In a 50 minute presentation, we unveiled a technology that we’ve been deploying for almost a year now: the WSOL SuperTemplate.
While the name could certainly use some work, we were astonished by the overwhelming excitement that surrounded this technology – a technology we use in every CMS400 site we build these days.
For those that weren’t fortunate enough to attend Synergy 2009, Ektron’s worldwide conference, let me begin by giving you the basic concept behind the SuperTemplate: one template that drives the entire web presence.
Rather than building individual templates for different layouts (one column, two column, three column, etc.) or advanced functionality (news archives, blogs, membership, etc.), we employ business rules established by the business owner/end client and WSOL to provide dynamic page assembly capabilities using common Workarea functionality. Using content selectors and checkboxes, CMS Authors can quickly and easily update the page layout for each individual content block as their needs require.
What this really means is that rather than building 20 different templates for 20 different layouts or 20 different functionalities, this can all be accomplished via one template and one master page. It’s pretty cool stuff.
I think clients were so excited because it showed the potential that CMS400 has when it’s really implemented well. When we got to the second part of this portion about using SuperTemplate and PageBuilder together, things moved to another level.
We’ll be posting a video of the presentation up to the site in the coming days and encourage you to set aside some time to view it. In addition to the Super Template, the presentation touches on mobile site development, mobile application development, .NET themes and more.
As a marketing guy, I personally was thrilled to see our developers in attendance get credit for something that they’ve worked so long and hard to build. What started as a simple concept has morphed into a major innovation in the Ektron CMS400 space.
If you’d like to learn more about the SuperTemplate or coordinate a live demo, please let me know and we’ll be happy to coordinate. In addition, I’ll be posting additional blogs and tweets over the next few days with more information about Synergy 2009, so be sure to check back often.
That’s all for now, time to recover from a great trip and excellent conference experience!