Use Case: Create Content Object -

Actor: Content Creator

Goal: Make information available to the end users of the site

CMF Sites are comprised of content coupled with presentation and logic to better access the content. The CMF comes with a number of stock content types including Document, Image, File, Link, and Favorite. This document addresses the most straightforward way of creating content objects, which is through the web, however there are other interfaces including FTP and WebDAV.

To add a content object in the CMF, navigate to a location with the site where you have the appropriate privelages to create content. This may be a specific folder which has been configured by your CMF administrator or may be your member folder, accessible by selecting the My Stuff link from the actions box.

Once you have identified the location you wish to add your content object, select the Folder contents link from the actions box. You will be presented with the content add form.

The content add form provides a list of the content types you have permission to add at this location within the CMF. For this example, we are going to use a Document as our sample content type to add. Select Document from the list, and enter an ID for the document in the form field labled ID at the bottom of the content add form. Click the Add button to complete the first stage of creating your document object.

You will proceed to the Standard Resource Metadata edit form. This metadata form is common across all of the default content types which come stock with the CMF. This form is where you will enter basic metadata about your new content type.

• Title -- A string used to identify your content; a title provides a more human-friendly lable for the document. The title displays in the view of the document, as well as various other places throughout the CMF (e.g. search results).
• Description -- A short summary of the content.
• Subject -- A list of keywords which is used in cataloging your content.

After entering the title, your content's description, and a subject or list of subjects, you have three options to proceed:

Change

Commit your changes and return to the Standard Resource Metadata form.

Change and Edit

Commit your changes and proceed to the edit form for adding the "body" of your content. The edit form is not shared across the different content types and will be discussed in more detail below.

Change and View

Commit your changes and proceed to viewing your new piece of content.

Select Change and Edit and proceed onto the edit form for your document. The document edit form consists of 2 options. The first option, File Upload, allows you to author your content offline and upload it to the CMF through your web browser. The second option consists of a Body textarea form field. Here you are able to edit and add your content through your web browser. The following list is a short description of the stock content type edit forms:

• Body Textarea/File Upload edit form (Documents)
• Lead-in/Body edit form (News Item)
• File Upload edit form (Files, Images)
• Simple edit form (Link, Favorite, Event)

After you fillout the edit form, select the Change button. Depending on your site's buisness rules, you could be required to submit your new content through a workflow or series of workflows.