In this session, Craig and Jessica will describe how users can attach data definition-based and other content blocks to pages to easily create complex content in a modular fashion. The presentation will describe the block processor solution that allows easy extension to add new content block types and the CSS that "automatically" styles block content appropriately depending on the region of the template where the content is attached.
A Modular Content Model, by UC Davis for Hannon Hill's 2012 Cascade Server User Conference
1. Introduction
• Who we are
• Craig Farris, Jessica Hayes and Christian Coulon
• About UC Davis
• 32,653 students
• 4,009 academic staff
• 13,311 non-academic staff
• 207,974 living alumni
• 4 colleges (Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological
Sciences, Engineering, Letters and Science)
• 6 professional schools (Education, Law, Management, Medicine,
Veterinary Medicine, and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing)
2. Cascade at UC Davis
• Clients
• Usage Statistics
• Goals of the service
• Background
• Demo
3. The New Model
• Provides standard formats and two templates
• Centralizes core site administration, resources
and enhancements
• Modular content blocks
• Easy site configuration
4. Inner Workings
• CSS content block model
• Provides the core styling of optional content blocks and region-
specific styling of elements
• Block processor
• Receives XML for attached content blocks; includes individual
processors
• Unique identifier is used to match block XML with correct
individual processor
• Block output wrapped in a content box (for CSS)
• Undefined block defaults as raw XHTML
• Block head
• Loads specific JS or CSS required by any defined block using
JS, loading each required element only once
5.
6.
7. Current Block Library
• Available currently:
• Code block – accepts an include statement to output dynamic content
• FAQ block – includes basic accordion effect
• Feature block
• RSS block
• Simple Form Builder block – front end only, client provides the backend processing
Slideshow block – jQuery-based rotating image slideshow
• Blocks for future development:
• Video/Multimedia
• XHTML block
• People (Staff, Faculty)
• Events
• Social media (Twitter, FaceBook, Flickr)
• Cross-site blocks
• Search block
8. Resources & Questions
• For a copy of handouts and presentation
slides, visit http://cms.ucdavis.edu/conference/
• Question and answer period
