar with a tree, see this picture I took from my last visit to the United States. A (small) tree. I meant this tree. The team was thinking a context menu selection, using a right-click mouse

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-49183250651914195712019-06-09T08:07:00.005-07:002019-06-09T08:07:57.999-07:00

I recently gave the same message to share, but for a different community, at the Amsterdam UX Bar Camp. I volunteered to join the other 23 presenters at UXCampAMS! I'm that first paper in the 12:00-12:45 sessions. #MidasRule Last Saturday, a few of our UX designers, some familiar faces (SDL alumni), and I made our way to the UX Amsterdam Bar Camp. This amazing event was hosted in part by

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-78540377482989634052018-11-16T10:56:00.001-08:002020-01-28T14:27:34.439-08:00

In recent user research and product feedback I've noticed long-time users of our software suggesting improvements that were already there. I suspect it's the combination of perhaps three things. The way we asked The user expectations from knowing the software Not wanting to ruin things for others Ask and You Shall Receive a Response We've asked, "what would you expect on this screen?" or "

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-16887886571308597522018-06-26T16:17:00.001-07:002018-06-26T16:17:16.468-07:00

As a new customer, I remember asking my first Tridion trainer the difference between an Embedded Schema and a regular Schema ten years ago. As a new implementer, I remember creating my first Schema(s) and the reaction of my editorial team when they finally had control over their content library a few months later. No more requests to IT to deploy something to Staging to then re-approve on Live

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-8531633373497175952018-04-11T17:30:00.000-07:002018-04-11T18:17:54.296-07:00

It's already (only) been 2 years since the move to the Netherlands and I'm saying goodbye as the Donut Product Owner and Hello as a POBA. After joining SDL Professional Services in 2011, moving from my hometown of San Diego to San Jose and meeting many great Tridionauts from across the pond, my original dream was to learn even more about our other products and our customers at the "

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-91188843663984238332018-03-30T14:15:00.003-07:002018-04-02T01:59:37.232-07:00

There is a story about agile practices and 3 little pigs. This is not that story. There were three little pigs who wanted to live somewhere near wolves for some inexplicable reason. Astro Naught the Pig planned to make a design that had a plan for a two-story brick house. A. Gile planned to make a wooden single-story house and would iterate, not increment, on the design to

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-47639563708681295902018-03-18T04:42:00.000-07:002019-01-24T13:17:28.849-08:00

If you’re new or haven’t seen them in a while, here are some great places to (re)start with the SDL Tridion Sites Community: The SDL Tridion Sites group on SDL Community, especially the Developers group if you’re technical (start with Jan Horsman's Community Review posts). The SDL AppStore for extensions and the community-created Alchemy Web Store. Tridion Stack Exchange for Q&A

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-2663631649479849882018-03-08T04:10:00.003-08:002018-03-08T04:10:24.181-08:00

If I can read the text, give me the text in human and machine-readable format. If I can interact with it, let a machine interact with it. If I can see some content, list, or relationship in my CMS, let me give the same information in the format of my colleague's preferred tool. Properly labeled elements for users and machines, or semantics if you want to get pedantic, will/is giving

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-39696185170529666222018-02-23T08:17:00.003-08:002018-02-23T08:17:27.827-08:00

Not to be confused by Content Management (Tridion) templates, "templates" in a typical office setting are starting points for users to change and adapt to their needs. They're accelerators of sorts. I've seen a few approaches for managing such templates, starting with copying and pasting. Templating Level 0: Copy & Paste If you're an occasional author/editor/content writer, it's often

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-46568133411262092552018-02-17T09:37:00.000-08:002018-02-17T09:37:00.677-08:00

To: Mr. Other Department From: The CMS on behalf of Alvino Tinto Subject: CMS Invitation (Edit Article Pages) Welcome to content management. You've been invited by Alvino Tinto to Edit Article Pages. Edit your first page now or get familiar with the content manager. If this is a bit too abstract for your tastes, visit and comment on the Future of UX and UI of Tridion Sites Part 1&nbsp

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-42436294155414753862018-02-17T09:35:00.004-08:002018-02-17T09:35:57.149-08:00

I've been thinking about user experiences lately. Having looked at typical content management scenarios (e.g. create a page), I was trying to figure out a better way to explain "this has 12 steps but it should be lower." In the spirit of the Future of Content series but a bit more meta, I'd like to explore a few topics over the next few posts: How fast can you possibly make a page?

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-83612509629924314062017-12-20T09:38:00.000-08:002019-04-12T10:03:08.374-07:00

It's been a year since my last "Year-in-Review" post. Actually, it's been a year since my last post on my personal blog (but not on SDL Community!). The Dutch Life In terms of life in the Netherlands, we (BSMSO) fixed up the house with refurbished, temporary kitchen cabinets and (BSMSO) redid the backyard. We traveled a bit more in our second year here and had family visit us. We even got

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-60381830150141995022017-12-20T08:43:00.000-08:002017-12-20T08:43:00.426-08:00

While working on a "Year in Review" post, I noticed how I've changed in interacting with the community. Previously, I often shared things I was personally working on which somehow got me to over 300 Tridion-related blog posts by last year. And as much as I've loved (and continue) sharing myself, I also enjoy encouraging others to share with the Tridion Sites technical community. Many agree

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-68200642564194835232017-12-20T05:04:00.001-08:002017-12-20T05:04:10.064-08:00

About a year back someone apparently liked how I helped reboot SDL Tridion Ideas and so volunteered me to help the community team reboot all of the SDL Idea sites which became an interesting exercise in Midas Rule and change management (change leadership even). I've heard "Product Management" described as a role with all of the responsibilities but none of the authority. But

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-60329093286347583912016-12-31T13:03:00.001-08:002019-04-12T10:03:32.162-07:00

After joining SDL and making an intrastate move from San Diego to San Jose five years ago, I posted what the first month was like. Now I take a look back at the past year or so that started with an international move from San Diego to Nieuwegein, a city in Utrecht in "Holland" aka The Netherlands, near the end of 2015. After finding an unfinished rental, BSMSO did much of the work to

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-45911047882248229902016-09-12T09:05:00.002-07:002016-09-12T09:09:05.952-07:00

I've been anticipating and humble-bragging that I would soon reach 300 Tridion blog posts. But I had to double check and the truth is since joining the Tridion online community, I've already posted 311 posts, but not all have been about Tridion. See a breakdown of my posts since 2011* across my personal blog, the official community site (previously TridionWorld and now SDL Community),

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-48699635647918003142016-05-20T06:47:00.002-07:002016-09-10T15:23:27.310-07:00

Congratulations to Robert Curlette, the sponsors, and fellow presenters on another successful Tridion Developer Summit (TDS) 2016! I want to share some quick observations as a presenter and fellow attendee as well as advice to those wanting to present or represent a vendor or partner. Oh and there'll be pictures at the end. Context Matters, Especially for Developers Tridionauts really

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-70257424909300533282016-03-17T10:20:00.004-07:002016-03-18T08:48:52.432-07:00

"Have you seen this article in CMS Wire about SDL?" "Why yes, you're the fourth person to mention it." This post isn't about the content of the article or SDL's divestment news. For a good perspective on that, read a post referenced in the first article. This post is about a Linked-In feature, semantics, and possibly micro-formats. So, how did you hear about the article? I don't see

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-18655525115027576752016-03-08T07:46:00.000-08:002016-09-10T15:23:53.982-07:00

I've been asked about folder best practices for SDL Web/Tridion a few times. There is no single best practice for folders, though there are a few strategies that may fit you use cases based on what matters most to you. You manage folders mostly in the same way as any other system that organizes items, however, Tridion has three features that influence how you organize items: BluePrinting

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-44998242050969697132016-01-29T12:05:00.002-08:002016-01-29T15:11:59.382-08:00

Congrats to the SDL Web 2016 Community MVP Winners! Five quick tips for a successful year: Enjoy the uber geek status. Be sure to get to the retreat if you can. It's awesome. Keep sharing. Year two is harder than winning the first year. Don't under-appreciate what you have to offer. Don't get complacent or over-confident either. Winners aren't "the best," though the best often share. Connect

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-91532273715365257352016-01-19T08:27:00.002-08:002016-01-19T08:27:51.343-08:00

In my last post I talked about too much and not enough SDL Web knowledge. Several posts ago I once asked who do you trust. This post thanks some of those that encourage community involvement around SDL Web. I'm seeing a good amount of recent sharing for both technical and business audiences from the following groups. See a mix of content from veteran to new sharers on: TridionDeveloper,

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-25391650660476984002016-01-18T03:38:00.002-08:002016-06-06T07:18:35.102-07:00

This post contrasts things you may or may not know about Tridion (SDL Web) connected by an embarrassing moment in my role as a product manager. Let's talk about too much knowledge, not enough, and why I'm not asking you to share this time. Too Much Knowledge... Can be Embarrassing We were recently discussing the idea of "tagging" content in SDL Web Experience Manager (XPM) as seen in the rough

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-82863454995314525132015-12-22T06:32:00.001-08:002015-12-23T05:14:13.864-08:00

In my last post, I described (SDL Web) product ideas and the user experience. I continue by contrasting design for website visitors versus for those that manage such websites and end with a thank you and invitation. Disclaimer: these are my personal views, biased by a business analyst and CMS background and lots of love for my product and its community. Design Alignment The biggest difference

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-48752568107141717892015-12-09T06:50:00.000-08:002015-12-09T06:50:10.841-08:00

You start with a fully-formed, marvelous idea for the product to solve your problem. This then gets reviewed to confirm its awesomeness and gets added to the product plan or backlog. From epics to stories to specifications to implementation, your idea gets transformed into one or more product features and is released to everyone, ready to solve the problem you had... two-to-three years ago.

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-90079291236737445252015-11-12T07:29:00.002-08:002015-11-12T07:29:51.837-08:00

I was an SDL Tridion customer for four years before I joined SDL as a consultant. Four years later I'm hoping I can make a difference for another four or more years in Product Management. Let's start with a reminder to share more. In February 2012, I gave this presentation to a room of peers. More than few started blogging shortly after. ;-) For the next Tridion blog you find, see if it

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-22902179895198134212015-10-01T12:01:00.000-07:002015-10-02T06:08:08.527-07:00

In a case of role-reversal from Functional Consultant to Product Manager, I'll soon have opportunities to prioritize development tasks. I've told customers they might (should) prioritize based on their market/product/content strategy. For example, a client asked how to prioritize their website redesign from a Tridion perspective. After giving my feedback, the client pointed out my advice

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-421214851487121802015-09-28T00:09:00.000-07:002015-09-28T00:09:00.857-07:00

Don't wait for the requested internal demo to prepare for the demo. With SDL Web (Tridion), there are a few things you can prepare from project start for any and all internal demos in the future. This post has four points: Think with +1 more in mind Use the Digital Experience Accelerator (formerly known as the Standard Reference Implementation) Go for quick wins Build the demo into your

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-39226550880206805392015-09-26T07:05:00.002-07:002015-09-26T09:46:31.528-07:00

It's official. I've joined SDL Product Management and moved the family and dogs to Holland (well, the Netherlands really, but see this video to grok the difference*). Here's a quick recap of my first month here and what's next. Week 1: Arrival Arriving mid-week on the 2 September, I had three days of paperwork and applications. The order was roughly: HR and IT orientations at work Register

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-18282267805593603172015-06-16T10:10:00.001-07:002015-06-21T05:26:31.344-07:00

Alex Klock, of Razor Mediator fame, presented his work on Content Bloom's Alchemy GUI extension framework at this year's SDL Tridion Community Award (MVP) retreat (2014 video). As the community releases, and even re-releases, SDL Web (Tridion) extensions, some might ask, "why isn't that already in the product?" There are a lot of business decisions from legacy requirements, to market

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-23064728650160591382015-06-13T08:17:00.000-07:002015-06-13T08:17:00.036-07:00

Four years ago I reflected on the crossroads in my career. Should I go technical or do projects? Will having too many interests hurt my career? I eventually applied a mixed-background of business analysis, project management, and Tridion expertise into a Web Functional Consultant role that I've enjoyed for almost four years. I recently accepted an offer as a Technical Product Manager in

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-32358275184829431362015-06-12T03:43:00.002-07:002015-06-12T03:43:48.454-07:00

One of the challenges CMS professionals have with the website and content management design is confusion around content, example content or prototypes, and "templates." As the functional consultant in Tridion projects I tend to see some trends. Just Right. The homepage tends to get special treatment as the "just right" Goldilocks example with enough detail that there's not that much

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-43922462624532906232015-05-31T00:33:00.000-07:002015-05-31T00:33:25.633-07:00

My last few clients have projects that include Responsive Web Design (RWD), often with Server-Side Components (RESS). Their websites will either feature the same HTML markup which behaves differently based on browser size or if using SDL Mobile or similar technology, the websites might also present different markup or prioritize content differently based on the visitor's device. It might be too

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-29544807844175386432015-05-19T15:22:00.001-07:002015-06-13T10:45:41.330-07:00

If you work with a professional services or other expertise-based team, you may eventually be asked to present something to a mixed audience of beginners to experts. We often have these as part of our Knowledge Day Sessions (read about my presentations from last year's sessions). This post offers some tips, tricks, and suggestions on choosing a Tridion-related topic, though you could apply this

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-74880941162278650652015-04-10T20:34:00.001-07:002015-05-31T00:28:50.346-07:00

In 2011 I mentioned you can change how a Schema text field displays. I had the chance to test one type of change from a plain text field to a text field with values selected from a Category. If you find a text field has the same set of options used several times, you may want to change it from an unmanaged text field to a field based on a managed list of elements. When making this change, you

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-56896495028453620122015-04-03T12:04:00.001-07:002015-04-03T12:04:10.362-07:00

SDL Innovate Developer Day is coming up. You should find a way to go and not just for the chance to win $3,000 USD. In addition to technical presentations it includes a hackathon that seems like a competitive, self-directed bootcamp, but with a $3,000 USD cash prize at the end of the follow-up 30 day competition. By joining a small team, you might win: A virtual representation of the $3k USD

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-68818630723431270352015-03-31T17:19:00.000-07:002015-03-31T17:27:28.314-07:00

After three years of making up the majority of all SDL Tridion blog posts, it's time to announce my book. The tentative title will be: The TL;DR Book about Business Analysis, SDL Tridion, and Contextual Experiences by Business Alveenus Maximus Read on for a flavor of this book, which like my blog, many will acknowledge, but few will read: Excerpt #1: The Quote "...quantity of the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-34660795646444395572015-03-10T16:48:00.000-07:002015-05-31T00:29:15.286-07:00

Re-use is great, except when it sucks is not-so-great. Many (all) SDL Tridion implementations include an embedded Schema (content entry definition for a subset of fields) with something like the following: Text Internal Link External Link If you already know Tridion, the tl;dr lesson for this post is: please do not use generic (text, component/external embedded) links when injecting content (

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-65464498211033255832015-02-12T12:32:00.004-08:002015-05-31T00:29:35.857-07:00

I'm wrapping up my most recent visit to the Amsterdam office. One of my colleagues had a prompt from a client on what to request from the creative agency in terms of the markup. Of course we had to compare notes. We gathered our "best practices" but needed non-technical descriptions for the business user communicating their preferences to the creative design agency (if you really want the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-9683780763434518582015-02-09T16:51:00.000-08:002015-02-12T14:34:57.031-08:00

The SDL Community site is up, but only 25 of my posts were displaying. If you're on Blogger and want to see more of your posts, try: /feeds/posts/default?alt=rss&max-results=999 Too add the missing 200 or so posts to the site I added a max limit parameters to my feed and then changed it to RSS. I Blogger through Feedburner, but you can use a different service. 464 is a lot of blog posts,

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-18899282106034978362015-02-07T16:11:00.004-08:002015-02-07T16:12:42.788-08:00

I am trying to get the new SDL Community site (in the Tridion section) to recognize my past posts. I'll explain how to do the same for your posts after we get it sorted. In the meantime, here's a side effect. Feedburner sent me an update on all of my posts since 2011 minus the past 25 blogger posts. This is just text below, see my Feedburner Feed for summaries and links. SDL Innovate:

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-27903729135536632702015-02-03T23:23:00.002-08:002015-03-04T10:49:57.483-08:00

Recently I posted about approving SDL Tridion community winners. One of the points that came up was what counts as Tridion today? Rise of the Connectors SDL Tridion works with any system that has an API or at least an identifier for its items. A basic approach when integrating Tridion with "external" software is to store such identifiers in a Tridion field and add or "template" the surrounding

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-29211681672153508052015-01-23T17:04:00.001-08:002015-01-24T15:33:08.051-08:00

One of my earliest SDL bootcamps was for SiteEdit User Interface Update for SDL Tridion 2011 Experience Manager. The session was great and the product renames were also quite fun. This week some of the team had a short two-day internal session covering the Standard Tridion Reference Implementation (STRI), also called the Digital Experience Accelerator (DXA), and possibly soon-to-be-called

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-22839476281301173502015-01-23T12:08:00.001-08:002015-01-23T12:08:03.760-08:00

For the first year since I started using Tridion, I could not keep up with everything. It's awesome. But I'm also sad because I wrote a guide on keeping with the Tridion community. So rather than (yet another) community video (my last one might be the last one), let me send my congratulations to the group. Congrats to the SDL Tridion MVP Class of 2015! Nothing says "good job" like Clip

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-88701906914478461592015-01-07T12:30:00.000-08:002016-01-29T11:09:20.679-08:00

The first (and really only) thing the SDL Tridion Community MVP Selection Committee does at the start of the year is vote on MVPs and Community Builders (internal MVPs). In the spirit of sharing, let me post thoughts on the selection process, a winning formula (there is none), a practical approach at selecting, and making this easier for me, which will ultimately help you. I Don't Pick You and

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-54239350326820081092014-12-30T13:20:00.001-08:002015-01-09T10:15:30.918-08:00

When I explain Tridion dynamic linking, I sometimes get the "but I want to link to a specific page" response. See my post on how to understand dynamic linking from a manually-curated authoring view; otherwise read on to see how dynamic linking really shines when the links are created or otherwise generated automatically. Here's a hypothetical scenario that I've worked through at an actual client

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-65619459794519823502014-12-30T12:57:00.004-08:002014-12-30T12:57:51.464-08:00

As 2014 winds down, I'm revisiting the odd draft post left in my blogging queue. This one was a quick email answer to a colleague on how to troubleshoot not being able to read or see a folder in Tridion. The first "gotcha" is we have two “inheritances” with folder permissions: The settings from the item’s (BluePrint) parent, if any. These will match the shared, parent item if the item is not

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-79798869247253914212014-12-30T12:38:00.004-08:002015-12-04T12:43:30.096-08:00

I've been working towards "automated" documentation for awhile and it's challenging to really show how the existing Tridion community tools work. The code and examples are easy enough to share, but it's hard to create full, working examples to run these tools against. But since the Tridion Reference Implementation (TRI) is open source, here are two TRI "auto-documented" pieces and a bonus. 1.

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-71544464231429917152014-10-24T11:05:00.001-07:002014-10-24T11:15:58.629-07:00

It's been three years since I joined SDL (seven since my first Tridion project). Here are some of the highlights since my start in SDL. Tridion Technical Community The community is so active I can't even keep up with everything. I had to automate much of my Tridion-in-30 Seconds video (and double it to 60 seconds!). I also joined the Tridion MVP selection panel awhile back when

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-82671073325276557922014-10-18T11:55:00.003-07:002015-04-04T00:16:48.446-07:00

First read Eileen Webb's post, "Training the CMS" for background (thanks Paceaux, for the great recommended reading). Done? Awesome. She describes exactly what I'm hoping, encouraging, or looking for in my SDL Tridion functional designs and setups, but in a technology-agnostic way for any CMS. As a thank you and contribution to the discussion, here's how to accomplish her points but with

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-44185625128898653522014-09-26T11:19:00.002-07:002015-06-10T07:14:12.317-07:00

The idea of "regions" are important to: Experience Manager (XPM), SDL Tridion's in-context editing interface, where XPM regions allow content placement Smart Target, the connection between SDL Tridion and Fredhopper, where ST regions show certain content based on things like search terms or visitor or session-based triggers (and show fallback content when nothing triggers) Content Management

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-64066444169726220692014-09-11T22:50:00.004-07:002014-09-12T04:37:23.461-07:00

As of now, I have 47 blog posts on this blog, 3 posts on TridionDeveloper, 3 videos, 1772 points on Tridion Stack Exchange from 27 questions and 44 answers for 2014. When I first started sharing about Tridion, it was on a private forum with no blog posts. I doubted I had anything worth sharing. After helping customers these past three years, seeing what others struggle with, and re-learning

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-20138814450835026492014-09-07T10:04:00.001-07:002018-12-19T08:52:30.030-08:00

While Cleaning My Desktop... Tidbit #1 I share a lot, but surprisingly, I still have too many tidbits and side projects that I'd like to get out to the community. Here's another long-overview due (and marginally relavant) post on XSLT. Dominic Cronin might call these types of blog posts "notes to self" and I've posted about this kind of Secondary Memory. So here's some starter XSLT variables

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-18640898827051461102014-09-04T16:52:00.000-07:002015-05-31T00:31:14.367-07:00

You can better understand a content model using two numbers for quantity: minimum and maximum. Data modeling might refer to the cardinal relationships between data tables, but in terms of an enterprise CMS we're mostly interested in how many elements can exist (this content type or text in this location, on this page, etc): Let's look at: Min Max I have these in the example "

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-77216426855075638072014-09-03T17:18:00.002-07:002015-05-31T00:31:37.482-07:00

I'm working on a CMS design with text labels that look like: SPECIAL DEALS BUY NOW ON-SITE SPECIALS PRODUCTS & SERVICES Pretty simple, right? How would you model this in Tridion? Some options: Two fields for the "top" and bottom part One field, but with some "placeholder" to split the text into two parts (e.g. non-breaking space, a slash, semi-colon, etc). Template code will replace

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-84285618929718046792014-09-01T03:56:00.002-07:002016-06-06T07:18:16.368-07:00

This question was posed to my team recently: "Do you get a responsive view scaled to your screen in [SDL] Experience Manager?" My response had three points: This has more to do with the HTML and styles than Experience Manager (XPM). XPM only adds borders on the wrapping container element (tag) for the Component Presentation and fields. As the borders resize and move, the XPM borders should

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-18719756976386889802014-08-10T10:14:00.002-07:002014-08-10T10:15:01.280-07:00

In my last post, we looked at authoring rights and responsibilities. I just spent a few weeks working with authors, making content updates, and helping when things didn't seem to work out just right. So let me end this three-part series with some practical Tridion publishing troubleshooting tips that are fresh in my mind. First, the basics: First basic check is to confirm your CMS environment

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-44340628912015240722014-07-30T00:46:00.002-07:002015-08-20T14:03:51.834-07:00

In my last post, I described how to avoid the Parking Garage problem. Now that you're sure where you are, let's consider authoring rights and responsibilities. If you're entrusted, or stuck with the job of teaching others how to use new CMS functionality, content, or pages, then use the following to add some practical accountability to your projects. Suggested Authoring Rights I often see "

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-42022896106041027602014-07-24T18:49:00.004-07:002014-07-25T07:21:00.264-07:00

Today's enterprise CMS users are more like Content Directors or Conductors rather than just authors or editors. These Power Users orchestrate content from multiple stakeholders and systems. After about a month of helping a customer's Power Users actually use Tridion, I have another multi-part post, this time covering: Confusing Contexts and the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-19884837160391639542014-06-26T11:58:00.002-07:002015-05-31T00:34:35.171-07:00

Imagine being a Tridion consultant, helping content authors with setup you're not quite familiar with yet. You're asked: "What does this field do?" That can be the most embarrassing and challenging question I get from content authors when looking at an unfamiliar SDL Tridion setup simply because the entry forms are templates are configurable, programmable, and extensible. Related to this

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-35415490563332411522014-06-18T20:34:00.000-07:002014-06-18T20:45:34.217-07:00

Tridion BluePrint changes can be difficult simply because of dependencies. Creating a BluePrint and some changes like inserting layers, adding branches, and changing priority are trivial. You could even "copy" certain items up a BluePrint by changing releationships, making a copy, and rewiring the original setup. Again, the biggest catch is not having the right dependencies higher in the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-24688295065477981482014-06-16T20:25:00.001-07:002014-06-16T20:34:07.267-07:00

SDL Innovate featured a #selfie contest, which I'm not sure I was even eligible for. But as a social media contest of sorts, I thought it'd be fun to well, join the fun. Like back when I used to dance, I've gotten more stage fright around friends and peers than in front of large, anonymous crowds. I was nervous before taking some of these. :-) Laptop selfie. I wasn't as self-conscious since

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-47478787841052204472014-06-13T23:39:00.002-07:002014-06-13T23:39:48.758-07:00

I posted how Context was part of my SDL Innovate 2014 presentation. Let me explain the ideas behind prototypes and what "templates" mean to typical knowledge workers. You've probably read before it's impossible to copy items across publications in SDL Tridion or that re-use is a good idea. I'm sharing ways to cheat this supposed restriction and when to break this guideline. When Re-use Doesn't

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-72353250396885979592014-06-13T22:13:00.001-07:002014-06-30T13:39:03.755-07:00

There were plenty of great questions and points that came up at SDL Innovate related to Tridion. Here are three that came up with my perspective as a consultant in Professional Services. Disclaimer: mentions of future releases and functionality are public to the extent they were mentioned at an industry conference, but nothing is official until it's released on official channels (i.e. SDL.com or

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-34878154720662134982014-06-12T15:39:00.002-07:002014-06-12T15:45:15.610-07:00

In the last week or so, with SDL Innovate 2014 approaching, I took pictures of screens that had some sense of "context," but it seemed most presented typical magazine- or broadcast-like experiences. Could a faucet display in Las Vegas show something related to the context of going to the bathroom? Does the faucet know your gender? Could a taxi screen know location or time &

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-91196241391848860612014-06-11T11:01:00.001-07:002014-06-13T23:40:17.371-07:00

I'm listening to Josh Linkner's keynote at SDL Innovate and am trying not to jump up and down, going "ooh ooh, yeah I try to do that!" Seven years ago, in 2007, I started Create And Break with the title Innovative Disruptor. I've since "rebranded" as a/the Disruptive Innovator. I'm surprised others haven't claimed a similar title. Maybe I'm a bit presumptuous, but my brand of "

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-66320643699489281892014-06-11T09:19:00.002-07:002014-06-11T09:24:57.632-07:00

SDL Experience Manager's Page Types and Content Types features let authors quickly create page and content based on "canned" prototype pages and content. This changes this: Into a previewable option that will create the page, copy defaults, and even create content copies (or references based on your configuration): Here are the source ideas and posts for yesterday's WCM workshop. Why

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-85993801421227482712014-06-11T08:44:00.003-07:002014-06-11T08:44:33.687-07:00

This was the agenda for my SDL Innovate workshop in San Francisco. Hands-on Workshop: Web Content Management with SDL Tridion Alvin Reyes, SDL Any business’ website is a vital communication portal to its customers. However, keeping web content updated can be a tedious process.  Attend this workshop to learn how SDL Tridion Web Content Management allows content contributors to focus on the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-69865834596548971552014-06-04T17:20:00.004-07:002014-06-04T17:57:45.989-07:00

Much of what happened in Vegas will stay on Facebook or in bits and pieces as recounted in future gatherings. Here are the safe-to-share CXM- and Tridion-related parts. "CXM Icebreakers" may never go viral, but feel free to share, explain, or use these types of games, format, or explanations. You might find a quick game useful in explaining how to orchestrate contextual experiences for

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-55900423786792927882014-06-03T16:47:00.000-07:002014-06-04T09:34:16.154-07:00

We finished the Day 2, Pillars-to-Pillars game. We learned some lessons getting to the following answers. Answers (Randomly chosen) SDL Social Intelligence Customer Experience Analytics and SDL Media Manager = fairly creative answers including: Media Manager Connector -> Tridion -> ADF -> Website Media Manager -> YouTube -> SI Customer Commitment Framework  (using Twitter

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-6412495167901000282014-06-03T06:49:00.002-07:002015-08-08T09:29:09.103-07:00

We learned about disruptive, yet innovative, technologies in the first day of SDL Connected, my team's knowledge sharing event. From cloud use seen in today's clients, to interesting projects our partners are working on, to updates in Microsoft development stack and our own Media Manager, it looks like 2014 and 2015 will be just as interesting as 2011. Get ready for the 5 Stages all over again (

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-46177119507053304182014-06-03T06:44:00.002-07:002014-06-03T06:44:24.960-07:00

Bart Koopman describes ways to tackle SDL Tridion integrations in this SDL Tridion World article and a follow-up podcast with Robert Curlette on TridionTalk. So now you know the how and where, but let's look at the why, when, and which to choose. Let's revisit some terminology you might have heard: Baking versus Frying. Baking is the idea of placing data, content, or multimedia into a

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-42142490804962736442014-06-02T17:51:00.002-07:002014-06-03T07:05:15.227-07:00

We just wrapped up Day 1 of "Connected," our 2014 Knowledge Days team building event. As somewhat expected, Pillars and Journeys included lots of interaction (yelling) and hopefully some learning. Thanks all for being a good sport. Here are the use cases you suggested. I leave out the product details Pillars and Journeys *The numbers show the order of the answers. See how the scenarios evolved

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-56481123885938216932014-06-02T16:13:00.001-07:002014-06-02T23:17:58.623-07:00

Here's a cheat sheet for the CXM Ice Breakers game with some possible answers for Pillars and Journeys and Pillars-to-Pillars. The advanced version would have you confirm version numbers. SDL Archive Manager SDL BeGlobal SDL Campaign Management & Analytics SDL Content Porter SDL Context Engine Cartridge SDL Contextual Image Delivery SDL Customer Analytics SDL Social Intelligence Customer

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-77751346843604275162014-06-01T13:06:00.004-07:002015-05-31T00:34:56.781-07:00

Sometimes Tridion content authors need to enter X and Y coordinates to position an element within an image, content or on a page. I believe there are often better ways to handle such positioning requirements including a mix of: Automatic for authors: Styles (e.g. automatic placing presentations) Relying on inline flow and block elements (e.g. placing selections and items in order from

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-37346580890917134802014-05-28T05:59:00.001-07:002014-05-28T05:59:36.829-07:00

Back from my fourth knowledge transfer trip in Amsterdam*, I wanted to share the following three points. 1. SDL Media Manager: Good news for Tridionauts 2. Planning Technical Bootcamps 3. Starting a New Community SDL Media Manager Arranged by Media Manager Founder Wouter Maagdenberg, the Bootcamp included presentations by Menno Bolt, Jan Horsman, and Nuno Mendes. In addition to

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-54386777643009030602014-05-18T03:21:00.000-07:002014-05-18T03:30:12.062-07:00

Two years and seven months after becoming a software consultant I know a little more about business travel. Some of my earlier international trips. You can tell because the dates are backwards (May 2012 and Sept/Oct 2011).  Ten ways you know you travel a lot: You can guess airline carrier by connecting flights (or lack thereof). "Was that direct flight to the Bay Area on

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-2743297949584786502014-05-14T21:59:00.000-07:002014-07-05T17:16:37.343-07:00

After seeing this pattern at least three times I figured it's worth explaining here (and to remind myself to note these terms in future documentation). Your SDL Tridion design describes the relationships between your building blocks but not exactly how you build or configure them. Technically, the implementation details and settings are somewhat out-of-scope in a functional or system design.

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-69988618405173625262014-05-05T17:21:00.000-07:002014-06-04T17:45:42.893-07:00

In my last post, I described what I know about events and event planning. With our annual internal corporate team event coming up ("Knowledge Days"), I'm tasked with helping devise knowledge sharing games or ice breakers. A past event included a great "who did it" game devised by +Elena Serghie (check out her blog, In Time for some some great SDL Tridion guides especially her first

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-73486863553383843122014-05-02T16:35:00.000-07:002014-05-06T13:54:49.431-07:00

I'm participating in and even helping plan more (corporate) knowledge sharing events. I'm definitely not the greatest event planner (passable now after plenty of mistakes!), but having helped with the schedules, invitations, fliers, and other printed material for events at Champion Ballroom, the Holiday Dance Classic, and student events way back in college, I've learned a few things.

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-55041042249513647732014-04-30T15:45:00.002-07:002014-04-30T15:46:07.165-07:00

Here's how to get started with SDL Tridion. But then what? We sometimes learn our tools and trade from others or in formal training. For software systems we have services, documentation, support, and community-contributed online information. What happens when you inherit some system, though? For example, maybe you've been assigned as the SDL Tridion contact for either business or technical

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-13618139175161886032014-04-28T14:30:00.001-07:002015-05-31T00:35:16.768-07:00

*"Any CMS" refers to any system that lets you configure your own authorable-fields to be rendered as you prefer, in this case <META> tags with name attribute set to "ROBOTS." I often see requirements that have likely made their way from an original Request for Proposal (RFP) to a CMS Functional Design that reads something like: "authors should have the ability to set page-level meta tags

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-52862779702015211282014-04-22T10:50:00.000-07:002014-08-27T15:33:58.377-07:00

+Will Price wrote a great explanation on the SDL Contextual Image Delivery in a DD4T setup. +Ian Homer adds even more context (pun intended) from a product and practical development perspective. Let me add one more post try to compare SDL Contextual Image Delivery (CID) to what you may have done before with SDL Tridion and connect it to some business concerns and wins for managing

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-61751383394415273172014-04-21T22:37:00.000-07:002014-04-23T09:55:06.428-07:00

While updating training materials and working with Electridion Training, I'll sometimes come across the need to patch or fix an environment issue. Here are some tips and tricks that have helped me recently: Scenario: I couldn't update a profile picture with Chrome and though this might not be mission critical in a typical production environment, it's important to my new "how to update your

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-45468956531117905752014-04-17T14:58:00.001-07:002014-04-22T11:17:49.276-07:00

The first step in setting up authoring forms in a CMS that lets you create your own content types isn't making the content definitions or schemas. The first step is defining and naming the content. I recently posted on how to model an example page for practically any Content Management System (CMS). But I didn't explain why the first step of naming the page and content types was important. 8

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-53566356403719257972014-04-16T11:08:00.000-07:002014-04-22T11:18:32.706-07:00

Have you heard about customer experience management? Back when the question was, "what about a website" the idea that Web would somehow relate to "customer experience" was, well, silly. As consumers, we researched, asked around, and bought from the local, from the physical. We do the same now, but also leave a digital trail that companies can listen and respond to if they're savvy (or maybe

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-53530254489232732492014-04-01T10:03:00.001-07:002014-04-01T10:05:48.233-07:00

I've seen SDL Tridion Experience Manager work in a tablet, but I wanted to try a completely different browser experience after having played with Microsoft's Kinect. Though not technically supported I managed to get the following going on a local VM with SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 running on the home network. Use the following gestures via Kinect on Xbox One's Internet Explorer. Bring together two

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-73296483076671464272014-03-13T12:39:00.001-07:002014-04-22T11:22:12.337-07:00

As one of the first consultants to work with a client, I'll sometimes get questions about testing approaches with SDL Tridion. I've served as a business analyst before and have done light testing, but the Tridion-related answer for testing really depends on what you mean by testing. For example, I once had a research prompt to find performance monitoring and testing tools for my previous .NET

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-13838468518286784682014-03-04T21:22:00.000-08:002014-03-06T05:30:20.676-08:00

I've written about Custom Training, the "sixth" SDL Tridion environment. But I almost forgot that I created a mock plan for such an environment as part of a course project before joining SDL back in 2010. See the document below for a modified submission for a Web Design class I took at University of Phoenix four years ago. We were encouraged to submit projects that reflected our jobs and this

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-48035745911373703912014-02-24T14:20:00.000-08:002014-04-22T11:19:13.911-07:00

As a long-time SDL Tridion consultant, you're about to enter into oddly familiar, yet different new implementations in about a year, give or take a year. I'm suggesting the Midas Rule, or the idea that "whoever touches something first and cares the most gets to decide what to do with it" will change our roles as Content Management System (CMS) professionals. You and your team may need more

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-59247712494655469812014-02-06T13:33:00.001-08:002014-04-22T11:20:15.384-07:00

I previously mentioned the rebranding and SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 updates my team’s applying to the Education materials. Part of this is using updated templates. My philosophy again is to rely on your company’s experts at handling the bulk of writing standards and document templates. Here’s a quick tip on applying that brand new shiny Marketing PowerPoint template to an existing

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-13296006029586375362014-02-03T14:55:00.001-08:002014-04-22T11:21:05.699-07:00

When you change SDL Tridion content definitions or schemas, the content based on them do not update automatically. Read about schema changes in this post if the fact is new to you. Many underestimate how "easy" synchronizing content is. The GUI does it automatically and the old PowerTools used a little XSLT, some scripts calls, and a custom page. I've seen at least four restarts by various

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-59200594962010249452014-01-22T21:01:00.003-08:002014-01-22T21:01:53.743-08:00

I'm reading Made to Stick. Page 201 suggests you can get pass the "Curse of Knowledge," which is the blindness we experience to our own expertise, by asking yourself "why" three times. For example you might say: Separating content from design is a best practice. Why? Because your content and design may evolve independently or you may want to display the same content differently in different

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-47798050187327570022014-01-20T23:17:00.000-08:002014-06-13T21:31:32.180-07:00

Question from my colleague, Freddy: “How do you keep up with all this [Tridion] content, Alvin?” I was just pointing out an SDL Tridion 2013 Preview post by SDL Tridion Community MVP Rob Stevenson-Legget, which happened to have a Bing Background ECL provider Freddy had written. “It’s like sports with teams and players I follow,” I suggested. I’ve also used “Tridion’s a hobby of mine,” but

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-35581948069374095462014-01-17T08:48:00.001-08:002014-01-18T02:03:24.718-08:00

In a Previous Post, I struggled with my temptation to answer Tridion questions in the middle of business analyst and foundation training. But this week's training session went smoother as I followed a mentor's recommendation to use a "parking lot" list. This phrase is a metaphor where questions are vehicles. When the answer would take too long, put the answer in a spot to get it later--a "

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-9036315043306632862014-01-16T06:45:00.002-08:002014-01-18T02:33:38.467-08:00

In a few weeks, the Carbon 2.0 theme now available in SDL Tridion 2013 SP1 will start catching up to SDL Tridion Education materials along with somewhat new "About SDL" slides that describes Customer Experience Management (CXM). In a previous post, we had fun with the SDL Tridion "Carbon 1.0" icons. Though I attempted a Carbon 1.0 version, check out the even better version of

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-47886245836083426982014-01-15T08:59:00.000-08:002014-01-18T02:33:23.034-08:00

Two years ago the MVP group chat was young and innocent. But at some point someone introduced "Sweary Tuesdays." Oh damn. We've also turned the geekery up a bit (hover over text for cypher translations or look them up yourself). @wntr: It's F-in Sweary Tuesday!  +Alvin Reyes: Oh hell no! @nick: John, did you just try to answer that question on Trex? I'm way ahead of you, man. +Nuno

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-84943573516922345132014-01-14T17:03:00.001-08:002014-01-18T02:33:59.505-08:00

Around this time of year I do two things: Congratulate the new SDL Tridion MVPs (2014)! Share some Tridion community insight, this year in a mix of practical, inspirational, and old advice to the MVP 2014 crew.  Today MVP Chair Nuno Linhares announced the new 2014 SDL Tridion MVPs. It was an impressive year as seen in some 1300+ questions and 2500+ answers on Tridion Stack Exchange,

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-85296297235343647272013-12-16T21:45:00.001-08:002013-12-17T18:58:44.340-08:00

This question came from a colleague looking to add "icons and stuff" to a Visio diagram. I believe in applying CMS principles to your CMS designs, so use these quick four steps to create and use a background in your Visio diagrams. 1. Right-click a tab and go to Page Setup... 2. Set this tab as a Background. I typically call it something like Background or my company name. 3.

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-65449821879695573132013-12-10T22:34:00.000-08:002013-12-11T23:03:21.275-08:00

The perfect is the enemy of good. Here are some stories of the pursuit of Web, writing, grades, and Tridion sharing "perfection" and its unintended consequences (in Pixar Prompt format). Once Upon a Web Development Time Once upon a time there was a Web development team. Every week, the business analyst checked the site for broken links. One day the team wanted perfect error logs. Because

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-38706578132957519232013-12-07T17:18:00.001-08:002013-12-10T22:34:32.171-08:00

And after seeing at least four internal presentations, chatting with colleagues, and attending full-day knowledge sharing session on SDL Tridion 2013 SP1, I'm not sure where to begin or what to share. So first, be sure to congratulate the team (and this guy on his first release) and dive into the documentation when ready. Btw, that Tridion documentation you're reading uses another SDL

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-30373678875791741482013-11-27T18:28:00.003-08:002013-11-28T11:42:41.153-08:00

I'm back from yet another bootcamp session in Amsterdam, this time for SDL Media Manager. Big thanks to the company and my European colleagues for bringing us across the "pond" to learn and share about SDL Media Manager. My first exposure to a "Bootcamp" session was back in 2011 as a privileged customer having won an award for sharing stuff about Tridion. Since then (or maybe because the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-3973954107368437062013-11-25T12:39:00.001-08:002013-11-25T18:21:11.609-08:00

"Wouldn't it be great to easily move content up an SDL Tridion BluePrint?" Assuming you made something in the wrong publication on accident and the set up was perfect, then you could script or automate such a move. This might be "easy" since the dependency rules are known and fairly simple on their own, but are you aware of the four main considerations? Decisions Distance (and Direction)

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-10284054603947101372013-11-21T09:05:00.000-08:002013-11-22T16:24:44.027-08:00

Content modeling for Content Management Systems (CMS) is the act of designing the relationship between content, their fields, and their containers (i.e. pages). I don't use "best practice" lightly, but the best practice in CMS content modeling is opting for a semantic (update: meaningful) content model (see exceptions below), where content types and their managed fields mean something to

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-73917372619876214052013-11-18T22:44:00.002-08:002013-11-18T22:44:25.505-08:00

I've personally supported dozens of fairly smart SDL Tridion content authors in a "small" setup of three or four sites with thousands of pieces of content. I've worked with organizations with around 200-300 users and more recent ones looking to grow to some 700 users. From other colleagues I've heard of setups with tens of thousands of users. And these aren't even software limits, but more likely

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-79285679064578611862013-11-13T10:11:00.001-08:002013-11-13T10:11:52.978-08:00

As promised in my last post, here'a quick post on why I highly recommend Content Strategy For the Web (Second Edition) by Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach (of @BrainTraffic) to fellow CMS consultants and customers alike. CMS Analyst/Author/Strategist Robert Rose admits being a @BrainTraffic Fanboy as well. As a CMS consultant, I see customers face and take on the same

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-35510495080407349032013-11-12T10:02:00.000-08:002013-11-12T13:19:55.669-08:00

You can tell I follow most of SDL Tridion's thought leadership online because you've likely seen me comment on a few of the many Tridion blogs. But I also follow practitioners, consultants, and industry gurus with broader or more in-depth Content Management System expertise. Here's an overview of a few great strategists that can help you craft "content" implementations that addresses your

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-12109417747100638942013-11-06T20:10:00.000-08:002017-03-29T06:13:59.095-07:00

[x] Use this Page as a Page Type. Many of my customers will attempt to implement Experience Manager (XPM) bottom-up rather than top-down. I'd prefer Tridion-using organizations took the opposite approach, especially considering: Authors find new content and page creation harder than updating fields Inline editing or the ability to edit text on a page requires template updates for

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-17277051268606538622013-11-04T10:18:00.003-08:002014-01-19T08:08:40.211-08:00

Q: "Alvin, do you use Tridion for your blog?" A: "I'm not an enterprise customer and I have a single content type (blog post)." Q: "Can we implement a blog with SDL Tridion?" A: "Yes." I've joked: "What do you call a (insert your favorite Web Content Management system) implementation with only one schema and one template?" "A blog." You have a few options to make a blog with Tridion. From a

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-78860646932824535752013-11-01T16:01:00.004-07:002013-11-01T16:21:39.190-07:00

Two chats with separate colleagues inspired this nearly two-posts-in-one. One of my colleagues pointed out we only had 3.9 questions a day on Tridion Stack Exchange (TRex). With a clear case, compelling argument, and screenshots, I was sold by his email. We need to get the message out. But he wasn't quite convinced that he could also convince others. Here's the gist of the argument. We should:

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-220353431684825402013-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:002013-11-01T08:29:34.678-07:00

Happy Halloween. Question: How do you get KnewKnow to answer your question? Answer: Post online, "This is so broken. How would you fix it?" As a Tridion question, he is compelled to answer as part of some unholy contract he's made with some shadowy figure. First, pick a "shadowy figure" of your choice. "Please, make me a Tridion expert," pleaded KnewKnow to the shadowy figure. 

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-72895703408118809532013-10-30T08:32:00.002-07:002013-11-04T10:29:25.728-08:00

I'll occasionally get questions about the SDL Tridion certification exams. As an SDL employee, I'm a qualified resource backed up by a team of other qualified resources, but taking the exam isn't a critical task on my to do list (it's covered by the company). However, occasionally I'll be tasked with updating the exam to keep it current and challenging even for myself or our Global Education lead

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-74919939776785137822013-10-29T18:03:00.001-07:002013-10-29T18:03:33.476-07:00

Inspired by Wired Magazine's article on Radical New Teaching Methods, several books on presenting visually (Art of Explanation, Back of the Napkin, and Slideology), and recent internal white boarding training, I started giving the following exercise in my SDL Tridion Functional training. Nothing beats playing Socrates and watching a group figure something out, though I admit it's very

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-7523909231011276802013-10-25T00:59:00.000-07:002014-01-18T01:54:00.608-08:00

Update: After hearing that maybe functional training or workshops aren't for technicals, let me be clear that technical resources should absolutely want to be part of the workshops (that define what you'll have to build). You should also know how to use the software and what CMS designs mean to authors. Most importantly, you'll likely benefit from seeing how we transform wireframes into actual

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-81393555116066035132013-10-24T16:18:00.001-07:002014-06-27T07:37:27.729-07:00

Sometimes certain user actions are scary, though harmless. For example, cancelling an online booking request might seem twice as painful as the SDL Tridion BA certification exam (so a TBACE factor of 2). When booking online travel through an online booking company that shall remain nameless, as a consultant I will: Pick the right dates at a reasonable fair, balancing pain of the trip with what

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-27074214410183347382013-10-23T17:40:00.003-07:002013-10-24T23:04:11.283-07:00

In the first post of this series we looked at a content modeling scenario that assumed authors needed ultimate per-content-instance flexibility. I described ways to instead focus on features with a more practical perspective. In the last post, I described ways to measure the practical impact your content model has, especially when taking on technical CMS debt. I used duplicate schemas as an

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-78283294852834311302013-10-18T18:06:00.000-07:002016-10-19T10:53:15.524-07:00

In my last post I described ways to manage CMS-influenced features. Before offering a field to authors, confirm it's at the right context in the content model. Authors shouldn't need to manage fields that are always the same for a certain type of content. Also, you can manage current and future features with keywords rather than as new schema fields. Everyone manages content. Not everyone

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-68783998325192941122013-10-14T07:07:00.000-07:002014-02-21T11:00:18.420-08:00

In a recent training session, I came across a content definition (schema in Tridion) that had an author-able field to set a page as "share-able." The field's description included a specific social media feature (e.g. "AddThis" in this case, but it could have been "Share to Facebook" or other currently popular option). The Boolean choice was presented as a drop-down for either "yes" or "no." I

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-36866313803351430052013-10-04T16:46:00.001-07:002017-08-18T07:20:05.416-07:00

CMS Guru Gerry McGovern points out the Web has a digestive problem. "If the Web were a digestive system it would have no capacity to poop. It just grows and grows and grows..." In another post he continues: "If most websites were organisms, they would constitute very dysfunctional ones. They would have a strange digestive system. It would have a capacity to eat lots and lots of

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-24545322864989996652013-10-04T16:07:00.003-07:002013-11-25T11:15:35.874-08:00

"Link propagation" or the SDL Tridion feature that causes items that use your item to be republished comes up frequently. Some ask about how to not publish pages when publishing content Or the status of linked components when unpublishing It gets interesting when unpublishing pages when mixing DCPs with static CPs Someone eventually notices that related items also get

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-33251396802584870722013-10-02T08:42:00.003-07:002013-10-02T12:41:39.802-07:00

I'm taking a step back from the contextually-aware future and want to share some more Tridionaut fun. The Random Tridion Blogger made a version of the Success Kid meme congratulating The Huizard. I updated it.  Here's another take on D-Rex, the artistic creation of @wntr. Another of @wntr's creations. We're still trying to figure it out. I'm guessing

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-57321631359725993272013-10-02T07:58:00.000-07:002013-10-02T07:59:43.142-07:00

My last post theorized on contextual use cases. Let's project a bit into global trends, revisit ways to avoid creepy CXM, and keep this practical. At some point there'll be a backlash at this much "contextuality," a huge part of your contextual experience will be offline. You will start with responsive design and device detection, but also plan for possible future scenarios (I read too much):

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-57027044939025623572013-10-02T04:32:00.002-07:002013-10-02T08:04:49.476-07:00

In my last post, we consider "Mobile" with SDL Tridion. The mobile part, if you're just thinking of screen sizes and a few devices is relatively easy--companies everywhere are addressing it with a mix of content strategy, mobile apps, responsive design. But let's look at some use cases to expand our thoughts, giggle, and cringe at what mobile means to some hypothetical customers. Consider Use

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-91420392669520958042013-10-01T14:00:00.003-07:002013-10-02T09:17:22.451-07:00

Prompted by my colleague by a question about mobile with Tridion, I'm predicting what my (enterprise SDL Tridion-using) clients will be facing as they take on the challenge of SDL Tridion with their "mobile" sites. With some humor, parental anecdotes, and the not-quite-obvious we'll see the future will be interesting, unpredictable, and in some cases, already here. First some background.

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-88356131024065459002013-09-30T17:41:00.002-07:002013-09-30T17:44:33.618-07:00

I just posted how to get past hesitation with sharing with the SDL Tridion community. The trick is realizing you're not really sharing with everyone, just the people that find the content they need from you (at some point in the future). You won't be judged and nothing tremendous is at stake. So go, write/code/share what you want! Your friends will help point out anything out of place. But I

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-6536150409512989422013-09-30T15:07:00.001-07:002016-04-28T05:31:57.611-07:00

As a top SDL Tridion blogger (I average a topic/week over the past three years), former SDL Tridion MVP-turned-Community Builder, and a member of the selection committee, I'd like to remind community participants and even myself of the following. Get over it. It's okay to publish. (I'm not that special) :-) This reminder is the trick to giving yourself permission to share especially for those

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-13281704835613223192013-08-26T12:33:00.000-07:002013-08-26T12:33:07.032-07:00

The unofficial SDL Tridion fridge magnet kit is alive and well in the office. I didn't take an updated picture. Not seen here are bucky ball magnets and an impossible-to-implement BluePrint design. To quiz our project manager, I asked which part was first and most important. Some choices included: Schemas Components Structure Groups Folders Publications Mr. Code-ariu and I knew the

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-6772238159003720892013-08-23T16:20:00.003-07:002014-07-21T10:57:28.406-07:00

SDL Tridion's inline editing interface, or Experience Manager (XPM), lets authors update content in a way familiar to any post-Web 2.0 user: in context. Rather than focusing on organizing content like the Content Manager Explorer, XPM lets you quickly set up pages and content in the context of your site. Tangent: typical Web users and especially digital natives may take in context editing

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-6235726747416370622013-08-16T16:54:00.001-07:002013-09-24T14:09:21.550-07:00

A published piece of content may include a mix of author-managed text and images along with automated values such as Content Management System (CMS) author, published date, or last updated date. There are some automation options that I've seen implemented well (and easily with SDL Tridion, btw), but don't reflect the actual long-term business or visitor requirements. Original author. Relevant

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-72574484068493280612013-08-12T19:25:00.002-07:002015-05-31T00:35:47.183-07:00

This question came up today in a functional workshop: "When and how do we document Component Presentations?" A component presentation is the combination of a specific component and template. It becomes the rendered output to whatever digital channel you're managing. The basic, intuitive answer might be that we do not document these directly. We define the content management system and it's up to

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-40399283589946621822013-07-29T13:23:00.001-07:002013-07-29T13:23:09.631-07:00

As a follow-up to my last post, I want to share a familiar story about stories (aka software development requirements), specifically for "dynamic" Web content types. As soon as you create the rules to automatically display certain content for a given page, the business may want changes. So instead of just displaying all press releases in reverse order by date, the requirement may evolve to

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-46907188982735112122013-07-16T20:50:00.004-07:002015-08-21T01:10:12.692-07:00

The video pitch for SDL Innovate 2013, noted "Customer Experience Management is as old as people are." The familiar neighborhood store is charming, but scale it to an enterprise level and what corporations know about us can be creepy. I was enchanted by the conference, which showcased our solutions, partners, and expertise in helping businesses navigate some fairly sophisticated content

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-33181104415258297262013-06-28T17:06:00.002-07:002013-07-06T17:40:17.905-07:00

It's obvious I share, but I have somehow acquired the (occasional) ability to help others recognize their expertise and/or to share online. Knowledge professionals are more likely to contribute to their profession's thought leadership after meeting me. If you're familiar with D&D or MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) terminology, it's like I have a Flaming Sword of

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-36092497115469035722013-06-27T19:02:00.001-07:002013-06-28T04:57:28.426-07:00

Chris Summers coined the term The Fifth SDL Tridion Environment which is the implementer's sandbox, playground, or simply personal Tridion virtual machine. Getting the license for such an environment has its own challenges. I want to describe the ultimate, elusive, and harder-than-you-would-assume Sixth SDL Tridion Environment, or the (custom) Training Environment (or simply Train).

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-1665985413589070022013-06-18T06:19:00.000-07:002013-06-22T08:44:22.991-07:00

I'm grinning after attending Innovate, SDL's annual Global Customer Experience Management (CXM) conference. Keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki enchanted, SDL Product Leadership laid out a roadmap for Tridion, and Uber Tridionauts Broke everything you knew about the Broker. An Enchanting Keynote I read Enchanted and have seen Guy Kawasaki's presentation online before. Knowing he liked to target his

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-17921226596870621752013-06-07T18:45:00.000-07:002013-06-16T22:31:25.479-07:00

As you start working with a larger SDL Tridion BluePrint, especially in a multi-lingual setup, it gets harder knowing where and how your content and pages are used across publications. The Where Used feature gets you most of this information, but also consider using the BluePrint Viewer to see and navigate to an item's variations in other publications.  Open the viewer with either:

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-44631681784564171022013-05-27T07:01:00.000-07:002013-05-27T07:01:00.226-07:00

Coming from a mix of business analysis and ASP.NET development on the content delivery side, I've typically looked at the Tridion Object Model's API as that "next hard step" in my technical development and understanding.  After working with it a bit more, I realize my hesitation was unfounded. As my colleague, The Huizard, might say, "it's just an API." Though he was actually referring

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7411254651175235619.post-26547009596223492562013-05-20T06:59:00.000-07:002013-05-20T11:49:31.166-07:00

I'm surrounded by highly-qualified, problem-solving coworkers and friends that are sometimes blind to their own strengths and expertise. I think we have more to share than we realize. A theme my company promoted this year was "Climb Higher." I like how the phrase evokes a challenge, we're scaling scenarios and reaching new heights. Maybe with all this work, I'll lose some of the "consultant gut"

Nivlonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06783255433284043555noreply@blogger.com0