Q2 2022 release wrap-up: Content quality through governance

Having high quality, consistent content plays a huge role in customer satisfaction and loyalty. When information is up-to-date and accurate, it’s more trustworthy. And trust is foundational to any company’s success.

But it’s not always easy to keep content consistent across channels. Content managers and editors simply have a lot on their plates, juggling frequent updates and ad-hoc changes. 

And if their CMS can’t keep up, errors are bound to happen. 

That’s why it’s key to work in a CMS that prioritizes content governance—one that can actually support the complexities that come with the job. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the releases from Q2 2022 that help content teams stay focused on the big picture instead of fighting with the tiny details.

Managing workflows and users super smoothly

We love a good content approval workflow. Workflows help keep processes moving and everyone focused on the same goal. They’re also the fail-safe way to ensure only the best content goes live. In Kontent.ai, it’s possible for teams to set multiple workflows in a project to accommodate the different approvals needed for different types of content. 

A content management system that can flexibly support these needs is critical for large-scale content operations. In Q2, workflow management for Kontent.ai users got even stronger. Let’s check out how.

• Programmatic management of workflows: To make sure the adoption of multiple content approval workflows is no sweat, it’s possible to manage workflows using the Management API. This allows organizations to programmatically create, update, and delete custom workflows. Simple, straightforward, and secure. 
• New endpoints for multiple workflow management: Developer friends, note that we deprecated two endpoints to better support management of multiple workflows. We recommend using the new endpoints: the change the workflow of a language variant endpoint and retrieve workflows endpoint. Also check out the updated management SDKs to manage workflows in your scripts.
• Workflow information more visible: Information about the workflow for content items has been added to two new places: content item’s revision list and an item’s detail in the editorial calendar. Cheers to even more transparency.
• Faster selection of the right workflow: Now, when a user changes an item’s workflow and there’s only one workflow the item can move to, the drop-down is disabled and the workflow is auto-selected. Same goes for when a user converts a component to a content item and there’s only one workflow available.

We’re 100% committed to delivering the absolute best experience when it comes to managing users in the CMS platform. Along with workflows, dedicated user management is another useful way to keep complex and sprawling content operations under control. This quarter, we released another round of improvements to user management.

• Showing active users by default in user listings: User listings in projects and subscriptions now show only active users by default. If needed, it’s possible to still apply filters to see deactivated users as well. This is to make user management that much clearer, as only active users factor into the user quota in a subscription.

Letting content creators get back to the good stuff

writing a winning headline, spinning up a new product description, connecting with audiences—content creation is a creative pursuit. At Kontent.ai, we always try to ease the burden of managing the little details, so that content creators can spend more time on what they actually enjoy: creating. 

• More breathing room in the authoring experience: Writers, we got you. Guidelines in content items are now collapsed by default, so you can have more space to write without distractions. You can always expand or collapse the guidelines as needed.
• Faster work in highly componentized content: Now, if you have 15 or more components in a content item, they no longer expand automatically after you open the item, saving you a whole lot of time.
• Guesswork-free scheduling with the time zone selector:  With the rise of remote work and a growing network of global content creators, it can be a challenge to keep up with all the time zones in play! No worries. With the new time zone selector, content creators can schedule an item to publish or unpublish at an exact time in a particular time zone, no matter where they are. Need to schedule content for 9am in New York while you’re in Sydney? Let Kontent.ai handle the conversion.
• No to broken links: When editing content types, it’s now possible to limit the types of content item links. You can also quickly pre-select all content types with URL slug elements. With proper item link limitations set ahead of time, content creators save time by choosing only from items that can be linked.

• Setting default values to improve repeatable work: It’s now possible to set default values for a whole range of elements, including taxonomy, rich text, number, date & time, and multiple choice. Why is this such a nice addition? When certain terms or values are going to be used very often in an element, it can save content creators so much time to have them already set as the default. Note that newly added content items with the element will have the selected terms prefilled automatically. Also nice. Developers, you can go ahead and get everything set up using the Management API right now.
• More organized content labeling: Another great quality of life improvement has been the new Not in filter for content labeling. This lets users quickly find unlabeled content items. They can then choose to label them, keeping everything in the platform consistent and organized. Example: if you need to find items that aren’t labeled by a taxonomy called Continents, you’d select ∅ Not in Continents from the list of filters. Voilà.

Enjoying the benefits of true CMS composability

A microservices architecture means working with the best—and on your own terms. Kontent.ai’s strong ecosystem of integrations and technology partnerships helps organizations put content management at the heart of their modern tech stacks. Catch some of the highlights below.

• Officially supported in Vue Storefront (now Alokai): This quarter, Kontent.ai became one of the officially supported headless CMSs in Vue Storefront (now Alokai), a powerful front-end e-commerce platform. With customer expectations and behaviors changing, companies have to consider how smooth their buyer journey really is across channels. An agile e-commerce strategy can spell the difference between customer satisfaction and disappointment.
• Integration with Semrush: Another notable update is our new integration with Semrush, one of the leading SEO platforms on the market. The integration is currently focused on analyzing keywords across different regions, necessary for any content professional looking to create content that resonates in-market. 

Allowing developers to do their best work

Kontent.ai is a headless CMS that supports the goals of both business users and development teams. This quarter, we jam-packed our release schedule with important updates for developers. Check out a couple below; for a full list of this quarter’s updates, check out the product changelog.

• Custom codename for a content group directly in the UI
• More secure project cloning
• Kontent CLI can run a range of migrations
• New scope for Management API rate limits
• Increased performance of Delivery REST API
• Improvements to the .NET Management SDK
• .NET Management SDK can be used to set content type elements as non-localizable
• New .NET model generator
• Update 0.12.0 for ASP.NET Core extensions

6 months behind us, 6 to go!

It’s been a rapid half a year of product development supporting organizations at the forefront of great content with a CMS that can handle complex content operations. As we stay ahead of the challenges and trends, you can expect much more in the next six months! 

Need a little inspiration on how to improve content quality and consistency right now? Check out our white paper, From good to great: Top strategies to improve your content value chain. 

And if you’d like to chat with us, we’re always available. Simply schedule a call with one of our experts or connect with your dedicated customer success manager.