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Switching CMSes

Liam Andrew | Pattie Reaves

@mailbackwards | @pazzypunk

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“Switching”

  • Choosing
  • Building
  • Migrating
  • Training

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“CMSes”

  • “Primary” CMS
    • Core website; articles
  • Auxiliary CMSes
    • Print CMS
    • Data apps
    • Liveblogs
  • External CMSes
    • Eventbrite
    • Mailchimp
    • Google Docs

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The Texas Tribune CMS

Timeline:

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  • Building (Armstrong)
  • Scaling back (the lean years)
  • Re-skinning
  • ???

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What to change?

  • the skin (new frontend, same models)

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What to change?

  • the skin (new frontend, same models)
  • the auxiliary content
    • structure, e.g. authors/users, tags
    • non-story content, e.g. events

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What to change?

  • the skin (new frontend, same models)
  • the auxiliary content
    • structure, e.g. authors/users, tags
    • non-story content, e.g. events
  • the content editor

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What to change?

  • the skin (new frontend, same models)
  • the auxiliary content
    • structure, e.g. authors/users, tags
    • non-story content, e.g. events
  • the content editor
  • the core (story metadata; API)

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What to change?

  • the skin (new frontend, same models)
  • the auxiliary content
    • structure, e.g. authors/users, tags
    • non-story content, e.g. events
  • the content editor
  • the core (story metadata)
  • the distribution model (how stories are promoted on the site, or pushed to other places)

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Challenges

  • Technical
    • Upgrades
    • The archive
  • Design
    • Multi-brand CMSes; Vox, Condé Nast
  • Organizational
    • Ownership of CMS
      • Self-owned/maintained? owned by parent company? external vendor?
    • Tech-savviness of users

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Technical questions

(Choosing)

  • Repairing ship vs. jumping ship
  • Building vs. buying:
    • Core content
    • Auxiliary content (Eventbrite)
    • Comments and users (Disqus)
  • Community support and trends
  • Archive
    • Retrofitting for new platforms
    • iframes and HTML
  • Future-proofing

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Design questions

(Building)

Continuums to consider:

​

  • Single page ←→ Pipeline

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Design questions

(Building)

Continuums to consider:

​

  • Single page ←→ Pipeline
  • Fast publication ←→ Structure and validation

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Design questions

(Building)

Continuums to consider:

​

  • Single page ←→ Pipeline
  • Fast publication ←→ Structure and validation
  • Structured data ←→ Sandboxes / escape hatches

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Design questions

(Building)

Continuums to consider:

​

  • Single page ←→ Pipeline
  • Fast publication ←→ Structure and validation
  • Structured data ←→ Sandboxes / escape hatches
  • “Canonical” site ←→ Distributed content

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Design questions

(Building)

Continuums to consider:

​

  • Single page ←→ Pipeline
  • Fast publication ←→ Structure and validation
  • Structured data ←→ Sandboxes / escape hatches
  • “Canonical” site ←→ Distributed content
  • Core function ← → Platform/analytics integrations

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Transition questions

(Migrating)

  • Gradual updates, or all-at-once?
  • Incremental improvement, or clean break?

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Organizational questions

(Training)

  • Co-designing
    • Involving editors and reporters early
  • Communication and documentation
    • For CMS users
    • For developers
  • Training

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Activity

  • Things you love about your CMS
  • Things you hate about your CMS
  • Things you wish your CMS could do

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Put answers at https://goo.gl/rBLpRG

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THANKS

Liam Andrew | Pattie Reaves

@mailbackwards | @pazzypunk