Rhythmyx Web Content Management 6

Percussion Software is pleased to announce Version 6 of Rhythmyx, its market leading Web Content Management System. Rhythmyx 6 provides a robust platform for achieving "Return on Content" by delivering content to multiple channels including corporate websites and micro-sites, Intranet portals, in-store kiosks, print catalogs, collaborative document libraries, RSS feeds and newsletters, mobile devices and more.

Rhythmyx 6 focuses on: 1) providing business units with applications that generate top line returns or "Return on Content" through more effective use of content on the Web; 2) reducing the time and skill level required to implement the system; and 3) interoperability of Rhythmyx with other enterprise systems. The release includes:

• Rhythmyx Web Forms, a new application that enables business users to make their Web sites interactive by creating polls, short surveys, event registration forms, newsletter subscription forms and much more;
• Enhancements to FastForward for WCM, Rhythmyx's application that includes a set of pre-built capabilities that allows organizations to quickly and easily bring their Web site under management;
• A new Developer's Workbench that speeds the development of implementations;
• Velocity, a new, simplified template language;
• Enhanced Assembly Services that make managing dynamic Web sites easier;
• And an enhanced Web Services API that broadens Rhythmyx's reach to the enterprise with easier interoperability with enterprise systems and the ability to build custom business users interfaces to meet specific user requirements.

Rhythmyx Web Forms*

Today, facilitating interactions with Web site visitors is critical to providing real business value on the Web. Interaction helps generate revenue, streamline processes and improve customer service. Rhythmyx Web Forms enable business users to make their websites interactive by creating polls, short surveys, event registration forms, newsletter subscription forms and much more.

With Rhythmyx Web Forms, business users have full control over form content, layout and formatting, avoiding needless review cycles with IT. Business users can also ensure the quality of captured information by setting up custom error messages that guide site visitors to supply valid or required data.

Once deployed to your Web sites, content captured from Rhythmyx Web Forms can be intergrated with back-end systems to actively populate subscriber databases, employee directories, customer support applications, sales force automation solutions and more. Included in the Rhythmyx Web Forms package is sample code that shows how content collected from the Forms can be captured into databases, email and XML.

* Rhythmyx Web Forms are compatible with Rhythmyx version 5.7 and above, including version 6. Web Forms are an add-on and can be purchased separately.

Enhancements to FastForward for WCM

Rhythmyx 6 offers enhanced FastForward for WCM capabilities that use Velocity-based templates. The release also re-implements categories to use relationships instead of child metadata, making categories more extensible and customizable to meet specific customer requirements.

New Developer's Workbench

The new Developer's Workbench makes it easier to develop Rhythmyx content management implementations. Targeted to users with webmaster skill sets, the new workbench is easier to use and speeds implementation time. New features include:

• Intuitive Wizard-Driven Interface
  The new Developer's Workbench provides wizards for creating all new CMS objects including content types, templates, views, communities, menus, relationship types, keywords and more. It also consolidates all implementation functionality into one application, no longer requiring implementers to switch between the Developer's Workbench and Rhythmyx's Content Explorer interface to perform common tasks.
• Eclipse Interface Framework
  The new Developer's Workbench is based on the Eclipse Interface Framework. An extensible open-source development platform and application framework for building software, Eclipse is widely used and supported by major industry vendors including Ericsson, HP, IBM, Intel and SAP.
• Third-Party Tool Integration
  Eclipse is extensible via a well documented plug-in model that allows other common tools, such as editors, source code control systems and compilers, to be used in the same environment as Rhythmyx.

New Template Language: Velocity

Rhythmyx 6 adds Velocity, an easy-to-use template language that combines simple markup with formatting standards. Velocity makes it dramatically easier to create dynamic, rules-based formatting, such as alternating row colors for lists or splitting long lists into multi-column formats.

• Built-in Velocity Editor
  A built-in Velocity editor eliminates the need to use a third-party editor to create and modify Velocity-based templates.
• Predefined Velocity Macros
  Multiple predefined Velocity macros are included to further reduce development time. Examples of macros include #field(), #displayfield(), #datefield(),#children(), #slots(), #slots_simple(), #slots_wrapped(), #inner().
• Improved Performance
  Velocity processes many times faster than XSLT. Templates developed with Velocity provide exceptional performance in terms of faster publishing and preview, as well as a faster Active Assembly^™ interface.

Enhanced Assembly Services for Dynamic Sites

Rhythmyx 6 introduces numerous enhancements to enable easier generation of dynamic sites.

• Dynamic Query Support via JSR 170

  The new JSR 170 Query Support enables more rapid production of dynamic or automated groups of content, such as breaking news, RSS feeds, and other link lists and indexes. Template designers can now directly query Rhythmyx from within their templates using a JSR 170 query and format the results; any property, or field (metadata) of the content may be used in the query.

  For example, Web pages containing a list of partners can easily be grouped by geography. As the number of partners grow, and new regions are added the template designers can easily change the query to further subdivide the content e.g. start with North America and Europe, end up with Northeast, Midwest, West, South, and UK , Continent.

• Conditional Processing Support

  Rhythmyx 6 provides a new template processing layer and expression language (JEXL) for template developers. This enables the conditional rules, calculations, and computed variables to be easily associated with any formatting produced by a template, making the output of the template dynamic whenever it is assembled for publication.

  Further, when combined with the new Query support, much of the conditional logic for a dynamic site is moved back to the CMS tier, transferring the processing overhead for these dynamic elements to assembly and publish time. The approach effectively maintains a cache of all dynamic elements on the live site, which are then updated via publishing whenever content or metadata changes, dramatically improving the performance of the site for Web visitors.

  For example, should a dynamic list of "breaking news" grow, it could conditionally be truncated, split into two columns, or split into multiple pages, all based on the context of where the list will be used in the template, as well as the rate of addition of new breaking news items in the CMS. In another case, the event listing for an online Webcast might conditionally be reformatted to remove the "register" link and replace it with the "download recorded presentation" once the time and date of the event has already passed.

• Namespace Declaration

  Rhythmyx 6 enables dynamic delivery code to be built more easily into Rhythmyx managed Web sites, using leading/existing skill sets such as ASP.Net, JSP, and more. Rhythmyx 6 includes a new mechanism to declare, manage, and preserve dynamic delivery code embedded within Rhythmyx templates. When the content is formatted by Rhythmyx, the dynamic delivery code is applied. This allows pages to be fully dynamic, yet still De-Coupled from Rhythmyx.

New Web Services Developer's Kit

The new Web Services Developer's Kit (WSDK) provides implementers with a full Web Services API that is now more streamlined and modular. The enhanced WSDK includes code samples and extensive documentation on how to integrate Rhythmyx with external systems, tools and applications. The API allows for two primary types of integration:

1. Custom business user interfaces that are built to meet the unique needs of specific types of contributors and;
2. Bulk capture and ingestion of content from external applications and repositories, either scheduled or event-based.

Highlights of the new WSDK include:

• Platform-Neutral Development Support via WSDL
  Developers not using .NET or Java external environments can still customize interfaces to Rhythmyx.
• Enhanced Web Services Client Access to Rhythmyx Relationships and Workflow
  Relationships and Workflow capabilities provide key value-add to Rhythmyx content management implementations. Full access to these capabilities gives external applications greater power to manage the lifecycle and operation of Rhythmyx content.
• Sample Source Code
  Rhythmyx 6 ships with sample .NET and Java applications that demonstrate how to load content and perform other common Rhythmyx tasks using Web services.
• New Documentation
  New documentation draws on the sample source code referenced above to guide developers through the process of integrating Web services applications with Rhythmyx.
• Backward-Compatible Programs
  Programs written with prior versions of Rhythmyx web services continue to work without modification.