Blog posts by Andrea Filyo2010-08-18T08:45:55.0000000Zhttps://world.optimizely.com/blogs/Andrea-Filyo/ Optimizely World Loving drag-and-drop in the page tree structure!<p>This was a small but much desired feature among editors that had been on the wish list for a long time before finally being implemented in EPiServer CMS 6. The function means that instead of manually setting the sort index for each page, the editor can now drag-and-drop pages into the desired order in the page tree structure in Edit mode. EPiServer CMS will automatically recalculate the sort index for you and arrange the pages in the desired order – quick and easy! </p> <p><a href="/link/0b431f9c5b004e559d37b651f6d51dfb.jpg"><img style="border-right-width: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px" title="dragdrop" border="0" alt="dragdrop" src="/link/4c655a9cc27b4da99b987f5f4d20a515.jpg" width="682" height="380" /></a></p> <p>It may sound like a small and unimportant thing, but if you have numerous listings where the order of pages are important, it saves editors a significant amount of time and reduces the risk of errors. I love it! </p>2010-08-18T08:45:55.0000000ZBlog post Report from May 7th EPiServer CMS User Conference<p>Twice a year, EPiServer arranges a conference for end users of EPServer CMS. This is a golden opportunity to come and listen to presentations about different user related topics, as well as to meet with other EPiServer CMS users and perhaps get some inspiration in your daily work with EPiServer CMS.</p> <p>This time, the conference was held in the <a href="http://www.oscarsteatern.se/" target="_blank">Oscar Theatre in the center of Stockholm</a>. Around 150 people was welcomed by EPiServer Product Manager Rikard Ljungman, starting up the day by presenting a sneak preview of the upcoming product packages <em>Create, Relate and Engage</em>. These packages will offer extensive possibilities in building user centric dynamic web sites. <a href="http://www.episerver.com/en/Start_page/NewsEvents/EPiServer_Events/Upcoming_Events/EPiServer-Partner-Summit-2008/Agenda/" target="_blank">The packages will be officially launched on the 2008 Partner Summit</a>.</p> <p>Next on the stage was Gustav Lagercrantz from EPiServer AB, giving a talk about how communities and social on-line networks have grown and matured from a "teenage fly", to become increasingly important for companies and organizations in knowledge and information sharing. An illustrative example is the community travel site <a href="http://www.resdagboken.se/" target="_blank">Resdagboken</a>, which is owned and run by the insurance company Europeiska.</p> <p>The City of Stockholm has launched their new <a href="http://www.stockholm.se/" target="_blank">Web site - Stockholm.se</a>, based on EPiServer CMS. The site is an important information source for the citizens of Stockholm, supporting them with a wide range of services. The project team for Stockholm.se gave their presentation of the journey from idea to finalized Web site. Expectations were high and early on end users were involved in the project through a development blog where the ongoing work could be followed and commented.</p> <p>Have you visited <a href="http://www.ekoping.se/" target="_blank">e-köping</a>? Most likely not, since e-köping is a fictive town created by Heimore Group to demonstrate the advantages with electronical ID management. e-Köping is developed in corporation with "Arbetsförmedlingen", the Swedish Employment Agency. The solution is based on federated identities where e-Köping uses the Swedish Employment Agency control of the e-ID.</p> <p>Is your intranet the lively and well-visited information center you want it to be? If not, you are not alone. Many organizations have great difficulties with "sleepy" unused intranets. <a href="http://www.praktikertjanst.se/" target="_blank">Praktikertjänst, the private healthcare provider</a>, has succeeded in making their intranet becoming the "glue" in a large and widely distributed organization. The key has been a conscious strategy in the development of a number of smart functions and services, helping employees in their daily work.</p> <p>An important part of your Web site is the search function. Many users will go straight for the Search, no matter how much effort you have put into menus and navigation. <a href="http://www.energimyndigheten.se/" target="_blank">Energimyndigheten, the Swedish Energy Agency</a>, launched a new Web site in February 2008, where much work was focused on categorization of content and the usage of search statistics to optimize the Web site. The solution is based on EPiServer CMS with <a href="http://www.euroling.se/" target="_blank">SiteSeeker as search engine</a>.</p> <p>Working with images on your Web site can sometimes be a hassle when you need to both manage image libraries and making adjustments to images. With <a href="http://www.meridium.se/templates/ProductPage.aspx?id=15&amp;epslanguage=SV" target="_blank">ImageVault</a> the job can be easily done using one single application, and working directly in your Web browser. ImageVault can be tightly integrated with EPiServer CMS, and will also be part of the product package "Create" which will be launched within shortly.</p> <p><a href="http://www.episerver.com/en/Start_page/Experience-EPiServer/" target="_blank">EPiServer CMS R2</a> will be available in the fall of 2008, and this release will hold some interesting features also for editors and administrators. Maria Sognefors from EPiServer AB, presented the breaking changes. There will be a new image editor available, not as powerful as ImageVault mentioned above, but with improved functionality compared to the current image editor. Also, the Web form management has been equipped with a more intuitive interface.</p> <p>The day was coming to an end, and last to enter the Oscar Theatre stage was Ola Oredsson from <a href="http://www.cloudnine.se" target="_blank">Cloud Nine</a> with and inspiring talk on how the internet has changed our communication and shopping habits. The internet has provided us as consumers with significant power to influence, and given us new roles such as editors (Twitter), experts (Wikipedia), and photographers (flickr), just to mention a few examples. Good to have in mind when you perhaps sometimes feel that you are about to drown in the information flood wave...</p> <p>Anything you would like to find out more about? <a href="http://www.episerver.com/sv/EPiServer/Nyheter/" target="_blank">Find presentations from the User Conference here</a>.</p>2008-05-12T12:06:00.0000000ZBlog post The journey towards a community<p>What is a community? The term "community" has been around for a long time, only in the latest years has it been associated with the internet. A community in it's widest definition is a group of people sharing a common interest, cooperating to share resources and activities to accomplish common goals. An "online community" can be defined as in the book "Online Communities" by Jenny Preece (Wiley 2000):</p> <p>"An online community consists of:</p> <ul> <li><em>People</em>, who interact socially as they strive to satisfy their own needs or perform special roles, such as leading or moderating. </li> <li>A shared <em>purpose</em>, such as an interest, need for information excahnge, or service that provides a reason for the community. </li> <li><em>Policies</em>, in the form of tacit assumptions, rituals, protocls, rules, and laws that guide people's interactions. </li> <li><em>Computer systems</em>, to support and mediate social interaction and facilitate a sense of togetherness." </li></ul> <p>It has been a long and winding road to the launching of "EPiServer World", the new EPiServer knowledge center, or is it perhaps a community already? Anyway, now it is here!</p> <p>We are proud to present EPiServer World to our partners and customers, developers and editors. It is an important step in the creation of a true EPiServer community. A community is built up by it's members, their activities and interactions. We want EPiServer World to be a place to share ideas, find solutions and inspiration, and to explore all the creative possibilities with EPiServer products and modules. </p> <p>And of course we want EPiServer World to become the greatest knowledge base, built up by the shared knowledge from our members, on a platform that is intuitive and easy to use. EPiServer World provides many opportunities for interactivity and collaboration. First, let the EPiServer world know who you are by updating your profile card! Create your own blog and share your views and ideas. Participate in forum discussions or post an article in the Article section of EPiServer World. You can also suggest documentation or FAQs, should you find that some important piece of knowledge is missing.</p> <p>More functionality is in the pipeline and will be appear along the way, so be sure to keep yourself regularly updated on what is going on.</p> <p>Welcome to EPiServer World!</p>2008-03-26T10:48:00.0000000ZBlog post It's all about the editors<p>My blog will deal with editor related issues, among all the technical stuff. We estimate that there are at least 50,000 editors out there working more or less daily with EPiServer CMS, probably the number is higher. After all, it is very much for them that EPiServer CMS exists.</p> <p>The luxurious thing about being an EPiServer CMS editor trainer, is that you get to hear all the appraisal! Very often you meet with dedicated editors that have nothing but good things to say about the product - how intuitive it is to work with, how easy it is to get started, the flexibility and all the possibilities.</p> <p>The only disappointment is when they realize that everything may not be immediately available for them on their site. EPiServer CMS comes with a number of example page templates, and what functionality gets implemented on a Web site depends on what the requirements were and what they have agreed upon with their vendor.</p> <p>On the <a href="http://www.episerver.com/en/Start_page/Education/Courses-in-EPiServer-CMS-5/E1511---Advanced-Editor-Training-in-EPiServer-CMS-5/" target="_blank">advanced EPiServer CMS editor training</a>, we walk through many of the page templates, demonstrating various EPiServer CMS functionality. We look at news items, RSS feeds, site maps, extranets, web forms, discussion forums and document management. The advanced editor training is intended to provide inspiration for editors, helping them to explore functionality and possibilities.</p> <p>Especially if you are new to Web publishing and EPiServer CMS, this training is particularly useful. If I have succeeded in doing my job as a trainer, editors will return home full of inspiration and with new ideas about how to develop their Web sites. And everytime this happens, it gives me such a kick and really makes my day!</p>2008-03-03T12:03:00.0000000ZBlog post