The globally operating product supplier e-spirit has just released FirstSpirit 4, the latest version of its Content Management System (CMS). At the core of e-Spirit’s development work is an unwavering focus on the growing needs of the content management market. The strengths of FirstSpirit 4 become particularly apparent in extremely large-scale projects which encompass multilingualism, different output channels and diverse data sources connecting with complex database schemes and workflows.
The main innovations include the global content management area and the separation of specialist areas and administration. Among others, the historisation and versioning, data management, centrally imbedded monitoring and deployment flexibilisation have been optimised.
FirstSpirit 4 offers many new possibilities for editors and administrators, as well as additional advantages for technology partners and developers. In order to accurately determine customer demand, e-Spirit is offering sizing support. Here, performance measurement determines which solution is appropriate for the user company, keeping in mind the user’s profile and activities.
"FirstSpirit is replacing existing CMS technologies with its modern content integration platform in more and more large corporations and upmarket SMEs. In particular we look to meet the requirements of globally active companies - we achieve this with FirstSpirit 4 and through the development of international locations," says e-Spirit CEO, Jörn Bodemann, on the product and company strategy.
Global content management
Globally oriented companies want to optimise customer communication with regard to the idiosyncrasies of local markets, countries and regions. In addition to comprehensive multilingual functions and translation management, task sharing between IT and specialist divisions as well as the cross-national distribution of administrative tasks are important factors for success. FirstSpirit strongly supports all of these aspects. The same applies to multilingualism including translation management, multilingual media and the connection to external translating tools such as TRADOS. Workflows, once defined, are available in all languages. This makes considerably more efficient and consistent results in all aspects of international expansion management possible. Multilingual functions linked to external systems such as databases are also fully available.
Changes are traceable with FirstSpirit
Modifications by editors or contents that are automatically included in FirstSpirit can be retraced in a detailed manner. FirstSpirit gives answers to questions such as:
- Which changes have been made in the original language since the last translation?
- When was information released or published and by whom?
An efficient, audit-based repository provides version histories of all content. This includes pages, paragraphs, database contents, media, templates and document structures. Historical statuses, metadata, operations which have led to version statuses (e.g. changes and releases) and the relationship of objects to one other (e.g. media references, hyperlinks and includes) for each object are also managed. However, the administration of these historical relationships between object statuses is not restricted to the repository - they are also expanded by strongly structured database data.
New functions for editors
FirstSpirit 4 offers numerous add-ons and detail improvements for editors.
- Process-oriented, complex formulas are simple to create and easy to operate with new layout options
- Changes are graphically displayed in the version comparison. Editors can now determine exactly which parts of the source text have been modified from the original version
- These functions also apply to translations that have already been completed or are yet to be completed
- FirstSpirit 4’s response times have been optimised for very large projects. FirstSpirit 4 manages projects with >1 million pages, >200,000 media components, >10,000 editors and >500 editors simultaneously. Response times in FirstSpirit 4 are virtually independent of the size of the project - the performance is also not affected by growing database sizes
- The image map component enables Editors to create linkable graphic overviews without programming
- The spell checker includes German and English. Other languages and dictionaries can also be added
- The publishing process has been optimised: the work of the editors is not affected by simultaneous publication processes. Deployment control has been more flexibly and functionally designed
- An improved WEBclient now offers input components previously only associated with JAVAclient
Features for technology partners and developers
- FirstSpirit 4 offers developers expanded syntax template development for formulas and presentation channels. Templates are automatically checked for syntax errors and errors are displayed. Developers profit from new revision management with an integrated display that shows variations from the source text
- The expanded module integration is especially relevant for e-Spirit’s technology partners. Modules can be created from external manufacturers’ configuration dialogues in FirstSpirit 4’s administration interface over a standardized interface. These are then immediately configurable.
- Different versions of the same modules can also be operated simultaneously. Modules not required in the runtime environment can now be transferred to and installed on the Live-system using the automatic publishing function. FirstSpirit 4 supports all current application servers.
Easier administration with FirstSpirit 4
- The graphic administration client has been expanded and a JMX-compatible server monitoring component added. The FirstSpirit 4 server is integrated into company-wide monitoring on all system levels. It can be optimised by special customer request; an AJAX-based browser interface enables system control without any additional software.
- The installation program has been completely redeveloped and installed on all FirstSpirit ‘ready to use’ supported platforms, including demo projects and documentation. The server can be used immediately after installation. No further settings need to be configured.
