With the wealth of informative presentations and fruitful collaborations of the 2008 Cascade Server Users Conference in mind, we've already begun planning the 2009 edition.  As the Georgia Tech Conference Center and Hotel was such a fantastic venue, we'll be holding next year's event there as well.  The proposed dates for the 2009 Cascade Server Users Conference are Sunday, Sept. 27 - Wednesday, September 30 -- for most of you, that'll mean checking in Sunday evening and spending Monday, Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning learning from and sharing with Cascade clients and the Hannon Hill team.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about those dates; does your organization have anything planned around that time, or are you planning on attending another conference or event that may create a scheduling conflict?  If there are pertinent industry events that you're aware of or plan on attending, please let us know.  We want to ensure that as many of our clients as possible can attend the 2009 Cascade Server Users Conference.  Let us know what you think here in the comments, or feel free to reach me at chris.armistead@hannonhill.com with specific concerns, comments, or date conflicts.  We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Hannon Hill is excited to announce that the videos from the 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference are now available on the Hannon Hill Knowledge Base.  The two-day conference was held on September 22-23, 2008 at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center and consisted of two conference tracks, executive and technical, each with its own set of sessions and speakers throughout the day.

The Cascade Server User's Conference featured presentations from a variety of perspectives to provide valuable knowledge for Cascade Server users. Topics range from Cascade Server Roadmap to Tips and Tricks for End Users to Advanced XSL.

Conference presentations were given by Hannon Hill staff, including CEO David Cummings, COO David Klanac, and Director of Engineering, Bradley Wagner.  Sessions were also led by some of Cascade Server's power users from a variety of organizations.

Based on the feedback we received from those who were able to attend the conference, we feel the conference videos will be of use to all types of Cascade users. If you were unable to attend this year's conference, or if you were able to attend and would like to view a session you might have missed, be sure to check out the videos of all the sessions.

URAN PIEDRA: Welcome to another edition of "Meet the Team." Today we'll be introducing Evan Barton, who has recently joined the Hannon Hill team as a Marketing/Rich Media Associate. Good Morning Evan.

EVAN BARTON: Good Morning.

URAN: So, let's get started. What attracted you to a position that combines the worlds of marketing and rich media?

EVAN: From my experience, I've learned that rich media is an integral part of the marketing/communications process. Last May, I graduated from Wesleyan University with degrees in Film and English, so I knew I wanted to work with both visual and written media. I started looking for opportunities at PR companies focused on the technology industry, or companies that incorporate digital media and web marketing into their overall marketing strategy.

URAN: Okay, and before joining Hannon Hill you had some experience working in print media didn't you?

EVAN: Yes. During the summers of 2006 and 2007 I worked at a small newspaper in Brooklyn. The paper was a daily, so I learned a lot about how to research background information online, conduct interviews, gather as much information as possible, and write the story before the 4:30 deadline. I also did some copy editing and helped with layout.

URAN: Have you ever done any visual media production?

EVAN: I have. As a Film major I worked on a number of short film projects, and this summer I produced an informational video for the HBCU Landgrant network about the opportunities students can take advantage of at land-grant universities.

URAN: And so Hannon Hill seemed like a good fit for what you were interested in?

EVAN: A really good fit. When I found the Marketing/Rich Media Associate post online, it was exactly what I was looking for: a software company focused on using innovative technology to incorporate blogs, video, and other forms of interactive multimedia into their web marketing strategy. I sent an email to Hannon Hill and was contacted for a phone interview shortly thereafter.

URAN: So how are you adjusting to office life?

EVAN: I'm really liking it so far. Hannon Hill definitely isn't the traditional office setting, with its bright colors, asymmetrical architecture, and fully-stocked break room. I really need to start cutting back the amount of Coke Zero I drink here! Also, the people I have met on the Team all seem friendly and willing to help out if you're having trouble with something.

URAN: Great! What are you working on now?

EVAN: Right now I'm learning everything I can about Cascade Server, as well as getting involved with lead filtering to ensure that the Hannon Hill solutions consultants are only making contact with strong, viable prospects.

URAN: Alright, well thank you for sitting down with us today. That wraps up this edition of "Meet the Team."

EVAN: Thanks for having me.

The 2008 EDUCAUSE Conference took place in sunny Orlando, FL (quite a change from Seattle, the site of last year's conference), and three of Hannon Hill's own were fortunate enough to attend-- myself, along with Emily Macke, Solutions Consultant, and Morgan Griffith, Marketing Director.  EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.  As the conference attracts thousands of technology professionals from higher education institutions (where our client base is strongest) across the country, it's a perfect showcase for Hannon Hill to inform this market of our innovative web content management solutions.

Housed at the Orange County Convention Center on October 28-31, the theme of this year's event was "Interaction, Ideas, Inspiration", a notion that's a perfect fit for Cascade Server.  Emily, Morgan, and I met with education professionals ranging from end users to webmasters, all the way up to campus VP's and other executive decision-makers.  Many of these individuals were checking out the convention as a way to keep up with the latest industry trends, but our team also met a large number of attendees who were obviously struggling with their content management needs, with many of them actively looking for a new solution.

As an added bonus, many of our current clients did us the pleasure of stopping by our booth just to say hello and let us know how well things are going with Cascade Server on their campuses.  A big thanks goes to David Cantrell from Texas A&M Health Sciences Center, Brett Ingerman from Vassar College, John Sharkey from Rollins College, and other friendly faces from the University of Texas-Arlington and Emory University (to name a few) for dropping in and sharing such great feedback.  In our third year of attendance at EDUCAUSE , we were reminded once again why we go -- to tell as many folks as possible about the power of Cascade Server, and to ensure that more institutions of higher education are realizing the importance of web content management.

Founded in 1830, the University of Richmond is a private, highly selective liberal arts university located just west of downtown Richmond, Virginia, and is consistently listed in the top 25 of the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the best liberal arts universities in the nation.  Before becoming a Hannon Hill client, the school's web operations faced large hurdles; many websites hadn't been modernized in 4 years and were managed by a patchwork of programs and a homemade CMS, and they were difficult to integrate into the university's overall marketing plan.

After adopting Cascade Server, the university's Web Services Office, led by Eric Palmer, completely modernized and migrated 50 sites to the Cascade Server content management system in less than 3 months.  With great support from university president Edward L. Ayers, Palmer led the Web Services team in creating sites like clockwork, keeping a careful eye on precisely what worked and what didn't, and spotting and correcting inefficiencies along the way.  Through a centralized coordination of efforts, Richmond's Web Services Office now oversees a network of websites that relies on the adaptability of decentralized content ownership and that broadcasts a consistent marketing message, and has even utilized Cascade Server to publish the course catalogs, both online and in print, of the university's School of Arts & Sciences, School of Law, and Business School.

For more in-depth coverage of some of the innovative ways our clients use Cascade Server to power and manage their web content, check out our latest case study on the University of Richmond.

The University of Alaska Southeast is a regional university in the University of Alaska system, with a main campus in Juneau and two extended campuses in Sitka and Ketchikan.  As the region's center for baccalaureate and graduate education, a robust and easy-to-update web presence is a must.  While UAS now has a network of websites and systems that are highly organized, centrally managed, and full of robust content, their pre-Cascade Server web presence was quite a different story.  Take a look at our latest case study, where we explore the challenges, solutions, and results experienced by the University of Alaksa Southeast as they searched for a content management system that met their stringent requirements, and their eventual adoption and current use of Cascade Server.

URAN PIEDRA:  Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Hannon Hill’s ‘Meet the Team.’ Today I'm here with one of our newest additions, Penny Harding.  Hi Penny, how are you?

PENNY HARDING:  Very well.

URAN:  So how are you liking it here at Hannon Hill so far?

PENNY:  I was a bit stressed at first, just like starting any new job, but the people at Hannon Hill are really friendly and have helped me to feel very welcome and much more at ease.

URAN:  Well, that's great! Tell me, where did you go to school and what did you study?

PENNY:  I graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004.  My major was Science, Technology, and Culture with a specialty in media studies.  In a nut shell, I studied the varying design principles for different types of media, like television, websites, and print, and how those also change over time.

URAN:  So what kind of work were you doing before coming to Hannon Hill?

PENNY:  I spent the last two years managing the Georgia Division of Public Health website.  Before that, I worked in a position where I utilized Cascade Server, so I've actually had some experience as an end-user of the product.

URAN:  What is it that you'll be responsible for here at Hannon Hill?

PENNY:  I'm a part of the group that integrates client websites into Cascade Server so that people with a vast range of technical skills can update and manage their own websites and content most efficiently.

URAN:  That sounds interesting. Is there anything you're really looking forward to accomplishing here at Hannon Hill?

PENNY:  My main priority right now is to learn all of the ins and outs of Cascade.  After spending just a short time working within it, I've found that it's much more powerful and flexible than I originally assessed. In the long run, my goal is to help customers realize the full potential of Cascade Server, and reach out to those who don't have the technical background necessary to be able to make websites that are both user friendly and accessible.

URAN:  Well, that wraps up this edition of ‘Meet the Team’. Thanks for stopping by to talk with us today, Penny.

PENNY:  Sure thing.

As you may have heard (or read), Hannon Hill's 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference was a true success.  With attendance up over 50% from last year, loads of great presenters, and lots of new Cascade improvements to discuss, this year's conference truly exemplified its theme -- "People + Process + Systems."

During the conference, there were two sessions going on at all times. The Business Track included presentations on company happenings, support, documentation, and other topics geared towards end users.  The Technical Track featured sessions that covered topics such as using Cascade with SEO, database publishing, and other topics more suitable for administrators or site managers.

Although all of our clients and conference attendees are incredibly talented, we didn't expect them to be in two places at the same time -- thankfully, we've made the majority of the User's Conference presentations available on our Knowledge Base.  Included are session summaries, presenter bios, and any related material that the presenters utilized, such as handouts, spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations.  In the next few weeks, we'll be putting up video footage of all the presentations as well.  Check it out and catch up on what you missed!

With 123 attendees at this year's event and a conference theme of "People + Process + Systems," collaborative success was almost inevitable at the 2008 Casacde Server User's Conference. The 2-day conference was held at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, which proved to be a remarkable venue. In case you didn't get a chance to attend this year, or if you just want a conference recap, here is a rundown of just a few of the 2008 conference highlights.

Our Cascade users were up bright and early Monday morning to sign-in and receive their "SWAG" (Stuff We All Get) bags, and then were off to a full day of conference sessions. The day began with two "all-hands" sessions that every conference registrant attended. The first of which was a welcome from Hannon Hill CEO, David Cummings, who spoke of the company's progress over the last year, including an overhauled Knowledge Base, heaps of product improvements and added functionality, and the upcoming launch of the product's new delivery server, to be released in the second quarter of 2009. Following David Cummings, Bradley Wagner, Hannon Hill's Director of Engineering, spoke on the past year of improvements as well as the what the future holds for Cascade Server in his presentation, "Cascade Server Roadmap."

After the all-hands sessions and a quick break, the rest of the two day conference consisted of two conference tracks, executive and technical, each with it's own set of sessions and speakers throughout the day. Our second day was wrapped up with an all-hands Open Q&A session and a 2-hour "Cascade Server Collaboration" session, intended to allow Cascade Users to interact and ask questions of the Hannon Hill team and each other.

To further contribute to this notion of collaboration and people helping people, many of our most avid Cascade Server users also volunteered to speak at this year's event. A big thanks goes out to Terri Vaughan, of Clemson University, Justin Klingman, of Beacon Technologies, Eric Palmer, of the University of Richmond, Nathaniel Graham, of University of Missouri, Richard Merrill of Autograff, Jon Whitener of University of Detroit Mercy, and Daniel Horwitz, of ProHealth Care, all of whom contributed to this year's conference with insightful and innovative presentations.

The Open House was another conference highlight and platform for additional user collaboration. The Open House is an annual gathering for all of our attendees to unwind after a long day of Cascade sessions and learning. Hosted at the Hannon Hill office and catered by Parsley's Catering of Atlanta, the Open House was a more casual platform for our users to familiarize themselves with the Hannon Hill community and its members.

The 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference was our most successful yet. This year's conference featured more attendees and a stronger venue than ever before and we look forward to keeping this going in the years to come. We want to thank all of our attendees who came to Atlanta this past Monday and Tuesday; we look forward to seeing you all again next year!

As the 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference approaches, I've been thinking a lot about what it is that makes our users, Hannon Hill, and the Cascade Server "family" so special.

The corporate culture here at Hannon Hill revolves around our desire and willingness to make our clients' experience with Cascade Server as seamless and productive as possible. To this end, our team is made up of some of the most talented, bright, and motivated people in the industry. As trite as it may sound, we truly come together each and every day to ensure our clients get the best service and CMS product on the market.

Additionally, our clients, and their feedback, experiences, and suggestions, are what really make Cascade Server the enterprise content management system it is today. What matters to our clients is what matters to us. Any user suggestions for product improvements and feature requests are always considered by our engineering and support teams; not one request is overlooked. The feedback of our clients, and the dedication of our development team, has ensured Cascade Server continues to meet the needs of our hundreds of clients across the globe.

As many members of the Cascade Server family will be coming together this month in Atlanta for our User's Conference, I'd like to introduce you to a few of the very special members of our community:

Nathan Glass - Enterprise Programmer and Analyst, Texas A&M Health Science Center
Nathan Glass is an Enterprise Programmer and Analyst at the Texas A&M Health Science Center. Nathan has spent a substantial amount of time in the programming field, in fact as he notes, "I have just as many childhood memories of warped green screens, QBASIC, and the now-extinct "turbo" button as I do of books and playing outside." After receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Nathan parlayed his extensive technical knowledge and programming experience into a career in the field. At the Texas A&M Health Science Center, Nathan has been using Cascade Server for two years. Glass notes, on his use of Cascade, "My interactions with Cascade are all about adding new features or automating frequent/large tasks, so our end users can focus on the important things - developing content and wrestling with TinyMCE's magnificent grasp of HTML." Nathan is also actively involved and vocal in the Cascade Server community, frequently participating in Hannon Hill user forums and listservs.

Nathaniel Graham - Software Support Analyst, University of Missouri
Nathaniel Graham comes from Columbia, Missouri by the way of the Maritimes of Atlantic Canada.  He served over eight years in the Canadian Navy prior to moving to the United States and returning to college to pursue his Bachelors of Science in Computer Information Systems.  Nathaniel has accumulated a substantial amount of experience in the industry, having worked for small software companies and various higher education institutions, including his present employer, the University of Missouri. During his career, much of his time and effort has been devoted to consulting, writing scripts, and web maintenance.  Over the years, Nathaniel has also adopted technical roles ranging from digital video production to content management system administration.  With plans to attend graduate school in the future, he hopes to continue his education in system analysis and design. Nathaniel Graham is giving two presentations at this year's conference: "Site Architecture and Development Model - Cascade Server vs. Standard Approaches," and "Spearheading End-User Documentation: How to Prepare Yourself for End-Users."

Justin Klingman - Senior Web Designer & Lead CMS Specialist, Beacon Technologies
Justin Klingman is the Senior Web Designer & Lead CMS Specialist for Beacon Technologies, Inc., located in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Most of Justin's work with Cascade Server involves managing Beacon Technologies' multiple implementations of the CMS, conducting end-user training and demonstration sessions, and leading Beacon's Content & Design team.  Justin has been working with Cascade Server for 3 years, and serves on the Cascade Server Product Advisory Council, providing regular input to Hannon Hill regarding potential new features and improvements, while also beta testing new functionality before it is introduced.  He has been with Beacon Technologies for nine years, and attended Virginia Tech, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science & Information Technology. Justin will be giving a presentation at this year's Cascade Server User's Conference, "Tips and Tricks for End Users."

Eric Palmer - IS-Director of Web Services, University of Richmond
Eric Palmer has been the Director of Web Services at the University of Richmond for roughly 2 years, and a Cascade Server user for the same amount of time. Throughout his career, Eric has gained more than 24 years of IT experience, has built and sold a number of consulting companies, and has also served as a bank compliance advisor and corporate privacy director.  Additionally, Eric is a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and a Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP).  In addition to his day job, Eric is a life coach and mentor to professionals seeking to dramatically transform their careers. Eric will be speaking at this year's conference on the topic of "Streamlining Online and Print College Catalog Publishing."

Richard Merrill - Development Director, Autograff
Originally from the high desert cattle country of Oregon, Richard Merrill moved to the east coast as a Mechanical Design Engineer in Boston's high-tech belt.  In this role, Richard was responsible for distilling complex aerospace assemblies into a few parts in a process he has termed "simplicity engineering." Richard later headed north to Maine in the 80s to raise his family, establishing an energy-efficient home design/build company founded on these same principles. In the 90s he transferred these skills to the web development industry. Richard currently serves as the Development Director for his firm Autograff, which designs and produces graphics, identity, and web sites for startups and multi-million-dollar companies. Autograff was delighted to discover Cascade Server in 2007, a product they now use regularly in many of their implementations. Richard will also presenting this year at the User's Conference; his presentation is titled "Cascade Server and SEO Structures, Menus, and File Naming Protocols."

Terri Vaughan - Web Customer Support Specialist, Clemson University
Terri Vaughan is a veteran girl-geek who has parlayed her passion for technology into a career as Clemson University's Web Customer Support Specialist. Located in Clemson, South Carolina, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Clemson University enrolls over 17,000 students each year. With over 70 undergraduate programs and 5 separate colleges at Clemson, Terri is responsible for providing support and training to members of her institution who use the Cascade Server CMS across campus. Terri has a plethora of experience in the IT industry, and currently serves as the IT manager for Clemson's Office of Web Services. Terri's additional career successes include surviving the dot com bust in Silicon Valley's gaming and entertainment industry. Terri enjoys parasailing, riding motorcycles, shooting pool, and traveling to conferences. Terri will be traveling to Atlanta for this year's Cascade Server User's Conference, where she'll be presenting on the topic of "How to Turn End-Users into Content Experts," and hopefully watch her favorite team, the Braves, play.

Our daily schedules aren't dictated by common corporate motivators such as revenue growth and sales numbers. First and foremost, we conduct our business each day based on the needs of these and other people that have contributed to making Cascade Server what it is today. We realize that a change and/or improvement to the system affects people not just dollars. We are also keenly aware of the importance of maintaining an innovative and informative web site. It is this knowledge and our dedication to our Cascade users that bring us all to work each day. We look forward to continuing to meet the needs of our clients, and to seeing many of you at the User's Conference, September 22-23.

With over 110 attendees already signed-up for the 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference, we're confident that this year's conference will be our best yet.  Due to this overwhelming response, we're extending the registration deadline. Day-rate registration ($350.00) will continue to be available through Friday, September 12.

If you've already signed up for the conference, or plan on doing so in the next few days, make sure to pre-select your conference schedule! Doing so will allow you to pick the sessions you'll attend ahead of time, and choose sessions from both the business and technical tracks.

Additionally, for those who've already signed up, we've put together a shared conference attendee list that allows you to see who else is attending and get in touch with fellow participants prior to the conference. If you'd like to be included, and receive a copy of this list, please email Marketing Assistant Uran Piedra at uran.piedra@hannonhill.com.

If you haven't signed up for the 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference yet and are interested in learning more about what we have in store this year, be sure to visit the User's Conference page on our website, or go directly to our conference registration page. We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

**Please Note -- As we mentioned in our last conference update blog, as of September 1st, conference attendee cancellations are non-refundable.

The 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference is less than a month away, and we're working hard to make sure it will be a huge success. In our effort to do so, we'd like to inform you of a few important updates regarding this year's conference.

While we're excited about having 109 attendees registered for the conference, we understand that scheduling conflicts and other unforeseen circumstances may prevent some of our registrants from being able to attend. However, we wanted to let you know that after Monday, September 1st, 2008, we will not be able to refund cancellations for conference attendees.

Earlier this summer, we sent an email to all User's Conference registrants, asking if they'd like to be included on a shared list of attendees.  If you missed out on it the first time around, but you would like to be included and receive a copy of the list, email your contact information to Marketing Assistant Uran Piedra at uran.piedra@hannonhill.com.

If you haven't signed up for the sessions you'd like to attend, or if you're just interested in checking out what we have to offer, be sure to visit the User's Conference page on our website.

We look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!

Dynamic navigation is important to the success of any website.  By providing a logical and graphical representation of a website’s hierarchy, dynamic navigation tools allow websites to be more intuitive to visitors. In addition to helping visitors find their way around your website, dynamic navigation is also easy to manage on the back end. 

In Cascade Server, dynamic navigation menus are created through the use of index blocks, which are blocks that index the content of a specified folder or portion of the site. Since index blocks dynamically update content, whenever new content is created or content is modified, the changes will automatically be reflected in the navigation across your site.

In Cascade Server, there are six main types of dynamic navigation:

All of the aforementioned dynamic navigation elements are easy to set up in Cascade Server. For example, to create Breadcrumbs, a type of dynamic navigation that typically appears on every page (except the index), simply create an index block with the following options:

These options will create a usable index block that can then be plugged into a page region at the template, configuration set, or page level. Breadcrumbs typically don't change throughout a site, so it's easiest to go ahead and add it at the template level, so that it will appear on all pages.

Additionally, Cascade allows you to style the results rendered by these index blocks by applying an XSL stylesheet. **Note -- If you are already using and/or demoing Cascade Server, examples of stylesheets are included with the system and can be found in: /common/stylesheets/index

With 93 attendees already registered, this year’s Cascade Server User’s Conference is sure to be our best yet! Held this year at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center in Atlanta, GA on September 22-23, we’re thoroughly excited about the great facility, the conference sessions, and all of the other highlights we have in store for all our attendees this year.

As we've announced over the past few weeks on our Team Blog, accommodations at the conference site are sold out. However, we do have availability at a hotel within walking distance of the GTHCC. So if you’re interested in attending the conference, it’s not too late! We'll keep day-rate registration available until September 1^st. If you want to attend, sign up for Day-Rate registration on our site, and call Marketing Associate Sam Beresford for help and assistance with setting up your accommodations. He can be reached at (678) 904-6900 x191.

We look forward to seeing many new and familiar faces in September!

As many of you may have noticed (by visiting the User's Conference section of our site), we've completely sold out of rooms at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center, the site of our 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference.  But fear not!  For those still interested in attending, registration for day rate attendees is open through September 1st.   Just visit the User's Conference sign-up page, register as a day rate attendee (which covers conference admission, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and our Monday night open house dinner), and then give me a call (see below).  We've made arrangements to secure rooms at a hotel within walking distance of the GTHCC, and I can put you in touch with them.

For those of you interested in getting a head start, we'll be sending out a conference attendee list later this month, which will include the names, organizations, and contact information for attendees who chose to be included.  It'll be great for those of you who'd like to catch up with colleagues from last year's Conference or make some new connections in anticipation of this year's.  If you'd like to be included on this list and receive it, please email your contact information to Uran Piedra at uran.piedra@hannonhill.com.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or need more information, and we look forward to seeing you in Atlanta on September 21-23!

Sam Beresford
sam.beresford@hannonhill.com
678-904-6900 x191

As makers of proprietary installed CMS software, we constantly run into prospects looking for the content management system that's right for their organization. However, oftentimes these prospects are unsure as to whether to go with an open-source or proprietary system. While there are some similarities between the two, there are also stark differences between an open-source and installed CMS system that should be considered in the CMS selection process. As is the case with most substantial business-investments, one factor that must always be considered is business risk mitigation and how your organization can avoid taking on unnecessary risks.

Flexibility & Cost

One of the 'pros' when utilizing an open source CMS system is that you are provided with extreme flexibility. This is because open-source systems provide the framework for you to build your entire CMS structure as you see fit.

However, along these same lines, this requires both extensive technical knowledge and a complete reliance on individuals from within your organization (or those to whom you outsource your work) to complete. Because open-source solutions are license-fee free, many organizations searching for a CMS are drawn to the low-cost option afforded to them with use of an open-source system. However, there are many "hidden" costs associated with this decision, because although the system is essentially free, the amount of human labor and energy needed to build and customize it is substantial. As costs of technology and hardware continue to diminish over time, costs of labor are perpetually rising. This is something to fully consider before going the open source route.

In addition, although the cost of purchasing proprietary software is higher than that of its open source counterpart, remember -- you are paying for something. Proprietary CMS software comes with a plethora of default and customizable options already set up in the system. This means creating new pages, templates, folders, dynamic navigation and the like is much simpler, as the default and standard structure needed to do so is already in place. If you'd like to accomplish the same with an open source system, (most of which lack comprehensive defaults and examples 'out of the box'), it requires starting from scratch and building out your entire CMS structure.

Should your developers one day find that they aren't able to build and/or customize your instance as anticipated, the next major issue to think about is product support.

Support

Imagine you decided to select an open source CMS. Although you may be aware of the risk of using an open source system, you're pretty confident your developers can make it happen. One day though, something in the system goes terribly wrong and needs immediate attention. Who do you call? Unfortunately, I can't answer that question for you. (In fact, take a look at the results when I searched the word 'support' on Joomla's site).

When you make a commitment to an open source system, realize that you are choosing to forfeit the immediate access to a support staff that you'd be getting with a proprietary investment. Maintenance and support are almost always included when purchasing an installed CMS license. This will typically include direct access (via phone or email) to a dedicated support team, in addition to access to an automated support (and/or 'ticket') system, user's forum, and listserv. Because use and maintenance of a CMS is always complex, the intangibles, like knowing you have someone to immediately contact for help, are crucial.  

Additional Nice-To-Haves

Search Engine Optimization

Many CMS systems in general, whether open source or proprietary, leave much to be desired when it comes to SEO endeavors. Open source systems in particular, usually fail to provide the ability to create search engine friendly urls. In addition, to ensure ease of use for content contributors within your organization, utilizing a system that provides page level control over things like titles and metadata is crucial.

Accessibility Compliance

Where with many proprietary CMS systems, functionality such as accessibility checker(s) that ensure valid site HTML/XML is included, this same feature set is not available with open source options. More recently, web accessibility has become even more relevant with ground-breaking litigation and legal precedents being set for those who are not compliant with accessibility standards. The risk of maintaining a non-accessible site is now legally significant; for this reason, if using an open source system (or a proprietary one that doesn't ensure web accessibility), making sure that you have extremely accessibility-saavy developers will be important.

As Services Trainer for Hannon Hill, clients often ask me how to group a list of articles by category.  XSLT 1.0, the version of the XML-based language used in Cascade Server, doesn't have easy-to-use grouping capabilities, but we can take advantage of other features in this version that will allow us to create groups.  This technique is called Muenchian Grouping, after Steve Muench at Sun Microsystems. 

Here's how to do it:

First, we will assume that you are going to group by a dynamic metadata field named "Category."  The parts of an index block that we're concerned with matching look like this (a simplified version of a real index block):

Assume there are many more pages and more categories than above; there are no reasonable limits to the number of pages you can sort or categories you can group by.

The next thing we need is an XSLT stylesheet to match this index block. This first sample will list the pages in folder order. For simplicity's sake, we won't worry about subfolders or providing links to the pages; we'll just show the pages' Display Name in a list:

Now we need some way to figure out, of all the pages in the index block, which categories are present. XSLT 1.0 provides the xsl:key element that does just that, so we're going to add one just after the xsl:stylesheet element in the above example. I'll just show the xsl:key element below, but at the end of this post I'll show the completed stylesheet:

After this, we need to be able to find all the pages in a particular category. This can be done with the XPath function key. An example:

But what we really need is a way to create a heading for each category, and then list all the pages in that category. In Muenchian Grouping, we'll know that we should add a category heading when we've run out of pages in one category, and we're moving onto the first page in the next category. “What?” you may be saying. We're going to sort all the pages by category, and then display a header before the first page in each category. We'll do that by adding this to the stylesheet:

Feel free to ask questions in the comments, but what that code literally says is, “for each page in the total list of pages (sorted by category), check if it is the same page as the first page with the same category in the key named ‘pages-by-category’. Then display a heading with the category name.” If that explanation ties your brain in knots as much as it tied my fingers, don't worry; you'll just need to follow this pattern when you create your own grouping.

After finding the first page in the category and displaying a heading, we need to display a list of pages in that category, sorted by Display Name:

The key ('pages-by-category', …) should look familiar. It's like the key ('pages-by-category', 'Oranges') I showed above, except this time it gives a list of all the pages in the current category (from the previous for-each element, the one with generate-id() in it). Then, the apply-templates element passes each page to the system-page template, which will be just like what I showed in the no-grouping, original stylesheet.

That's it. Those are all the techniques for grouping pages (or any other XML element). The complete stylesheet is below, though you'll probably need to change the text anywhere it says "Category" or "display-name," to customize it for your specific implementation. Ask any questions in the comments! 

The release of Cascade Server 5.5 was an exciting one for the Hannon Hill team, as it included some important new features focused solely on enhancing the overall user experience with Cascade. Last week, we told you about Content Types, which allow users to easily apply a predefined type, such as a Blog Post or Press release, to a particular page of content while maintaining consistency among other pages of the same Content Type. Today, we’re highlighting another great feature from our recent release, Customizable Roles.

Customizable Roles enable administrators to change the default capabilities of each of the five user roles in Cascade. Complete customization of these capabilities is now available, which allows for more administrative flexibility than ever before in managing roles and their duties in areas such as Administration, Security, Home Area, Publishing, and Workflows.

To modify the capabilities of one of the 5 roles in Cascade:

1. Navigate to the Administration Area and click 'Users, Groups, & Roles'.
2. Click the 'Edit' tab for the role which you would like to modify.
3. The selected role's default settings will be displayed as a list of "abilities" with a check box (or yes/no radio button) next to it.
4. Toggle any of these abilities on or off as you see fit.

In addition to the Customizable Roles feature, we’ve also added a couple of new user preferences. Users can now specify whether or not the left navigation asset tree will appear by default upon login, and users with the ability to bypass workflows can now also specify whether or not those workflows will be bypassed by default.

The bad news -- July 15th, the registration deadline for the 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference, has come and gone.

The good news -- we still have five three two one room left!

 Yep, that's it.  When we first decided to hold this year's User's Conference at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center, we reserved a fairly conservative number of rooms.  Along the way, as the registrations came pouring in and demand increased by the week, our friendly sales manager at the GTHCC graciously accomodated our requests for more rooms.  And then some more rooms.  And then a few more rooms after that. 

Recently though, our luck ran out.  We've reserved all the rooms we can.  After these ones are gone, we'll only be able to guarantee day rate admission and offer recommendations for other comparable hotels in the area.  As for rooms at the GTHCC, however, this is your last call.  If you're interested, please e-mail Uran Piedra at uran.piedra@hannonhill.com for details.

1. In the Administration area, select ‘Content Types’ from the left navigation area.
2. Navigate to the desired container, or create a new container to hold the new Content Type.
3. Click New Content Type.
   
4. In the General pane, complete the following:
   1. Name – Enter a descriptive name for your Content Type.
   2. Configuration Set - Select a Configuration Set to use for Assets that use your Content Type (*required*)
   3. Metadata Set - Select a Metadata Set to use with Assets that use your Content Type (*required*)
   4. Data Definition - Select a Data Definition to use for Assets that use your Content Type (*optional*)
   5. Parent Container – This value will already be set to the current container, but it can be changed, if desired, by clicking the chooser icon.
      
5. Click Submit to save your new Content Type.

How do end-users apply a Content Type to a page?

Content Types are assignable at the individual page level and can also be set for multiple pages using the Bulk Change tool. To assign a Content Type to an individual page:

1. Navigate to the desired page, and select the ‘Edit’ tab.
2. In the System pane, select the Content Type chooser and navigate to the desired Content Type.
   
3. Once you've selected the Content Type, click on the Metadata pane. The available Metadata fields displayed will be updated and are determined by the fields that exist in the new Content Type. The Data Definition fields and the page configurations will not be updated until a subsequent edit of the page.
4. Click ‘Submit’ to save your changes.

• Configuration Set (required)
• Metadata Set (required)
• Data Definition (optional)

• Page Changes - The choice of Content Type in use by a given page is editable. However, once a Content Type has been assigned to a given page and submitted, that page's Configuration Set, Metadata Set, and Data Definition will no longer be editable or displayed on the page form (located on the "System" pane).

• Versioned pages - Previous versions of pages will continue to be associated with previously selected Data Definition(s), Metadata Set(s), and Configuration Set(s) until use of Content Types is implemented. **Please Note - Past page versions previously associated with selected Data Definition(s), Metadata Set(s), and Configuration Set(s) will still be available. However, if these Data Definitions, Metadata Sets, and Configuration Sets were to be deleted, their association with a particular page is lost. If this is the case, upon reactivation of that page version, users will be prompted to select one of the new Content Types.

• Integrate Folder & New Site Wizard Tools - When integrating new pages using the Integrate Folder or New Site Wizard tools, new pages must use either the base page’s Content Type or a Configuration Set.

• Bulk Change - Bulk changing of Content Types will be available for any and all assets that have a Content Type assigned.

To prove to you how proud we are of Cascade Server, and how confident we are in its abilities as the web’s premier content management system, I could start off by telling you about our clients.  I could tell you that we have over 150 of them, including some of the leading names in the fields of education, business, healthcare, and non-profit management.  I could tell you that they use Cascade to power their blogs, create their calendars, and optimize their URLs for search engines.  I could tell you that our clients rely on Cascade to generate their RSS feeds, lay out their site maps, and publish their course catalogs, online and in print.  I could go on and on about the hundreds of ways in which our clients use Cascade Server to create and maintain rich, robust, and up-to-date websites.  But I won’t.  I’ll show you.

Millersville University in Millersville, PA keeps students, faculty, and staff abreast of all types of campus events, from bio labs to baseball games, from dance recitals to the dinner menu.  Check out their calendar:

The Juilliard School in New York, NY, is the nation’s most prestigious performing arts conservatory. With an internationally renowned faculty composed of preeminent actors, dancers, and musicians that consistently perform, teach, and create new and innovative works, they have a near-constant need to issue press releases.  Juilliard creates these press releases, and updates and maintains their archive of them, with Cascade:

Sitemaps are useful to users and webmasters of all sorts of sites – particularly ones that contains massive amounts of information and thousands of pages, like that of Eastern University in St. David’s, PA.  As they needed a clearly laid-out overview of their site, they used Cascade Server to create their clean, logical site map (a condensed version is shown below):

 As a top-tier research university, a regional cultural center, and a member of the powerhouse ACC athletic conference, Clemson University in Clemson, SC doesn’t go a day without a newsworthy event or announcement.  To broadcast this information to prospective and current students, faculty, staff, and alumni, they use Cascade to power their University Headlines newsroom page:

....and that's only a few of them.  So what'd you think?  Were they impressive?  Engaging?  Innovative?  Inspirational?  All of the above?  Whatever you think of them, know that they were all made possible with Cascade Server.  Imagine what your organization can do with it.

Don't miss out -- the July 15th deadline for the 2008 Cascade Server User's Conference is right around the corner!

This annual event is a great way to meet, interact, and share ideas with your fellow Cascade users. In addition, our user's conference provides an interactive opportunity to learn more about Cascade from the Hannon Hill team, and find out what is in store for our flagship CMS product in the coming year. Our introductory end-user sessions, in-depth technical discussions, client-led sessions, and open Q&A are all great platforms for you to get your most burning questions about Cascade answered, and gain insight into best practices. This year, we've also implemented a conference session sign-up, which allows you to customize your conference schedule, independent of the business and technical tracks.

We hope to see all of you on September 22nd and 23rd, so don't forget that space is limited! After July 15th, we will only be able to guarantee day rate admission ($350) to the conference, and unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that there will be accommodation availability at the conference site. If you are interested in attending the conference and staying at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center (GTHCC), register now to reserve your spot!

See you in Atlanta!

Note - Choosing your conference schedule does NOT automatically register you for the conference. Attendees must register in order to attend; schedules submitted without registration will be disregarded.

Cascade Server has provided many solutions for our clients. Most recently, Hannon Hill clients in higher education have been using Cascade to solve a very important issue: to manage and publicize content in emergency situations on campus.

Here we've outlined just a few of the ways that Cascade Server could be used to assist a college or university in an emergency setting:

• For minor emergencies or alerts, such as informing your end users about road closings or traffic accidents, Cascade Server can be used to create an “emergency alert “asset factory. Once created, this page could update an automated index page listing of the active alerts, and could also display the alerts on a region of a homepage that would otherwise be left blank. The system could also be set to automatically expire the announcements, based on predefined metadata, ensuring your content stays updated.  In addition, Cascade can be used to create emergency RSS feeds, allowing end users to subscribe to the announcements.

• For major emergencies that require the immediate attention of site users, Cascade Server could be used to manage an alternate version of emergency content, which would overwrite a default region of the normal page, displaying the emergency information on a much larger scale than in the event of minor emergencies.  RSS feeds can automatically be generated in this case, as well.

• In both of the cases provided above, if the university wanted to send immediate messages to subscribers, Cascade offers the ability to send announcements via SMS message by publishing RSS data from the school's emergency RSS feed to a third-party SMS provider that would then send any updates from that feed directly to the subscribers' cell phones.

• In the event that a major emergency leads to national attention, and therefore a spike in web traffic, Cascade Server can publish alternate versions of content, which would require less load time. The system would manage an alternate low bandwidth version of the homepage, which could be published out at the time of the emergency, overwriting the default home page. This alternate page could be replaced with the default homepage once the emergency is over, and the spike in attention has subsided.

• If the campus was inaccessible for web updates during an emergency, traffic could be re-routed from the main domain to an announcement type page that could be updated remotely. Alternate domains can be hosted with partner universities, or through 3^rd party hosting providers.

In any emergency event, regardless of the magnitude, Cascade Server offers numerous ways in which to inform and alert your end-users. Whether in the form of content on your institution’s website, SMS messaging, or RSS feeds, these alerts provide added benefits including an increased sense of awareness and security among students, parents, faculty, staff, and administration.

In our commitment to make your experience at the 2008 Cascade Server User’s Conference even more enjoyable, we have created a form that allows attendees to build their own conference session schedule.  This conference session sign-up enables you to view scheduled sessions by day and time, and select which session appeals to you most in each time frame.  Now you can customize your schedule based on your knowledge and interests in our product, without being limited to only one track, business or technical -- yet another great reason to attend this year’s conference! 

Register now, and check out our session offerings to begin personalizing your conference schedule.  Don't forget that the last day to register for the conference is July 15, and accommodations are limited, so be sure to secure your spot early!

You may have spoken to Hannon Hillians on the phone, or chatted with us during a webinar, but you may have not yet had the pleasure of meeting us in person.  We realize that it’s always nice to know a few familiar faces when  traveling to a business event, especially if you’re arriving alone. We’d like to introduce you to some of the friendly Hannon Hillians who will personally be welcoming you to the 2008 Cascade Server User’s Conference in September.

Kicking off the conference will be our President and CEO, David Cummings, with a brief welcome session after breakfast.  He will be giving an overview of the exciting sessions that we have planned for you over the next two days.

Our knowledgeable session speakers will be providing valuable insight into the future of Cascade Server.  Bradley Wagner, Director of Engineering, for example, will be presenting our one-year product roadmap, an informative session on the changes and features that you can expect in Cascade Server over the next year.

Ross Williams, our Services Trainer, will be leading two beneficial sessions that focus on the end user, giving both tips for end users and tips for those who are training them.

Our Marketing Director, Morgan Griffith will be hosting a session on using the new and improved Cascade Server Knowledge Base.

We will present a very useful session on the ins and outs of JIRA and how to handle trouble tickets. This session will be conducted by our affable Support Manager (and office fitness guru), Tim Reilly, with the help of Chris Armistead, our Cascade Server Product Coordinator.

Syl Turner, Software Developer, will speak on Database Publishing, a feature first introduced with the release of Cascade Server 5.0. Syl will walk through examples in which database publishing can be useful and present a demo of a simple project using Database Publishing.

Services Director, Kevin Works, will discuss new productized packages for the Services team. These new packages will replace services hours and will provide a finished product. He will also discuss the new default database.

Dean Smith, Emily Macke, and Joel Dixon, members of our Sales Team, will also be around to help with the conference and answer your questions.

Our Q&A session will provide you with a great opportunity to ask Cascade Server experts about anything you might want to know regarding the product.  Most of our experienced team members will be attending the conference and would be happy to speak with you directly about your concerns