Modeling inspiration by others

Don’t be afraid to experiment. If the model you came up with supports your basic requirements, even though it doesn’t look like a conventional approach, give it a go while keeping your model flexible.

Format content with voice & tone

Separating form and content is difficult if editors were used to having control over both. Try incorporating a taxonomy to help them shape the look and feel of the content without allowing too many disruptive changes.

For example, don't model a content type for a block of a text with an image on the left and the same one with an image on the right. To be able to create a list with different blocks, include a taxonomy called Voice & Tone, which can have options such as Playful, Professional, and Inspiring. Choosing an option will then render a different appearance on the front end.

The same taxonomy is still valid for responsive design and can be later reused in voice channels (such as home assistants or hotlines) to adjust the actual tone of your assistant. How neat is that?

You can go even further with the design differences. For example, the Professional option would create a layout of a list view while choosing Playful would display the content with a big hero image at the top. In all cases, content creators choose the semantic while the front end chooses the appropriate appearance.

Google uses advanced content models on their Think with Google website. They reuse interesting facts, graphics, charts, and other shareable information across articles. Not only is it highly reusable, but it’s also easy to add CTAs to that content. In this example, they allow you to share or download the given piece of content.

Create app build manifests

On top of handling all the content for your app, Kontent.ai is also used successfully for the app build manifests.

The settings stored in the build manifests tell the app which features should be enabled for which version of the app. This way it’s easy to enable or disable features and to have a scheduled roll-out of different functionality.

Create an interface for regression tests

Kontent.ai has been used to create a simple-to-use setting interface for regression tests.

These settings can include options such as which websites to include, which pages to include, whether to ignore certain pages, whether to ignore color differences or others.

Instead of hard-coding these settings into the tests themselves or having a TXT/XML configuration file, you can have a fully-versioned setting dialog with a workflow to drive your internal processes.

Add “missing” CMS features

Moving from existing CMS platforms into Kontent.ai, where you are the true king of your content model, comes also with seemingly missing features. Re-creating those as part of your model is always an option, however.

Testimonials, quotes, charts, and other one-time used components

If you still want to use a page designer functionality, you can use a set of content types representing different widgets, such as Image gallery, Quote, Testimonial, or Chart.

Allow these content types in a rich text area or as linked items in a relevant content type (typically called Landing page) and you can achieve the same result but with unlimited options over such widgets.

If you need some specific functionality like an image selector from DAM or a markdown editor, use a custom element for it.

Appearance in the navigation and search

You can also create a Page setting content type snippet allowing you to specify if the page should show up in the navigation, be excluded from the search, or be excluded from the robots.txt file.

Enable website or app navigation editable by content creators

There are multiple ways to create navigations. If you need your editors to control the navigation behavior, go with the explicitly modeled navigation. It then gives them the option to create a hierarchical structure for your content items.

For example, the page tree navigation in this portal is also modeled that way. Everything from Tutorials, Write and collaborate, Preview content to individual articles like Previewing unpublished content is modeled with linked items so that the Customer Education team can edit the structure directly.

Using and displaying locations

Locations can relate to your offices, cafes, bus stops, smart beacon placements, moving businesses, and so much more. The difference is the accuracy and additional parameters that are needed for each of these applications.

Areas

If you need to select just an area, use taxonomy or a content type with content items as options. You won’t be able to select a specific location, yet it might be easier to select an option from a list than to click on a specific location in maps or enter an address.

Specific locations

Concrete places have a couple of options:

• If the place has an address, the easiest approach is to add an element for the address and let the front-end show up a map with a pin on that location.
• If you need a precise location because sometimes places are between two addresses or just in the middle of nowhere, add two elements for latitude and longitude.
• Both ways can be made even easier by using a custom element with a map that will let your content creators pick a place by clicking on a map. You can then set up the element to save either an address or latitude and longitude based on the click. See the integrations topic on GitHub and the custom elements overview to find custom elements you can use or customize for your scenario.

Moving locations

Moving objects, such as buses, usually require a completely different approach. This might be solved with:

• A tracker with a unique identifier that will be placed inside that moving object
• A 3rd-party tracking service that takes care of tracking such device with API available
• A Kontent.ai’s custom element that lets your content creators pick a tracker from the tracking service’s listing

By combining these three things, Kontent.ai can serve as part of the tracking environment.

Reuse guidelines with snippets

Guidelines are incredibly important when it comes to content production. They explain and show to your content creators how to use content item's elements in a way that will benefit the produced content. On the other hand, they might be tedious to set up and maintain for multiple elements or types.

A simple way to reuse them is to create a content type snippet for them. To a snippet, place a Guidelines element and then add elements that relate to the guidelines. You don't even have to add any element if the guidelines are general enough to fit multiple content types.

Finally, in the target content types, add the newly created snippet.

This way the guidelines are always in one place, and elements that are often reused, such as Title or Published date, will always have relevant and up-to-date guidelines.

Building curated content

It’s not unusual to have the top 3 articles displayed on your home page. That can be driven via traffic analytics based on click-throughs, time spent reading, or they might even be curated.

If you’d like to implement a curated content section, discuss if you have any special requirements, such as influencing the order of content, expiration, or the number of items in your list.

Limited number of spaces

If you have a specific number of places on your website or a different medium, the most suitable approach is to have the list located in one content item. Implement the list as linked items so that ordering the items is a breeze too.

This makes managing the curated section straightforward for your content editors. They can do it from one place and always know which content items are among the highlighted ones.

Unlimited space

If you’d like to include more content, enable editors to toggle if the item should be among the highlighted content in the items' content type directly.

In the items' content type, add a multiple-choice element that content creators will select if they want to put that item into the curated section.

This approach is suitable, for example, if you have a carousel with an unlimited number of items in it.