Do you store your CSS in teamsite CMS or outside of it?

Hello.

I have a question for all the members in here.

I came from a company previously that stored all of it's
assets within CMS(which I was accustomed to seeing...css, jpg, swf, javascript etc)within intuitive branches that also reflected as sections on the live site and throughout it's taxonomy.

I am now at a company that is much larger but doesn't have
true integration with CMS and doesn't properly use CSS or presentation templating for their site.

My previous company utilized a presentation library that was used strictly for reference. From there, the developers would take modules of code from the pres. library and add it to the working css housed in interwoven cms and also add the subsequent html to go along with it.

My current company is just starting to look at this concept.
The presentation team AND the technology team have had challenges understanding the importance of having CSS within the interwoven teamsite CMS. They prefer to have the CSS and presentation managed outside of CMS and have the templates directly deployed to production.

I've pointed out centralization of code, the ability to rapidly iterate and
deploy content as the obvious positives.

I'd like to know your opinions on both sides of this discussion.
From my previous work experience, I see it as completely logical towards having CSS in CMS.

Would appreciate your thoughts and comments.

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Adam Stoller

Hello.

I have a question for all the members in here.

I came from a company previously that stored all of it's
assets within CMS(which I was accustomed to seeing...css, jpg, swf, javascript etc)within intuitive branches that also reflected as sections on the live site and throughout it's taxonomy.

I am now at a company that is much larger but has very little
true integration with CMS and doesn't even properly use CSS or presentation templating for their site.

My previous company utilized a presentation library that was used strictly for reference. From there, the developers would take modules of code from the pres. library and add it to the working css housed in interwoven cms and also add the subsequent html to go along with it.

My current company is having trouble understanding this concept.
The presentation team AND the technology team have trouble understanding the importance of having CSS within the interwoven teamsite CMS. They prefer to have the CSS and presentation managed outside of CMS and have the templates directly deployed to production.

I've pointed out centralization of code, the ability to rapidly iterate and
deploy content as the obvious positives.

I'd like to know your opinions on both sides of this discussion.
I personally see it as completely one sided towards having it CSS in CMS.

Would appreciate your thoughts and comments.

If you're going to do page generation and preview within TeamSite - then I think you definitely should have the CSS and such in TeamSite as well.

If the web site dynamically parses and renders the DCR XML files - such that you do not do page generation - then it probably doesn't matter whether the CSS files are in TeamSite or not -- though they should be in some version management system...

MLee7404

If you're going to do page generation and preview within TeamSite - then I think you definitely should have the CSS and such in TeamSite as well.

If the web site dynamically parses and renders the DCR XML files - such that you do not do page generation - then it probably doesn't matter whether the CSS files are in TeamSite or not -- though they should be in some version management system...

It's going to dynamically parse but ALSO we will be previewing within teamsite.

The person editing the DCR will be able to preview in context while editing the dcr. Once the DCR is saved...the DCR xml files will be rendered automatically to a test site that mirrors the production site.

So if any edits or rapid iteration is required for a given dcr..then it seems pretty difficult to operate outside of teamsite to make any css changes(if the version system for css it outside of it).

Does that make sense? Just wondering if you see something I missed

ISCBorisB

It's going to dynamically parse but ALSO we will be previewing within teamsite.

The person editing the DCR will be able to preview in context while editing the dcr. Once the DCR is saved...the DCR xml files will be rendered automatically to a test site that mirrors the production site.

So if any edits or rapid iteration is required for a given dcr..then it seems pretty difficult to operate outside of teamsite to make any css changes(if the version system for css it outside of it).

Does that make sense? Just wondering if you see something I missed

Try to understand your new colleagues point of view, they have it for some reasons. Their systems are also working and
evolving, not only yours. Assets allocation between TS and other CVS Systems is always a delicate balancing act.

There is no "one side fits all" solution. What if your Company hosts multiple *sites* that share certain Components?
What if TS generates/deploys/supplies only to some of them? For non-generated components critical questions to ask are:

Please remember that the main TS Development target audience are Content Contributors. That is very often Business Users, not people who I would trust to modify CSS, XSL, JSP, __Your_Favorite_MIME_Type_Here__...

MLee7404

[QUOTE=ISCBorisB]Try to understand your new colleagues point of view, they have it for some reasons. Their systems are also working and
evolving, not only yours. Assets allocation between TS and other CVS Systems is always a delicate balancing act.

There is no "one side fits all" solution. What if your Company hosts multiple *sites* that share certain Components?
What if TS generates/deploys/supplies only to some of them? For non-generated components critical questions to ask are:

Thanks for your post. Absolutely on all counts that you presented.To answer them:*The inherent problem is an inevolution in the current structure.That is why I was brought here to help provide solutions for that.The company does hosts multiple sites and the biggest problem is that assets are not centralized and extremely difficult to keep track of what is what.All content and assets are on an initiative to be centralized and TS/CMS enabled. The content team will manage all assets and content. Content will be managed by certain business users according to their preference of how hands on they want to be.The biggest issue is that things take way too long right now to iterate or preview or complete a task at all.By having all assets centralized and having the CSS within TS..this enablesthe content management team to rapdily iterate and make solutions on the fly.If the CSS were outside of TS/CMS..then each time an iteration happened and you wanted to preview it, or see it in the test server.you'd have to either import the file into TS or have to depend on technology to deploy the file that's in it's own versioning system.The deployment mechanisms would be open deploy that would be controlled by the content management team, and also through workflow submit. We would want the ability to have the content rendered real time on the test server and when test server content is approved via workflow..the content pushed to production through the workflow submit and rendered there as well.It should be that simple and that rapid.