Sitefinity CMS Technical Overview & Developer’s Perspective Georgi Chokov Sitefinity Product Manager Peter Marinov Customer Success Engineer

About the Presentation Part I: Short intro - Sitefinity as a web platform for Developers Part II: How the latest features boost developer productivity Part III: What is in the works Part IV: Q&A

Sitefinity Focuses on Developers High-level Overview - Sitefinity as a WCM platform and web application framework Sitefinity Focuses on Developers Content Agility Freedom of Data Source Precise Control Over Presentation Technology Friendly

Built on the .NET stack Platform Backend DATA LAYER UI LAYER MODULES File system Platform Backend DATA LAYER UI LAYER MODULES SERVICES Pages News Blogs Dynamic modules … Search Statistics Notifications … ASP.NET WebForms ASP.NET MVC HTML5 KendoUI WPF (DAM application) *modules cannot know about each other SITEFINITY CORE Plugin framework Configuration Localization User management Security

Some general principles - loose coupling as a rule Sitefinity is a highly flexible system that is built from various units and can adjust to business requirements Modules – Units of functionality; can explose services. Example: Blogs. Can be used for Content or Business Logic Services – units of functionality used by other consumers (modules or services). Example: Search. Services are replaceable and modifiable.

Provider model for data access Sitefinity does not care whether data is stored in SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB or text files Sitefinity and its components access data through providers Sitefinity can work with multiple data sources at the same time (e.g. users can live in Active Directory, while their profile can live in SQL Server) Benefits: System can integrate well within existing systems and pursue different strategies depending on business requirements PROVIDERS Blogs Users Events News Single Sitefinity Instance

Extensible Workflow (WWF) Everything is an API Requirements are always different. Everything in Sitefinity is an API: Available APIs: API and REST Services for Content API for Taxonomies API for Workflows API for UI (widgets) System API – Synchronization, Tasks scheduling, Integration, publication system… .. more Extensible Workflow (WWF) Web Services Classic .NET API Fluent .NET API Sitefinity Core Sitefinity Providers Data

Part II How the latest features boost developer productivity

Module Builder – because requirements are always unique Automatically generate: Backend UI screens and menus for end users Front-end widgets Workflow rules API and Services for the new dynamic type Permissions (coming in Sitefinity 7.3)

Module Builder – because requirements are always unique Dynamic Modules with Multiple Child Types Module Builder now supports content hierarchies where one parent types can contain multiple child types Unlimited levels of child types hierarchy

Demo Module Builder demo. Generate entities, backend screen, generated code and widget templates

Related Data Powerful concept of linking content types and other entities in the CMS 1:1 Relations 1:N Relations many to many

Related Data Control over the markup <div> <ul>       <asp:Repeater runat="server" DataSource='<%# Container.DataItem.GetRelatedItems("SponsorLogos") %>'>     <ItemTemplate>         <li><a href='<%# Eval("MediaUrl") %>'>         <img height="95" src="<%# Eval("ThumbnailUrl")%>" alt="<%# Eval("AlternativeText")%>" id="<%# Eval("Id") %>" title="<%# Eval("Title") %>" >             </a></li>     </ItemTemplate>      </asp:Repeater>   </ul> </div>

Related Data Defining content relations via the API var journalist = this.CreateJournalist(); var newsItem = this.CreateNews(newsManager); newsItem.CreateRelation(journalist, "Journalists"); newsManager.SaveChanges(); Get all relations to an item, single line of code var relatedJournalists = newsItem.GetRelatedItems<DynamicContent>("Journalists");

Demo Showing how UI is generated automatically when there’re content relations, as well as how easy it is to create and manage relations

Integration Out of the box Through API In 2015 .. Connector for SharePoint 2010/2013 Connector for SharePoint Online Works with on premise installations too. Integration with Office 365 Enterprise through SharePoint Connector for SalesForce Connector for Marketo Connector for MS Dynamics (through partners) Connector for Telerik Backend services Through API The data provider model REST & Service Stack Services Through the Sitefinity Fluent and Native API In 2015 .. More integrations coming out of the box

Part III What is in the works

Project Feather Open Source! All web forms widgets to have MVC counterparts Front-end of your choice – Bootstrap, Foundation, SemanticUI out of the box Mobile First – all widgets are responsive by design All widget designers are AngularJS SPA The framework is based on conventions – Widgets, Designers, Templates and views – all wired up easily Package more than just themes – CSS, Images, widget templates and masterpages all in one package Open Source!

Project Feather State of the project: Packaging and conventions engines are done, released on GitHub Content block, navigation, dynamic widgets – done, released on GitHub Sitefinity 7.3 in December includes Project Feather core. Now you can develop your own MVC style widgets and use any front-end framework straight out of the box. Designers love the new framework. 

Integration with 3rd party search engines - Sitefinity 7.3 Integration with Windows Azure Search Services Open Source sample on integration with Elastic Search Search is now decoupled Integration with 3rd party search engine is easy and quick

In conclusion

Georgi.Chokov@telerik.com Peter.Marinov@telerik.com Q&A Georgi.Chokov@telerik.com Peter.Marinov@telerik.com