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Recommendations for projects

Recommendations for projects in which at least part of the content comes from the NeuroomNet CMS.

Plan structures early​

The structures in the CMS can be extended or changed at any time, and in projects this will be necessary every now and then. Nevertheless, it pays to plan them early. Otherwise, data has to be migrated from old to new structures more often and the applications adapted accordingly.

This includes specifying, at least roughly, already in the call for tenders which content is to be exchangeable. "All content shall be exchangeable via a CMS" is not enough: for programmers, graphics on buttons, background images, and labels are content too. If these are not meant to be exchangeable, such a wording only drives up costs.

Typically, the CMS holds three kinds of data:

  1. Content in the narrower sense: media files and objects with their properties, such as cities with famous buildings (see the example in CMS frontend and basics).
  2. Interface texts and translations for applications, e.g. labels of controls.
  3. Configuration of applications, which can then be changed in the browser.

When does the data arrive?​

Programming usually starts while the content is still being created and initially works with placeholders. This works well if the formats are clarified by then. Otherwise, surprises such as "But the images are large/small" or "We can't read .doc files" lead to extra costs on one side or another.

It is therefore advisable to introduce the CMS early in the project. All participants then work with the same data from the start, and problems such as "too large", "too small", or "too much text" become apparent immediately and not only once the applications are finished.

If the CMS is already running in the museum's IT, external participants only need access, for example via VPN. Often this is not yet possible, e.g. because the museum is being built or renovated. In that case, the CMS can be operated on the internet during the development phase. Once the on-site CMS is available, structures and data are transferred via export and import.

Access for all participants​

All parties who edit content should receive access and a brief introduction to the CMS frontend early on. This also includes external translators. Accounts and rights are created by the CMS administration (see Rights and accounts). Namespaces per party allow access to be cleanly separated.