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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 a never-ending pursuit for Web CMS vendors, and Ingeniux is not an exception. As they say, they improved overall usability of the system -- especially, through their "re-invented" In-Context Editing (ICE) capabilities.

In-Context Editing

Ingeniux CMS 7's support for In-Context Editing allows editors to work with both structured and unstructured content. This means that both HTML and well-formed XML content can be edited in the CMS's Preview Mode.

According to the company's blog, in-context editing "has always been a glass slipper. It is something that we wanted but could never find a solution that fit." And version 7 is, apparently, when they found the glass slipper.

Also in the blog:

How we have delivered ICE as structured content using open standard web technologies is a bit of a Wonka-like-trade-secret... In short, the CMS is able to wrap each piece of content on a page with editing controls using AJAX and then map those fields back to the underlying XML structure of the content...

Admittedly, achieving content re-use within the in-context experience has not been a stumbling block for all Web CMS vendors. 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.

Universal Client

This feature in Ingeniux CMS 7 was expanded to include the accordion pane, new tool bar, ribbons and a tertiary menu system. The new accordion panes organize key features and content items for faster access to tools for common tasks.

Application Manager

This is a built-in app store within the Ingeniux CMS, where users can find Ingeniux-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

Other features

Additional version 7 features include:

  • Built-in support for Google Analytics
  • Asset management enhancements including multi-file upload and image editing
  • A Redirect Module for 301 redirects and custom/vanity URLs management
  • Ability to set reminders for content updates
  • Spanish, French, German, Italian and Chinese language packs

Give Me Some WEM

With Web Engagement Management (WEM) being the latest buzzword in the industry, Ingeniux changed its marketing messaging to reflect that they're on with the times as well. "Ingeniux CMS 7  Web Experience Management Software" is the new mantra.

The vendor says that the Web CMS is "designed to manage the persuasive web" without, however, highlighting the 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 we know, WEM is a composite concept involving various strategies and tools (check out our article entitled  The 5 Pillars of WEM). 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.