More and more companies want to centrally manage content that …

• originates from different content sources (e.g. shop contents, image databases, ...) and
• can be distributed across multiple channels (websites, mobile apps, print, smart TVs, …) once created.

The development and production of high-quality content is time-consuming. Therefore, this content should be able to be used as flexibly as possible after creation, without having to prepare it for different formats. Modern companies want to avoid producing multiple versions of the same content and storing that data for several different channels of distribution.

The CONTENS Headless Objectstore helps companies to continuously expand their digital services and make their content available across all distribution channels:

1. Create the content's structure with configurable content elements in CONTENS CMS.
2. Create, manage, and publish your content with the intuitive library, regardless of how it is being utilized.

The Object Store efficiently provides the published content via API for mobile apps and website applications.

Use Cases

Potential use cases are diverse and include all companies that wish to centrally compile and manage their digital content and then distribute it via websites, intranets, sales and partner portals, or mobile apps.

Typical use cases include:

• Content for Apps (ioS, Android, PWA)
• Product / Project descriptions for proprietary websites and those of partners, sales associates, etc.
• Images and image galleries for external usage
• Appointments for Events and Activities
• Publishing job offers across multiple sites and submitting them to external job portals
• Using user profile data via registration and extranet (edit profile) for personalization in other applications.

For a product supplier this can mean: Content describing the use of products can be used on their own website, in the shop, on partner sites, or in their own app, while only having to be created once. All in the respective design and with the pre-selected content elements.

Structuring Contents

Structured content management with CONTENS means that different content elements such as headings, continuous texts, and captions are combined in one entity (object class), but are recorded in different fields (see point A in the graphic). The predefined structure makes it easier for editors to create content and simultaneously enables the variable output of content in different areas or applications. For example, while the content is displayed in full on your own website, partner sites may be provided with only a summary.

With CONTENS CMS, structures can be individually defined to meet specific requirements, such as news, articles, product or project descriptions, user profiles, image galleries, job offers, blog posts and much more.

All content may be created, managed and released for publication in the convenient CONTENS library. Here editors benefit from familiar functions such as full text search, filters, preview and approval processes.

The CONTENS CMS takes care of rights management, protection from simultaneous editing, versioning, and administration of multilingual content.

Output Application for the Website

In addition to the classic editorial placement on the website, content may also be dynamically integrated into a webpage via the included configurable Objectstore.

The Objectstore enables the automated and flexible distribution of content on different pages (e.g. on the homepage and in the partner area). For example, you can define which content should be provided, whether certain categories or time periods should be considered, how much content should be provided, and how the content should be sorted. The output of content on the website can be dynamic or static.

Dispersed Output via API

The contents from the CONTENS CMS are provided for other applications via an API, e.g. for external websites and partner portals (see point C in the graphic), as well as for IOS or Android apps, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), Digital Signage applications, language assistants and much more (see point B in the graphic).

Depending on whether the API is to be stored locally or in the cloud, and which authentication is to be used, there are various project-specific implementation options. For the approach utilizing the cloud, the Objectstore is used as an AWS Microservice with AWS Gateway and CDN, for which numerous lambda endpoints are available. This variant may be adapted to meet different project requirements using established components.

The easily configurable REST-based Data Exchange API provides CRUD access (create, read, update, delete) to all content as well as read access to published content.

Modern front-end technologies play a central role in the distribution of content across multiple channels beyond a single website. For example, available content can be easily output with frameworks such as Angular, React or Vue.js. Web developers can use the technology of their choice to develop modern applications for all customer contact points in even less time.

Conclusion

Companies that wish to provide headless content do not need to forego modern, intuitive web interfaces for developing, creating, and managing content.

The CONTENS Headless Objectstore ensures the simple and structured delivery of content, while the CONTENS CMS provides content creators with powerful tools for the efficient management of digital distribution channels.

This combination offers editors a fast and comfortable environment for content maintenance complete with all necessary functions, such as full text search, preview, and approval processes. At the same time, they can provide optimally structured content for high-performance use in external applications via powerful and flexible APIs.

• Content can be very flexibly structured for maximum versatility.
• Editors create and maintain content in a modern backend with a wide variety of functions such as full text search, tags, multilingualism, workflows, etc.
• One-click enabling and disabling of content
• Delivery across diverse distribution channels such as websites, mobile apps, printed editions, PWAs, or Smart TVs
• Automated and flexibly configured release on the website
• The caching of API requests ensures very fast response times.
• Modern Stack with Elasticsearch, Go, AWS ...
• Developers can access the API from the front-end or server-side framework of their choice (e.g. Angular, React, Vue.js, Node.js (Express)) to retrieve or store content.
• Content in the Objectstore can be checked and requests tested by developers with standard tools such as Kibana.