Review Content Management Strategies

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

• Explain why a skills assessment is important.
• List three resource planning approaches.
• List what’s included in a custom content control document.
• Explain the most important consideration about content.
• List three types of storefront content.

Content management is another area you need to consider during the discovery phase, especially in context of the merchant’s technical abilities. Who creates and maintains content is an important question.

The amount and variety of content depends on the site. Some sites display simple text while others show a complicated array of asset types. Sites typically display content on how to use their products, profiles of customers wearing their products, and even detailed explanations of techniques related to products, such as composting and mulching for a gardening site.

Salesforce B2C Commerce supports HTML text, graphics, and video content. Content assets are stored in libraries and folders for easy retrieval. You can create new content assets or import existing content assets. You can also use content delivery networks (CDNs).

B2C Commerce manages two types of content assets: Content assets that are stored in the database and file assets that are stored in the file system. Content assets are objects such as HTML blocks or text blocks that are stored in the database. File assets, such as images, audio, and video are represented by an entry in the database, just like HTML or text content, but with a property for the path to the file on the file system. The file itself is stored within a folder, specified by the path, on disk.

B2C Commerce supports download and play video, such as Flash, Windows Media, and QuickTime. For high-traffic storefront pages, we recommend that the application download the container as part of initial page rendering, and then download the video upon a user action such as clicking the Play button. For heavy-use of real streaming media, a high volume of download and play videos, or files greater than 20 MB, we recommend that the merchant use a third-party provider.

The most common B2C Commerce content is HTML, a merchant skill area you need to evaluate prior to implementation. Does the merchant have the skills they need to create and maintain their HTML content? Will they have access to these skills after site launch?

These are some options.

• They have in-house HTML and CSS skills to use the standard functionality.
• They have access to resources that have HTML and CSS skills.
• They plan to hire a resource that has HTML and CSS skills.
• They have no HTML and CSS skills in house, but will not expand headcount and have no plans to work with external resources.

Your task is to ensure that the merchant understands their site’s requirements.

The merchant’s resource plan directly relates to their level of content customization. The more skilled their resources, the more detailed and appropriate the content, the more they can use the content to sell their products.

These are some approaches.

• Use the Storefront Reference Architecture (SFRA) configuration for content because the merchant has or will acquire the HTML skills. With these skills they can add and update content easily.
• Customize content in a way that it removes the need for the merchant to write HTML. This typically includes a significant amount of custom attribution to support the design. While this is more manageable, it creates restrictions. The merchant must use predefined templates that limit the layout options.
• Develop a template approach to the HTML and carefully document how to modify it to support content changes on the storefront. This approach only works if the merchant has team members who can read HTML and copy a setup.

If the content, by its nature, requires a lot of customization, it’s helpful to create a document that outlines all the details necessary to achieve the appropriate storefront display results. This document, called the custom content control document, takes information from the functional specification and the data model.

This document should include:

• Rendering templates: page display
• Referenced asset IDs: the content assets
• Required content folders: folder path structure
• Other required attribution
• Content slot types: product, category, content assets, or static HTML
• Slot rendering templates
• Slot custom attributes
• Asset sizing requirements

Create a document in a spreadsheet format something like this.

In this unit, we learned why an HTML skills assessment is important to the ongoing creation and maintenance of storefront content assets. We explored resource planning approaches and how to capture content details in the custom content control document.

In previous units in this module, we learned how to analyze the client and the data model, and reviewed typical data model scenarios. Now it’s time to shine by earning your badge.

Trailhead: Salesforce B2C Commerce for Merchandisers