This article provides the design ideas of the CMS platform, as well as some thoughts. The author is currently responsible for the CMS building of a video app. Next, let's talk about my understanding and summary of the CMS system.

1. What is CMS system

First of all, let's introduce what CMS system is. The full name of CMS system is Content Management System, and its Chinese translation is "Content Management System". CMS refers to a set of systems used to manage work processes in a cooperation mode. The system can be used in manual operation, computer or network.

As a central repository, the content management system can store relevant content in a centralized way and has functions such as group management and version control. Content management systems are widely used in the storage, management, revision (inventory), pragmatic enrichment, document publishing and other aspects of articles or documents or data (citing Zhihu).

In short, I personally summarize that CMS is the system responsible for the listing and management of App content.

For example, whether we go to a convenience store or a large supermarket, we will find that all goods are arranged according to certain rules. For example, it is difficult for us to buy vegetables in the daily necessities area and shampoo in the fresh area, so we can conclude that there must be a rule that controls the placement of goods.

Similar to the video app we are familiar with, take Tencent Video for example, we can't browse the category of "TV series" in the "Movie Tab". The content of each tab is relatively fixed, and there will be differences in style. What controls this is the CMS content management platform we are going to talk about today, so CMS is the platform for content display rules and policy settings.

2. How to design CMS

2.1 Basic idea of configuration

Here, the author adopts a reverse thinking, so that readers can understand the planning logic and product thinking of the entire platform, and still use the supermarket as an example to illustrate that each app can be imagined as a large supermarket. When we determine the "shelf placement" in the app, that is, the product structure, as well as "goods" and app content, We can design a set of background for management. As shown in the figure below:

Next, the author will explain in detail how to design a CMS.

2.2 CMS design idea

Since CMS is the content management platform of App, the drawers or media presented in App must be configured in the corresponding background.

To simplify the explanation, we call each film an independent "medium" and each module an independent "drawer".

That is to say, "Shanghai Fortress" is the medium, and banners, operation positions, etc. are called "drawers". The background should carry the corresponding modules. Take Tencent Video as an example, the screenshot below shows the content under the "Movie" tab.

From top to bottom, the video includes banners, advertising operations, drawer type 1, advertising promotion, drawer type 2, drawer type 3, and so on. The reason why these contents appear in front of us is that they are configured and uploaded through the CMS background.

The functions that should be provided in the CMS backstage should include the ability to load and unload items, sort, create new components, monitor and maintain, link with other platforms, and manage conventional content. The author believes that the above are the main capabilities of the CMS backstage. I will disassemble the above capabilities and plan the design of the CMS backstage from a more macro perspective for easy understanding.

Items up and down

When a medium has completed video transcoding, media information configuration, time of getting on and off the shelf, and cover map configuration, it comes to our CMS backstage. In the CMS backstage, the operator needs to select the corresponding drawer type, add the movie to the corresponding drawer, and publish it after the review. The C-end user can see the movie on the home page.

Usually, some activities or products will have a fixed launch (display) date, so the function of booking launch is more important. In addition, although a piece of media has a fixed offline date, it is affected by policies or copyrights that do not rule out the emergency offline scenario. Therefore, the emergency offline function also needs to be provided.

About Sorting

Sorting is generally divided into overall sorting in APP and sorting in a module. Generally, for the overall sorting, a "drawer management" module can be established, and all drawers in the APP can be displayed in the list.

(1) Sorting for the whole: all drawer types and numbers are displayed in the list, which can be sorted by manual dragging or operators can be sorted by positive numerical order.

(2) Sorting within a module: module 1 and module 2 shown in Tencent video can be sorted and displayed through user behavior and tags. These involve user tags and user operations. The product can achieve the effect of thousands of people and faces after defining corresponding rules, so that every user can see their favorite content.

The life cycle of each drawer can also be configured through CMS.

Innovative components

A new type of drawer generated to meet business needs or promote certain activities.

For example, during the upcoming National Day, more red themed content will be displayed. It is hoped that the drawer type of picture+text+trailer style can not be supported in the existing drawer types. In the process of designing the backstage, we should try to avoid redevelopment every time a new drawer type appears, which will not only increase the development cost, but also cause functional redundancy, Increase the cost of operation and maintenance.

Thus, we can "modularize" the existing functions, similar to Subway, to provide the smallest unit in each drawer, which can be assembled at any time to become a "new drawer".

Therefore, this is also one of the important capabilities that the CMS background needs to provide. When designing the background, scalability is also a key consideration, because the background also needs to iterate continuously according to the front-end business. Good scalability can not only improve the use efficiency, but also reduce the cost of development and maintenance.

Monitoring and maintenance

Some students may have doubts about this. Usually, enterprises have special data platforms for data analysis and behavior monitoring of APP. What can CMS do here?

As the background management of App configuration, CMS has the responsibility to control the release of version, content, etc. and cooperate with grayscale testing. For example, if we want to display unique drawer contents in certain versions, we can configure them through the CMS background. Or as required by relevant laws and regulations, some content needs to be temporarily added or modified, which can be controlled through CMS to avoid relying on the release of each function update, otherwise there will be risks such as being removed from the shelf.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that monitoring and maintenance is also one of the important functions of CMS as a content management platform. Here, designers need to know more about the whole business, and also need to think more about the flexibility and control of the background at the beginning of the design.

Linkage with other platforms

There will be multiple backstages in the same business, including CMS, CRM, and operation backstage. Although each backstage is independent of each other and responsible for its own functions, it should still maintain the ability to interconnect some data.

For example, the top banner of the APP provides lottery activities, entrances, and the configuration generation of lottery activities comes from the operation background. In the CMS background, you need to obtain the configured links and bind them with the corresponding pictures for promotion.

In addition to the drawer function of "thousands of people and thousands of faces" mentioned above, user data should be analyzed and tagged on the operation platform or data platform before providing personalized configuration access in CMS.

It can be seen that when planning the CMS background, the capabilities of each platform and the subsequent business planning capabilities should be taken into consideration comprehensively, and the vision should not be limited to meeting the App configuration.

General management

In addition to the above description, it also includes the maintenance of fixed location content such as startup map and banner. The CMS background can configure the display duration and display region of the startup chart, as well as control the switching duration and number of banners. When designing the background, it can provide the ability of "preview", that is, the content displayed in the front end can be displayed in the background, so that the operation configuration students can quickly understand the configuration effect, reduce the test pressure, and improve the online effect.

3. Reflection and summary

As the background of video products, only the configuration of CMS is far from enough. At the same time, it also needs the cooperation of "media capital background" and "e-commerce background". The relationship between the three is gradual. Media capital is responsible for video transcoding and the establishment of basic information. E-commerce determines the price and distribution strategy of movies. CMS is responsible for what users see and how they see them. I also dabbled in the background of media and e-commerce, and I will share it with you later when I have the opportunity.

As a content management system, the CMS platform should meet the requirements of flexibility, functionality, expandability, linkage and other aspects. Therefore, there is no unified design standard for CMS. The author also summarizes and refines it through recent practice and provides some basic ideas for design. When it is implemented into the project, the platform design should focus on the overall business.

There is also the concept of authority in the CMS system, for example, there are special configuration specialists and auditors. For instructions on authority, see my previous article, "Authority Management of Background Design".

This article was originally published by @ Forza and everyone is a product manager. Reproduction is prohibited without permission

The picture is from Unsplash, based on CC0 protocol