The incredible power of Content Modelling: how Glide CMS empowers modern media and publishers

The secret to many modern success stories is in creating composable experiences which resemble walls of individual parts which combine to make an amazing whole. Let's look into how to make your CMS do more with less clunk and more click.

Published: 18:15, 10 July 2024

Effortless content modelling should be a fundamental aspect of any good content management system (CMS) because it has become such a key factor in modern digital content projects. 

With the increasing use of MACH architecture and micro-front-ends allowing vastly more complex sites and experiences, being able to define the structure, relationships, and presentation of content, and ensuring it is well put together, flexible, and easily reusable, is the basic playbook for high volume and proactive content teams. 

At Glide Publishing Platform, we take content modelling to the next level by offering unparalleled flexibility to create the composable experiences which define today's benchmark sites and apps, and a no-code mindset which frees dev teams up from back-end tasks. This empowers our users to meet the increasingly sophisticated and demanding needs of today's audiences, especially those in the media and entertainment industry.

What is Content Modelling?

Content modelling is the process of defining and organising different types of content within a CMS. It involves creating models for articles, collections, taxonomies, live reports, and other content types. 

In Glide, articles serve as the main content type and form the foundation for how content is served. An article in the system is appended with a set of default fields which immediately stary to give it greater utility and take the burden off users to assign content slot by slot. 

Additionally, and this is where content modelling really amps up, users can add new or custom fields to an article to further customise outcomes. This ensures that content in the system is easy to manage and structured in a way that magnifies its usability and accessibility across various platforms to get you going quickly.

The Glide advantage: composable experiences

Flexibility & Configurability

One of the key advantages of using Glide CMS is its slick combination of decades of publishing best-practice experience, alongside phenomenal technical flexibility. Even the default set of fields for each content type provide an excellent starting position: many times it is all a site owner or editor will ever need, but we see it as just a starting point. 

These can be further extended which means content creators can massively tailor things to audience needs without being constrained by the sort of rigid CMS structure that makes you question why you got into the creative industry, or end up lumbered with months of bespoke development and compounding maintenance burdens. ("All I wanted to do was something cool on the website... and I've spent two weeks and a fortune having a button put in the CMS!")

If your CMS needs you to bespoke it to make any progress, or to write and maintain plugins to do fairly basic stuff, it's a clear sign it is either ageing already or has an out of date approach which will sap energy and money. 

Why flexibility matters

• Needs change: In the fast-paced digital world, the ability to adapt content quickly is crucial. Glide's approach to content modelling allows publishers to make changes on the fly, ensuring content remains relevant and up-to-date.
• Audiences want more: With the ability to create custom widgets and place them anywhere, publishers and site owners can rev up the user experience by presenting content or reusing fragments of content anywhere.
• Scale towards growth: As businesses grow, so do their content needs. Glide’s composable experiences ensure that content models can keep evolving in lockstep with the business needs to speed up the delivery of new features to customers.

Glide's publishing heritage

Traditional publishers have been among the most disrupted verticals in recent decades. They are also some of the most sophisticated and demanding users with huge teams working in very specialised and highly organised yet dynamic environments. And, of course, publishers tend to be absolute leaders in reaching and engaging audiences. 

This level of flexibility and sophistication, coupled with industry best practices (and a smattering of industry secrets!) is difficult to reconcile for generic CMS and their providers. Glide, having been born out of the publishing industry, was built with these needs and challenges in mind to provide a best-in-class toolset to match or surpass those CMS which have previously been restricted to only the utmost tier of publishing companies. 

Meeting sophisticated needs

Publishers need a CMS which can handle a wide and growing range of content types and distribution channels, as well as the ability to evolve quickly to meet new needs. How do Glide's content modelling capabilities cater to these needs?

• Hierarchical Taxonomies: Easily manage and navigate vast amounts of content with intricate categorisation. One decision can unlock swathes of content, promoting reusability and cutting the need to edit things over and over.
• Multichannel Publishing: As far as Glide is concerned, content goes wherever you need it to. By thinking in terms of channels and audiences, it means the system is pre-geared to deliver what you want, where you want, with the knowledge that new channels appear regularly.
• Live Reporting: Deliver real-time updates and live event reports easily,  driving engagement and rapidly becoming a default feature demand for news and media publisher audience teams. Glide has a full collaborative Live Reporting toolset as standard, at no cost. Know of a special event towards which you know your readers will lean? Live Report it.
• Content Relationships: Define and manage relationships between different content types, ensuring cohesive and interconnected storytelling.

Built for publishers and audiences

Glide's heritage in publishing means we understand implicitly the unique pressures and demands of the industry. Our platform is designed to handle high volumes of content, frequent updates, and the need for rapid publication - all while maintaining top-tier performance and reliability.

Slashing development time with the magic of No-Code

One of the standout features of Glide CMS is its no-code back-end, a feature which single-handedly slashes development time and costs for users, allowing them to focus on their customer-facing products.

No-code back-ends and their benefits

• Quick Configuration: A no-code back-end lets users configure their CMS settings and content models quickly without any need for extensive coding knowledge. This speeds the set-up process for faster deployment of sites and content. Glide arrives with every feature ready to be used: just add content and go.
• Evolving Efficiently: As business needs change, Glide’s no-code tools help users to update and modify their content models easily. This ensures the CMS evolves in line with the business, keeping content management efficient and on point with the needs of the team.
• Cost Effective: Reduce reliance on development resources means massively lower costs. Your teams can focus on strategic and customer-facing initiatives rather than back-end maintenance and updates. As we are constantly told, no subscriber cares what CMS is being used, but they are passionate about what they buy from you.

Focussing on your customer-facing products

By leveraging Glide's no-code back-end, businesses redirect their resources and attention towards enhancing their customer-facing products. This means:

• Better user experience: With more focus on the end product, businesses can create more engaging and user-friendly things for their customers.
• Faster time-to-market: Streamlined content management processes lead to quicker launches and product updates, keeping your offering competitive.
• Innovation: Freed from the demands of back-end system management, teams can innovate more freely and frequently, and experiment with new features and content types at lower risk.

Content Modelling in action: Product information for a TV

To illustrate the power of Glide CMS’s content modelling, let's consider a scenario where a publisher needs to create an article that carries detailed product information for a new model of TV. 

In most editorial and publishing CMS, this will require an editor to manually enter lines of specification into a standard editorial interface or table; not only is this clunky, it means the system probably can't make decisions based on those lines of specification - it's no more categorisable than freeform text. What happens if you want to, for example, allow readers to sort all TVs by screen size? That's dev work - and a lot of extra work for the editors.

Step 1: Define the Content Model

Using Glide’s content modelling capabilities, you can define a model for product articles which include fields such as:

• Product Name
• Product Description
• Specifications (e.g. screen size, resolution, wattage, connectivity options)
• Pricing Information
• User Reviews
• Related Articles or Accessories

Step 2: Use the Custom Data

Glide CMS allows the incorporation of powerful Custom Data fields, which can hold any kind of data - in this case, specific product details. And since you can add any new ones, even if the TV model had some unique features such as a new form of OLED technology, or a new kind of picture mode debuted on that model, you can create custom fields to capture this information.

Step 3: Create the widgets

Widgets can be created and placed anywhere within the article to display information dynamically. For example:

• Specification Table Widget: Display all the technical specifications in a clear, tabular format.
• Review Summary Widget: Highlight your reviews or user reviews, and ratings.
• Price Comparison Widget: Show price variations from different retailers or against comparable models from different brands.

Step 4: Publishing & Updating

Once the article is published, Glide’s flexible structure allows for easy updates. Let's say there is a new firmware update for the TV that enhances its capabilities or removed some service, you can quickly add this information to the product article without overhauling the entire content structure. With Smart TVs becoming more complex, this is increasingly common. In the world of consoles, this sort of thing happens like clockwork!

Content Modelling in action: University Listings

Another excellent example of Glide's content modelling capabilities is creating something like a comprehensive educational listings directory.

Step 1: Define the Content Model

For example university listings, the content model could include fields such as:

• University Name
• Location
• Courses on offer
• Fees & costs
• Facilities
• Student reviews
• Application deadlines

Step 2: Use the Custom Data

Beyond the basic info, every Uni will have unique things which need to be captured so we do not fall into the trap of comparing apples with pears. Custom data fields can be created to include details like:

• Accreditation information
• Scholarships assistance
• International student services
• Housing options
• Student welfare
• Career pathways
• Non-scholastic initiatives
  

Step 3: Create the Widgets

Widgets can significantly enhance the user experience by presenting data in an interactive and accessible format. Examples include:

• Map Widget: Show the location of the university.
• Course Highlight Widget: Showcase key courses and programs.
• Review Summary Widget: Summarise student reviews and ratings.
• Application Deadline Countdown Widget: Display a countdown timer for upcoming application deadlines.

Step 4: Publishing & Updating

Universities frequently update courses, policies, and details. Glide CMS makes it simple to keep this information live and updated across all listings without needing to manually edit each entry. If a university adds a new course or updates its tuition fees, these changes can be reflected instantly across the entire directory - including calculations that effect places in listings or percentage listings. It's a live site - let it leverage live data.

The future of content management with Glide CMS

The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and the need for dynamic, flexible content management solutions has never been more pressing. 

Glide CMS stands at the forefront of this evolution, with tools and capabilities that exceed the demands of modern publishers and are constantly benchmarked against tomorrow and the future.

By leveraging Glide’s powerful content modelling and composable content experience, publishers can make highly customised, engaging, and scalable content. Whether it’s detailed product articles, comprehensive university listings, or real-time live reports into global or local events, Glide CMS provides the flexibility and power needed to excel in today’s digital world.

Explore Glide Publishing Platform today and discover how our advanced content modelling can transform your content strategy and drive your success in the digital age.