Website Tools (CMS) - My Market Toolkit CMS Elements

The Market Toolkit CMS takes an object oriented approach to web design. The goal is to save time and frustration during deployment.

The DRY Concept

When a website has many pages, making modifications (i.e. changing menu items, updating layout and design, change font styles, etc) can be very cumbersome. The Market Toolkit CMS is based on the concept of DRY - "Don't Repeat Yourself". The idea is to create layouts, blocks of content, and modules one time and then call them into action anywhere on the site. If a site element needs to change, it's updated in one place and all pages using it will be updated. A site becomes very 'plug and play' during design and modification phases.

Website pages, blog posts and other forms of content are usually wrapped in web templates so a site's pages appear cohesive. Templates contain blocks of content, modules, and functionality. You can build blocks from scratch or use our library of pre-created blocks and modules. A block or module can simply be called into action by adjusting its settings, adding content, and applying a one-line instruction into the desired location.

Blocks and modules are flexible and allow you to determine how they're built and what they contain. Any module can be inserted into other modules, templates, pages, etc, allowing for very flexible design.

Market Toolkit Elements

Explore the web elements that enable you to build flexible templates with blocks, modules, and other functionality. Note: Some descriptions contain examples that refer to the screenshot image:

Site - You may create many websites, landing pages or blogs within your account. Setup usually takes less than 2 minutes. Setting up domains and subdomains is easy too.

Templates - A website, blog, or application may have many templates. A template is HTML based. The template is enhanced with other elements. Your web pages and blog posts will use a template to render the layout and format.

Example: Notice the format on the image. Every page has a similar layout, format, and structure.

KBlocks - A KBlock is a chunk of HTML. There are several types:

• General - You may have some HTML you want to use on multiple templates or in multiple places on a template. If you change HTML in the KBlock, the change is made anywhere it is called.
  
  Example: Notice the logo. The image is placed into a general KBlock for all site templates to use.
• Optional - You may have HTML you want to turn on or off from page to page. If you create an Optional email, it displays on each web page and can be selected/deselected from page to page.
  
  Example: The left menu is an optional KBlock. It can be turned on or off from page to page. In fact, there are several available menus for the left nav and a simple checkbox turns on the right one for each page.
• Field - Many sites have one main content area. However, some designs require changeable content on every page. A Field KBlock places another content field on the editor for every web page allowing for variable content on every web page.
  
  (Example: This page doesn't illustrate a field KBlock. However, if it did the site layout may have a second area of content independent of the layout.
• Toggle - Certain sysetm statuses (logged in/out, notifications, etc) require a set of HTML. A Toggle KBlock provides for optional HTML to be displayed on a page.
  
  Example: No example illustrated here, but if this were a blog and someone had just posted a comment, a notice could be displayed by the system automatically that the comment was under review.

KVars - Many database elements can easily be called into a template by inserting one line of pre-defined code. For example, a web page title can be placed anywhere and will pull from the site database for every page using that template. A blog post data may be placed before or after the title or anywhere in the post layout.

Example: Notice the page title "My Market Toolkit Online Business Tools". It is automatically available for any page once inserted into the template.

KMods - A KMod is a pre-defined set of functionality with options and settings. An example would be a menu list. The web team can add, modify, or delete menu items from the menu and the changes are automatically altered on the site. Another example is the KMod form builder. It allows the web team to build and modify a web form, tie the results to the CRM tool, and add the form to the site by copy/pasting one line of code to the template, module or page.

Example: The drop down menu is set up in a KMod and rendered in the template when the page is viewed.

KApps - A KApp provides access to 3rd party apps via the API. It provides settings to be passed back and forth between the systems.

Example: Data from another CMS or system could be pulled in to this site.

CSS Stylesheets- All styles are managed through out CSS manager. It is hosted on the CDN for rapid download speeds.

Example: All styles and formats are rendered by a single stylesheet managed within the CMS.

Javascript Files - All Javascript is managed through the JS editor. It is hosted on the CDN for rapid download speeds.

Example: While the drop down menus on this site are pure CSS, there are a couple of additional styles added with javascript, managed through the CMS.

Web Files - Images, Flash, PDFs and other web files are managed in one easy to use tool. The queue allows for bulk uploads much like FTP access would allow.

Example: Images, Flash, and other assets are all hosted on a redundant, robust, easy-to-use file manager.

Web Pages - Web pages are edited in a word processor style web tool. A contributor can bold, color, resized, etc text and images. The web pages section is specifically designed for SEO activities. It allows contributors to modify meta data, URL file names, and many other settings.

Example: All of the SEO, content, and options for this page are managed on one screen.

Blogs - A Site may contain many Blogs.

Blog Posts - A Blog may contain many Blog Bosts that are added and modified much like Web Pages - with an easy to use word processor tool.

Categories - In large sites, Web Pages may be sorted and organized into a category tree for navigation. The Categories may be pulled into a template as a KMod.

Tags - Web Pages and Blog Posts may be organized into Tags (unstructured categories) and for management or navigation.