User Management
There can be different types of users namely Admin, Distributor, Authorized Dealers
and Independent Dealers. The roles can be that of Producers, Publishers and Consumers.
The consumers (independent and authorized dealers) need to subscribe to download
all documents and information. The users will be able to subscribe based on daily
/ monthly / yearly subscription policy, and will need to make an advance.
The site was created so as to allow access to two different kinds of users− the
CMS users and the Membership users. The folder rights can be setup for CMS users
and Membership users separately. The CMS users can have more privileges than the
Membership users. Separate user groups will be created and users will be added to
each user group. Then user rights/ permissions will be assigned to folders for each
user group, like allow view/ read-only/ write accesses. If a user/ user group is
not assigned rights to view the contents of a folder then the documents in that
folder will not be available for search and cannot be downloaded by the user/ users
in the assigned user group. Thus a CMS level accessibility rights can be setup.
Administrators will be able to assign the user permission for each set of folders/
contents.
LDAP Integration
Ektron CMS can be integrated with LDAP server and the CMS users can be authenticated
via LDAP.
Workflow
Workflow can be setup for each folder whereby contents uploaded by any user can
be verified and approved before going live. Additional workflow can also be put
between users.
The permissions can be assigned for each folder or even to the content level granularity.
The folder rights in general are inherited by sub folders and hence do not need
to be setup separately. CMS Users can be integrated with LDAP (MAP single-sign-on
integration), whereas the membership users do not need to be mapped into the LDAP.
The user management process involves other functionality as follows:
- User Registration & Profile Management
- User Subscription (Payment based) & Subscription Renewal
- User Authentication, Authorization
- Password Management & Regeneration
- Security & Privacy
Manual Process
Automated process
Payment Management
Users will be given the option of daily/ monthly/ yearly subscriptions. The subscribed
users will be able to download documents at a charge within the subscription period.
For subscriptions, users need to make payments either through PayPal or through
other payment gateways like WorldPay for Credit/ Debit Card payments.
For payments, all the details will be recorded and sent to the credit card/ Pay
Pal for performing the online transactions over secured channels. Once the payments
are over, the control will come back to the website transaction controller page
which will record the status and the identifier of the transaction for future reference.
This information will be used to:
- Generate Financial Flow Reports
- Reference for any disputes over transactions
- Cancellation of any transactions (cancellation is not considered in scope).
Content/ Document Management
The HTML contents will be stored in the CMS in predefined folders based on some
pre-defined logic and information architecture plans. The detailed information architecture
will be defined after detailed analysis of the system. The folder structures in
CMS will be created and corresponding folder permission will be assigned for each
user/ user groups based on their roles and responsibilities.
The application will provide a WISIWIG editor that supports xhtml standards and
can check for accessibility conformations. The editor allows copy-paste of contents
from other HTML editors like Dream Weaver and MS Word, and has provisions for incorporation
of tables and pictures. All associated files can be uploaded in a central library
which can then be referenced from any other content. Quick-links will automatically
be associated with the contents to enable easier maintenance of links in the system.
Any dead-links can be identified and reported using Ektron’s built-in broken link
checker. A spell checker can be used to check for any spelling mistakes before the
contents are published.
Language Management
The content can be translated using XLIFF language translation standards or automated
manual processes. The same folder can hold contents for different languages without
any change in IDs.
Content Archival
The contents can be archived automatically (scheduled), or manually, after a certain
period of time. The archived contents will remain in the same folder as the original
content but will not be visible to the users. These contents can be retrieved as
a normal item at any moment.
History Log
The change history for any content (audit trail) will be maintained in the system
as to track the changes made. The differences between the original and changed content
(visual differencing) can be viewed at any point of time, and the content can be
rolled back to older versions. Version management of contents along with audit trail
is an in-built function of Ektron.
Tagging and Searching
Meta-data and taxonomy structures are used to categorize the contents and documents
so as to enable a more structured and categorized search in the site. The meta-data
can be used to assign particular characteristics to any document as follows:
- Add flags denoting whether or not a document can be downloaded free of charge.
- Flags to define documents that have viewer restrictions for general users.
- Provide additional information like author details, and version details.
- Create association with models and versions, VIN, etc.
Taxonomy is used to create a secondary document categorization facility as follows:
- Same content which provides information on multiple topics
- Associate problems of various types
- Enable easy problem/ resolution search capability
- Provide categorized indexing of documents
- Create multiple categorization schemes, e.g. problems, models, year, severity, etc.
Ektron indexes all the html contents using Windows Indexing services, and generates
index catalogues for very fast and efficient full-text content search. Thus it is
able to find individual keywords from within the content body (html, office documents,
PDF and xml).
Content and File Upload & Download
Contents and files (pass through data) can be uploaded from the admin Work-Area.
Only pre-defined set of users will be able to enter the work-area and upload contents
and files in respective areas of the site where they have been assigned write access.
The uploaded files will remain stored in the hard disk and the contents will be
stored in the database.
The users will be able to search and view pre-defined set of documents free of charge.
Subscribed and logged-in users will be able to search for all paid contents, as
well as download them. In addition, one can select the language in which the content/
document will be downloaded. Prior to download, documents will be converted into
PDF format using third party PDF conversion utility. All documents will be associated
with copyright information.
Reports
The Ektron CMS400.Net system will provide a number of reports like hit statistics,
broken link reports, task and content status reports. However, other reports like
the request for hardcopy of documents, financial flow reports, and subscription
renewal related reports, will have to be provided.
Integration Modules
Other modules like Newsletters and Service Bulletins are being implemented in Ektron.