
It's been a while since Ingeniux CMS (news, site) got a major face-lift. Last week, they released version 7.
Its predecessor, Ingeniux CMS v6, dates back to 2008 with focus on Enterprise 2.0 web content management. What does Ingeniux have to offer in v7 after two years in the making?
New Features in Ingeniux CMS 7
Usability is often anever-ending pursuit for Web CMS vendors, and Ingeniux is not anexception. As they say, they improved overall usability of the system --especially, through their "re-invented" In-Context Editing (ICE) capabilities.
In-ContextEditing
Ingeniux CMS 7's support for In-Context Editing allows editors to work with bothstructured and unstructured content. This means that both HTML andwell-formed XML content can be edited in the CMS's Preview Mode.
Accordingto the company's blog, in-context editing "has always been aglass slipper. It is something that we wanted but could never find asolution that fit." And version 7 is, apparently, when they found theglass slipper.
Also in the blog:
How we have deliveredICE as structured content using open standard web technologies is a bitof a Wonka-like-trade-secret... In short, the CMS is able to wrap eachpiece of content on a page with editing controls using AJAX and then mapthose fields back to the underlying XML structure of the content...
Admittedly, achieving content re-use within the in-context experiencehas not been a stumbling block for all Web CMSvendors. But one must keep in mind that the Ingeniux CMS is a both a tiered Web CMS -- with content management and editing largely separated from the content delivery context, and an XML-based system that manages both chunks of HTML and structured XML components. There are more subtleties involved when supporting ICE in this kind of an environment.
Learning Opportunities
Universal Client
This feature inIngeniux CMS 7 was expanded to include the accordion pane, new tool bar,ribbons and a tertiary menu system. The new accordion panes organize keyfeatures and content items for faster access to tools for common tasks.
Application Manager
This is abuilt-in app store within the Ingeniux CMS, where users can findIngeniux-certified app modules and third-party apps. Examples of add-on application modules include:
- Website Analytics -- enabling Google Analytics, Webtrends and other providers)
- Athletics -- a module for managing sports-oriented websites
- Event Calendar
- Forms Builder
- Lead Generation Management -- lead capture, notifications, auto responders and archiving.
- Polling
- RSS Feeds -- customized RSS feeds for website URLs
Otherfeatures
Additional version 7 features include:
- Built-in support for Google Analytics
- Asset management enhancements including multi-file upload andimage editing
- A Redirect Module for 301 redirects and custom/vanityURLs management
- Ability to set reminders for content updates
- Spanish,French, German, Italian and Chinese language packs
Give Me SomeWEM
With Web Engagement Management (WEM) being the latest buzzwordin the industry, Ingeniux changed its marketing messaging to reflectthat they're on with the times as well. "Ingeniux CMS 7 Web ExperienceManagement Software" is the new mantra.
The vendor says that the Web CMS is"designed to manage the persuasive web" without, however, highlightingthe specific features that will help organizations achieve that. Presumably the persuasive part of the picture is a combination of their CMS Dynamic Site Server -- a Microsoft IIS extension used to perform real-time content assembly -- and some combination of Ingeniux CMS add-on modules.
As weknow, WEM is a composite concept involving various strategies and tools (check out our article entitled The 5 Pillars ofWEM). And from what we can see, Ingeniux is yet to get to the ingénieux levels in this area. But this article is just a quick look at v7. We'll reserve our full opinion until we get a closer look at the product. Stay tuned -- that won't be far off.