I came away from the week of training even more impressed with Ingeniux, especially it’s flexibility and robustness as a CMS. The first day we covered all of Ingeniux’s terminology and their use – site controls, components, page types, navigation types (taxonomy vs. standard navigation), among others. We covered workflow and permissions as well as the underlying technology that powers Ingeniux – XML, XSLT (stylesheets), and schemas. It was a lot to pack into five days.

The biggest thing I came away with was the need and importance of proper planning at the beginning of the project even before we build out our site. Something that Ingeniux emphasized at every turn.

We spent the last day building out our site specifications document, which details how different site elements will be used in Ingeniux. We still have to finish the spec and review with Ingeniux as we only got as far as 3-4 page types (we’ll likely be in the range of 20 page types when all is finished).

The site spec documents what will be reused throughout the site, what elements will only be required in certain pages or sections, e.g., audience gateway pages. The site specifications document is used to clearly articulate all of this information, including site-wide conventions and in turn is used to build out our site schemas. For example, a site will typically reuse multiple elements site-wide like a body copy tag, page title, abstract or short description, page images, related links, contact information, header, footer, photo gallery feature, video player, flash elements, callouts, breadcrumb navigation, among others. We specify all of this in the site spec so we can plan for the efficient reuse of many different site elements.

Once the site specifications document is finalized, it is at the point we begin building out the many different page types by building out our schemas and stylesheets (XSLT). Once they are built out we then can begin filling the site with content.

We’ll next see someone from Ingeniux in late November or early December when we have a trainer on campus to assist us in setting up site permissions and workflows and to provide site administrator training.