CMS: A working definition
- A content management system (CMS) supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information.
- It covers the complete lifecycle of the pages on your site, from providing simple tools to create the content, through to publishing, and finally to archiving.
- It also provides the ability to manage the structure of the site, the appearance of the published pages, and the navigation provided to the users.
- Note that we are focusing on the most common use of a CMS: to manage web content. In some circles, these systems are therefore called web management systems (WMS).
What is Sitecore CMS?
Sitecore is one of the leading enterprise-level content management systems built on ASP.NET, enabling web content editors and marketers to have full control over all aspects of their website from social integration and blog posts to advanced personalisation, e-commerce and more.
The Sitecore CMS is at the heart of all Sitecore-powered websites. Having taken advantage of the flexibility, scalability and security of the .NET framework
The CMS incorporates a powerful desktop interface that is controlled by a fully-customisable role-based system. This desktop is very similar in look and feel to a Windows desktop, which makes it easy for users new to Sitecore to pick up and learn the system.
The Sitecore desktop
Databases of Sitecore
Core database
The core database is used by Sitecore to manage membership (as it builds on ASP.NET membership, this allows standard .NET membership controls to just work), handle system settings and hold the entire configuration for all applications in the CMS. This database can be accessed through the CMS, and you are able to configure any of the settings, override standard functionality, build your own applications, and add buttons and functionality to the ribbon in the editors.
Master database
The master database is where all the content editor work is done. Whenever a new piece of content is created, edited or deleted it is stored here, including those in preview mode. The master database can have workflow enabled and customised, so sections of the site can be locked down to certain roles, or made to go through an approver or translator before they go live.
Web database
The web database is where the live content for the web application is located. It differs from the master database in that it doesn’t contain anything in preview mode and only stores the latest live version of each item. When a content editor publishes some content it is then copied from the master database to the web database.
In a production environment only the web and core database are then hosted in the SQL server instance on the live environment. This means that the CMS is unavailable from the public website, making the application more secure. On a schedule these databases are replicated using SQL replication from the authoring environment out to the live environment.
The core database is used by Sitecore to manage membership (as it builds on ASP.NET membership, this allows standard .NET membership controls to just work), handle system settings and hold the entire configuration for all applications in the CMS. This database can be accessed through the CMS, and you are able to configure any of the settings, override standard functionality, build your own applications, and add buttons and functionality to the ribbon in the editors.
Master database
The master database is where all the content editor work is done. Whenever a new piece of content is created, edited or deleted it is stored here, including those in preview mode. The master database can have workflow enabled and customised, so sections of the site can be locked down to certain roles, or made to go through an approver or translator before they go live.
Web database
The web database is where the live content for the web application is located. It differs from the master database in that it doesn’t contain anything in preview mode and only stores the latest live version of each item. When a content editor publishes some content it is then copied from the master database to the web database.
In a production environment only the web and core database are then hosted in the SQL server instance on the live environment. This means that the CMS is unavailable from the public website, making the application more secure. On a schedule these databases are replicated using SQL replication from the authoring environment out to the live environment.
Item folders
All the content contained in a Sitecore web application is stored in the content tree, with the Content and Media Library items intended for content editors’ use and the Layouts, System and Templates folders aimed at developers and system administrators (accordingly, all folders are locked down based on the user’s role). Sitecore considers everything within the content tree an item that can be queried using the API; so all pages are items, as are images, PDFs and so on, meaning they can be easily found using this method.
Content
The Content item folder is where the pages and data for the website are stored, and the structure of these items represents the structure of the website.
Media
The Media Library is where all the physical multimedia files can be stored, either on the file system or as a blob in the database.
Layout
The Layout item folder is where all the ASPX ‘layouts’ for the web application are declared, referencing the location of the file in the web application root. It also contains ‘sublayouts’; ASCX files that represent the widgets etc. used to create a page. Layouts are combined with multiple sublayouts to build pages, which means widgets can be reused and content editors can swap out one widget for another without developer intervention.
System
The System item folder is where standard settings for the content editor and the web application are held. For example, if you wanted to add another language to the web application this is where you would do it.
Templates
The Templates item folder is a where all the template items are stored for the site. Template items are used to describe objects in Sitecore, and specify what fields that object will contain, the content of any standard values (i.e the default value for a field when an item is created, such as the title field always containing the name of the object), and any layouts that are attached to the item (for example, a news article item containing a news layout, along with standard page templates).
The Content item folder is where the pages and data for the website are stored, and the structure of these items represents the structure of the website.
Media
The Media Library is where all the physical multimedia files can be stored, either on the file system or as a blob in the database.
Layout
The Layout item folder is where all the ASPX ‘layouts’ for the web application are declared, referencing the location of the file in the web application root. It also contains ‘sublayouts’; ASCX files that represent the widgets etc. used to create a page. Layouts are combined with multiple sublayouts to build pages, which means widgets can be reused and content editors can swap out one widget for another without developer intervention.
System
The System item folder is where standard settings for the content editor and the web application are held. For example, if you wanted to add another language to the web application this is where you would do it.
Templates
The Templates item folder is a where all the template items are stored for the site. Template items are used to describe objects in Sitecore, and specify what fields that object will contain, the content of any standard values (i.e the default value for a field when an item is created, such as the title field always containing the name of the object), and any layouts that are attached to the item (for example, a news article item containing a news layout, along with standard page templates).
